By the second half of the 19th century, the national minorities of Petersburg were dispersed all over the city. In some parts of the city Jews accounted for 0.5-2.0% of the population. Their concentration was highest in the proximity of military plants, barracks, and marketplaces. The Jews who lived in the outskirts - the Vyborgskaya section, the Schlisselburg section, Peski - were wary of changes in their communal life. According to official data, 6654 Jews (men, women and children) lived in St. Petersburg in 1869, 1% of the population of the capital.
The St. Petersburg police kept constant records of Jews living in each part of the city. According to police data, 2179 Jews enjoyed the right of permanent residence in the capital in 1868. Seventeen of them were "noble", 360 merchants, 63 students, 12 painters, 906 petty bourgeois, 96 artisans and handicraftsmen, 48 raznochintsy (intellectuals). The 1869 "List of Permanently Residing Jews" contains 344 men (not including 677 retired soldiers and 63 students).
The 1869 list includes 68 university graduates, among them officials, university and school teachers, doctors, dentists, journalists...
Among them were high secretaries of the Senate: Emmanuil Bakst, Arnold Domashevsky and Samuel Trakhtenberg. Secretaries of the Senate: Abraham Gordon, Ilya Zalkind, David Rinzunsky and Samuel Tiktin. Chief auditor at the State Control Department: Alexander Soloveichik. Secretary at the St. Petersburg District Court: Gregory Verbolovsky. Associate professor at St. Petersburg Univesity: Nikolay Bakst, Masters at the University: Albert Harkavy and Iona Gurlyand. Court dentist: Samuel Vagengeim. Expert doctor with the Marine Ministry: Arkady Kaufman. Assistant editor of the "Birzhevye Vedomosti" (Market News): Robert Ilyish. Staff writer of the "Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti" (St. Petersburg News): Landau. Barrister: Yakov Serebrenny. Architect Lev Bakhman. And even "Doctor of Philosophy at the court of the Grand Duchess Yelena Pavlovna": Karo.
The 1869 List includes 54 merchants of the 1st guild, among them ten hereditary freemen and one personal freeman. In this list one can find the names of such prominent bankers and businessmen as Evzel Gunzburg, Abraham Vishnevsky, David Galpern, and members of the Finlyandsky family. Only 222 persons are subsumed under the category of handicraftsmen (including 38 merchants of the 2nd guild). Their occupations ranged from the traditional trades of furrier, shoemaker, and tailor to the then rare trades of photographer, mechanic and even chimney-sweep.