Bibliography
No bibliography is featured because of the extensive
excerpts in the text; authorship, publication dates, and locations for the
various books, journals, and articles with precise data make a bibliography far
too long.
There is no point in enumerating hundreds of sources;
the volume of this book would be greatly increased, yet without creating any
substantial changes.
Contents Jews in the Land of Kiev Russia and the Moscow State
The Further Growth Rate of the Jews in Russia
Politics of the Russian Government With Regard to the
Jewish Question
How Jewish Capital Was Created in Russia
The Social Structure of Russian Jewry
Jewish Participation and Their Role in the Cultural
Life of Russia
Jews in Russian Literature and Criticism
Russian Jewry at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century
The Jewish Question from February to October 1917
Personal-National Autonomy (State within a State)
Organization of Land Use (Jewish national districts and
regions.)
The Post-War Period (1946-1966)
The State of Israel and the Problem of Double
Citizenship
Preface
As the title of this sketch implies, it is limited by
time and territory. By limited times, I mean by those three periods when the
Jewish ethnic group lived within the territory of the Russian State. The first
period was Kiev Russia era; the second period, when Western and Southwestern
Russia was under the power of Poland; the third, during the Russian Empire, renamed
the USSR. It is limited by
territory by the lands held by the Russian people, and created by the State of
Russia as it existed then. Any other era or occurrences beyond aforementioned
boundaries are of no significance to this sketch.
During the two thousand years of their sojourn, many
different Jewish groups were dispersed throughout different countries,
different nationalities, and different eras. Inevitably, wherever these sects
resided, conflicts arose between the Jews and the different local populations.
Ultimately the “Jewish Question” or “Judaeophobia” developed, which from the
middle of the Nineteenth Century came to be known as “anti-Semitism”. “Anti-Semitism”
is not an entirely correct usage, as Semites include not only people of the
Jewish faith; but today the word is used specifically in reference to
anti-Jewish feeling, replacing the more exact terminology of “Judaeophobia”
which was used for centuries prior to the emergence of the former word. “Judaeophobia”
has a more precise meaning than “anti-Semitism”, designating negative,
unfriendly feelings solely towards the Jewish people. “Judaeophilia”, on the
other hand, would indicate a proclivity and friendliness towards the Jews.
The causes of “Judaeophobia” that existed in
pre-Christian times, and which still exist now, are beyond the framework of
this historical sketch, and therefore will not be the subject of examination
here. Moreover, the existing opinions of different researchers concerning the
cause of the well-known mutual repulsion of the Jews by non-Jews are
diametrically opposed. Some claim the problem lies within the nations where
Jewish people have resided and still do reside. Others look for the causes of “Judaeophobia”
within the Jews themselves. Spinoza aptly phrased it when he said, “They carry
it with themselves”.
Throughout the centuries much has been written on the subject
of “Judaeophobia”, and its reaction towards the Jews. Much less, however, has
been written on the causes of “Judaeophobia” despite the fact it is well-known
that “Nothing occurs without cause”, (”Nihil sine causa” — N. S. C.). The volume and character
0f this sketch does not permit elaboration on the causes of these conflicts,
however, bypass them silently is also impossible. It is therefore suggested that the reader become
acquainted with the analysis of this question, dealt with in the second part of
this book. The title of this analysis is, “Anti-Semitism in the Ancient World”,
by Professor Solomon Lourie. In this discussion the author deals with the
causes which used to promote and still do promote “Judaeophobia” both before
and after the death of Christ.
In the course of
this account there is some indirect mention of the causes of discord in the
Russian-Jewish relationship that can neither be denied nor ignored. This
discord, or mutual distrust, and the subsequent repulsion of both parties by
each other, began with the first appearance of the Jews in Russia. All three
major branches of the Russian people, the Great Russians, the
Malorussian-Ukrainians and the Byelorussians are implicated in this “Judaeophobia”,
but not without cause. This discord in its broadest sense existed not only
between the Russians and the Jewish ethnic group but also between the entire
population of the USSR and the Jews, throughout the country.
This discord and mutual mistrust and the subsequent
repulsion of the Jews by the entire population of the USSR is labeled “anti-Semitism”.
The initiative in this discrimination is cast upon the whole non-Jewish population
of Russia, the Jewish people falling heir by default to the sole of the silent
and abused sufferers. Everyone else is to blame, but the Jews themselves are
always assumed to be in the right.
No serious researcher can agree with
stereotyped suffering on the part of the Jews, with no one to blame but the
various native populations with which they became associated. Yet there is
scarcely anyone who would try to establish the causes for
this, as had been done by Solomon Lourie in his research. The majority chooses
to remain silent about the true causes of these conflicts, preferring to let
the quilt lie with the non-Jews, and therefore, examines only the consequences,
the outward manifestation which is labeled “anti-Semitism”.
