Editor's Note: This decree addresses reinstatement of citizenship for Jewish women, widowed or divorced from foreign Jews they had previously wed, as well as addressing citizenship for their children. The 'Jewish Committee' was a committee of ministers and officials appointed by the Czar to advise him on issues relating to the Jews in the Empire.
On Russian citizenship for widowed and divorced Jewish women, formerly wed to foreigners, and for their children.
The Governing Senate heard the report of the Interior Minister, of July 23rd of this year, in which,
by way of explanation, the Governing Senate upon consideration of a private case, left it to the
Interior Minister to go to the Jewish Committee concerning the question of whether Jewesses can remain Russian
citizens when they marry foreign Jews and are later widowed or divorced from them.
The Jewish Committee, as a consequence of the presentation by the Interior
Minister decided: Jewesses of Russian citizenship who marry foreign Jews are generally foreign
subjects, but if they have not left Russia, and become a widow or are divorced from their husbands,
they have the right, upon submitting proof of the death of their husbands, or divorce from them, to
have their Russian citizenship reinstated. The children of these marriages who remain with their mothers
for the entire period before they become of age, upon reaching the age of majority, can submit a declaration
desiring either to take Russian citizenship or move abroad.
The Interior Minister is honored to report these legal positions of the Jewish Committee, confirmed by
Imperial ratification, to the Governing Senate.
Ordered: (Send, where appropriate for decrees.)
(V.P.S.Z. Vol. XXXI, No. 30,876).
