pale, (from Latin palus, “stake”), district separated from the surrounding country by defined boundaries or distinguished by a different administrative and legal system. It is this definition of pale from which the phrase “beyond the pale” is derived.
In imperial Russia, what came to be called the Pale of Settlement (Cherta Osedlosti) came into being as a result of the introduction of large numbers of Jews into the Russian sphere after the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795). Adjusting to a population often banned from Russia altogether was a problem that Russian leadership solved by allowing Jews to remain in their current areas of residence and by permitting their settlement in areas of the Black Sea littoral annexed from Turkey, where they could serve as colonists. In three decrees, or ukases, issued in 1783, 1791, and 1794, Catherine II the Great restricted the commercial rights of Jews to those areas newly annexed. In ensuing years, this area became a strictly defined pale, as legal restrictions increasingly proscribed Jewish settlement elsewhere in Russia.
During the 1860s a few exceptions were made to the increasing restriction of Jews to settlement only in the pale—which by the 19th century included all of Russian Poland, Lithuania, Belarus (Belorussia), most of Ukraine, the Crimean Peninsula, and Bessarabia. Some merchants and artisans, those with higher educations, and those who had completed their military service could settle anywhere but in Finland. In the 1880s, however, the pendulum swung back toward restriction. A period of reaction arrived with the ascension of Tsar Alexander III in 1881. That year, the new tsar promulgated the “Temporary Laws,” which, among many regressive measures, prohibited further Jewish settlements outside the pale; and Christians within the pale were allowed to expel Jews from their areas. Occasionally, new areas were proscribed, such as the city and province of Moscow in 1891. Nevertheless, the census of 1897 indicated that most Jews remained confined to the pale. Almost 5,000,000 lived within it; only about 200,000 lived elsewhere in European Russia. The pale ceased to exist during World War I, when Jews in great numbers fled to the interior to escape the invading Germans. The Provisional Government formally abolished it in April 1917.
Other examples of pales include the English pales in Ireland and France. “The Pale” in Ireland (so named after the late 14th century) was established at the time of Henry II’s expedition (1171–72) and consisted of the territories conquered by England, where English settlements and rule were most secure. The pale existed until the entire area was subjugated under Elizabeth I (reigned 1558–1603). Its area, which varied considerably depending upon the strength of the English authorities, included parts of the modern counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath, and Kildare. The Calais pale in northern France (1347–1558) had a perimeter extending from Gravelines in the east to Wissant in the west and enclosing a hinterland 6–9 miles (10–14 km) deep.