“The timid and double-faced”
Jews and non-Jews recommend that the causes be ignored, for fear that these
talks of discrimination and defamation on the grounds of race and color only strengthen
the spread of mutual prejudice, and therefore, do nothing to clarify the true
historical issues.
This statement was made by the former secretary of the
All Russian Constituent Assembly, Mark Vishniak, in his essay, ”International
Convention Against Anti-Semitism”, published in the anthology entitled ”Jewish
World”, (p. 98, New York 1939).
Vishniak himself was the initiator of this convention;
however, he does not specify in any part of his work, how to understand this “anti-Semitism”
in proper perspective. It is
possible that he is incapable of understanding that there exists a basic
difference between Jewish and non-Jewish races which goes far beyond race and color
of the skin, and can be defined as “something else”?
This basic difference had been formulated thirty years
before Mark Vishniak raised this question on an international scale, by
Professor Solomon Lourie who said the “inner aspect” is that which
distinguishes all Jews from non-Jews, regardless of skin color, hair color or
any other trait related to their origin. It is this “something else”, this “inner aspect” that
explains the present conflict between the Jews, the Semites, and the Arabs (a
fact that cannot be explained if one accepts Mark Vishniak's theories on the
subject). Everyone knows that these races are of basically the same origin. In
what then do they differ? Is it not in this “inner aspect”? It is this very thing that alerts the
Jews and non-Jews, including the Russians, to a state of mutual distrust. Full
frankness does not exist between the Russians and Jews, and this was aptly
phrased by Solomon Schwartz, a noted author, when he said in his book ”Anti-Semitism
in the Soviet Union” on p. 41, “that what a Russian would say to a Russian, he
would not say to a Jew”. This is very true, but alternatively, so is its
converse: “what a Jew would say to a Jew he would not say to a Russian”. He did
not attempt to explain, however, the cause of this phenomenon. He felt the
cause of this distrust needed no explanation.
The statements of the three Jewish writers quoted
previously, who received their education in Russian universities and occupied
notable positions in Russian cultural and political life, deserve special
attention. Their statements are evidence themselves of this mutual distrust, a
suspicion that quite often overflowed into relations and created possible
conditions for all kinds of conflicts.
This phenomenon is not specific to the Russian-Jewish
interrelationship; in fact, the conflict between the Jews and the entire
multitribal population of Russia-USSR existed for the whole period of time that
the Jews resided upon Russian soil, or any other soil foreign to them.
Sometimes these mutually scornful and contemptuous
relations between the Jews and the native population intensified and overflowed
into pogroms, persecutions which had few limits in their intensity. Sometimes
when a “thaw” in these pogroms occurred, the opportunity for material
improvement and participation in political spheres of a country by the Jews
arose. There were even times when the Jewish people ingratiated themselves with
the rulers of these countries and conducted their own personal persecution upon
the native peoples.
These persecutions were carried out upon the people
who in the Jewish opinion were ill-disposed towards them. They carried out this
extermination of the native people in the manner that is described in the Bible
– “The Book of Esther”. History also
testifies to incidents where the Jewish ethnic group
exterminated even their own tribesmen whom they believed to be renegades, with
the consent and co-operation of the ruler of the country involved. The Jews
were able to convince the ruler that renegades who changed their Judaic beliefs
for those of Roman gods did it for personal profit; therefore they could not be
trusted, as they would just as easily betray the emperor (in this case Ptolemy)
as they had betrayed Jehovah.
All these conflicts and hesitations in the
interrelationship between the Jews and the native population were of local
origin, without overstepping the boundaries of any one country. One country would expel them, another would
let them in; one ruler would be kind to them, while others only “tolerated them”.
For this reason, the “Jewish Question” that arose in
every country where the Jews resided had little importance in the life of a
country or its people. They did not have great significance, since Jewish
groups were scattered throughout different countries and never exceeded several
hundred thousand in any country.
This, however, was not the case in Russia or the USSR. At the beginning of the twentieth
century, the overwhelming majority of the world's Jewry lived within the
boundaries of Russia-USSR, numbering more than 6 million. This huge sector of
the world's Jewish population lived according to the law of their Judaic
religion and isolated itself from the rest of the native population. This
isolation was self-imposed, and not inflicted, compulsory ghetto living. It was a time however, when the Jewish
people in Russia were striving through all possible channels to participate in
all the spheres of the country's life, an endeavor in which they became quite successful.
At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Russian
Jewry was the centre of the Jewish religion, and its people's conscience. This centre, which gave direction to the life
and the activities of the entire Jewish Diaspora, created purely Jewish
ideological currents and political parties consisting solely of Jewish members,
and produced from their ranks political personalities who became leaders of all
Jewry.
In the late 1920s, Russian Jewry had turned from the
insignificant four-percent minority limited in its rights into ruling class
capturing most of the ruling positions in all spheres of Russian life. The
occurrence was something unheard of throughout the whole history of mankind: an
unequalled historical precedent.
