+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation and unusual spelling in the | | original document have been preserved. | | | | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected | | in this text. For a complete list, please see the end of | | this document. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

THE SHIELD

 +--------------------------------------------------+ | THE NEWEST BORZOI BOOKS | | | | ASPHALT | | _By Orrick Johns_ | | | | BACKWATER | | _By Dorothy Richardson_ | | | | CENTRAL EUROPE | | _By Friedrich Naumann_ | | | | CRIMES OF CHARITY | | _By Konrad Bercovici_ | | | | RUSSIA'S MESSAGE | | _By William English Walling_ | | | | THE BOOK OF SELF | | _By James Oppenheim_ | | | | THE BOOK OF CAMPING | | _By A. Hyatt Verrill_ | | | | MODERN RUSSIAN HISTORY | | _By Alexander Kornilov_ | | | | THE RUSSIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING | | _By Alexandre Benois_ | | | | THE JOURNAL OF LEO TOLSTOI (1895-1899) | | | | THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUPERTRAMP | | _By William H. Davies_ | | _With a Preface by Bernard Shaw_ | | | +--------------------------------------------------+

THE SHIELD

Edited by

MAXIM GORKY, LEONID ANDREYEV, and FYODOR SOLOGUB

With a Foreword by William English Walling

Translated from the Russian by A. Yarmolinsky

New York Alfred A. Knopf McmxviiCopyright, 1917, byAlfred A. KnopfPrinted in the United States of America

FOREWORD

This is not merely a book about the Russian Jews. It is a marvellousrevelation of the Russian soul. It shows not only that theoverwhelming majority of the Russian intellectuals, including nearlyall of her brilliant literary geniuses, are opposed to the persecutionof the Jews or any other race, but that they have a capacity forsympathy and understanding of humanity unequalled in any other land. Ido not know of any book where the genius and heart of Russia is betterdisplayed. Not only her leading litterateurs but also her leadingstatesmen and economists are represented--and all of them speak aswith a single voice. 

I am writing on the 16th of March. Yesterday the news reached theworld that Russia had probably at last succeeded in emancipatingitself from the German-sustained and German-supported autocracy whichso long has been renounced by practically all classes of the Russianpeople. I have pointed out elsewhere that this Second Act of the greatdrama of social transformation in Russia was to be expected inconnection with the present war. It is not surprising that this Act, like the first--the Revolution of 1905--is accompanied by anirresistible demand for the cessation of the persecution of the Jewsand other minority races. The first Duma, that of 1906, demandedunanimously that all these races be given absolutely the same rightsas other Russians. The rise of Liberalism during the war, inconnection with military necessities, had already abolished a numberof Jewish disabilities. There is no longer any question that the Jewswill be given equality. Without exception the anti-Semiticorganisations were supported by the pro-German party, the money whichwas alone responsible for the pogroms was furnished by these sameorganisations, and now this Party and these organisations are foreveroverthrown. It was Dr. Dubrovin, for example, who year by year carriedout the murders of the leading representatives of the Jews in the Dumaand who almost succeeded in having Milukov assassinated a few weeksago. Dubrovin was one of the most important of the sinister forcessupported by the money of the German Czarina's court party--which wasorganised by Baron Fredericks and other notorious Germans masqueradingas Russians. 

The re-birth of Russia which is now taking place cannot be understoodapart from the Jewish problem. As Russia's leading Liberal statesman, Prof. Paul Milukov--who is well and favorably known in America becauseof extended visits here--points out in the article he contributes tothe present volume, the anti-Semitic parties coincide with theanti-constitutional parties. At first this seems a strange andunaccountable fact, but a brief glance at the history of othercountries will show that the party standing for the persecution of weakforeign neighbours and the oppression of minority races within andwithout a country has always and everywhere been the party of reaction. As Milukov says, there was no need for an anti-constitutional movementuntil there was a constitutional movement. As soon as Liberalismappeared, however, and gained support among the masses, it wasnecessary to fabricate some counter movement, and the governmentalbureaucracy fixed upon anti-Semitism as a primitive means of appealingto the masses, and so of bridling them. It may be further pointed outthat this systematic propaganda against democracy was almostnon-existent in Russia until it had become thoroughly organised andsuccessful in Germany. Both Kovalevsky and Milukov demonstrate in thepresent volume that anti-Semitism became an important factor in Russianlife only after the middle of the Nineteenth Century--that is to say, after the final victory of Prussian Reactionism over German Liberalismin 1849 (a victory which has lasted to the present time)--and stillmore, after the great military victories of Prussia from 1864 to 1870had put Prussian militarism in the saddle and had made it thedominating force in the Russian court and Russian bureaucracy. 

However, the intelligence, energy, and courage of the Russian Liberalshas entirely thwarted this scheme to divide the Russian people. Thebureaucracy has gained almost no support among any section of theRussian nation, except its own narrow circles, either for itspersecution of the Jews or its oppression of the Poles, Finns, Tartars, Armenians and other races. On the contrary, the anti-Semiticpropaganda has reacted against its promoters. A considerable number, though by no means a majority, of the Russian Liberals are Jews, andRussian Liberals do not at all endeavour to hide this fact. Theconsequence is that the union of the Russian Liberals with all thepersecuted races has been all the more firmly cemented. And just asall Russian Liberals are ardent supporters of the war against Germany, so practically all the leaders of the Russian Jews are equallypatriotic--in spite of the fact that many forms of persecution haveremained, and, furthermore, new forms of persecution have beeninvented since the war. Though the German agitation in America has wonover a large part of the Russian Jews in this country to the Germancause, this agitation has had no such success in Russia, unless amonga relatively small proportion of the Jewish population. 

It is known that the anti-Semitic agitation in Russia has taken holdof only a small proportion of the Russian people among thesemi-criminal population of the cities and towns. It is notorious thatthe pogroms were often organised and carried out by the secret policeand the cossacks, and that in other instances they were executed bybands of a few hundred bribed toughs, called by educated Russians "theblack hundreds. " This social element is what we would ordinarily callin America the "mob, " and it certainly does not constitute one percent. Of the population in Russia or in any other country. Gorkyrefers to it as "the populace": "In addition to the people, there isalso the 'populace, ' something standing outside of social classes andoutside of civilisation, and united by the dark sense of hatredagainst all that surpasses its understanding and is defencelessagainst brute force. I speak of the populace which thus defines itselfin the words of Pushkin:

 "'We are insidious and shameless, Ungrateful, faint-hearted and wicked; At heart we are cold, sterile eunuchs, Traducers, born to slavery. '"

The refusal of the Russian people to be either bribed or deceived intohostility to the Jews is clearly enough demonstrated by the feelingof affection on the part of most intelligent Jews towards the Russianpeople. The only exceptions are those Jews which come from the Polishcities far within the Jewish Pale and do not know the Russian peopleexcept by hearsay. Unfortunately, this is a considerable portion ofthe total of the Jews in Russia, and it is from these cities and townsin the heart of the Pale that most of our immigrants come. But all themore educated Jews--and a very large part are educated--all those whoknow Russia either by a travel or through Russian literature andnewspapers, feel a deep affection for their country, for in spite ofall, Russia belongs to them just as much as it does to other Russians. One of the editors of the present volume, Fyodor Sologub, says:

"Whenever I met Russian Jews abroad, I always marvelled at thestrangely tenacious love for Russia which they preserve. They speak ofRussia with the same longing and the same tenderness as the Russianemigrants; they are equally eager to return and equally saddened, ifthe return is impossible. Wherefore should they love Russia, who isso harsh and inhospitable toward them?"

It is useless for Americans to deceive themselves into thinking thatthe Russian Jewish question is either unimportant or incomprehensiblefrom the point of view of our progress and democracy. Do we not haveour negro and Asiatic problems? Do not the English have their Irishand Indian questions? I do not suggest that the parallel is complete, but it is clear that the Russian writers in the present volume areperfectly correct in referring both to our negro question and ourquestion of yellow labour as closely similar to their Jewish problem. Both the brilliant and fascinating discussions by Andreyev andMerezhkovsky will apply almost as well to any other so-called "racequestion" as to that of the Russian Jews. Says Merezhkovsky:

"We would like very much to say that there is no such thing as theJewish, Polish, Ukrainian, Armenian, Georgian, question; that there isonly one question--the Russian. Yes, we would like to, but we cannot;the Russian people have yet to earn the right to say that, and thereinlies their tragedy. . . . "

"'Judophilism' and 'Judophobia' are closely related. A blind denial ofa nationality engenders an equally blind affirmation of it. Anabsolute 'Nay' naturally brings forth an absolute 'Yea. '"

"That is why we say to the 'Nationalists': 'Cease oppressing thenon-Russian element of our empire, so that we may have the right to beRussians, and that we may with dignity show our national face, as thatof a human being, not that of a beast. Cease to be 'Judophobes' sothat we may cease to be 'Judophiles. ''"

Is it not clear from the recent discussion in the British Parliamentthat the Irish problem weighs like an almost intolerable burden justas much upon the British Empire as it does upon Ireland? Is it notequally clear from England's concession of a cotton tariff to Indiathat she will be obliged for her own sake to make further concessionsto justice in that country? And can America ever hope to have anystanding in the court of nations as long as our infamous persecutionof the negroes and our atrocious attitude towards Asiatics continues?Nations can indulge themselves for a certain period in such gross andstupid crimes, but the longer the settlement is postponed the greaterthe blood-price that must be paid in the end--and in the meanwhile allour civilisation is poisoned, if not actually rotted, by the networkof lies by which the persecutors are forced to defend theirinfamies--lies which are necessarily more far-reaching and impudentlyfalse in a democracy than they are in an autocracy where the existingsystem maintains itself rather by force than by public opinion. 

But few of us educated Americans have the intellectual and moralcourage of the educated classes of Russia. We feel that we can avoidour moral and intellectual responsibilities by turning our back onexisting crimes. It has frequently been pointed out that in spite of agovernment even more anti-democratic than that of Germany, the Russianpeople have been infinitely more democratic than the Germans. In thesame way, while the institutions of America are much further developedin the direction of general democracy than those of Russia, the veryreverse is the case with public opinion. The educated classes ofRussia have the courage and intelligence to call a spade a spade. They realise that they are partly responsible for the sins committedby the Russian nation, even though they have been powerless heretoforeto remedy these conditions in the face of an armed and organisedautocracy, backed by the moral, intellectual and military force ofGermany and by the money of France and England. Andreyev, for example, regards the Jewish problem as primarily a Russian problem. It is oneof the chief burdens, if not the chief burden, which has been crushingthe Russian nation. In this book he says:

"When did the 'Jewish question' leap on my back?--I do not know. I wasborn with it and under it. From the very moment I assumed a consciousattitude towards life until this very day I have lived in its noisomeatmosphere, breathed in the poisoned air which surrounds all these'problems, ' all these dark, harrowing alogisms, unbearable to theintellect. 

"And yet I, a Russian intellectual, a happy representative of thesovereign race, although fully conscious and convinced that the'Jewish question' is no question at all, --I felt powerless and doomedto the most sterile tribulation of spirit. For, all the clear-cutarguments of my intellect, the most fervent tirades and speeches, thesincerest tears of compassion and outcries of indignation unfailinglybroke against a dull, unresponsive wall. But all powerlessness, if itis unable to prevent a crime, becomes complicity; and this was theresult: personally guiltless of any offence against my brother, I havebecome in the eyes of all those unconcerned and those of my brotherhimself, a Cain. "

The new Russia is being born while I write these lines, andintelligent Americans are discussing nothing else except this greatworld event--comparable in importance even to the colossal war itself. If we wish to understand educated Russia--which has brought about thechange--many-sided, large-hearted and intellectually more brilliantperhaps than the educated class of any other nation, we cannot dobetter than to read and think over what that galaxy of Russian geniusthat has composed the present volume has written. We must not forgetthat the educated class in Russia is almost as numerous as in theother great nations, and perhaps plays an even more important rôle inRussia than it does in other countries. What Russia has lacked hasbeen neither an educated class nor masses capable and ready to betrained to any kind of modern employment, but a great technicallytrained, free and organised "intellectual middle class"--an expressionI am forced to coin for my present purpose. It is hardly necessary toprove this assertion. The world is well acquainted with Russian geniusin literature, art, music, philosophy, sociology, economics, history, and the higher realms of science. Moreover Russia is not withouttechnological schools, but the proportion of her population employedin the scientific organisation of industry and business isinsignificant in comparison with that of other countries--owing, ofcourse, to the backward state of Russian industry and Russiangovernment. But this fact, important as it is, must not obscure theequally important fact that the educated and cultivated class inRussia, speaking several languages, and personally familiar with thecivilisation of one or more foreign countries, exercises an influenceover Russian society and Russian public opinion undoubtedly strongerthan that of any other educated class whatever--with the possibleexception of that of Germany. We cannot hope to understand the newRussia unless we understand the character and point of view of theRussian "intellegentsia, " and this is nowhere so clearly, succinctlyand interestingly set forth as in "The Shield. "

 WILLIAM ENGLISH WALLING. 

Greenwich, Connecticut. 

PREFACE

Published by the Russian Society for the Study of Jewish Life underthe joint editorship of three eminent men-of-letters, Gorky, Andreyev, and Sologub, the original Shield saw the light of day last year inPetrograd. The book consists of numerous studies, essays, stories andpoems, all these contributions to the symposium on the Jewish questioncoming exclusively from the pen of Russian authors of non-Jewishbirth. In making a selection for the present volume, I have thought itadvisable to give decided preference to the publicistic articles ofthe original collection. Thus, the present version containspractically all the various important studies and essays of theRussian _Shield_, while most of the stories have been omitted, withoutgreat detriment to the book. I have also had to sacrifice, for obviousreasons, all the poetic contributions to the original, signed by suchgreat masters of modern Russian poetry as Balmont, Bunin, Z. Hippins, Sologub, and Shchepkina-Kupernik. 

My thanks are due to Dr. Louis S. Friedland and Professor Earle F. Palmer for going over a considerable portion of the present volume. 

 A. YARMOLINSKY. 

CONTENTS

MAXIM GORKY, Russia and the Jews 3

LEONID ANDREYEV, The First Step 19

VLADIMIR KOROLENKO, Mr. Jackson's Opinion on the Jewish Question 37

PAUL MILYUKOV, The Jewish Question in Russia 55

M. BERNATZKY, The Jews and Russian Economic Life 77

PRINCE PAUL DOLGORUKOV, The War and the Status of the Jew 95

MAXIM KOVALEVSKY, Jewish Rights and Their Enemies 103

DMITRY MEREZHKOVSKY, The Jewish Question as a RussianQuestion 115

VYACHESLAV IVANOV, Concerning the Ideology of theJewish Question 125

MAXIM GORKY, The Little Boy, a Story 133

FYODOR SOLOGUB, The Fatherland for All 143

VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV, On Nationalism 155

COUNT IVAN TOLSTOY, Concerning the Legal Status ofthe Jews 159

LEONID ANDREYEV, The Wounded Soldier, a Story 165

CATHERINE KUSKOVA, How to Help? 171

S. YELPATYEVSKY, The Homeless Ones 181

MICHAEL ARTZIBASHEF, The Jew, a Story 193

RUSSIA AND THE JEWS

 _Alexey Maksinovich Pyeshkov, better known under the assumed name of Maxim Gorky, was born in 1869. In 1905 he was arrested and imprisoned because of his political convictions. After the revolutionary days of 1906 he left Russia and settled on the island of Capri. At the beginning of the present war he returned to Russia and took an active part in the public life of the country. He is at present residing in Petrograd, where he edits a monthly of distinctly radical tendencies. _

THE SHIELD

RUSSIA AND THE JEWS

BY MAXIM GORKY

From time to time--more often as time goes on!--circumstances forcethe Russian author to remind his compatriots of certain indisputable, elementary truths. 

It is a very hard duty:--it is painfully awkward to speak to grown-upand literate people in this manner:

"Ladies and gentlemen! We must be humane; humaneness is not onlybeautiful, but also advantageous to us. We must be just; justice isthe foundation of culture. We must make our own the ideas of law andcivil liberty: the usefulness of such an assimilation is clearlydemonstrated by the high degree of civilisation reached by theWestern countries, for instance, by England. 

"We must develop in ourselves a moral tidiness, and an aversion to allthe manifestations of the brute principle in man, such as the wolfish, degrading hatred for people of other races. The hatred of the Jew is abeastlike, brute phenomenon; we must combat it in the interests of thequicker growth of social sentiments and social culture. 

"The Jews are human beings, just like others, and, like all humanbeings, the Jews must be free. 

"A man who meets all the duties of a citizen, thereby deserves to begiven all the rights of citizenship. 

"Every human being has an inalienable right to apply his energy in allthe branches of industry and all the departments of culture, and thebroader the scope of his personal and social activities, the more doeshis country gain in power and beauty. "

There are a number of other equally elementary truths which shouldhave long since sunk into the flesh and blood of Russian society, butwhich have not as yet done so. 

I repeat--it is a hard thing to assume the rôle of a preacher ofsocial proprieties and to keep reiterating to people: "It is not good, it is unworthy of you to live such a dirty, careless, savagelife--wash yourselves!"