The final point deserving special attention is the
reaction of the whole free world, its press, and its public opinion, towards
the change in the social conditions of the Jews in Russia, at the end of the
second decade of the Twentieth Century. The reaction towards the change that
occurred thirty years later after the Second World War must also be considered.
In less than one
year, after the fall of the Czarist Regime in Russia, the Jewish ethnic
minority of foreign origin had become the ruling majority, an incident unparalleled
in human history. It was
then that world public opinion, the greater part of its press, and even social
and political leaders of that time, ignored this change and remained silent. They
remained silent about the fact that four Jews concluded the Brest-Litovsk peace in the name of Russia, that all Russia's representatives on the
League of Nations were also Jews, and that many of the leading political and
social leaders of Russia were Jewish. Only a small number of uninfluential
foreign press bodies saw and printed the truth about the exceptional change in
the Jewish situation in Russia, and then only seldom and in a timid fashion.
The émigré press of the “Right” orientation wrote of the change but this was of
little avail for few people listened to or read these articles. The reason for
this was that these émigré newspapers were groundlessly labeled as anti-Semitic
and reactionary. The émigré periodical issues of so-called “democratic”
orientation were all in the hands of the Russian-Jewish immigrants who wrote
about anything but the Jewish domination in Russian political spheres. Only the
individual representatives within the “democratic” camp of the Russian
immigrants, who were watching the events in Russia, dared to touch upon the “Jewish
Question” as it existed in the USSR. The well-known political activist, Mrs. E.
Kuskova, and the equally famous leader and creator of the “Russian Peasant
Party”, S. Maslov, expressed their opinion about this “ticklish question”, and
pointed to the inversely proportional Jewish participation in the ruling class
of Russia. These two outspoken activists claimed that this inversely
proportional Jewish rule would create preconditions for Judaeophobia throughout
the native population of Russia.
Other well-known activists, Mrs. A. Tyrkova-Williams,
noted this change, and A. Stolypin, one of the leaders of the solidarists (N.
T.S.), reported about the Jewish majority composition of the Russian delegation
of the League of Nations in his book ”Counterrevolution”, published in July
1937.
Their voice was heard by no one, and no one upheld
their findings. The “ticklish question” dared not to be raised or discussed on
the pages of the “democratic” émigré press.
There was an attempt on the part of a group of Jewish
immigrants to raise the question on the pages of the press and at public
meetings. At the beginning of the second decade of the Twentieth Century, an
organization called “Patriotic Union of Russian Jews in Foreign Countries”, centered
in Berlin, called for all Jews to disassociate themselves from the activities
of their fellow tribesmen in the USSR, in view of the latter's excessive
participation in the pursue of Red terror. This organization claimed, not
without foundation, that the negative attitude of the Russian people towards
the Jews was brought about by Jewish participation in Red terror, and that
ultimately these anti-Semitic views would spread throughout the country and
encompass all Jews in the
USSR. But their voice was not taken into consideration. Instead, it was sharply
criticized by the world's Jewry, and through the protest the “Patriotic Union
of Russian Jews in Foreign Countries” was forced to break off its criticism. In
essence these demands for disassociation were quite limited. The Russian Jews
and other Jews throughout the world were called upon to disassociate themselves
only from those fellow tribesmen who actively took part in Red terror. But
there was no mention of the numerous Jews who held many high ranking positions
in Russian institutions. This infiltration could not have gone unnoticed. It is therefore necessary to assume that
the authors of the appeal had no objection to the monopoly status of the Jews
in all areas of Russian life except that of Red terror. But even this modest
call provoked a burst of indignation in all
immigrant Jews who felt that this question should not be raised in any form: it should be kept silent if it could neither be justified nor
refuted.
The result of this was that the impenetrable curtain
was drawn down for thirty years over the existence of Jewish domination in the
USSR. This conspiracy, which no one dared to violate for fear of being labeled
an “anti-Semite”, grew stronger. No one was prepared to accept the consequences
of such a revelation.
After the Second World War everything changed
radically. The “Jewish Question” in the USSR appeared on the pages of the world
press and in the Russian émigré newspapers and journals, and then the expose
began. But this expose preferred to ignore the truth and wrote of the
oppression and persecution of the Russian Jews, much as had been done in 1917.
The discrimination was underlined and the government of the USSR and its native
population was openly accused of “cultural genocide” of a portion of its
citizens, namely the Jews.
How serious and well-founded are these accusations?
The reader will draw that conclusion for himself, after he has attentively read
what is written in this sketch. These facts and events which are given are not
disputed even by those who appear to be
the accused. This is why here, in the preface, we will not preoccupy ourselves
with the assertion of the real causes of the revival of the old pre-revolutionary
accusations of Russia for its anti-Jewish politics.
The causes will be clearly ascertained by an attentive
and objective examination of this “ticklish question”. These causes arise from
Jewish dissatisfaction because of a gradual decline of the privileged position
which they held for that thirty year period between the fall of Czarist Russia
and the end of the Second World War.
In the
atmosphere of the cold war, these accusations acquire special importance,
overstepping the boundaries of one state and assuming an international
character, thus creating the necessary preconditions for the hostile relations between
Russia-USSR and the rest of the world. This hostile attitude is directed
towards the country and people who supposedly committed overt “cultural
genocide” and “discrimination” against the Jews.
In the last two decades (1947-1967), a great number of
books and articles were written on this subject, and an endless number of
meetings and protests took place emphasizing the “persecution of the Jews” in
USSR.
Except for the rarest of cases, the Russian people and
its present government are unconditionally condemned for this so-called “anti-Semitism”,
the simplified label of repulsion and mistrust shown by any person towards an
individual or group of individuals of Jewish origin. Many accept such
condemnation without even considering the necessity of looking for its causes,
or the feelings which promoted these occurrences. It is, however, well-known that nothing occurs without
cause.
It would only be logical to expect that, having
established the existence of these well-known feelings and occurrences and
provoked by these very feelings, the accusers would also demand that the causes
of this provocation be established. However, no one does this. The very thought
that the cause of so-called “anti-Semitism”, should perhaps be sought within
the Jews themselves and in their own distinction from all other nationalities
and tribes, would be qualified as an anti-Semitic act against the very source
of anti-Semitism. That is why this “ticklish” question remains unanswered.
As mentioned above, there were only few authors who
attempted to touch upon this question, to justify or explain the age-old
conflict between the Jews and the nations with whom they resided and still
reside. One of the authors who dealt with this question is Professor Solomon
Lourie, from whose work extensive excerpts are given in Part II of this book.
The second author who examined the question of the
Jewish role in the life of those people among whom they lived is the well-known
figure Jacob Klatskin, author of “Problems of Contemporary Jewry” published in
Berlin in 1930. Examining the Jewish role in the cultural life of nations,
participation in which is only possible on the basis of known assimilation,
that is, through language proficiency and ability to acquire the outer aspect
of the environment, Jacob Klatskin writes the following:
”In the
first stage of assimilation, they are harmful not only to their own Jewish
people from whom they have not entirely become disassociated, but also to the
people or nation of whom they want to be part in order to rule them. They often
make quite dull the source of the culture that is alien to them, vulgarizing
it, even though they may appear to penetrate its inner depths. In doing this they abuse the culture's
foundation. For the most part, they remain only superficially a part of the
culture or turn into malicious and destructive mockers. Their power lies in
humiliation and irony. They indulge in self-glorification, self-loving
philosophy, asserting themselves as know-it-alls, knowing about everything
without deep penetration into the very essence…
The
Jewish assimilationists like to be considered cosmopolitan. They do not sense
the mysterious power of the national genius, preferring to be intermediaries
among versatile national cultures. They are bored with and despise organized
society. They fail to comprehend ideas that are original and unique. They
appear to know everything and are at home in any nation. They like to be
considered radicals and the most forward of the forward thinkers. They like
very well to play the rôle of nihilists, imitating those who would depreciate or destroy a
society, possessing a type of bankruptcy of national possessions, unable to
remain at peace, for they are merely torn-off pieces of the historical chain. Their
idealism is thus easily made suspicious, for it is very easy for a people with
no firm roots to be the apostles of freedom, and even to work against what is
already free. Even their virtues carry a certain seal of evil. Despite this, if in a sense they are still connected
with Jewry as a whole, then even then they do no good. They accommodate
themselves, and find common ground among the alien elements. They are procurers
of Jewry with the German culture, the French culture, and any other culture
they seek to assimilate, and by this inflict damage to both sides and have a
crippling rather than a healing effect on the nation concerned.
Thus
the Jewish assimilationists become accountable not only to the Jewish people,
but also to the people of the nation whose culture they seek to invade. They,
in effect, sin before the national structure of the other's cultural entity,
falsify its historical originality, its national soul, by means of the
falsified Jewish apostasy. They are double falsifiers, for they erase the
cultural boundaries, as all boundaries are erased in their souls.
Therefore
the sacred duty of the people is to stand on guard for their national
individuality.” Klatskin explains the above by saying that the Jews
descended from the “spiritual elite”, highly developed intellectually, and rich
in creative and destructive abilities, and that therefore they could not be
assimilated like slaves, without a trace into another distinct culture.
His statements have something in common with those
made by many authors, of both Jewish and non-Jewish nationality, who attempted
to comprehend those quite exceptional Jewish abilities to preserve that
integral quality of Jewishness under outward signs of complete assimilation.
This ability of preserving Judaic beliefs inevitably
led to conflicts with the native populations. These conflicts became more
perceptible as national feelings and the unity of the native people's
conscience grew stronger.