And in spite of all your love for men, in spite of your pity for them, you are sometimes congealed in cold despair and you think withanimosity: "Where then is that celebrated, broad, beautiful Russiansoul? So much was and is being said about it, but wherein does itsbreadth, might and beauty actively manifest itself? And is not oursoul broad because it is amorphous? And it is probably owing to itsamorphousness that we yield so readily to external pressure, whichdisfigures us so rapidly and radically. "

We are good-natured, as we ourselves express it. But when you lookcloser at our good-naturedness, you find that it shows a strangeresemblance to Oriental indifference. 

One of man's most grievous crimes is indifference, inattention to hisneighbour's fate; this indifference is pre-eminently ours. 

The situation of the Jews in Russia, which is a disgrace to Russianculture, is one of the results of our carelessness, of ourindifference to the straight and just decrees of life. 

In the interests of reason, justice, civilisation, we must nottolerate that people without rights should live among us; we wouldnever have tolerated it, if we had a strong sense of self-respect. 

We have every reason to reckon the Jews among our friends; there aremany things for which we must be grateful to them: they have done andare doing much good in those lines of endeavour in which the bestRussian minds have been engaged. Nevertheless, without aversion orindignation, we bear a disgraceful stain on our consciousness, thestain of Jewish disabilities. There is in that stain the dirty poisonof slanders and the tears and blood of numberless pogroms. 

I am not able to speak of anti-Semitism in the manner it deserves. Andthis not because I have not the power or the right words. It is ratherbecause I am hindered by something that I cannot overcome. I wouldfind words biting, heavy, and pointed enough to fling them in the faceof the man-haters, but for that purpose I must descend into a kind offilthy pit. I must put myself on a level with people whom I do notrespect and for whom I have an organic aversion. 

I am inclined to think that anti-Semitism is indisputable, just asleprosy and syphilis are, and that the world will be cured of thisshameful disease only by culture, which sets us free, slowly butsurely, from ailments and vices. 

Of course, this does not relieve me of the duty to combat in every waythe development of anti-Semitism and, according to my powers, topreserve people from getting infected by it. The Jew of to-day is dearto me, and I feel myself guilty before him, for I am one of those whotolerate the oppression of the Jewish nation, the great nation, whomsome of the most prominent Western thinkers consider, as a psychicaltype, higher and more beautiful than the Russian. 

I think that the judgment of these thinkers is correct. To my mind, Jews are more European than the Russians are, because of theirstrongly developed feeling of respect for work and man, if not for anyother reason. I admire the spiritual steadfastness of the Jewishnation, its manly idealisms, its unconquerable faith in the victoryof good over evil, in the possibility of happiness on earth. 

The Jews--mankind's old, strong leaven, --have always exalted itsspirit, bringing into the world restless, noble ideas, goading men toembark on a search for finer values. 

All men are equal; the soil--is no one's, it is God's; man has theright and the power to resist his fate, and we may stand up evenagainst God, --all this is written in the Jewish Bible, one of theworld's best books. And the commandment of love for one's neighbour isalso an ancient Jewish commandment, just as are all the rest, "thoushalt not kill" among them. 

In 1885 the German-Jewish Union in Germany published "The Principlesof the Jewish Moral Doctrine. " Here is one of these principles:"Judaism teaches: 'Love thy neighbour as thyself' and announces thiscommandment of love for all mankind to be the fundamental principle ofJewish religion. It, therefore, forbids all kinds of hostility, envy, ill-will, and unkindly treatment of any one, without distinction ofrace, nationality and religion. "

These principles were ratified by 350 rabbis, and published just atthe time of the anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia. 

"Judaism teaches respect for the life, the health, the forces and theproperty of one's neighbour. "

I am a Russian. When, alone with myself, I calmly scrutinise my meritsand demerits, --it seems to me that I am intensely Russian. And I amdeeply convinced that there is much that we Russians can and ought tolearn from the Jews. 

For instance, the seventh paragraph of the "Principles of the JewishMoral Doctrine" says: "Judaism commands us to respect work, to takepart by either physical or mental labour in the communal work, to seekfor life's goods in constant productive and creative work. Judaism, therefore, teaches us to take care of our powers and abilities, toperfect them and apply them actively. It, therefore, forbids all idlepleasure not based on labour, all idleness which hopes for the help ofothers. "

This is beautiful and wise, and this is just what we Russians lack. Oh, if we could educate our unusual powers and abilities, if we hadthe will to apply them actively in our chaotic, untidy existence, which is terribly blocked up with all kinds of idle clack andhome-spun philosophy, and which gets more and more saturated withsilly arrogance and puerile bragging. Somewhere deep in the Russiansoul--no matter whether it is the "master's" or the muzhik's--therelives a petty and squalid demon of passive anarchism, who infects uswith a careless and indifferent attitude toward work, society, people, and ourselves. 

I believe that the morality of Judaism would assist us greatly inovercoming this demon, --if only we have the will to combat him. 

In my early youth I read--I have forgotten where--the words of theancient Jewish sage--Hillel, if I remember rightly:

"If thou art not for thyself, who will be for thee? But if thou art forthyself alone--wherefore art thou?"[1]

The inner meaning of these words impressed me with its profoundwisdom, and I interpreted them for myself in this manner: I mustactively take care of myself, that my life should be better, and Imust not impose the care of myself on other people's shoulders; but ifI am going to take care of myself alone, of nothing but my ownpersonal life, --it will be useless, ugly and meaningless. 

This thought ate its way deep into my soul, and I say now withconviction: Hillel's wisdom served me as a strong staff on my road, which was neither even nor easy. It is hard to say with precision towhat one owes the fact that one kept on his feet on the entangledpaths of life, when tossed by the tempests of mental despair, but Irepeat--Hillel's serene wisdom assisted me many a time. 

I believe that Jewish wisdom is more all-human and universal than anyother, and this not only because of its immemorial age, not onlybecause it is the first-born, but also because of the powerfulhumaneness that saturates it, because of its high estimate of man. 

"The true Shekinah--is man, " says a Jewish text. This thought I dearlylove, this I consider the highest wisdom, for I am convinced of this:that until we learn to admire man as the most beautiful andmarvellous phenomenon on our planet, until then we shall not be setfree from the abomination and lies that saturate our lives. 

It is with this conviction that I have entered the world, and withthis conviction I shall leave it, and in leaving it I will believefirmly that the time will come when the world will acknowledge that

"The holy of holies is man!"

 * * * * *

It is unbearably painful to see that human beings who have produced somuch that is beautiful, wise and necessary for the world, live amongus oppressed by unfair laws, which in all ways restrain their right tolife, work and freedom. It is necessary, --for it is just anduseful--to give the Jew equal rights with the Russians; it isimperative that we should do so not only out of respect to the peoplewhich has rendered and is constantly rendering yeoman service tohumanity and our own nation, but also out of self-respect. 

We must make haste with this plain, human reform, for the animosityagainst Jews is on the increase in our country, and if we do not makean attempt to arrest the growth of this blind hatred, it will provepernicious to our cultural development. We must bear in mind that theRussian people have hitherto seen very little good, and therefore, believe all the evil things that man-haters whisper in their ears. TheRussian peasant does not manifest any organic hatred for the Jew, --onthe contrary, he shows an exceptional attraction for Israel'sreligious thought, fascinating for its democratic spirit. As far as Ican remember, the religious sects of "judaizers" exist only in Russiaand Hungary. In late years, the sects of "Sabbathists" and "The NewIsrael" have been developing rather rapidly in our country. In spiteof this, when the Russian peasant hears of persecutions of Jews, hesays with the indifference of an Oriental:

"No one sues or beats an innocent man. "

Who ought to know better than the Russian peasant that in "HolyRussia" the innocent are too often tried and beaten? But hisconception of right and wrong has been confused from time immemorial, the sense of injustice is undeveloped in his dark mind, dimmed bycenturies of Tartardom, boyardom, and the horrors of serfdom. 

The village has a dislike for restless people, even when thatrestlessness is expressed in an aspiration for a better life. WeRussians are intensely Oriental by nature, we love quiet andimmobility, and a rebel, even if he be a Job, delights us in but anabstract way. Lost in the depth of a winter six months long, and wraptin misty dreams, we love beautiful fairy-tales, but the desire for abeautiful life is undeveloped in us. And when on the plane of our lazythought something new and disquieting makes its appearance, --insteadof accepting and sympathetically scanning it, we hasten to drive itinto a dark corner of our mind and bury it there, lest it disturb usin our customary vegetative existence, amidst impotent hopes and greydreams. 

In addition to the people, there is also the "populace, " somethingstanding outside of social classes and outside of culture, and unitedby the dark sense of hatred against everything surpassing itsunderstanding and defenceless against brute force. I speak of thepopulace which thus defines itself in the words of Pushkin, our greatpoet, who himself suffered so cruelly from the aristocratic populace:

 "We are insidious and shameless, Ungrateful, faint-hearted and wicked; At heart we are cold, sterile eunuchs, Traducers, born to slavery. "

It is mainly this populace that is the bearer of the brute principles, such as anti-Semitism. 

The Jews are defenceless, and this is especially dangerous for them inthe conditions of Russian life. Dostoyevsky, who knew the Russian soulso well, pointed out repeatedly that defencelessness arouses in it asensuous inclination to cruelty and crime. In late years there haveappeared in Russia quite a few people who have been taught to thinkthat they are the finest of the wheat, and that their enemy is thestranger, above all--the Jew. For a long time these people were beingpersuaded that all the Jews are restless people, strikers and rioters. They were next informed that the Jews like to drink the blood ofthievish boys. In our days they are being taught that the Polish Jewsare spies and traitors. 

If this preaching of hatred will not bring bloody and shameful fruits, it will be only because it will clash with our Russian indifference tolife and will disappear in it; it will split against the Chinesewall, behind which our still inexplicable nation is hidden. 

But if this indifference be stirred up by the efforts of the hatredpreachers, --the Jews will loom up before the Russian nation as a raceaccused of all crimes. 

And it is not for the first time that all the troubles of Russian lifewill be blamed on the Jew; time and again was he the scapegoat for oursins. Only recently he paid with his life and goods for the help herendered us in our feverish struggle for freedom. I think no one hasforgotten the fact that our "emancipatory movements" strangely woundup with anti-Jewish riots. 

 * * * * *

When the many-raced populace of Jerusalem demanded the death of thedefenceless Jew, Christ, Pilate, believing Christ innocent, washed hishands, but allowed him to be put to death. 

How then will honest Russian men and women act in Pilate's place?Their judgment is awaited. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "If I am not for myself who is for me? And being for my own self, what am I?" "Pirqe Aboth, " I, 14. --Translator's Note. 

 * * * * *

THE FIRST STEP

 _Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev, the author of impressive tales and remarkable dramas, is well known both in America and in England. Since the beginning of the Great War he has devoted himself to the artistic portrayal of the war's effect on his country, and also to purely publicistic tasks. He was born in 1871. _

THE FIRST STEP

BY LEONID ANDREYEV

 "O heavens, if within your blue, Old God is still alive and mighty, Unseen by me alone, ye pray For me and for my doom e'er bleeding! My lips no more are fraught with hymns, No brawn in arm, no hope in heart. . . . How long, how long, how long?"

 --H. BYALIK. 

It is with deep emotion that I have read in the Polish _New Gazette_an interview about the Jewish question with a personage of highstation who seems to be really well informed. According to thispersonage, a number of measures are being proposed and planned, whichare intended to lighten the grievous lot of the Jews in Russia: theabolition of the "Pale of Settlement" in relation to towns large andsmall, the abrogation of the percentage "norm" in the secondary andhigher educational institutions, the establishment of special Jewishschools, the reorganisation of Jewish emigration on a broad andrational basis. I confess that I was not prompt in giving credence tothese good tidings. And those with whom I shared the news, althoughexcited no less than I, accepted them also with some degree ofdiffidence, which is only natural in Russians: life indulges us sorarely and so reluctantly. But private rumours corroborate this news, and to persist in one's disbelief would mean to doubt the very meaningof the present great "emancipatory" war, which is building a glorioustemple of renovated life on the blood of Russians, Poles, Jews andLithuanians. And finally, I simply cannot help believing, for my soulis weary with waiting and repeating together with the great Jewishpoet: "How long, how long, how long?"

An aged journalist, who, it seems, has lost all fervour and faith, hasrecently laughed in his sleeve at the word "miracle, " which nowadayscomes so often to our lips: according to him, miracles, generallyspeaking, do not exist. It is my opinion also that there are nomiracles, if we understand by a miracle an arbitrary violation of thenatural, logical, inevitable order of things. But to him whocontemplates life proper, not the table of multiplication, --logicitself appears as the greatest of all miracles. Oh, if logic wouldreally reign supreme in life; oh, if in our cursed human existence, where there are so many aimless and unnecessary sorrows and tears andwild outrages, the simplest "two and two is four" would not be therarest of miracles, equal to the transubstantiation of water intoprecious wine. Would millions of individually innocent human beingsperish in this most terrible of wars, if instead of a dark andterrible _alogism_ a clear and lucid syllogism lay at the basis of ourintricate and enigmatical existence? It is logic that is the truemiracle, and "two and two is four" is that extraordinary happiness, which falls so seldom to our lot!

And just as I rejoiced as at miracles, at Russia's achievement oftemperance, and Poland's rebirth in the same way, I now marvel at thecoming solution of the "Jewish question, " the immemorial and darkestof alogisms. There is something festive in it; it stirs up in me afeeling of serene and immense joy, bordering on religiousexaltation. . . . And the fact that for me, as well as for many otherRussian writers, _all this_ was never even a problem, does not by anymeans diminish the extraordinary character of what is going to happen;for a plain brotherly kiss is almost a miracle and can move one totears at the time when the rule of life and its highest wisdom is afierce war of brother against brother. 

And how can I help feeling this extraordinary import, I, a Russianintellectual, if, together with the solution of the "question" mysoul, too, is suddenly set free. It is delivered from all the habitualand harrowing experiences that, constant companions of my days andnights as they have been, have acquired all the peculiarities of thosechronic and incurable ailments, to which the grave alone can bringrelease. For, if to the Jews themselves the "Pale, " the "norm, " etc. , were a fatal and impregnable fact, which deformed their entire life, they were also for me, a Russian, something in the nature of a hump onmy back, a stationary and ugly growth, arising no one knows when orunder what circumstances. Wherever I went and whatever I did, the humpwas with me; at night it disturbed my sleep, and in my waking hours, when I was among people, it filled me with feelings of confusion andshame. 

It is not my intention to demonstrate the soundness and justice of theproposed measures and to force the door which to me was always open, but I am going to take the liberty of adding a few more words about myhump. When did the "Jewish question" leap on my back?--I do not know. I was born with it and under it. From the very moment I assumed aconscious attitude towards life until this very day I have lived inits noisome atmosphere, breathed in the poisoned air which surroundsall these "problems, " all these dark, harrowing alogisms, unbearableto the intellect. 

Who needs it? Whom does it benefit? If all this exists and issupported, if there are people who assert it fiercely and firmly, there must be some definite sense in it; evidently, the Pale, theeducational norm, and the rest increase mankind's sum of joy, exaltlife, broaden the limits of human possibilities. Taking a logicalpoint of departure, that is what I thought, but this same logicdictated to me an absolutely negative answer to all these questions:no one needs it, it brings good to no one: all these discriminationsnot only do not increase the sum of joy on this earth, but engender amultitude of wholly unnecessary, aimless sufferings; some theyoppress, and others they badly corrupt. And yet I, a Russianintellectual, a happy representative of the sovereign race, althoughfully conscious and convinced that the "Jewish question" is noquestion at all, --I felt powerless and doomed to the most steriletribulation of spirit. For, all the clear-cut arguments of myintellect, the most fervent tirades and speeches, the sincerest tearsof compassion and outcries of indignation unfailingly broke against adull, unresponsive wall. But all powerlessness, if it is unable toprevent a crime, becomes complicity; and this was the result:personally guiltless of any offence against my brother, I have becomein the eyes of all those unconcerned and those of my brother himself, a Cain. 

The first consequence of my fatal powerlessness was that the Jew didnot trust me, which meant that I lost my self-confidence. Livingtogether with the Jews as my co-citizens, being in constant personaland business relations with them, in the field of consorted socialwork, I came face to face with the Jewish "problem" every singleday, --and every single day of my life I felt with intolerable keennessall the falsehood and wretched ambiguity of my situation, that of anoppressor against one's will. In the doctor's office, at my desk, inthe editorial room, in the street, finally in jail, where togetherwith the Jew I fulfilled the all-Russian prison duty--everywhere Iremained the privileged "Russian, " the representative of the sovereignrace, the baron, --without the baronial blazon. And with horror Inoticed that even the eyes of a Jew-friend were dimmed with strangeshadows . . . That terrible images surged behind my friendly Russianshoulders and mingled wholly unsuitable noises and voices with mysincere plea for "world citizenship. " . . . And yet he knew me well, heknew my attitude toward the Jews, --how about those who know only thatI am a "Russian"?

I remember having spent one night in talking with a very giftedwriter, a Jew, who was my casual and most welcome guest. I was tryingto convince him that he, a great master of the word, ought to write, but he repeated obstinately that although he loves the Russianlanguage with all his artist's heart, he cannot write in it, in thelanguage which has the word _zhid_. [1] Of course, logic was on myside, but on his side there was some dark _truth_--truth is not alwayslucid--and I felt, that my ardent arguments began, little by little, to sound like false and cheap babbling. So that I have not succeededin convincing him, and when we parted I had not the courage to kisshim: how many _unexpected_ meanings could be disclosed in this plain, everyday token of friendship and affection?

Things are altogether bad when even a kiss becomes suspicious and canbe susceptible of "interpretation, " as a complicated act of intricateand enigmatic relations! That is exactly what happened. And how manyodd and nightmare-like misunderstandings were engendered by thepoisonous mist in which we all wandered, both friends and foes, and inwhich the outlines of the plainest objects and feelings assumed thedismal grotesqueness of phantoms. I cannot help recalling here thecase of E. A. Chirikov, which at the time excited much comment: thenoble and fervent champion of the persecuted race, the author of thedrama "Jews, " which has more than any other Russian drama contributedto the dispersion of the evil prejudice, --this man was suddenly, in amost absurd manner, without a shadow of foundation, insulted by theaccusation of anti-Semitism; and--to think of it!--it was necessary tofurnish _proofs_ that the accusation was false. What a painful, what awholly disgraceful absurdity!

"Who needs all this? Who does not know it?" wearily thought every oneof us, again and again realising the harrowing necessity of convincingsome unbeliever, that two and two is four . . . Nothing but four!

And abroad? "What an injustice!"--thought I, when the cultured West, having separated me from Tolstoy, as if I had stolen him, handed me onthe spot, a bill for the "excesses" known the world over, at the sametime frowning unambiguously upon my eternal hump. The West refused toconsider that I, too, am against _this_. I was considered a Russian, and the question was put this way: "Tell me, why in your country, inRussia?. . . "

It is ridiculous and utterly odd to think that our far-famed"barbarism" of which our enemies accuse us and which puts our friendsout of countenance, is based wholly and exclusively on our Jewishquestion and its bloody excesses. Take away from Russia theseexcesses, leave, if you wish, the anti-Semitism, but in thatexternally decorous form in which it still exists in the backwardportions of Europe, --and we shall become at once decent Europeans, andnot Asiatics and barbarians, whose proper place is beyond the Ural. This is a fact the obviousness of which every new day of the presentwar makes more strikingly evident. 

Of course culturally we are far behind the world, our economic life isundeveloped, our civic life is at a low level, and all the aspects ofour life show clearly that we have not as yet broken the shell of theegg. But we are young, we are only beginning, and for a people whoabolished serfdom only half a century ago, we have done quite a gooddeal, --so that, at the worst, lack of culture is the only reproachwhich a European with a sense of justice will fling at us. But it isenough to put side by side the words "Russian" and "Jew, "--and Ibecome at once a barbarian, a dark and terrible being, who chills anddarkens resplendent Europe. At once in America people begin to hateme, in England and France to despise me; with the swiftness oftheatrical transformations Tolstoy's compatriot turns into the brotherof those who drive nails into their neighbours' heads, --I become a_barbarian_. And even the German anti-Semite, a stupid and dullcreature, looks down at me and warns England: "See with whom you arefriends? Are they not the same people who. . . ?"

"To whose interest is it that Europe should despise me, hate and fearme?" I mused, perplexed, feeling that in the light of the European sunmy cursed hump assumes immense proportions and like a screen shuts offthe light which comes from the East, and in which the aged and wearyWest is quite inclined to believe. To whom is it necessary for me toramble among the cultured nations like a leper, to conceal my race andobtain the ironical bow so essential to my unacknowledged dignity, bymeans of exorbitant "tips" flung right and left? A barbarian, abarbarian!. . . 

The war has opened our eyes to many things, and therein lies for usRussians the sad advantages of it. And now when Germany brands Franceand England for the union with "the Russian barbarians who. . . , " whenthe allies, while relying on our elemental force, tremble with doubtsand fear behind the screen of their noisy sympathies, --I begin tounderstand in whose interests it was, who needed it, that in thelegion of European states we should remain all alone with ourbarbarism. Whatever is a misfortune for us is favourable for Germany, with her "well-tried" friendship for us, to which Wilhelm referred soloudly from the balcony of his palace. As barbarians we are only anexcellent and indispensable market for the Germans' merchandise, atwo-hundred-million flock of sheep ready for the shears. As a culturednation we are a power dangerous to the Teuton's dream of worlddominion. And the Jewish question, with its excesses and nails driveninto heads, is that trump which our honest German neighbour has alwayskept hidden in his cuff and which he throws out on the green table atthe necessary moment. And he was right from his standpoint. But whyhad we to drink off the bitter cup? Losing our self-respect, having nofaith in our power, growing corrupted by an unnatural existence, cutting down by means of the celebrated "norm" the number of oureducated and cultured men--a devilish joke!--our entire nation wasdiligently performing the "Fools' Dance, " which, under the name of adrama from Russian life, has recently met with such a success in theBerlin playhouses. It must not be forgotten that the ardent Polishanti-Semitism, which frightens us so much and which seriously hindersthe upbuilding of a new life, as well as the cold Finnishanti-Semitism, the power of which is still unknown to us, --that thesetwo phenomena are nothing but the logical development of thefundamental absurdity, its natural and poisonous fruits. But the timehas not come yet to speak about that. 

May I be pardoned that in an hour so momentous for the Jews I persistin speaking not of them and their sufferings, but of ourselves. Irepeat, the Jewish question was never a question for me, and in orderto justify the proposed measures I need not allege the heroism shownby the Jews in defending Russia, their love for Russia, tragic in itsfaithfulness. As for demonstrating again and again that a Jew, too, isa human being, to do so would mean not only to bow too low toabsurdity, but also to insult those whom I respect and love. And if Ipersist in speaking of ourselves and our suffering, it is not forpersonal egoism, nor even class egoism, but the pardonable egoism of anation, which has been too long playing a miserable part on Europe'sstage and in its own conscience, and which now repudiates thesuffering of yesterday and, at the dawn of new life, seeks thepossibility--oh, only the possibility!--of respecting itself. 

Yes, we are still barbarians, the Poles still mistrust us, we are adark terror for Europe, a baffling menace to her civilisation, but wedo not want to be that any more, we long for purity and reason, ourwretched rags burden us beyond all measure. The Jews' tragic love forRussia finds a counterpart in our love for Europe, as tragical in itsfaithfulness and completeness. Are we not ourselves the Jews of Europe, and is not our frontier--the same "Pale of Settlement"--something inthe nature of a Russian Ghetto? And try as our Pushkin and Dostoyevskyand your Byalik may to prove that we, too, are human beings, people donot believe us, as they do not believe you: here is that equalitywhence we all can derive a bitter consolation; here is the punishmentby means of which impartial life takes revenge on the Russians for theJews' sufferings. 

The thirst for self-respect--that is the fundamental feeling whichnow, in the days of the most terrible war, has seized all Russiansociety, which has exalted the people to the heights of heroism, andwhich makes us fear all that reminds us of our sad past. That is whypersecution of Germans in our own country is so unbearable to us; wewant no persecution; that is why we hate all that, like the belchingof yesterday's drinking, distorts our disinterested aims andintentions: better yield than take too much of what belongs to otherpeople--that is nowadays the motto of the majority. Could the countrybecome sober if not for this feeling which one has when about toreceive holy communion? Although proud at the victories of our arms, we scrupulously hide this pride, we treasure it in our hearts as ourmost precious possession, and we hate all swaggering andself-adulation. Not with the haughtiness of a righteous pharisee do weapproach the altar, but with a prayer of penitence: "like a murderer Iprofess Thee. "

We must all understand that the end of Jewish sufferings is thebeginning of our self-respect, without which _Russia cannot exist_. The black days of war will pass, and the "German barbarians" of to-daywill again become cultured Germans, to whose voice the world will oncemore hearken with deference. And we must never again allow this or anyother voice to utter aloud: "The Russian barbarians. "

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This is an insulting synonym for "Jew. "--Translator's Note. 

 * * * * *

MR. JACKSON'S OPINION ON THE JEWISH QUESTION

 _Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko is to-day universally recognized in Russia as the most worthy guardian of the best traditions of Russian letters. He has done yeoman service to his country both as an author of humanitarian tales and as the mouth-piece of Russia's public conscience. After the government some time ago suppressed the magazine "Russian Wealth" which Korolenko had edited, he retired to the city of Poltava, in the South, and in late years his appearance in print has been a rare event. He was born in 1853. _

MR. JACKSON'S OPINION ON THE JEWISH QUESTION

BY VLADIMIR KOROLENKO

One of the most intelligent though not one of the most profoundopinions about the Jewish question I happened to hear from a chancefellow-traveller on the Atlantic Ocean. And although it was quite sometime ago, and the man who expressed it was in no way remarkable, nevertheless this opinion is recalled to me on various occasions--veryfrequently in these days. 

It was in 1904. Together with a fellow countryman, also a man ofletters, I was travelling aboard a steamer of the Anglo-AmericanCompany, "Cunard. " Our cabin was small and narrow. It was lighted bythe dull light of an electric bull's-eye in the ceiling which servedas a deck. There were three berths and a wash basin. My friend and Ioccupied two of the berths. On the third there camped the gentlemanabout whom we read in the passenger list: "Mr. Henry Jackson ofIllinois. " This was all we knew about him for the first few days. Herose very early, went to bed late and spent all day outside of thecabin. As a rule, we woke early, because to the muffled and steadysplash of the ocean over the sides of the ship there was added asplash issuing from the basin, nearby. By the dim light of thebull's-eye I could see from my top berth a tall figure in a nightshirtas long as a shroud, with a small bald spot on the pate. Out ofdelicacy he did not turn on the electric lights and in thesemi-darkness made his toilet very quietly, but was not able to foregothe pleasure of emitting some snorts while splashing himself with coldwater from the basin. Then he dived again into his berth and for sometime quietly and cautiously busied himself there; then--a light squeakof the door, and a long figure glided out from the cabin. We wereinterested in the personality of our neighbour. He was the firstAmerican whom fate had brought so near to us. We were unable even todistinguish his face and during the day tried to single him out inthe international crowd of gentlemen scurrying about the deck of our_Urania_, lounging on the deck-chairs, having luncheon, or dinner orsupper, or lost in the smoke of cigars in the smoking room. Thiselusiveness made the personality of the traveller puzzling andinteresting, and we bestowed the title of "Our American" now on one, now on another of the middle-aged American gentlemen. Of course, wemarked as candidates the more interesting and typical figures. The_Urania_ had been on the ocean for quite some time when my friend atlast said to me: "I have found out which American is ours. Here hecomes now. Look!"

Along the railing, a lanky gentleman and a short stout lady werecoming toward us. I felt a sense of involuntary disappointment: bothhe and she were the least interesting of all the first-classpassengers on the _Urania_. 

A kind of half-European, half-exotic troupe were on the boat. Theywere going to America for a tour. The central figures in the groupwere two beautiful Creoles who had already succeeded in gaining areputation in Europe. Around them were grouped a few stars of smallermagnitude, and the whole constellation attracted considerableattention from the men of the various nationalities represented onboard. Soon a few couples circling the decks together came intonotice. Amongst them were the lanky gentleman and the short, veryvulgar lady, who looked like a maid or a duenna. As they passed infront of the other couples, one could sometimes notice slightlyironical glances and meaning smiles. But "our" American had a mostself-satisfied, even somewhat victorious look. My companion, well-versed in English soon made a few acquaintances. Most often I sawhim converse with "our" American in the hours when the latter was freefrom his knightly duties. Pretty soon we gained an insight into themain facts of his life-history. We learned that in his youth he hadfollowed in turn a number of various callings, until one of thembrought him success. He had retired and was now living on his largeincome, had provided very well for his two sons, had lost his wife, and decided to devote to pleasure the rest of his life which had begunamidst drudgery and many vicissitudes. He spent his time intravelling from one son to the other and retiring now and then to hisown well-furnished home in Chicago. "When travelling you very oftenhave very interesting adventures, don't you?" And he shot a triumphantand sly glance in the direction of his artistic lady. 

Having learned that we were Russian writers, he decided at once thatwe were going to the Exhibition in the capacity of correspondents. 

"Oh, yes, in my hard days I ate bread baked in this oven, too, " hesaid, with an air of satisfaction. "There are many occupations whichare more respectable and profitable. . . . But one tries everything. Ican give you a good piece of advice. On the first train which willtake you into the interior of the country, you will encounter a youngman who offers illustrated guide-books for sale. Do not grudge yourhalf-dollar, and buy these guide-books as frequently as possible. Youwill find in them excellent descriptions of noteworthy places, writtenby real masters. You can draw from them quite liberally. Even we, Americans, cannot know all our guide-books, as for Russia. . . . Heh-heh!Before reaching Chicago you will have several thousand lines. . . . Yourreaders will be satisfied, and so will your editor and you will earnyour pay easily. . . . What?. . . Isn't that so?"

"Much obliged, sir!" answered my companion with ironical civility, andadded in Russian: "The swine! He is cock-sure that he has benefited ushighly by his advice. "

My companion had a strong sense of humour, and every day he had somenew episode, some characteristic opinion held by the American or somestory of his past to tell me. Sometimes he would take out hisnote-book and make believe he was respectfully taking notes on someespecially happy passages from these enlightening conversations. Andat the same time he would say to me in Russian:

"He is deeply convinced that America is the best country in the world, Illinois is the best State in America, the street he lives on is thebest street in his city, and his house the best house on the street. Now he is trying to persuade me that Chicago outgrew New York long agoand is now the first city in the world. Wait a minute . . . There comesanother one. That one is a New Yorker. " He stopped the gentleman whowas passing by and proceeded to introduce them to each other:

"Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Carson of New York. "

Then in the naïve tone of a person, somewhat perplexed, he asked:

"You told me that New York is the first city in the world. And here isMr. Jackson who asserts that for the last ten years Chicago hasoutstripped New York in population. According to him Chicago has somany million inhabitants. "

My companion leaned back slightly in his arm-chair and looked withobvious curiosity at the two Americans. 

"Presently we shall have a cock-fight, " he said to me in Russian, anda mocking twitch appeared beneath his moustache. 

Mr. Carson straightened up. His eyebrows lifted impatiently butimmediately his face took on an expression of polite calm, andslightly tipping his hat, he said: "It is very possible . . . Thegentleman evidently includes the population of the cemeteries ofChicago. "

He bowed and resumed his walking, leaving Mr. Jackson aghast withmouth wide-open, speechless, for he had not time to protest. Then hegot up quickly and walked along the deck. . . . My companion followed himwith his smiling eyes. . . . 

"Perfect parrots, " he said. "Petty patriotism, in its most naïveform. . . . Dickens long ago noticed that trait of American character andso it goes on. " My sly countryman skilfully interviewed his victim, disclosing step by step the ludicrous traits of a Yankee. There weremany weak sides. Mr. Jackson, in whom we were mainly interested, proved to be a mediocre person in all respects, with a naïvelymiddle-class outlook on life, and we, the two Russian observers, revelled in that delightful malice which is so characteristic ofRussians abroad. So that is what they are, the far-famed children ofthe transatlantic republic!

Sometime later, I again found my companion engaged in conversationwith Mr. Jackson. The ocean was somewhat rough. The ladies did notcome out on deck; Mr. Jackson was, therefore, free and evidently inhigh spirits. He spoke with great animation. My companion had hisnote-book in his hands and there was a slyly respectful smile on hisface. 

"We are discussing the Jewish question, " he said in Russian. "Mr. Carson, a quarter of an hour ago, praised the Jews, and ever since'our man' cannot calm down. He enlightens me with arguments whichsound as if they were just taken from our yellow newspapers. Please, go on, sir, " he respectfully addressed Mr. Jackson. "Everything yousay is so new and interesting. . . . "

Mr. Jackson, who was flattered by the respectful attention of thenaïve Russian, continued his sermon. It was before the days of theBeyliss trial. Nevertheless, except for the "ritual" murder, all therest of the jargon of our anti-Semitic papers was there, and theJewish character was painted the most frightful black. 

On the other end of the deck resounded the shrill sound of the gong, asignal for lunch. 

"Thank you, sir, " said my companion. "It is with great pleasure that Ihave listened to your views on the subject, and I am certain that allthis will be found extremely novel in our country. . . . I have a fewmore minutes to ask you one last question. . . . "

"What else do you wish to know?" said Mr. Jackson. 

"I wonder, " answered my friend, "what conclusions are to be drawn fromthis enlightening conversation. You are undoubtedly against equalrights for the Jews. You would shut the doors of the country for theJews, wouldn't you? And you would limit the rights of those whoalready live there, by establishing, let us say, something in thenature of a special zone outside of which they would not be allowed tosettle?"

Even as my friend was saying this the American's eyebrows went up, forming a sharp angle, and he looked at the speaker with such an airof pity that the latter was somewhat put out of countenance. 

"How in the world have you reached such a conclusion?" asked Jacksoncoldly, and somewhat severely. 

"But . . . You dislike the Jews heartily. . . . "

The clanging of the gong was reaching our corner. Mr. Jackson roseand buttoning his coat, he said:

"It does not follow. You have made a bad syllogism: the conclusiondoes not follow from the premises. "

"But, sir. . . . "

"It is true that I dislike those people, but it doesn't follow that Iwant their rights restricted. . . . "

And after a moment of deliberation, as though seeking for the clearestform of explanation, he went on. 