In pre-revolutionary Russia, patriotism and feelings
of national pride, due to the influence of liberal socialists and
internationalist ideas, were in decline, especially among the intelligentsia
and the youth: the older generation was losing its authority in the eyes of the
young and more active generation.
Perhaps this account for the main reason why the
Jewish ethnic group had actually become the ruling class in Russia with such
ease by the end of the year 1917. It was
this class that occupied the leading posts of all Russian institutions, and
created the framework of the new power, without encountering proper opposition
from the native population. The struggle with the new power had more an
economic basis than a distinctly expressed unwillingness that foreigners be the
rulers of their country. The Russian people did not have strong national
feelings at that time, and the new power began a ruthless struggle to eradicate
any such feeling from the people's memory. They ordered the destruction of all
the monuments of culture and all the things that make a people proud and are
therefore carefully preserved. The Russian national elite were virtually
destroyed, and what remained was intimidated and thus brought to silence.
As soon as this nationalism seemed to be destroyed,
national pride and Russian patriotism grew from these roots and started their
slow and sure movement towards the ultimate liquidation of the “inversely
proportional” representation that was the ruling class from 1917 to the end of
the Second World War.
This movement proceeded steadfastly without any
excesses, pogroms, or violence whatsoever. To replace the destroyed cultural
elite of pre-revolutionary Russia, a new young intelligentsia sprang up as the
master of its own country and the lawful heir of its historical past, and laid
its claim. No one dared to refuse this claim. This, however, meant loss of
power, prestige, and that position which was monopolistically occupied by the
Jewish group, a position they had occupied unopposed for a quarter of a
century.
It would be no mistake if we state that this is
precisely the cause of
the campaign in the press throughout the world, which accuses the Russian
people and its government of anti-Jewish activity. Until the end of the
Forties, all was in order, and the world looked on silently as the Jews ruled Russia
and represented it in all international affairs.
All those
who studied the ”Russian question” failed to mention that unique phenomenon of a country of two hundred million that
was being monopolistically ruled by the representatives of the ethnic Jewish
group consisting of only three million people. The rulers of Russia for this
quarter century were a people alien to the native population in race, sense of
justice and aspirations.
But, let us hope that this fact will not escape those,
who, in the future, will devote themselves to the study of this question in a
relaxed atmosphere, instead of a calculated cold war, in which the accusation
of the Russian people of “Anti-Semitism”
is used as one of the main trump in a propaganda war.
The task of those charged with this research will not
be easy. Mountains of books, thousands of articles, and all other types of “evidence”
about the “anti-Semitic” manifestations of the Russian people, and of the
persecution of the Jews in Russia and the USSR, will be found by these
researchers. They will find nothing or almost nothing that refutes these
unfounded accusations. Few people have written refutations that objectively
state the true nature and essence of the Russian-Jewish interrelationship, and
the original causes that produced these accusations against the Russian people.
Nothing will be found to elucidate the Russian position in this argument except
in such works that explore this interrelationship from a religious or a
mythical point of view. But even these religious texts obscure more than
clarify the Russian-Jewish question.
Taking into consideration what has already been said,
the conclusion is entrusted to what we, the contemporaries, ought to elucidate
objectively in the interest of truth and historical justice. The truth about
the Russian-Jewish interrelationship is systematically silenced, destroyed, or
perverted.
The truth must be revealed not only to the future generation
but also the present one. It is no secret what an enormous role the “Jewish
Question” plays in the business of creating and sustaining anti-Russian
feelings throughout the world. These anti-Russian feelings feed the cold war,
creating a worldwide threat of eruption into a hot war which might end in
worldwide catastrophe and the possible destruction of all mankind. This is why
an objective elucidation of the Russian-Jewish interrelationship must be made.
Is it not the duty of us all, especially those who
were born in Russia, regardless of race, religion, political convictions, or
party affiliation, to elucidate this question? This is certainly the duty of
all Russians as well as non-Russians, including the Russian Jews, who are
better informed about what is taking place in USSR. But, alas, everyone remains
silent, thus indirectly confirming the outrageous lies and propaganda that
feeds anti-Russian feeling throughout the world.
There is one characteristic circumstance that deserves
special attention in the analysis of this propaganda. The accused, in all these
mortal sins against the Jews, is the Great Russian branch of the Russian
people. Only this branch of the Russian population is accused of these “crimes”,
excluding the Malorussian-Ukrainian branch, when it is well-known fact that it was in the Ukraine that all the
excesses took place which are the bases of the Judaeophobia. It must also be taken into consideration
that, in the past as well as now, the Ukrainians occupied the highest positions
in the country, and actively participated in conducting that type of politics
which irresponsible propaganda labeled as ”cultural genocide” in Warsaw of all
relation to the Jews.
The absence of Ukrainians on the bench of the accused
is not difficult to explain if
the aim of those who accuse the Russian people of this “persecution” of the
Jews is known. The aim is the liquidation
of that united country created by the Russian people, now called the USSR.