"Here we are being called for dinner . . . I must tell you, sir, that Icannot tolerate green peas. That is my personal taste. But it does notfollow by any means, gentlemen, that I have the right to demand thatgreen peas should not be served. . . . Probably, others like thedish. . . . "

And rising to his full height, he added:

"As for the rest of your words . . . As an American, I would feelinsulted, if there were in my country citizens deprived of equalrights. . . . That a Kentuckian, for instance, should not have the rightto breathe freely the air of Illinois. . . . My goodness. . . . The idea!"

And he started out, moving along the railing, straight and gaunt, and, there was something peculiar in his entire figure. He seemed to feelhimself deeply insulted. At the door of the smoking-room, he met Mr. Carson of New York, his recent antagonist, and amiably taking his arm, he started to tell him something in great excitement. Judging by theway Mr. Carson turned to look at us, it was evident that they werediscussing us Russians, the gentlemen who draw false conclusions frompremises. 

We exchanged glances. Half a minute passed in perplexed silence. Thenwe both laughed at once. . . . 

"_Rira bien qui rira le dernier. _ We must confess that this time it is'our' rather bad American who laughs last, " said my sarcastic friend. "And did you notice the expression on his face at that moment?"

"Yes, it looked positively intelligent. . . . Probably, because theexperience and wisdom of a great nation, which has already firmlyestablished axioms, were speaking at that moment through the mouth ofour American. . . . "

"And the negroes?" said my friend hesitatingly and thoughtfully. 

"Well, the negroes are 'the black peas' which Americans detest. Butthat is a matter of social custom; the law, however, does notdistinguish them from other citizens. . . . To love, not to love . . . Thatis elusive and capricious, but justice is obligatory, like anaxiom. . . . "

Entering the dining-room, I felt somewhat uneasy. . . . It seemed to methat all the Americans would turn and eye us, the representatives of anation which has not as yet learned the axioms of law, and which drawschildishly false conclusions from premises. . . . 

But I was mistaken. There was in the dining-room the usual rustling, clatter of plates, forks and knives, tinkling of glasses, andwhispered conversation. "Our" American was sitting at the side of hisodd Dulcinea, and he again looked like a self-satisfied cox-comb. But, it seemed to me that into the everyday mood of the vessel'stable-d'hôte, there entered something elusive and significant, whichcould change the appearance of this motley crowd just as ourAmerican's face had changed at the end of our conversation. 

And, in fact, a few weeks later, I happened to be present at one ofthose tempestuous manifestations of public opinion which at timesbreak out like storms on the surface of the ocean. There is much thatis ridiculous in the every-day tone of American newspapers, in theirthirst for sensations and _réclame_, in their petty interviews. Buthere everything was suddenly swept aside, and the dominant tone of theAmerican press became deep and significant. Now and then the voices ofpast generations, --the men who had been the builders of freedom andlaw in their country, the voices of Lincolns, Harrisons, and Davisespierced the bustle of every-day life and were heard in editorials, articles, in the speeches delivered at meetings. 

The occasion for all this was again the Jewish question, and theignorance of axioms shown by a nation of the old continent. And itoccurred to me that probably somewhere in Chicago, Mr. Jackson, "whodislikes green peas, " was delivering, or at least listening to, aspeech about the axioms of human law, and was voting in favor of acorresponding resolution. 

For he firmly believes that love is capricious. Like mercy, itbloweth, whither it listeth. . . . But justice, justice isobligatory. . . . 

 * * * * *

THE JEWISH QUESTION IN RUSSIA

 _Professor Paul Nikolayevich Milyukov, the central figure in the present Russian revolution, was born in 1859. Before the upheaval in 1905 he was known as a distinguished historian. In 1903 and 1904 he lectured on Russia at Harvard and at the University of Chicago, and in 1908 he spoke on the situation in Russia before the Civic Forum in Carnegie Hall. Ever since the revolutionary days of 1905-6, Professor Milyukov has been playing a most conspicuous part in the Russian emancipatory movement, as the leader of the Constitutional party, as a Duma deputy and the editor of the influential radical newspaper Ryech. _

THE JEWISH QUESTION IN RUSSIA

BY P. MILYUKOV

The Jewish question in Russia presents altogether peculiar aspects. This is not only because there are in the Empire six million Jews, i. E. , more than in any other State in the world, and because in theprovinces annexed at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning ofthe nineteenth centuries, they form as much as 11 per cent. Of thepopulation--but also for the reason that the legal status of theRussian Jews completely differs from that of other non-Russiannationalities which go to make the Empire. These nationalitiesendeavour to obtain the many rights of which they are deprived. Themost important of these rights is national autonomy, i. E. , the rightof a collective unit to preserve and develop its nationalindividuality. In this manner they desire to protect themselves fromthe danger of assimilation, from the possibility of their fusion withthe dominant nationality. Of course the Jews, too, have been striving, especially in late years, to realise national autonomy and thussafeguard the rights and aspirations of their collective unit. Butthey lack still other rights. They have still to be granted thoserights which to a considerable degree other Russian subjects, not ofRussian birth, enjoy. The law does not protect the elementary civilrights of the Jews as members of our common Russian commonwealth. Consequently, that which the Jews strive for is far more elementary, far more primitive and simple, than the objective of other non-Russiannationalities which inhabit Russia. 

Anti-Semitism is not peculiar to Russia; it is to be found in othercountries as well. But there it exists as an emotion and a state ofmind, not as a system of legislative definitions. The time has longsince passed when the legislatures of the world failed to guaranteethe elementary civil rights of the Jews. Roumania alone constitutes apeculiar exception. But, as a rule, in all civilised States the lawguarantees Jewish rights, and religious and racial differences do notcreate legal disabilities. Nevertheless, if anti-Semitism is still inexistence in the Western countries, the aims it pursues there arepolitical. It continues to be the weapon of political reaction. Andits objective, at its extreme, is by no means like the grandioseprogramme of utter destruction of the Jews which is pursued by the"truly-Russian" theoreticians of our reaction. 

Consequently, the Jewish question in Russia means, above all, thelegal disabilities of the individual Jews that result from thediscriminations made against them as a religious and national entity. It is only one aspect of our general inequality and of our lack ofcivil freedom. The problem of Jewish equal rights in Russia is theproblem of the equal rights of all our citizens in general. That iswhy the anti-Semitical parties in Russia have a larger politicalsignificance and importance than the anti-Semitical parties of theWest. In our country they almost coincide with anti-constitutionalparties, in general, and anti-Semitism is the banner of the oldrégime, of which we still struggle in vain to rid ourselves. Thisaccounts for the fact that the Jewish question occupies such aprominent place in Russian social and political life. Here thestruggle for general rights coincides with the struggle for nationalrights. That is why the Jewish problem has come to occupy the centreof our political stage. 

I must add that Russian anti-Semitism, as defined above, is acomparatively new phenomenon, in fact, it may be asserted that it is aphenomenon of most recent origin. However ancient may be the instinctson which our anti-Semites try to play, anti-Semitism itself as apolitical motto, as a movement with a party platform and definiteaims, is a new means of political struggle, invented and applied onlyin late years. Of course, in the past there can be foundmanifestations--very crude and coarse--of what might be termed"zoological" anti-Semitism. In 1563, Ivan the Terrible conqueredPolotzk, and for the first time the Russian Government was confrontedby the fact of the existence of the Jewish nationality. The Czar'sadvisers were somewhat perplexed and asked him what to do with thesenewly acquired subjects. Ivan the Terrible answered unhesitatingly:"Baptise them or drown them in the river. "

They were drowned. And the old Russian "zoological" nationalism wassatisfied by this primitive solution of the problem. But the politicalwisdom of Czar Ivan's times has long since become obsolete. 

A century later Russian statehood for the second time ran across theJewish problem when Smolensk was taken by Czar Alexyey Mikhaylovichthe Debonnaire, also an old Russian nationalist who was not consciousof his nationalism. He could not make up his mind to settle it bysimply destroying the object which perplexed Russia's political mind. After due deliberation, he decided to have the Jews deported. This wasa somewhat milder measure. Another century passed, and Russiaconquered the vast and rich territory which is included in theso-called "Pale of Settlement. " This portion of Russia was peopledwith many millions of Jews. It was not possible any longer to do awaywith this large population by either drowning it in a river, oreven--as many are still planning in all earnestness--by deportation. Thus, the Russian state, in the person of Empress Catherine II, forthe first time found itself forced to face the Jewish question in aform which did not allow of simply waving it aside. How then did theenlightened Empress settle it? Well, she simply did not put thequestion. Her decision was nearly this: The Jews have lived there--letthem stay there; they had certain rights relating to their faith andproperty--let them enjoy these rights in the future. TheInterpretation of the Senate even more strongly emphasised thisthought. Here is the gist of this Interpretation: "Since the ImperialUkase has placed the Jews in a legal status of equality with the restof the population, the rule established by her Majesty should, therefore, be followed in application to each particular case. Everyone should enjoy his rights and acquisitions according to hiscondition and calling without distinction of faith and nationality. "

Such was the decision of the Senate of the time of Catherine theGreat. There can be no question here of a negative solution of theJewish problem, for the very possibility of such a problem was notconsidered. Least of all did Catherine think that in the lapse ofyears her ukase of December 23, 1791, in which neither faith nornationality was mentioned, would give birth to . . . The "Pale ofSettlement. " At that time the Jews were confined within the limits ofthe "Pale" neither more nor less than the Ukrainian population of thatsection, or the people of the old Russian provinces were. It will beremembered that in those times the law forbade a townsman to take uphis residence in another town or in a village. It was not a speciallimitation intended for the Jews, it affected all the Russian subjectsthroughout the Empire. How then did it result in a special Jewishdisability?

It did not result either from the increase in the rights of othercitizens, or from the limitation of the rights of the Jews as anationality. The afore-mentioned limitations were removed from thetownspeople of non-Jewish birth both in the newly annexed provincesand elsewhere. But they remained in full force in relation to theJews, living in towns. But since all the Jews were registered astownspeople, this restriction coincided with the limits of theirnationality. Hence arose the "Pale" which assumed the character of anational disability. Thus, the problem of Jewish disabilities waspractically solved before the legislator ever formulated the Jewishquestion. 

For this reason, in the times of Catherine II, when the main featuresof the future Jewish disabilities were becoming a fact, the Governmentdid not solve the general Jewish question in principle. Likewise, during the entire century which followed Catherine's reign, that is, all through the nineteenth century, our legislation was in a state ofconstant indecision. 

A brief historical survey will show plainly the accuracy of thisstatement. In 1795 the Jews who lived in the villages of the Provinceof Minsk were ordered to move to the towns. In the following year theywere permitted to stay in the villages, because the landed proprietorsemployed them as agents for the sale of whiskey. In the year 1801 anew edict again expels the Jews from the villages. In 1802 the Senaterules that they must stay in their former places of residence. In1804--the year that saw the first Regulation concerning the Jews--theyare ordered to be expelled within three years from the villagesthroughout the country. But in 1808 before the term expires the law isfound impracticable. The Jews again remained where they had beenestablished, their status being subject to further regulation. Thenthe Committee of the year 1812 came to the conclusion that the law of1804 must be completely abrogated, in view of its being unjust anddangerous. Between 1812 and 1827 the mood of the legislation is againaltered and prohibitive measures follow one another. In 1835, thesemeasures are once more found to be useless and inefficient. In 1852, expulsions are renewed, but a few years later, with the beginning ofthe liberal reign of Alexander II, this policy is again abandoned andan interval of rest and quiet, covering a quarter of a century, isinaugurated. Then the temporary Regulations of 1882 undertake toprohibit new Jewish settlements outside of towns. Former settlements, although illegal, were legalised and exempted from persecution. But in1893 all the Jews who had illegally settled in the villages were againordered to be expelled therefrom. Nevertheless, the committee of theyear 1899 not only refused to ratify this measure, but, on thecontrary, it recognised the necessity of relaxing even the oldTemporary Regulation of 1882. And, in fact, in 1903 we find the Jewishsettlements in 158 villages. At the same time, the Jewish ruralpopulation within the limits of the "Pale of Settlement" grewconsiderably. In 1881 there lived in the villages 580, 000 Jews; in theyear 1897 they reached the number of 711, 000. 

Thus did our legislation concerning the Jews fluctuate and vacillate. And amidst these hesitations the thought of a complete removal of allthe Jewish disabilities never died. Here is another historicalexcursion covering a century. The Committee of Jewish Affairs of theyear 1803 plainly established this regulation: "the maximum of freedomand the minimum of limitations. " The second Committee, whoseactivities fall in the period from 1807 to 1812, proved even morethoroughgoing, for it was more familiar with the conditions of Russianlife. It asserted that the Jews are useful and necessary for theRussian village. It added, furthermore, that the negative, darkphenomena which are attributed by some to the presence of Jews in thevillages, in reality are characteristic of Russian life in general, and cannot be said to be due to the Jewish influence. This was alsothe opinion of the minority of the Imperial Council in 1835. In 1858, the Minister of the Interior himself demanded equal rights for theJews, and the reactionary Committee on Jewish affairs agreed to thedemand on the sole condition that the disabilities should be removedgradually, from various Jewish groups. The new Committee of 1872 actedeven more vigorously. It believed that the abolition of Jewishdisabilities is, in general, nothing but an act of justice, and thatthis abolition must be carried out not gradually, but immediately i. E. It must include all the groups of the Jewish population. Again, theCommittee of 1883 comes to the same conclusion that it is necessary togive the Jews equal rights. That was the opinion even of Von Pleve, who is known to the world for his persecution of the Jews. In theperiod from 1905 to 1907 the revision of the legislation concerningthe Jews for the purpose of abolishing the prohibitive measures wasconsidered but a question of time and was left to the considerationof the people's representatives in the Imperial Duma which had justcome into being. The opinion of the first two sessions of the Duma iswell known. The People's representatives in the first two Dumasannounced directly and unambiguously that the realisation of fullcivic freedom, for Jews as well as for the rest of the citizens, wasone of their first tasks. Then a new reactionary election law wasintroduced. It made a radical change in the composition of theImperial Duma and also in the attitude of the latter toward the Jewishquestion. The outright usefulness of the part played by the Jews inthe economic life of both town and village, --this fact, which evenreactionary governments, ministers and committees ceased doubting, wasagain questioned by the newly elected representatives of the Russianpeople. It is only from that moment on that it became possible to plansuch measures as the abolition of those meagre rights which the Jewsare still enjoying. Thus, together with the victory of politicalreaction the new anti-Semitism, which we cannot any longer overlook, has become triumphant. 

Our historical excursion enables us also to explain the reason why inthe present phrase of Russian social life the Jewish problem has againarisen in an unprecedented form. It was simply a new political weapon, in a sense, the result of the new form of political life. As long asthe nation was voiceless, as long as all matters were decided by thebureaucracy in the quiet of offices, committees, and ministries, itwas possible for the Government to ignore the people as a factor inlegislation, and to take into account nothing but the needs and thewelfare of the state as it understood them. But when the nation wascalled to participate in state affairs, there arose the need ofinfluencing it in a certain sense. It became necessary to work up themasses, to act on their intellect and will. Official anti-Semitism isthe most primitive means of satisfying this need, a simplified attemptto bridle the masses, to suggest to them the feelings, motives, viewsand methods which are in the interest of those who play the game. Inother words, demagogy came into being. For the purposes of demagogy aspecial political weapon, corresponding to the political conditionsunder the new régime, was created, --namely artificial politicalparties. 

Thus, anti-Semitism of the new type, however strange this conclusionmay appear, is the product of the constitutional epoch. It is aresponse to the need for new means of influencing the masses. And inthis sense anti-Semitism plays in Russia the same rôle as it played inWestern Europe. 

Bismarck, it will be remembered, called anti-Semitism the socialism offools. In order to combat the socialism of intelligent people, it isnecessary to take hold of the ignorant masses and to mislead them byshowing them the imaginary enemy of their welfare instead of the realone. Anti-Semitism says to the ignorant masses: "There is your enemy, fight the Jews, and you will improve your life conditions. . . . " It iswell known that such attempts to apply anti-Semitism for the purposeof creating social parties of the new type were more than once made inthe West. As an example, I shall cite the Christian Social Party inAustria, with its late leader, Lueger. 

There is one small difference between us and the West. In Russia themasses are not so well prepared to appreciate a social argument, evenwhen served in a simplified form. In Russia anti-Semitism is forced topresent this argument in an even more popular form, making an appealto the most elementary passions and instincts. F. I. Rodichev onceremarked in the Duma, parodying Bismarck's aphorism to fit it to ourconditions, that anti-Semitism is "the patriotism of perplexedpeople. " In fact, anti-Semitism in Russia is a means of creating anationalism of a definite type in the masses, it is with this aim inview that our anti-Semites play on the racial and religiousanimosities of the masses. 

In spite of this difference, the very means, ways, and methods ouranti-Semites use in their striving to mould the popular mind are ofdistinctly foreign origin. It is enough to collate the argumentsexpounded in the Duma or printed in the _Russian Standard_ and_Zemshchina_ with the anti-Semitic literature of the West, such asDrumont's books, or similar German works, --and it becomes apparentthat in the latter the entire anti-Semitic arsenal of our nationalistsis to be found ready-made. It is from thence that mediæval legends ofritual murders and law projects concerning the slaughter of cattle, and such-like inventions, are imported to us. 