After this liquidation occurs, the aim is to create a whole range of sovereign
states which includes the Ukraine.
The Ukrainian separatists strive towards this aim.
They are allies of the forces that under the pretence of the struggle for
freedom against Communism, seek to break up the alliance of the USSR. Their
strongest plea to rest of the world is an appeal to save the Jews from a
so-called “cultural genocide” being imposed by the USSR. The “cultural genocide”
is nothing but a catchword, skillfully used in a propaganda campaign. The
Russian people, the Russian Government, and Russian Communism are blamed for
this “genocide”, and always Russian as opposed to Jew is underlined and emphasized.
This emphasis is deliberately and conscientiously employed as a
literary-journalistic trick, in order to foster anti-Russian feeling throughout
the world.
It is a point to remember, that little more than
twenty years ago, the press of the world, especially that of the émigré Jews,
wrote disapprovingly of the part the Ukrainians took in the destruction of the
Jews by the Germans in the Second World War. Here is what we read in the “Jewish
World”, published in 1944, p. 235-236:
“A
special rôle in their anti-Semitic campaign was reserved by the Germans for the
Ukrainians. In the article
devoted to the Ukrainian people, “Der Sturmer” has not only included the
Ukrainians in the “North Dinarsk” racial type, but also made special effort to
praise them for their anti-Semitic achievements of the past.”
The newspaper mentioned with pleasure the destruction
of four hundred thousand Jews during the Chmielnitsky uprising in 1648 and the
seventy thousand Jews butchered by Petlura and other Ukrainian bands in 1918-1919.
The article ended with the pronouncement of the “convinced hope that the
Ukrainians would find themselves at their height, and therefore revenge
themselves against the Jews.”
“All
sixty newspapers published in the Ukrainian language, on Ukrainian territory
occupied by the Germans, are conducting ruthless anti-Jewish persecution.”
On the eve of 1942, a meeting was held in Warsaw of
all the former officers and soldiers, who fought in 1918-1919 in the ranks of
the Petlura army. At this meeting, a vow was taken to help the Nazi Germans in
the liquidation of the Soviet Power, and in the destruction of Jews. In May of
1966 in New York, the fraternization of the Zionists and
the men of the Petlura occurred along an again with a joint vow to destroy “Russian
Communism”, without referring to the Jews this time. The details of this
fraternization were published in the Ukrainian weekly “Our Fatherland” in May 1966. The comparison of
these two vows given by the Petlura men shows that they changed from Jewish
destroyers into their allies in their common business of liquidating the united
USSR, and therefore deserves special attention. While the Jews of the USSR
occupied the ruling positions, the Jewry of the
whole world upheld the unity of the USSR. When the Soviet Jewry
ceased to be this, the union of these Jews with all kind of separatists
striving to destroy the USSR's unit began. This
took place because the Jewry of the entire world realized that they could never
return to their ruling position in the USSR.
In the future,
undoubtedly there will be some researchers, who will take up the question of
this most stormy epoch. As for ourselves, the contemporaries of these events,
we must draw attention to this most unusual phenomenon in every way possible.
* * *
I belong to the “departing” generation, that
generation which received their “school-leaving certificate” before the First
World War, and ripened during the years of completely exceptional economic and
cultural uplift in Russia. This period between the first revolution of 1905 up
to the fatal years of 1914, the beginning of the First World War, was a truly
exceptional period. I am of that generation to whose lot it fell to be the
witness and participant in the stormy events of the first half of the Twentieth
Century. This generation not only heard or read about these events, but also
saw and endured them. We saw the good and the bad, saw all that took place in
reality, and not what is now presented by the many chroniclers, who hush up
certain facts and expose others, and in so doing distort the historical truth.
I was born and grew up in the heart of the
Malorussia-Ukraine, not too far from the former capital of Baturin. I received my education in Kiev, where,
still in times of peace, I donned the cap with a blue band of a university
student. After the First World War and during the subsequent years of “overturns
and indignations”, I had a quite difficult time, but never ceased to observe
events that took place.
As I spent all of my grown life in the Ukraine where
more than half of
the Russian Jews lived, my special attention was always attracted by the
so-called ”Jewish Question”, both before and after the revolution.
And now, after the Second World War, when this
question ceased to be the internal problem of Russia, and became one of the
basic factors of world politics with its innumerable perversions and
distortions on the pages of the world press, I felt provoked into stating the
truth as I know it. It
became a matter of necessity that I give my modest contribution to truthful
elucidation of the Russian-Jewish question. The distorted and perverted facts
that the world press resented, provoked me into writing this far from complete
but truthful sketch ”Jews in Russia and in the USSR” which I humbly present to
the reader’s attention.
This sketch is based on facts. In it are presented
those facts which took place in the past. It is not propaganda which can be
printed en masse in any language of the world, in relation to the “Jewish
Question” in Russia and the USSR.