Anti-Semitism serves in Russia one more purpose. It is not sufficientto influence the masses. It is also necessary to act on the powersthat be. If it is imperative to get hold of the masses, it is alsonecessary to frighten the authorities. Thus a new version of theanti-Semitic legend comes into being: the legend of the Jew as thecreator of the Russian revolution. It is the Jew, --so our anti-Semitesassure us--who created the Russian emancipatory movements, it is hewho formed the revolutionary organisation, it is he who marched underthe red banners. . . . The Russian who would give credence to this talewould show his disrespect for the Russian nation. To assert that it isonly owing to the help of the Jew that the Russian people freedthemselves is tantamount to saying that without the Jew, the Russiannation can not reach the road of its own emancipation. No, howevergreat my respect for the exceptional gifts of the Jewish people maybe, I will not refuse the Russian nation the ability of taking theinitiative in the cause of its own freedom. 

But there is another side to this matter. If there can be no questionof the dependence of the emancipation movement on the Jews, thedependence of the Jews on the emancipatory movement is very real. Whatmust be the Jew's attitude toward this movement? There can be only oneanswer to the question. The Jewish masses have realised the importancefor them of the emancipatory movement not only because they are moreenlightened, because they are more educated, because they are notaddicted to alcoholism, and, hence, are superior to their neighboursin their understanding of their own needs; the Jewish masses were alsoled to side with the movement for freedom because in their case it wasa struggle for elementary rights the importance of which is plain toevery one and vitally concerns every one. That is why the entireJewish mass may actually be reckoned in the ranks of those who arewith the Russian emancipatory movement. 

One more remark in conclusion. In late years the "inorodtzy" (Russiansubjects of non-Russian birth), having lost their hope that theRussian emancipatory movement would bring them any immediate practicalresults, have sought to influence the Government by means of moredirect methods. There are national movements which believe that theywould more rapidly get national rights by means of negotiating withthe bureaucracy. They are inclined to think that this way is moredirect than the participation in the Russian emancipatory movement. Other national groups, in the struggle for their national rights, choose a different kind of tactics: they seek a more direct way inanother direction, --not through the bureaucracy, not from above, butfrom below. They, too, believe that the "inorodtzy" must organise fortheir specific national aims and keep apart from the common cause ofRussia's political emancipation. 

From what has been said about the peculiar nature of the Jewishquestion which results in the sufferings of the Jews not only as anational group, but also as individual citizens, it follows that it isdifficult for the Jews more than for any other group of "inorodtzy" toaccept either one of the aforenamed tactical methods. The Jews mustbear in mind with especial clearness that their fate is closely andinseparably interwoven with the fate of the general emancipatorymovement in Russia. They must also keep in mind that the separatenational movements which disrupt the bonds of political parties inorder to make place for their national programmes, may prove injuriousto our common cause. They may lead us away from the common highroad toby-paths where we all run the risk of going apart and losing our way. And here is the practical conclusion to which these considerationslead. The separate national movements should be postponed until thesolution of the general problem of all-Russian emancipation. Let ushope that the Jewish nation understands the close connection existingbetween its fate and that of Russia's freedom, now, as well as it didin those years when it fought in the ranks of the Russian progressivemovements. Let us hope that in the future, as in the past, theemancipation of the different nationalities which people the RussianEmpire will be fought for in the common ranks of the all-Russianmovement for freedom. 

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THE JEWS AND RUSSIAN ECONOMIC LIFE

 _Mikhail Vladimirovich Bernatzky, born in 1878, is a noted writer on economical topics. He taught economics at the Kiev University and at the Polytechnical Institute, Petrograd. _

THE JEWS AND RUSSIAN ECONOMIC LIFE

BY M. BERNATZKY

Much has been written about the insufferable situation of the RussianJews, these serfs of the twentieth century, chained to "the Pale ofSettlement, " somewhat like the Roman colons, _"glebae adscripti_. " Thetragic history of late years and the epoch through which we are livingcan disturb the inner composure of the most indifferent spectator ofcurrent events. It is painful to touch upon many aching andessentially clear questions, but life constantly and severely demandsthat they should be brought before our minds, and life awaits ananswer to them from the thought and conscience of Russian society. 

It is not our intention to discuss the necessity for the removal ofJewish disabilities from the humanitarian standpoint. Howevermajestic may be those "elementary principles of law and morality, "which have been achieved by mankind on its long historic road andwhich are now the very basis of civilisation, in the eyes of many theyare still little more than "fine words, " stylistic embellishments ofhighbrow talk. Of course, the atmosphere of discriminations is equallypernicious for those who suffer and those who are privileged: did notserfdom corrupt the master as well as the slave? All this is eminentlytrue. But there are arguments, which we regret to say, are moreappealing and convincing. It is these arguments that we shall treat inthe present paper. 

The reader is well aware of the fact that in these days nothing hasbeen discussed more vividly than the necessity of developing Russia'sproductive powers. The intimate connection between the generalprosperity of our country and its economic progress has penetratedinto the consciousness of people at large. It is the war, evidently, that has driven this truth home to us: namely that the ultimatesuccess of the conflict depends not only on the activity of thearmies, but also on the economic stability of the belligerentnations. The economic difficulties which are being experienced byGermany, strengthen our faith in our final victory. More than aquarter of a century ago the Russian Minister of Finance, who tookgreat pains to develop our industry, wrote in the explanatory memoirwhich accompanied the project of the state budget:

"I believe it to be the duty I owe Your Imperial Majesty to express myfirm, clear, and profound conviction that economic prosperity of thepeople even when coupled with a somewhat imperfect militaryorganisation will be more useful in case of war than the most completemilitary preparedness combined with economic weakness. In the lattercase, the people, however eager they may be to sacrifice both theirlife and property, can bring to the altar of the fatherland their lifeonly, but they will be unable to furnish the necessary financial meansfor the State. "

It is from this standpoint of economic interests that we shallapproach the painful Jewish question. The time is long since past whenit was possible to say with the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna: "FromChrist's enemies I desire no profit. " It is precisely in this profitthat both the Exchequer and the higher classes, and--what is mostimportant--the people at large, are greatly interested. The basicproductive force of a country is the living work of its population. The body politic of Russia contains about six millions of gifted andundoubtedly industrious Jews. The manner in which the forces of thispeople are applied will be treated further on. For the moment let usstate this: it is to the interest of the Russian State to utiliseeconomically this living Jewish energy as completely and rationally aspossible. From this standpoint all the obstacles which are created forthe Jews in the field of education are absolutely incomprehensible: itis as if our country, sorely lacking as it is not only inrepresentatives of superior qualified labour, but actually in literatepeople, were striving to increase its ignorance and intellectualbackwardness. Of course, formal justification can be found for everyact, and every evil-doer endeavours to convince himself of the justiceof his evil deeds. So it is in this case, too: the intentionalshutting-off of the Jewish masses from education is motivated by thedesire to keep them from becoming superior to the Russian population, which, it is said, is intellectually inferior to the Jews. Thisargument is an outright insult flung in the face of the Russianpeople. It shows that the official guardians of the nation do not knowits rich natural powers. But this argument cannot obscure theessential nature of Jewish disabilities as an intentional neglect ofthat productive power which is represented by a portion of the Russiansubjects. Our economic organism does not get all the benefits to whichit may rightfully lay claim. 

Let us turn to those characteristic social and economic conditionsunder which the Jews exist in our country. Nearly all of them, upwardof five millions, live within the Pale of Settlement, which comprisesfifteen governments and Poland, and only six per cent. Live outside ofthis territory. Within the Pale, Jews are not allowed to buy or takeon lease real estate outside the towns and townlets, whichcircumstance makes it impossible for them to become farmers. This, inconnection with the limitation of residence, has naturally resulted ina peculiar character of the Jewish occupations. It is characteristicof the part the Jews play in Russia's economic life that nearlyseventy-three and eight hundredths per cent. Of them are forced toseek employment in the country's commerce and industry. Of the entireJewish population throughout the Empire, only two and four tenths percent. Are engaged in agriculture, four and seven tenths per cent. Inliberal professions, eleven and five tenths per cent. In personalservice (domestic service etc. ); the rest, minus the persons withoutany definite employment are forced to seek for means of livelihood inthe field of commerce (thirty-one per cent. ), industry (thirty-six andthree tenths per cent. ), and transport (three per cent. ) In the sameway works the artificial congestion of the Jews in the cities: onlyeighteen per cent. Live in the villages of the Pale of Settlement, while the rest--more than four-fifths--toil in the towns and townlets. Such a one-sided distribution of Jewish labour would not be a negativephenomenon if it were possible to spread it uniformly over the entirecountry. For, backward as Russia is industrially and commercially, theJews would easily find a place in the fields of endeavour which suitthem best and would greatly benefit the country by furthering theprocess of its industrialisation. Under present circumstances they arecrowded in one place and overburden the commerce and the industry ofthe Pale of Settlement. As a result, the struggle for existence amongthem is so keen and desperate that in some sections they areundoubtedly on the way to degeneration. In the West, Galicia andRoumania excluded, the Jews are well represented in the wealthyclasses; in Russia an overwhelming portion of them are proletaries, "free like birds, " poverty-stricken people who literally do not knowto-day by what they are going to live to-morrow. Heart-rendingpictures are painted by impartial observers of the life of the Jewishpoorer classes, of all these tradesmen, factory workers, pettymerchants and peddlers. They literally starve and cripple both mindand body in the slums of cities and towns. The natural result is thatin their eager search for means of livelihood they are forced to haverecourse to all sorts of expedients. Hence, all this talk about the"criminal features" of the Jewish character and their propensity forfinancial speculation, which propensity is, however, easily forgivenand even encouraged in the "true-Russian" representatives of ourcommercial interests. On the other hand, the Jews lower "the standardsof living" by offering their services often at a very low price. Thusa peculiar "social anti-Semitism" comes into being, in Russia as wellas in the countries of Jewish immigration, --a phenomenon not unlikethe movement against "yellow labour" in the United States and in theAustralian Federation. There can be no doubt that the artificiallyrestrained field of application of Jewish labour is alone responsiblefor the unspeakable condition in which it is forced to exist. In spiteof the exodus of a large mass of Jews from Russia, which bears analogyto the emigration of the Irish people from their nativecountry, --upward of one and a half million Jews left Russia betweenthe years 1881 and 1908, --the remaining millions seem to be doomed tostarvation and degeneration. The popular tales about Jewish wealth aremost emphatically contradicted by impartial facts. Of the emigrantswho reach the shores of America the Jews are the poorest. A Scotchemigrant coming to the United States brings on the average $41. 50, anEnglishman $38. 70, a Frenchman $37. 80, a German $28. 50, while a Jewbrings the sum of $8. 70, the smallest of all, far below the generalaverage, which is $15. 00. Consequently, if any real danger at allthreatens the aboriginal Russian population, it is precisely the cheaplabour of the congested Jewish masses, and the more the Jews will beoppressed the worse it will be for the Russian workman! For theemployer will always give preference to cheaper labour. It is evident, therefore, that the present treatment of the Jews is really notdictated by the native Russian population, and that the democraticargument is but a false pretext. The Russian labour market, whilecongested in the Pale, is scarce in other sections. That the economiclife of Russia, as a whole, suffers from it is obvious. 

In this connection, another point is worthy of our attention. Contrary, to the popular idea of the Jewish greed, the Jews areusually satisfied with a lower rate of interest on the capitalinvested, since what they are after is the bare means of livelihood. In this fashion they lower, to a considerable extent, the capitalist'sprofits, a circumstance which cannot fail to irritate the Gentilecapitalists. Consequently, all this comes to competition of capital, and it is significant that the fiercest anti-Semitic outcries comefrom the capitalistic classes. Let us not forget that the earlypogroms at Odessa were caused by the agitation of the Greek merchantswho feared for their commercial ascendency. 

What has been said so far demonstrates with sufficient clearness thatthe anti-Semitic economic policy is detrimental to the economicorganism of Russia as a whole. The true interests of our countrydemand that Jewish labour and Jewish means should be given completefreedom of application. Russia will only gain from such a change ofpolicy toward the Jews. Anti-Semitism, from the economic standpoint, is nothing but a tremendous waste of the country's productive powers. 

Here is another aspect of the question. Whether the Jews as a race areto one's liking or not, is a question of individual taste, thesolution of which cannot be allowed to influence the sane economicpolicy of a state. This must be guided by objective data. As a matterof fact, the Jews constitute more than one third, thirty-five percent. , of the commercial class in Russia. If we believe our country'sprosperity to be bound up with the process of its progressiveindustrialisation, we must admit that the part the Jews play inRussia's commercial life is tremendous, that to a considerable degreethey handle her entire commerce. All that hinders the untrammelledmanifestation of the Jewish economic energies is harmful to Russia'seconomic organism. 

"If there were no Jews now in Russia, it would be necessary to invitethem, in the interests of both the commercial and industrialdevelopment of the country, just as they were more than once invitedfor the same purposes in the past. " This conclusion, reached by astudent of the Jewish question in Russia, is eminently and profoundlytrue. The opinion of an individual student may not appearauthoritative, but it has been many a time endorsed by social groupsand organisations. We need not go far back into history to find factsof this sort. In 1912 at the time when the customary fair was in fullswing, the Governor of Nizhni-Novgorod showed an unusual zeal inpersecuting the Jews. This was in all probability connected with theDuma pre-election campaign. The "Society of the Manufacturers and MillOwners of the Moscow Industrial Section, " an organisation which israther far from being liberal in its opinions, saw fit to interfere inits own interests. A memoir dealing with the prohibitive measuresdirected against the Jews was composed and presented, through thepresident of the Society, Mr. Goujon, to the chairman of the Councilof the Ministers. Here is a quotation from this memoir: "In theeconomic life of the country the Jews play the part of middlemen, placed between the producer and the consumer of goods. In theNorthwestern, Southern, and Southwestern provinces this function isalmost exclusively that of the Jews. To isolate under such conditions, the commercial and industrial population of a considerable section ofthe country from the centre of its manufacturing districts isequivalent to inflicting a tremendous loss not only on the Jewishmerchant class but also on the many millions of the non-Jewishpopulation. . . . To isolate the village from the town, the towns of theWest and South from the towns and villages of the Centre and the East, is to disturb intentionally the economic life of the country, toundermine credit and depreciate the people's labour. "

That is the opinion of the Moscow manufacturers. Well aware of thereal needs of the country, and unwilling to sacrifice their commercialinterests to anti-humanitarian mottoes, they expressed their fear thatthe actions of the administration would hinder the realisation of theharvest and that the "stocks of goods would find neither consumers norbuyers nor energetic middlemen to the extent to which they otherwisewould have. "

The Jewish people has grown to be a living part of Russia's economicorganism, and the blows which are directed against the Jews affect inan equal, if not a greater, degree the mass of the aboriginal Russianpopulation. We do not intend to discuss here the Zionistic dreams andaspirations of the Jews. One thing is clear to us, namely, that acomplete exodus of the Jews from Russia would be greatly detrimentalto her economic development. The Western world understands this truthvery well. Werner Sombart in his work _Die Zukunft der Juden_ (TheFuture of the Jews) reaches the following conclusion: "If by a miracleall the Jews would decide to-morrow to emigrate to Palestine we (theGermans) would never allow them to. For it would mean a catastrophe inthe field of economic relation, not to speak of other fields, such aswe have never as yet experienced and which would probably cripple oureconomic organism forever. "

But we, Russians, give little thought to such questions. As late asthe year 1914 we did not hesitate to inaugurate new restrictivemeasures, which it took the great trial of this War to stop. 

Whoever has our economic welfare at heart, whoever dreams about themighty development of our country and of its real emancipation fromforeign influence, --inasmuch as this is generally possible, --mustunderstand that anti-Semitism is the worst foe of our economicprosperity, that, in short, the Jewish question is a Russianquestion. Full rights for the Jews, equal with those that the rest ofthe population of the Empire enjoy, are an indispensable condition forour peaceful cultural development. Only on that basis can we achievethe broad ideals which have come into prominence in this tragicstruggle with German imperialism. 

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THE WAR AND THE STATUS OF THE JEW

 _Prince Paul Dmitriyevich Dolgorukov, a prominent leader of the emancipatory movement in Russia, was born in 1866. He is one of the founders of the Constitutional Democratic party, and for a while he stood at the head of the Central Committee of this party. He was a member of the Second Duma, where he represented the city of Moscow. _

THE WAR AND THE STATUS OF THE JEW

BY PRINCE PAUL DOLGORUKOV

The storm that has recently swept over our country brought to light aseries of conditions which have been weighing down upon the Russiannation for a good many years. These conditions on account of theirlong duration have come to be considered as something habitual. Theimpossibility of their further continuance, at least in their presentform, has suddenly become quite apparent. 

The first among these is the existing attitude toward peoples whosefate is closely interwoven with the fate of Russia. The need for a newpolicy toward the Poles has been recognised officially and solemnly. The hour for settling the Jewish question has also struck. Thecontrast between the duties and responsibilities of the Jew toward thestate and his position in the country where he is deprived of allrights and privileges has always existed; during the war thiscontradiction has become so pronounced that it is impossible tooverlook it any longer. 

Hundreds of thousands of Jews are shedding their blood for Russia, while at home they are deprived of such elementary rights as otherRussian subjects could lose only when convicted of crime. When apopulation of six million occupies such a position, the fact is boundto make itself felt in all walks of life; but what the war has madesupremely clear is the limitations to which the Jew is subjected as tohis right to choose freely his place of residence and to give hischildren an education. 

The so-called "Pale of Settlement, " Poland and the southwesternsection, constituted the arena for the early operations of the war. The tradesmen, the merchants, all people of any means were ruined; thepoor workman was left without a crust of bread. The invading foeforced both these groups to flee. Where were they to flee? Thesimplest solution that presented itself was for them to go into othercities of the "Pale. " But the burden of the war was felt there also. The chief bread-winner of the family had gone to war; both industriesand trades were crippled. Emigration, the safety valve of poverty, wasnow impossible. Into the midst of this suffering came pouring in therefugees from the border regions, on the one hand, and on the other, the exiles from Germany and Austria, where they had previously foundfood and shelter, and whence they had now, so to speak, been thrownoverboard. 

The economic rôle of such an element, hungry and unemployed, is easilyappraised. Small wonder, then, that such a condition should becomeabsolutely unbearable; starvation has become a common occurrence, andmany prefer suicide to asking for alms. And should some of these careto ask for aid there is no one who could offer it, since the localpopulation cannot cope with the need that has so suddenly swooped downupon them. 

Russia is a vast country, as is the soul of the Russian. Enough landand bread exists for all its children. Many have relatives who wouldwelcome the refugees and exiles into their homes for the time being;many could earn their livelihood. But in accordance with the existingregulations the authorities must observe that no one who has not theright of residence should come without the "Pale. " The absurdity ofsuch regulations becomes more apparent when applied to participants inthe war. Thousands of wounded Jewish soldiers are scattered all overRussia, many outside the "Pale. " Their own may not come to stay withthem nor even visit them. Should one of these wounded die, his peopleare deprived of the privilege of paying their last respects to him;unless they choose to violate the law and remain during the visit inhiding without registering their arrival. 

The conditions under which the Jewish child may be educated are atpresent fraught with similar difficulties. A great number ofeducational institutions in the south and west are now closed. Theparents are recommended to transfer their children to other cities--inwhich case the local schools have been allowed to accept Jewish pupilsin excess of their regulation percentage. But the possibility ofutilising this privilege in institutions outside of the "Pale" is inits turn combined with the "right of settlement, " which conditioncertainly limits the application of this privilege. With thisexception, all other educational institutions of higher and middlegrades, strictly observe the usual percentage and the drawing of lots, on the basis of which the Jewish students are accepted. Theselimitations have become especially conspicuous, because the war hascompletely done away with the possibility of entering the universitiesof Germany and Austria, to which the Jewish youth flocked prior to thewar. 

Another question arises: Where should the Jewish students, who havebegun their studies at a foreign university, now turn? In vain do theyknock at the doors of the higher institutions; these remain closed tothem, in spite of the fact that there are many vacancies there. Theycannot get back to the universities of either Germany or Austria. Thusmust they waste years of persistent effort and vast amounts of energy, and very many of them will not be in a position to continue theirstudies, and subsequently serve their own country, which is so sadlyin need of educated men. Are all these discriminations against Jewishpeople essential for the _great Russia_, which is now called upon tofree nations and peoples from a foreign tyranny?

The complete abrogation of all national disabilities must pass throughour legislative institutions, but the loosening of the existinglimitations is a measure which it is perfectly possible to take atonce. 

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JEWISH RIGHTS AND THEIR ENEMIES

 _Professor Maxim Maximovich Kovalevsky, one of the greatest Russian sociologists, was born in 1851. Owing to his political convictions, he had to leave Russia. In 1901 he founded in Paris the Russian Higher School of Social Sciences, the faculty of which consisted of exiled Russian scholars and political emigrants. In 1905 he came back to Russia, resumed his University work and took an active part in the political movement. In 1906 he was elected to the Duma and in 1907 to the Imperial Council. He died in 1916. _

JEWISH RIGHTS AND THEIR ENEMIES

BY MAXIM KOVALEVSKY

If the question should be put as to who at present stands in the wayof Jewish equal rights and who demands still further limitations ofthe Jews' participation in both military and civil service, the answeris that no one class follows a more systematic and more definiteprogramme in this connection than the League of United Nobility. Inthe year 1913 one of their conventions made the followingrecommendations, recorded in a volume published in the name of theleague, and here quoted literally:

 "I. Jews and converted Jews should not be allowed to serve in the army and navy either as regular recruits or as volunteers, nor should they be admitted to military schools. 

 "II. Jews and converted Jews should not be allowed to take part in the electoral conventions of the Zemstvos. 

 "III. Jews and converted Jews are not to be permitted to serve in the Zemstvos. 

 "IV. Jews and converted Jews are not to be permitted to serve in any municipal capacity. 

 "V. Jews and converted Jews should not be permitted to enter the civil service. 

 "VI. Jews and converted Jews should not be included in the lists of jurors; they may not be appointed or elected to serve in courts, they may not practice as either advocates or attorneys. "

These recommendations are clearly at variance with the trend ofRussian legislation throughout the reigns of Peter the Great, Catherine the Second and Alexander the First. Peter the Great calledinto the service of the Russian government all subjects irrespectiveof their nationality or religion. His fellow champions wererepresentatives of different nationalities such as Bruce, Bauer, Repnin, Menshicov and Yaguzhinsky. As to Catherine the Second, ourcode of laws still retains the expression of her wish that all thepeoples of Russia, each according to the precepts of its religion, should pray to the Almighty for the welfare of its rulers, and shouldall be equally benefited by its government. 

In his "Principles of the Russian Governmental Law" ProfessorGradovsky says: "In the reign of Peter the Great there were no generalregulations concerning the Jews. " Measures against the Jews date fromthe reign of Catherine the First. During the reign of Catherine theSecond, little was added to the existing array of limitations. In thedistricts in which the first Partition of Poland found them, the Jewsat that time enjoyed almost all the rights of the native Russiancitizen. Although the Empress recognized the "Pale of Settlement"created in the reign of Peter the Second, she, nevertheless, stretchedits boundaries to include not only Little Russia but also theVice-Royalty of Ekaterinoslav and the province of Taurida, wherein theJews were granted all rights of citizenship. In the "RegulationsConcerning the Jews" published in 1804, in the reign of Alexander theFirst, the principle of equal civil rights for this nation is broughtout in Article 42. "All the Jews in Russia, " says this article, "whether residents or new settlers or foreigners coming to transactbusiness are free and are to be under the protection of the law on apar with other Russian subjects. " In commenting upon this article, Professor Gradovsky writes that this is clearly an attempt to fuse theJewish nation with the rest of the Russian population by giving theformer definite civil rights. 

Only during the last year of the reign of Alexander the First weresome measures adopted whereby the "Pale of Settlement" was narroweddown because of a certain sect of "Sabbathists, " closely related toJudaism, which had greatly increased in numbers, particularly in theprovinces of Voronezh, Samara, Tula, and others. According to the"Regulations Concerning the Jews" of 1835, enacted in the reign ofNicholas the First, the Jews retained the right to own all kinds ofreal estate, with the exception of inhabited estates and to deal inall kinds of merchandise on the same basis as the other citizens, --ofcourse, only within the "Pale. "

It is noteworthy that at this time the Jews were allowed to attendgovernmental schools of all grades, and that graduates from thesewere granted certain privileges. It is only toward the end of thereign of Nicholas I that the government adopts a system of limitationsrelating to the Jews, without, however, restraining their right toattend the governmental educational institutions. On the 31st ofMarch, 1856, an imperial edict was issued ordering a revision of theexisting regulations relating to the Jews. Therein it is clearlystated that the purpose of this revision is to conciliate theseregulations with the intention of the government to fuse this peoplewith the native population of the land. During the entire reign ofAlexander II no limitations existed for the entrance of Jews into theUniversities and the other educational institutions. On the contrary, according to Gradovsky, the limitations within the "Pale" did notapply to persons desiring to obtain a higher education, namely tothose entering the medical academy, the universities, and theInstitute of Technology. Gradovsky refers to the continuation of the"Code of Laws, " of 1868. The book was published in 1875, while thisfreedom was in full swing. Within the "Pale, " the Jews had equalcommercial rights with other citizens. Until the Polish rebellion of1863 the Jews were permitted to own real estate, not only in citiesbut also in rural districts. After the rebellion this was forbidden tothem as well as to the Poles. The foreign Jew could come to Russiafreely and register on the same foreign passport as would be requiredfrom any other citizen of that country. 

From what has been said, it follows that many of the limitations, which at present weigh down upon the Jews have been created onlyrecently. The present reign, too, was begun with measures favoring theJew. In 1903, in spite of the fact that the Jews, in accordance with alaw which was confirmed in 1872, were forbidden to live in villageseven within the "Pale, " two hundred of these villages were turned intotowns, and later fifty-seven more were added to this number. Themeasure rendered these places legally habitable by the Jews. On August11, 1904, a law was passed wherein it was emphatically stated thatJews who were graduates from a university were to be permitted to livefreely everywhere in the Empire. But since the repression of therevolutionary movement, this privilege has become a pretext for therestriction of the admittance of Jews into higher educationalinstitutions. 

From the viewpoint of the interests of the Russian state, the existingdisabilities of the Jews are detrimental both to our economic life, and to the mutual relations among our citizens; they also work havocupon the progress of education as well as upon the raising of thegeneral level of our culture. Measures limiting a portion of thepopulation in its rights to acquire property, to obtain an educationin middle and higher state schools, to assume the responsibilities ofa judge or of a lawyer, and, in general, restraining its freedom topursue a professional career--are clearly irreconcilable with thepromises given us in the manifesto of the 17th of October, 1906. 

The fear that the granting of equal rights to the Jews may deprive thepeasant of his land, is perfectly groundless. There are many othermeans whereby the tiller of the soil may be assured the possession ofa portion of land. In the West we have systems such as that of thehomestead, based on the inalienability of the family property (_biende famille_). Such systems may be traced back as far as the MiddleAges. The mediæval law forbids the taking away from the peasant, evenfor arrearage, of his agricultural implements and the cattle necessaryfor his labour, --not to speak of his land, which, however, it would beimpossible to take away, since it is the suzerain that is its rightfulowner. The indivisibility of the family estate, which only a shorttime ago was recognised by the Appellatory Division of our Senate, with reference to the Western Section, was achieving the same resultsbecause for the sale of such property the agreement of all the membersof the family was required. Such a protection of the interests of thepeasant landowner is essential in his relation to the capitalist, whether it be a member of the landed gentry or a wealthy peasant, known as a _Kulak_, or a Jew who lends money at interest, or anArmenian or, for that matter, a usurer of the Orthodox faith. In orderthat the land be retained by the peasant it is far more essential thatonly members of the peasant class be allowed to attend the auctionsales of land sold because of the owner's arrears. And yet our law haspermitted outsiders to attend if not the first auction sale, at leastthe second. I am strongly in favour of protecting the peasant'sproperty, but I cannot see that to achieve this goal, it is necessaryfor a body politic based on law to limit any one's freedom of movingabout, settling or choosing a profession. This view is shared by someof the political writers in Russia who, like the late B. N. Chicherin, Professor of the University of Moscow, have identified their nameswith the defence of the idea of equal rights for the Jews. 

 * * * * *

THE JEWISH QUESTION AS A RUSSIAN QUESTION

 _Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky occupies an important place in modern Russian letters and religious philosophy. He is responsible for several books of poems and for a series of ponderous historical novels. He is also the author of numerous critical studies distinguished by an original method and an extraordinary brilliancy. He was born in 1866. _

THE JEWISH QUESTION AS A RUSSIAN QUESTION

BY DMITRY MEREZHKOVSKY

Russia . . . Russia alone should be our deepest concern at present. Thedestiny of the numerous races and nationalities that go to make Russiais the destiny of the Russian Empire itself. One would ascertain theattitude of these nationalities by asking them: "Are you with Russiaor is it your desire to exist apart from her? If you desire to existapart from her--why, then, do you appeal to us for help? If withus--let us then, in this time of terror, disdain to consider ourpersonal fortunes and let our thoughts be with Russia and with heralone. For without her your existence is inconceivable; her rise isyour rise and her fall is your fall. "

We would like very much to say that there is no such thing as theJewish, Polish, Ukrainian, Armenian, Georgian, question, that thereis only one question--the Russian. Yes, we would like to, but wecannot; the Russian people have yet to earn the right to say that, andtherein lies their tragedy. . . . The moment Russian idealism ventures totackle any of those complicated national home problems, --it becomesweak, impotent and therefore irresponsible. 

The Jewish question is a striking illustration of what we have justsaid. What do we owe the Jews? Indignation? Or the admission thatanti-Semitism is abominable? But we admitted that a long time ago, andour indignation runs so high and is so clearly outspoken that it isbeyond one's power even to speak calmly of it. The only thing we cando is to join our voice to that of the Jews. And we do. 

But outcries, loud as they may be, are not sufficient, and it is theconsciousness of the fact, that the outcries are insufficient and thatat the present moment we possess no other weapons with which to fightthe evil that wearies and harrows us. 

What misery, and pain, and shame!

But in spite of the pain and the shame we cry out and reiterate anddeclare to the people around us, who are ignorant of the table ofmultiplication, that two and two make four, that the Jews are humanbeings like us; that they are neither enemies nor traitors to theircountry; that they are as good citizens as we are; that they loveRussia no less than we do, and that anti-Semitism is a disgracefulstigma upon Russia's face. But apart from our righteous indignation, may we not be allowed calmly to utter one thought that occurs to us atthis moment?

"Judophilism" and "Judophobia" are closely related. A blind denial ofa nationality engenders an equally blind affirmation of it. Anabsolute "Nay" naturally brings forth an absolute "Yea. "

Whom do we call a "Judophile" in Russia at the present time?Presumably, it is he or she who loves the Jews with a singular love, who finds in them greater values than in any other nationality. In theeyes of the so-called "true Russians" we, the Intellectuals, are suchJudophiles. 

"Why worry over the Jews all the time?" the Russian Nationalists sayto us. 

Now, how on earth can we stop worrying over the Jews, and, for thatmatter, over the Poles, Armenians, Ukrainians, Georgians, and soforth? When in our presence some one is being outraged, we cannotmerely pass on; it is not humane. We must help him who is beingassailed. At least, we ought to join our voice with his in crying outfor help. This is precisely what we have been doing, and woe to us, ifwe cease to do it, cease to be human beings in order to becomeRussians. 

A forest of national problems has grown around us, and the sounds ofthe Russian language are being drowned by the voices of all thenumerous peoples that inhabit Russia. It is inevitable and just. Weare not well, but with them it is still worse. We have great pain, buttheir's is greater. We must forget ourselves for their sake. 

That is why we say to the "Nationalists":

Cease oppressing the non-Russian element of our empire, so that wemay have the right to be Russians, and that we may with dignity showour national face, as that of a human being, not that of a beast. Cease to be 'Judophobes' so that we may cease to be 'Judophiles. 'Here is an instance taken at random. 

The Jewish question has a religious as well as a national aspect. Between Judaism and Christianity, as between two poles, there arestrong attractions and equally strong repulsions. Judaism gave birthto Christianity. The New Testament issued from the Old Testament. Paulthe Apostle, who more than any one else fought Judaism, wrote: "For Icould wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, mykinsmen according to the flesh. "

But whereas we may speak of attractions, it is not well for us tospeak of repulsions. Indeed, how can we quarrel with him, who has novoice? The disabilities of the Jews seal our lips. We must notseparate Christianity from Judaism, for it means, as one Jew put it, the establishment of another, spiritual "Pale of Settlement. " Let usdo away with the physical Pale, then we will be able to discuss thespiritual one. Until then, all our protestations and declarations ofrighteousness will only prove to the Jews our insincerity. 

Why has the Jewish question become so keen in time of war? For thesame reason that the rest of the national problems have madethemselves felt. 

We have called the present struggle a war of liberation. We enteredthe war with the avowed purpose of liberating those who are situatedat a distance from us. While liberating distant strangers, why then dowe oppress those who live close by our side? We wage war againsttyranny outside of Russia, and we allow oppression to reign withinher. We pity everybody but the Jews. Why?

Are they not dying on the battlefields for our sake? Do they not loveus--who hate them? Do we not hate them--who love us? If we continue toact as we have done in the past, would not everybody lose faith in us, and would not the nations of the earth be justified in saying to us:"You can love only from afar. You are liars!"

We believed our righteousness to be our strongest weapon. We wanted toconquer brute force by the truth. If we persist in this desire, let usnot lie; let us not weaken our truth by falsehood. 

The Teutons say: "We fight to be the rulers of the world, "--and theyact accordingly. We say: "We fight for universal peace, for theemancipation of the world, " but we do not act accordingly. 

Let us begin then with the liberation of the Jews at home. Let theoppressed nations in our land bear in mind, however, that only a freeRussian people will be able to give them freedom. 

Let the Jews remember that the Jewish question is a Russianquestion. 

 * * * * *

CONCERNING THE IDEOLOGY OF THE JEWISH QUESTION

 _Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov was born in 1866. A poet of great mastery and a refined critic, his thought, is steeped in hellenism and in the most abstruse mystic lore. _

CONCERNING THE IDEOLOGY OF THE JEWISH QUESTION

BY VYACHESLAV IVANOV

One of the wiliest and the most harmful doctrines of our times is, Ibelieve, the fashionable ideology of spiritual anti-Semitism. Itattributes to Aryanism, which by the way, is a quantity ethnically ifnot linguistically enigmatical, many excellent and splendid qualities, while in the Semitic influences and admixtures to the Aryan element itsees nothing but negative energies, which have always hindered thefree unfolding of the creative powers of the Aryan genius. 