* * *
While I was working on this sketch, I read over
hundreds of books, articles, essays, statements and investigations, made by
many different authors in different languages. I read books written both by
authors deemed “Judaeophobes” or “anti-Semites” and those deemed “Judaeophiles”
who have diametrically opposed ideas, the latter being in greater abundance. I
read Jewish and non-Jewish texts, and I came to the conclusion that all
attempts to solve or explain the “Jewish Question”, by all those who on the
religious and mythical bases not only contribute to, but hinder the revelation
of the truth to the whole world, make this truth almost impossible to find.
Neither the “Evil Forces” nor the “Protocols of the
Learned Elders of Zion”, invariably appearing in one author's work, or those
recognized as the tribes destined for a special “paradise”, or as the “Chosen
People”, in another author's work, help to clarify the nature and age-long
mutual repulsions and conflicts. Moreover, both points of view ultimately lead
to contradictions with Christian teachings on the one hand, and understanding
of democracy in the broadest sense on the other.
A true believer in the Christian doctrine cannot
refuse to recognize as an equal the Jew who has become a Christian. Although
all the trappings of the Jew do not disappear immediately upon the acceptance
of the Christian faith, namely, that inner aspect of a Jew that gives rise to
the mutual repulsion between Jews and non-Jews, the true Christian accepts him
unconditionally as his equal. In much the same way, the true democrat,
proceeding from the viewpoint that all people are equal in all respect, cannot
refuse to give equal political and cultural rights to the Jews. Nonetheless he
sees that the Jews, enjoying all these rights, constantly preserve their
originality, their Jewish point of view, and their sense of justice. It is
these elements of separatism and preservation of their unique difference that
do not always correspond with the surrounding environment, and this leads to
mutual mistrust and repulsion. To eliminate these separatist ideas is to solve the “Jewish Question” which
exists in spite of all the laws prohibiting discrimination, and all attempts to
hush up the violations of such laws. How to achieve this end, how much time is
required, and what measures must be taken undoubtedly cannot be solved by our
generation, because the roots of the “Jewish Question” extend too deeply into
our past.
Meanwhile we will be, as we were in the past,
witnesses of the unsuccessful attempts to solve this painful and age-old
question. The entire objection to so-called “anti-Semitism”, without concrete
proposals to terminate this problem will come to nothing as they have in the
past, and will in the future. Neither strict punishments of anti-Semites
applied by the government of the USSR, nor the constant silence of the free
democratic world will help to solve this problem.
An objective study of this question will logically show three possible
solutions:
I.
Total assimilation of the Jews with
native people. This is only possible if the Jews reject their Hebrew religion
and their racial and tribal distinction in favor of several generations of
mixed marriages. However the very expression of such an idea is held as “anti-Semitic”
and Jewry, believers and non-believers
alike, rise up against such a solution.
II.
The creation of independent Jewish
territorial units, sovereign and autonomous, within whose boundaries the Jewish
nationality could live according to their own laws and develop their own culture.
An example such as this, given by Birobidzhan, shows that the Jews looked upon
such a solution as discrimination.
III.
The status of “foreigners” within a
given state for the Jewish ethnic group. Such a status automatically deprives
them of participation in the cultural life of the country in which they live,
and of any possibility of political involvement and subsequent influence on its
politics: a status totally unacceptable to the Jews, and they have failed to
suggest a fourth possibility. The question remains unsolved, therefore, or to
be more precise, hushed up.
We can hope that this question will be solved, once
and for all, in the future, when time destroys the many biases age-old
prejudices. Then hopefully after several generations of mixed marriage the “Jewish
question” will disappear by itself. This will happen as soon as people realize
that race and religion must not be inseparably linked.
* * *
In the vast
literature dedicated to the “Jewish Question”, both from the “Judaeophobian”
and “Judaeophilian” points of view, there appear invariably the indications of “Evil
Forces”, “The Protocols of the Learned elders of Zion”, “Kabala”, “Satanism”, and other explanations of the
Jewish question. As I do not have sufficient erudition to pass Judgment on this,
I therefore do not make any attempt to give an exhaustive answer, nor to
expound it comprehensively and objectively in this sketch. I am limiting myself
solely to the facts and events that took place.
If one proceeds
from the viewpoint that external facts exert an enormous influence on the
spiritual aspect of man, cultivating this or that virtue of his character, it
seems to me that this
question deserves serious thought, in an attempt to explain certain Jewish
characteristics that hamper their amicable co-existence with other
nationalities.
This question is scientifically developed in Solomon
Lourie's book, “Anti-Semitism in the Ancient World”, which answers many
puzzling questions, and explains what at first sight seems mysterious and
incomprehensible. An attentive and thoughtful reading of the excerpt from
Lourie's book (which appears in the second part of this book) will explain and
clarify much of what is attributed to “Evil Forces”, “The Protocols of the
Learned Elders of Zion”, “Kabala” , “Satanism” and other such mythical
explanations of this question.