This doctrine would deprive Hellenism of Aphrodite, who came to theHellenes from the Semites, and would cut the main and most profoundroot of Christianity, namely its faith in a "transcendental, " or, plainly, living God. Spiritual anti-Semitism cuts the body ofChristianity into two halves, and keeps only that half whose formsare justified by analogies borrowed from the Greek religious thought, justified, in the eyes of learned dodgers who choose to play the partof Romanticists of Aryanism. 

This anti-religious and secretly anti-Christian theory, one of theTrojan wooden horses made in Germany, was clearly intended to"Indo-Germanize" the world, when suddenly the twilight of the Godsswooped down upon the Berlin Valhalla. Nevertheless it has succeededin seducing many minds, obscured by prejudices. It was hailed by"immanent" philosophers and anti-Semites out of politicalconsiderations and psychological predispositions, as well as byChristians mindless of their kin, by anti-church people of all kinds, and even by atheists of Jewish birth, who are ashamed of their kin andwho are in the world like salt which has lost its strength. 

The more vivid and profound the church consciousness is in aChristian, the more vividly and profoundly does he feel himself, Ishall not say a philo-Semite, but truly a Semite in spirit. We have sothoroughly confused, distorted and forgotten all the holy and truetraditions, we have so thoroughly lost the habit of applying ourreason to the lucid, old truths learned by heart, that this statementmay sound like a paradox. 

Vladimir Solovyov's touching affection for Judaism is a plain andnatural manifestation of his love for Christ and of his innerexperience of being merged in the Church. The body of the Church isfor the mystic the true, although invisible body of Christ, andthrough Christ it is the body begotten of Abraham's seed. The latterbody, like the curtain of the temple in Jerusalem in the hour of ourSaviour's death, was rent in twain, and that half of it which isJudaism passionately seeks the whole, longs and yearns, and pours outits wrath upon the second half, which in its turn longs for thereunion and the integrity of mystic Israel. 

Whoever is within the Church loves Mary; and whoever loves Mary lovesalso Israel whose name together with those of the patriarchs andprophets solemnly resounds in our liturgical hymns. The minds of thosewho in various times represented the earthly organisation of theChurch could be poisoned by hatred of the Jews, in whom they suspectedChrist's enemies, precisely because it seemed to them that the Jewishnation was already void of the true Jewish spirit and was not ofAbraham's seed. But what do all these errings mean in face of thesingle testimony of the apostle Paul?

I have placed myself, in these lines, on the standpoint of religiousthought, and I wish to remind people of the truth that to be aChristian means to be not a heathen, not simply an Aryan by blood, butto become through baptism, which sacramentally includes alsocircumcision, a child of Abraham, and, therefore, in a sacramentalsense a brother to Abraham's descendants, who, according to the wordof the apostle, are not deprived of inheritance, and whom, accordingto Christ's word, we must bless even if they curse us. Personally, Ido not believe that the Jews hate Christ, unless it be that they hateHim in spite of their secret, presensuous love for Him, hate Him withthat peculiar hatred which comes from jealousy and which the Hellenesdefined as the negative hypostase of Eros, as anti-Eros. 

I think that Providence has appointed the Jews eternally to test theChristian peoples in their love for Christ and in their faithfulnessto Him. And when His work will be consummated in us, then theirdemands and expectations will be fulfilled and they will be convincedthat they need not wait for another Messiah. As for us, if we werewalking with Christ, we would not fear our examiners: for loveconquers fear. 

The accounts the Russian soul has to settle with that of the Jew arecomplex. In spite of the fact they have frequently and most completelybeen united in suffering, the Jew is loath to love that which is mostsacred to the Russian soul. For the benefit of those in whom resoundthe separate clashing voices of this spiritual dispute, I shall quotein conclusion this final and irrevocable verdict of Dostoyevsky, whohad the reputation of being an anti-Semite:

"All that is demanded by humanity, justice and Christian law, must bedone for the Jews. I shall add to these words that in spite of theconsiderations exposed above, I definitely stand for an increase ofthe Jewish rights in formal legislation and, if possible, for theremoval of all the legal disabilities which stand in the way of theirequality with the rest of the population (although in some cases theyhave already more rights than the aboriginal population, or, better, they have greater possibilities to utilise the rights which theyenjoy). "

("A Writer's Journal, " March, 1877, III, p. 4. )

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THE LITTLE BOY

THE LITTLE BOY

(A STORY)

BY MAXIM GORKY

It is hard to tell this little story, --it is so simple. When I was ayouth, I used to gather the children of our street on Sunday morningsduring the spring and summer seasons and take them with me to thefields and woods. I took great pleasure in the friendship of theselittle people, who were as gay as birds. 

The children were only too glad to leave the dusty, narrow streets ofthe city. Their mothers provided them with slices of bread, while Ibought them dainties and filled a big bottle with cider, and like ashepherd, walked behind my carefree little lambs, while we passedthrough the town and the fields on our way to the green forest, beautiful and caressing in its array of Spring. 

We always started on our journey early in the morning when the churchbells were ushering in the early mass, and we were accompanied by thechimes and the clouds of dust raised by the children's nimble feet. 

In the heat of noon, exhausted with playing, my companions wouldgather at the edge of the forest, and after that, having eaten theirfood, the smaller children would lie down and sleep in the shade ofhazel and snow-ball trees, while the ten-year-old boys would flockaround me and ask me to tell them stories. I would satisfy theirdesire, chattering as eagerly as the children themselves, and often, in spite of the self-assurance of youth and the ridiculous pride whichit takes in the miserable crumbs of worldly wisdom it possesses, Iwould feel like a twenty-year-old child in a conclave of sages. 

Overhead is the blue veil of the spring sky, and before us lies thedeep forest, brooding in wise silence. Now and then the wind whispersgently and stirs the fragrant shadows of the forest, and again doesthe soothing silence caress us with a motherly caress. White cloudsare sailing slowly across the azure heavens. Viewed from the earth, heated by the sun, the sky appears cold, and it is strange to see theclouds melt away in the blue. And all around me--little people, dearlittle people, destined to partake of all the sorrows and all the joysof life. 

These were my happy days, my true holidays, and my soul already dustywith the knowledge of life's evil was bathed and refreshed in theclear-eyed wisdom of child-like thoughts and feelings. 

Once, when I was coming out of the city on my way to the fields, accompanied by a crowd of children we met an unknown little Jewishboy. He was barefooted and his shirt was torn; his eyebrows wereblack, his body slim and his hair grew in curls like that of a littlesheep. He was excited and he seemed to have been crying. The lids ofhis dull-black eyes, swollen and red, contrasted with his face, which, emaciated by starvation, was ghastly pale. 

Having found himself face to face with the crowd of children, he stoodstill in the middle of the road, burrowing his bare feet in the dust, which early in the morning is so deliciously cool. In fear, he halfopened the dark lips of his fair mouth, --the next second he leapedright on to the sidewalk. 

"Catch him!" the children started to shout gaily and in a chorus. "AJewish boy! Catch the Jew boy!"

I waited, thinking that he would run away. His thin, big-eyed face wasall fear; his lips quivered; he stood there amid the shouts and themocking laughter. Pressing his shoulders against the fence and hidinghis hands behind his back, he stretched and strangely appeared to havegrown bigger. 

But suddenly he spoke, --very calmly and in a distinct and correctRussian. 

"If you wish, --I will show you some tricks. "

I took this offer for a means of self-defence. But the children atonce became interested. The larger and coarser boys alone looked withdistrust and suspicion on the little Jewish boy. The children of ourstreet were in a state of guerilla warfare with the children of otherstreets; in addition, they were deeply convinced of their ownsuperiority and were loath to brook the rivalry of other children. 

The smaller boys approached the matter more simply. 

"Come on, show us, " they shouted. 

The handsome, slim boy moved away from the fence, bent his thin bodybackward, and touching the ground with his hands, he tossed up hisfeet and remained standing on his arms, shouting:

"Hop! Hop! Hop!"

Then he began to spin in the air, swinging his body lightly andadroitly. Through the holes of his shirt and pants we caught glimpsesof the greyish skin of his slim body, of his sharply bulging andangular shoulder-blades, knees and elbows. It seemed to us as if withone more twist of his body his thin bones would crack and break intopieces. 

He worked hard until the shirt grew wet with sweat about hisshoulders. After each especially daring feat he looked into thechildren's faces with an artificial, weary smile, and it wasunpleasant to see his dull eyes, grown large with pain. Their strangeand unsteady glance was not like that of a child. 

The lads encouraged him with loud outcries. Many imitated him, rollingin the dust and shouting for joy, pain and envy. But the joyousminutes were soon over when the boy, bringing his exhibition to anend, looked upon the children with the benevolent smile of athoroughbred artist and stretching forth his hand said:

"Now give me something. "

We all became silent, until one of the children said:

"Money?"

"Yes, " said the lad. 

"Look at him, " said the children. 

"For money, we could do those tricks ourselves. "

The audience became hostile toward the artist, and betook itself tothe field, ridiculing and insulting him. Of course, none of them hadany money. I myself, had only seven kopecks about me. I put two coinsin the boy's dusty palm. He moved them with his finger and with akindly smile said: "Thank you. "

He went away, and I noticed that his shirt around his back was all inblack blotches and was clinging close to his shoulder-blades. 

"Hold on, what is it?"

He stopped, turned about, scrutinised me and said distinctly, with thesame kindly smile:

"You mean the blotches on my back? That's from falling off thetrapeze. It happened on Easter. My father is still lying in bed, but Iam quite well now. "

I lifted his shirt. On his back, running down from his left shoulderto the side, was a wide dark scratch which had now become dried upinto a thick crust. While he was exhibiting his tricks the wound brokeopen in several spots and red blood was now trickling from theopenings. 

"It doesn't hurt any more, " said he with a smile. "It doesn't hurt, itonly itches. "

And bravely, as it becomes a hero, he looked in my eyes and went on, speaking like a serious grown-up person:

"You think--I have been doing this for myself? Upon my word--I havenot. My father . . . There is not a crust of bread in the house, and myfather is lying badly hurt. So you see, I have to work hard. And tomake matters worse, we are Jews, and everybody laughs at us. Good-bye. "

He spoke with a smile, cheerfully and courageously. With a nod of hiscurly head, he quickly went on, passing by the houses which looked athim with their glass eyes, indifferent and dead. 

All this is insignificant and simple, is it not?

Yet many a time in the darkest days of my life I remembered withgratitude the courage and bravery of the little Jewish boy. And now, in these sorrowful days of suffering and bloody outrages which fallupon the grey head of the ancient nation, the creator of Gods andreligion, --I think again of the boy, for in him I see the symbol oftrue manly bravery, --not the pliant patience of slaves, who live byuncertain hopes, but the courage of the strong who are certain oftheir victory. 

 * * * * *

THE FATHERLAND FOR ALL

 _Fyodor Sologub is the pseudonym of Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov, novelist and poet. A considerable portion of his prose works has been recently made accessible to the English reader. Sologub's poetic output includes lyrical pieces of rare beauty. He was born in 1864. _

THE FATHERLAND FOR ALL

BY FYODOR SOLOGUB

The great war, which we did not want, but which we are conducting withintense fervour, exerting all our spiritual and material forces, hasput before our consciousness and our moral sense the fundamentalproblems of our social and political organisation. Not in vain havethe newspapers hastened to style this war a Fatherland War. Thequestion of the Fatherland has suddenly acquired for us a peculiarkeenness and significance. 

The war has taken Russian society and the Russian people by surprise, but luckily it has come to us at the moment when the questions whichwere confronting us had already been settled both in our reason andconscience. The heroic labour of the Russian intellectual has not beenin vain. And now what we have to do is not to argue and demonstrate, but to determine the meaning of events. And the meaning of what isgoing on is such that we are forced to consider this war not only asone of defence, but also as one of emancipation. It appears to us notonly as a struggle for the rights of small states threatened by largeones, and as a war against German militarism, but also as a strifeagainst. . . [1] internal danger, whatever may be the various forms thisdanger assumes. 

The first and chief danger which threatened, and is still threateningus, is the danger of internal division and disorder. The equalreadiness and zeal to stand up for her which all the peoplesinhabiting Russia have manifested has shown how unjust is thepreaching of hatred and of narrow nationalism. The peoples who bearthe same burdens of our state as the Russians do, who defend ourcommon fatherland just as faithfully as the Russians, thereby assertthat our fatherland is for all, that Russia is for every one who isconsidered a Russian subject and meets his duties toward the state. Russia is not only for those who are Russians by language and birth, she is for all who live under her sovereign dominion. No one in Russiais benefited by the unequal rights of her various peoples; thisinequality does not add to our political power, it only supports ourinternal disorder. Its abolition by no means contradicts thefundamental conceptions of Russian statehood. 

You will say that Russia has been created by the Russian race. Well, then, her policy must be determined by the qualities of the Russianpopular spirit, --but animosity and exclusiveness are things strangeand repulsive to it. The soul of the Russian people is trusting andopen to all influences. And this is only natural: only that nation canbecome the basis of a great state which is able with ease and joy tounite with all the races it meets on its historic road. The history ofRussia illustrates this. Besides, who has ever asserted that peopleborn unto the Russian tongue are racially pure Slavs?

You will say that Russia is a Christian state. Agreed. But do notChrist's commandments teach us to see a friend and a brother and one'sequal in every man? The more we are Christians, the less of animosityand exclusiveness can be in our hearts. What difference does it makethat two men speak different languages and pray in different ways?When it is a question of paying duties and taxes, and bearing arms indefence of the fatherland, religious and race peculiarities do notmatter. 

The fatherland is for all of us, because we are all for thefatherland. The fatherland is our common home, and this home we build, keep in good order, and defend. We build our common home not likehirelings, to whom, after they get their pay, the building becomesalien. In rearing, decorating and defending it we bargain with no one, we give everything that is necessary for its upbuilding anddefence, --we give our property, our labour, our very life. Even whenour labour appears selfish, even then--provided it is not criminal--itis for the good of our common home: for, all that adds to thehappiness, well-being and freedom of each one living in the home, addsto its strength and beauty. 

We build our common home, decorate it and defend it, and we do it withjoy and willingness because in our common home we are neitherhirelings nor guests. In our common home, then, who are we? We mustknow and always remember that in our common home we are all masters ofthe house. It is not our right, but our duty toward our home, of whichwe must take care just as every good master takes care of his house. The consciousness of the fact that we are the masters of our commonhome is clear; for it is seen that every one of us in whom conscienceand reason do not slumber, feels responsible for the disorder of ourlife. 

Not an outsider, nor a congress of allies, nor some one social classshall regulate our affairs for the best of Poland, Finland, the Jewsand the rest. Neither our allies, nor any one of our social classes, nor the wisest and strongest among us, --but all of us Russiancitizens, all of us who joyously and willingly bear the burden ofstatehood, are called upon to settle in conscience and reason, thefundamental problems of our great home-building. 

 * * * * *

In the face of the common foe we are all united. We have mustered allour forces for the defence of our native land from the hostileinvasion. We are all brothers, all children of one fatherland, and toall Russia is a good mother loving all equally well. Many are thepeoples Russia has gathered under her dominion and she is to allequally benevolent. 

How eager is one to say these words, to have the right to utter them!But we have it not. Not toward all is Russia equally benevolent, andin the hour of great trials and high deeds she is still unable, stillunwilling, to tear asunder the fatal chain, the terrible "Pale ofSettlement. "

Whenever I met Russian Jews abroad, I always marvelled at thestrangely tenacious love for Russia which they preserve. They speak ofRussia with the same longing and the same tenderness as the Russianemigrants; they are equally eager to return and equally saddened ifthe return is impossible. Wherefore should they love Russia, who is soharsh and inhospitable toward them?

Strange as it may sound, there are children who love their cruelstepmothers. Of course, they are exceptions; usually such stepmothersare hated. But in the case of Jews such exceptions become the generalrule: the Jews love the same Russia that is so cruel toward them. 

Some one's interests demand that the Jews should be oppressed, stabledin the "Pale of Settlement, " limited in the right to education, and inother respects. But to whose interest is it? Russia's? Surely not. 

Social relations in Russia, as in every civilised state, must rest onthe immovable foundations of justice, reason, and conscience. Allthose persons who are united by the fact of their belonging to theRussian state must have, within the limits of the empire, the minimumof rights, which, to our shame, are refused the Jews. This minimumeach one of us receives not for his personal or racial deserts ordistinctive traits, but as a citizen of the state. To obey the commonRussian laws, to pay the established taxes, to serve in the army, --allthese are the duties of a Russian subject, corresponding to the amountof rights of which he can be deprived only by a court ruling for acrime. 

A man not dishonoured by a court decision may not live where he wantsto, --because he is a Jew; a boy who has not been dismissed from anyschool for deficiency or misconduct, may not enter the "gymnasium, "where there are plenty of vacancies, but where the few vacancies setaside by a percentage rule for the Jewish brats, are eagerly filled bythem; a soldier's wife may not visit her wounded and agonising husbandbecause he happens to be dying outside the "Pale"; the deceased maynot be buried in the town where he died, for he had no right ofresidence in that town, --what does all this mean? Who needs all this?