All of what is found in the “Protocols of the Learned
Elders of Zion”, a recipe for success in life in the environment of another
nation, will be found by the reader in Solomon Lourie's book. In it the reader will also find an
explanation of what motivates the Jews to this or that tactic in their struggle
for success. This is characteristic of not only the individual Jew but also the
entire Jewry.
With this I will end my somewhat protracted
introduction, leaving it to the reader to make his own judgment on the verity
and expediency of my account in this sketch.
The Jews
Since they were scattered among other peoples for two
thousand years, the Jews had no
territory of their own. They used the language of those nations among whose
people they lived, but nevertheless, they preserved their tribal unity by not
mixing with other nationalities. They lived their own isolated life among these
nations, adhering strictly to their religion, distinct from that of other
nationalities, in that it is an inseparable part of their race and origin.
In addition, the
Jewish religion teaches that the Jews are the "Chosen People",
distinct from all other nationalities and tribes, and under the special
protection of God. The Jews believe that they are the "Chosen
People", a fact that elevates them in their own eyes, and contributes to
their conscious awareness of their own superiority.
Owing to the peculiarities of their religion and the
mode of life, the Jews always remained a foreign body in the countries in which
they lived, in spite of the fact that they spoke its languages. They have
forgotten the language of their ancestors, preserving it only in religious
practices.
In whatever country
or nation they lived, the Jews took an active part in its economic life. Their
major sphere of activity was commerce, retail and wholesale trade, avoiding
that part of the business activity which produced goods for consumption or
supplied raw materials needed for such goods. Neither agriculture, nor
cattle-breeding, nor pioneering in the development and cultivation of virgin
lands attracted the Jews in the lands of dispersion.
The Jewish participation in cultural life of the
people along whom they lived was quite
insignificant up to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. The reason for
this was the Christian and Jewish conflicts that arose from religious
differences.
The Jews did not attempt to invite strangers to join
their religion, because they could not accept them as equal members of their
religious community. In the
exact point of the Jewish religion, one must be born a Jew; one cannot become a
Jew simply by accepting the Jewish religion.
As its people were considered the "Chosen
People", the Jews jealously guarded the purity of their race and strove
towards self-isolation in their mode of life and their daily living, which
naturally hindered their assimilation with the surrounding native population.
The character of the Jewish business activity
predetermined the times of their appearances in different countries of the
ancient world as well as in the countries formed after the decline of ancient
civilizations. They appeared where known law and order and strong power
existed, essentials without which trade and commerce is impossible.
It was during the epoch of Hellenic cultural supremacy
that the Jews appeared in Ancient Greece. In the Roman Empire, they appeared also when the Romans
conquered North Africa and Western Europe and established their law and order.
They came not with the legions, but after them,
settling in what is now Spain, England, Germany and France. Almost immediately
they began their trading and intermediary activities which were favorably
welcomed by the great powers, giving the Jews the opportunity to live and
enrich themselves.
The character of their business activities, and also
the tribal and religious peculiarities of the Jews during the two thousand
years in which they were dispersed, caused endless conflicts with the nationalities
among which they lived in secluded detached communities. This was especially
true after Christianity became the supreme religion in these countries. In addition to the motives and the
causes of their domestic and economic rivalry a greater role began to be played
by their religion.
As the results of these
conflicts periodically sharpened on different grounds and by different causes,
the whole history of the Jewish sojourn abounded in the description of
different limitations, exploitations and pogroms, whose victims were the Jews
of the Diaspora.
Analysis and meticulous studies of these conflicts and
their causes do not enter into the order of this work, which is a limited study
as the title indicates. The work covers only that historical period which
extends from the time of the Jewish appearance within the borders of the
Russian Empire, when the Jewish ethnic group was either "the subjects of
the Russian Judaic faith", until 1917 or "the citizens of USSR of the
Jewish nationality", after 1917.
For those who are interested in this question, its causes and conflicts, I refer them
to the book written by professor Solomon
Lourie, "Anti-Semitism in the
Ancient World", published in 1922 in Petrograd. Extensive excerpts from
this book are featured in Part II of this work, as a separate supplement.
Jews in the Land of Kiev Russia and the
Moscow State
Until the end of the Eighteenth Century, when numerous
Jewish ethnic groups, as a result of certain historic events, became
"subjects of the Russian Judaic faith", Russia did not have its
so-called Jewish problem since there were no Jews. Before the Eighteenth Century
Russian chroniclers scarcely referred to the Jews, or if they mentioned them,
it was only casually in connection with other events, e. g., the pogrom in Kiev
in the second half of the Eleventh Century that resulted in the murder of the
duke, Andrey Bogolubsky in 1074, and was referred to as the “Judaizers” (Zhidovstvuyushchive).
In order to
present a fuller account of these events, in this sketch, we pause for a short
description.
Jews in Kiev
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