All these people are Russian subjects, not our enemies, and yet theyare treated in this fashion. What is the purpose of it all? Is it inorder to kindle among the Jews the fire of implacable hatred of Russiaand turn them into our enemies? But then we must be logical and nottolerate them in the "Pale of Settlement"; we must exile or destroythem. But a civilised state will never persuade itself to commit suchacts, inhuman though logical. And if it does not decide to do that, itmust, for the sake of its safety and dignity, grant to every Russiancitizen the elementary human rights. It is imperative that everyRussian citizen should have every reason to love Russia and no rightto hate her. If that portion of the Russian population which isdeprived of rights still loves Russia, it is because the people ofpurely Russian extraction have no hatred for people of non-Russianbirth, and our co-citizens are fully aware of it. They know that theirdisabilities are a burden to ourselves. 

The removal of the Jewish disabilities is most imperatively dictatedto us also by our dignity as a body politic. The name of Russiansubject must be respected within our country, for otherwise thecivilised world will not grow accustomed to respect Russia. Ourcountry is feared for its military might and loved for the finequalities of its people, but it will be respected only when it becomesa land of free men. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Several words here are crossed out by Russiancensorship. --Translator's Note. 

 * * * * *

ON NATIONALISM

 _Vladimir Sereyevich Solovyov is known to the world as the noblest and the most profound of Russian thinkers. The author of a large number of philosophical and theological treatises, he is also responsible for a slender volume of exquisite poems and a series of publicistic works, wherein the cause of progress is vigorously upheld. Solovyov was born in 1853 and died in 1900. _

ON NATIONALISM

A speech delivered by Vladimir Solovyov at a University Dinner onFebruary 8th, 1890

The dominating idea of the present time is the national idea. Ofcourse, there is nothing bad about this. But the national idea as wellas any other, can be very differently interpreted. The conception ofnationalism which is very popular in our country reminds one of thefamous answer made by a Hottentot to a missionary, who asked himwhether he knows the difference between good and bad. "Sure I know, "retorted the Hottentot. "Good--is when I steal other people's cattleand wives, and bad--when my own are stolen. " In a like manner, many ofour nationalists praise the love for their people and brand otherpeople's patriotism as treason. 

In spite of the wide diffusion of this view, I persist in my beliefthat the Russian national idea cannot be based on a Hottentot-likemorality, that it cannot exclude the principles of justice andall-human solidarity. It is time that we should see the realisation ofthe true Russian idea and of all that it implies, namely: Poland'sautonomy, Jewish equal rights and the untrammelled development of allthe nationalities that people the Russian Empire. 

 * * * * *

CONCERNING THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE JEWS

 _Count Ivan Ivanovich Tolstoy, born in 1858, occupied the post of Minister of Public Instruction at the time of Count Witte's premiership. In 1907 he was a candidate for election to the Duma, as deputy from Petrograd. A distinguished archeologist and connoisseur of art, he was for many years the vice-president of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. _

CONCERNING THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE JEWS

BY COUNT IVAN TOLSTOY

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. " (St. Matthew, 7, 12. ) This is the divine law, which it is the task of every one who considers and feels himself aChristian to follow, and which should also be strictly observed by aState. Now, would any one of the Christians who owe their allegianceto the Russian state consent to be treated as the Jews are in Russia?Would he like to be confined within a certain definite zone ofsettlement, to be kept from giving his children an education, and tofind himself excluded from many fields of honest and honourableendeavour? Would he like, all through his life to be humiliated beforehis co-citizens of other faith and birth?

You despise them, hate them, and accuse them of all that it may pleaseany maniac or liar to invent about them. Yet you demand of the Jewsthat they should help you, when you stand in need of help. You, Jew-haters, serve somebody or something, but truly it is not God, itis not the cause of goodness that you are serving. In your blindnessyou harm, above all, yourself and our country, our dear, long-suffering Russia, whom the Jews, your co-citizens, love andcannot help loving more than you do. They know that Russia hates noneof her faithful and loving children and that they are hated only bypeople, who, either by nature or because of a poor education, cannotexist without hating some one or something. By their deeds ye shallknow them, these wolves disguised as sheep. 

Combat evil and side with good, do good, and do not judge a man by thefact that his parents are Jewish or Christian, or that he was borninto one faith or another. Remember that we are all born equally nakedand that we must all die. Therefore, do not boast of your birth; bearfirmly in mind that we are all equal before God, before Truth andthat we must be equal before the Law. 

As for the legal disabilities of a portion of citizens who are guiltyof no crime, --such as injustice must be completely condemned. Inpractice, such a policy has always borne and always will bear fruitsof evil. The very existence of such an injustice corrupts and puts injeopardy the social body which tolerates it. . . . No benefits which maybe derived by individual persons or social classes from an inequalityof rights can justify the State in depriving a group of citizens oftheir full rights, as a result of their race and faith. This is theA-B-C of justice, and those who do not know it have yet to learn whatjustice is. 

Neither are the Jews better than we are, nor are we better than they. We are all human beings and, as such, we must all be equal before theimpartial and dispassionate Law, which determines our rights andduties towards the State and society. Good and bad people, I repeat, are everywhere, and the proportion is roughly the same among us asamong them. Let us, therefore, strive for the realisation of justiceon earth, and let us believe in the final triumph of truth. The restwill be added unto us. Without such a faith it is hard to live. . . . 

 * * * * *

THE WOUNDED SOLDIER

THE WOUNDED SOLDIER

BY LEONID ANDREYEV

A sad and disquieting image often rises before my eyes. 

It happened in Petrograd, on the staircase of a large, new building, one apartment of which was transformed into a private ward. When Ientered the porter's lodge, on my way to a friend, I saw that it wasfilled with wounded soldiers, who had just arrived, while curiousspectators crowded near the plate-glass door. The house was new andluxuriously furnished, and the elevator on which the wounded soldierswere taken up, was carefully covered with some kind of cloth, for fearthat the velvet would be soiled and the insects would get into theseams. Upstairs the wounded were cordially greeted by a priest and aman dressed in white. After having kissed the priest's hand, thewounded, evidently embarrassed by the bright light and the luxury ofthe place, entered the ward awkwardly and silently. There were noseriously wounded on stretchers among them, all were able to walk; yetit was painful to look at them. 

There was a wounded soldier in one of the last groups taken up by theelevator who strangely attracted everybody's attention. He was ashort, young, lean, ghastly pale Jew. All the wounded were pale, butthere was something sinister about the pallor of his face; it was apaleness of an utterly exhausted, anæmic or fatally sick man. He waswalking alone, feebly moving his feet, and like everybody else bent tokiss the hand of the priest, but he hardly knew what he was doing, andhis kiss was strangely indifferent and meaningless. He was evidentlywounded in his arm, which he held stretched out. Several fingers werewrapped up, the others, which were not injured, were covered with acrust of dirt and blood. But on his coat, on the back, there was alarge brown blotch of blood, a very large one, covering almost half ofhis back and in the midst of the soft cloth it bulged stiffly as ifstarched. And this horrible spot told the simple story of the battleand the wound. But it was not the stain that made him so peculiarlyconspicuous--other soldiers had similar blotches--it was rather hisunusual pallor, thinness and smallness, and, above all, an expressionof peculiar timidity, as if he was not at all sure whether hisbehaviour was appropriate and whether he had come to the right place. The faces of the other wounded soldiers, non-Jews, expressed nothingof the kind. These men were confused, but not afraid, and walkedstraight ahead, into the ward. 

And then I recollected how a military sanitarian, whose duty it is toescort a train of wounded soldiers, had told me that the wounded Jewsactually try not to moan. It was hardly credible, and at first I didnot believe it; how was it possible, that a wounded soldier, freshlypicked up from the battlefield and lying among wounded soldiers shouldtry not to moan, as all do? But the sanitarian confirmed his statementand added: they are afraid to attract attention to themselves. 

The Jewish soldier entered the ward after the others, and the door wasclosed, but his image, sorrowful and disquieting, lingered before myeyes. Of course, he, too, tried not to attract attention--and thereinis the cause of his shyness; and when his wound will be dressed and hewill be put into bed, he will also try not to moan. For, what righthas he to moan aloud?

It is very possible, that he has no right of settlement in Petrogradand is allowed to stay there only as one of the wounded; a ratherprecarious right! And that which is home for others is nothing but akind of honourable imprisonment for him; he will be kept for a while, then they will let him go, saying: "Go away, you must not be here. "

And what if his mother, or sister, or father, who also have no rightof settlement, will desire to come to him and kiss his bloodstainedhand which has defended Russia--vague, distant Russia? But thesereflections and questions came to my mind later. At the moment, Ibeheld, with the eyes of a peaceful citizen, the bloody, hardenedblotch and the dreadful pallor of war, and the needless terror beforethat which, after all, is your own, and I felt an overwhelmingdepression and sadness. 

 * * * * *

HOW TO HELP?

 _Catherine Kuskova is a journalist and social worker of considerable note. _

HOW TO HELP?

BY CATHERINE KUSKOVA

Lord, what a familiar sight! How many times have we seen it during thelast nine or ten months. . . . And every time you blush with shame andyou have the feeling of being overcome and petrified in the face ofthe incomprehensible, elemental catastrophe. 

The train slowly pulls up to the high structure of the station. Thescene is laid in one of the towns of the Western section. Faces ofpassengers, restless, way-worn, sickly, are seen in the windows. Thecars are over-crowded beyond all measure. There are many black-eyedchildren, with curly black locks, and also old people, decrepit withage. The railway platform is crowded with Jewish youths, withrepresentatives of the Jewish community, and a mass of curious peoplewho eagerly scan the newcomers. A large crowd of passengers emergefrom the cars rapidly and in disorder. They are Jews deported fromthe zone of military operations. The local Jewish community had beennotified by a telegram and now they are meeting the newcomers. 

The community has seen to it that hot tea, bread, and milk for thechildren is served to the deported right at the station. A most timelymeasure! Many of them had had no time even to take food along; theywere deported on short notice, and, besides, a family is allowed tocarry no more than forty pounds of luggage. What is forty pounds for afamily often very large? They can hardly afford to take some underwearand warm clothes. . . . Behind each family there remained a home, probably a store, a stand, a workshop or simply a sewing-machine, thesole source of income. . . . All are equal now in this dreadful train, which carries them away from home, naked wrecks of humanity, torn fromtheir customary course of life and deprived of the daily toil, whichfed the family. And what a terror it is to look into their eyes. It isplainly written in them: "This is nothing, the worst is still tocome. "

They sat down on the benches in the waiting room, and starteddrinking tea, and eating. 

"Well, you are feeding your spies, eh?" suddenly remarks a porter, addressing a representative of the Jewish community. The latter growspale, shivers, and quickly moves away. What, indeed, could one answer?How does this great migration of a people impress an unsophisticatedbrain? If the entire population leaves a district the matter is clear;the place must be evacuated before the enemy. But the trains loadedwith Jews do not come from districts already occupied by the foe. Howelse can a plain man construe this fact than that the Jews are spies, dangerous people, in short, our internal enemy? And so thisone-year-old baby whose puffed-up, tiny hand hangs down from itsmother's shoulder is also an enemy, just as is this sad girl wearilyskulking in a corner, and this old man with his shaking head andwrinkled hands, --all these are our enemies, otherwise why should theyhave been deported before the arrival of the foe? Why such a peculiarselection of the passengers of the dreadful trains? I go from oneporter to another, asking them who was brought on. The answer is thesame: "Jews, spies. . . . " The very arrival of such a train engenders anill feeling toward the entire Jewish nation, --and how many such trainshave arrived here lately! And if you were to stop and ask whoestablished the guilt of these people, and whether it is thinkablethat all these tens of thousands of men, women, and children shouldhave been caught red-handed, no one will stop to listen to you. A Jewis a spy, --this is the only impression that becomes indelibly brandedin the brains of the Russian population which witnesses the newtragedy of the Jewish nation. The effect of the passage of thesetrains is truly terrible, it is a series of systematic object-lessonsof hatred. . . . 

When the crowd has quenched its hunger and thirst, a new problempresents itself: how to transport all this mass to the town and givethem shelter. For this purpose a number of carriages are kept inreadiness. The coachmen, all of them Jews, load the miserable luggageand try to accommodate the old, the sick, and the children. Now andthen a bearded, husky driver would wipe away a tear; to one side, Jewish women weep frankly. The sorrowful procession sets out for thetown. There the refugees will once more have to meet the Russians andendure questionings, insulting remarks and slaps in the face. . . . Willthe Jewish nation stand all this?

Yes, it will undoubtedly stand this frightful trial. There issomething in its inner nature that enables it to hold out under themost terrible conditions. 

At the house of a representative of the Jewish community, I findseveral people who handle the transportation and distribution of thedeported Jews. 

"How many people have passed through your hands?"

"Several thousand. We get word by telegraph from the centres ofdeportation as to how many people we should keep and how many sendfurther. "

"Where do you get the means necessary for these operations?"

"The entire Jewish population of our town has imposed upon itself asystematic refugee tax. This source furnishes us 3, 000 rubles monthly. Of course this is very little, ours is a poor town. Then we getfinancial aid from the Jewish communities, which do not have to helpthe deported directly. We have received several thousand rubles fromSmolensk, Petrograd, Moscow, and elsewhere. "

"And how about the Russian population, does it render you anyassistance?"

"No, its attitude toward the deported is at best indifferent, and atworst hostile. "

"And the Jews, do they not protest against this new tax?"

"Oh, no, not in the least. You have no idea to what an extent thefeeling of solidarity grows among us in such cases. Here is aninstance. A train with the deported arrived here yesterday. It wasSaturday. That is, as you know, a sacred day for the Jews. Nevertheless, all our Jewish coachmen came to the station to take thenewcomers to the town. We have asked them to come to-day to get paidfor their services. Not one of them appeared. And so it has been allalong. There is not a Jewish coachman in the town who would take moneyin such a case. On the contrary, they would be insulted if they werenot asked to do their bit. When the first train arrived, the presentself-taxation was not yet in existence. We received the telegramsuddenly. Nothing was in readiness. Our young people got busy andstarted canvassing the Jewish houses. And at once people brought allthey could: tea, sugar, eggs, milk. We met the hungry ones with fullhands. No, we cannot complain against the Jews; they do all they can, even the poorest. "

The representative shows me a heap of telegrams. Their contents arebrief: "To Rabbi so-and-so. Meet 900; meet 1000; meet 1100. " Only thenumbers differ. . . . 

"And where do you house those who remain here?"

"Well, we accommodate them in the Jewish school, in private homes, inrooms hired for the purpose. But here we met with a new obstacle. Ourtown is situated on the left bank of the river Dnyepr. Now a new orderwas issued to the effect that the deported should settle exclusivelyon the left bank. We had trouble enough, I warrant you. Fortunately, the local authorities have shown us some consideration and postponedthe second deportation. . . . But to entrain worn-out people and sendthem anew into the unknown, --it is painful even to imagine it. Thinkof it: to grow accustomed to the place, to the people who take careof you, --and then again a train, a flashing of a station, and thefinal outrage of the arrival. Many say: 'Better to die than to resumeour road again. '

"But we are forced to send them further, although nowadays it is hardto place the deported; all the towns are crowded, the congestion leadsto diseases. Here, too, we have had several deaths. . . . "

"Tell me, " I said finally, "but you know, at least approximately, whythese people are deported? It is impossible that this should be donefor no earthly reason, simply because they happen to be Jews. . . . "

How great was my repentance that I put this naïve question! I shallnever, never forget the eyes which turned on me. There was in them aburning pain and another question: "Yes, for what crime? If we onlyknew it. . . . Perhaps, you will tell us? You are a Russian, you are in abetter position to know. . . . "

I got up quickly, shook hands, and left in silence, with a feeling ofrepulsion for myself and shame for my helplessness. . . . 

 * * * * *

THE HOMELESS ONES

 _Sergey Yakovlevich Yelpatyevsky is a popular writer of realistic, and humanitarian tales and sketches. In his youth he was exiled to Siberia, and in 1910 he was imprisoned. He was born in 1854. _

THE HOMELESS ONES

BY S. YELPATYEVSKY

I

A party of Jews was brought to the province of Tavrida. Officiallythey are called "the deported"; the newspapers refer to them as "thehomeless ones. " At first came three thousand Jews from the province ofKovno. They were followed by Kurland Jews, and now about seventhousand Jews have been settled in the government of Tavrida. Otherparties are expected. . . . 

They had wandered a long time before they reached their new place ofresidence. Obviously, the authorities who handled the deportationthought only of how to get rid of the Jews, and those on whom thenewcomers were thrust had not been informed in time and did not knowhow to arrange to take care of them. 

The first party, three thousand strong, stayed a while at Melitopol, then they were transported to Simferopol where they remained fivedays, and were finally distributed over the towns and townlets ofnorthern Crimea. 

It is told that one of the parties was assigned to Yekaterinoslav, butthe authorities refused to accept the people and ordered them toproceed further. The local papers report that a group of deported Jewswas transported from Pavlograd to Jankoy, then, according to aninstruction from the Ministry of the Interior they were shipped toVoronezh. . . . 

There are many old men and women, many girls and mothers, and a largenumber of children in the party which has been brought here. All ofthem are miserable and exhausted, a number are ill, either becausethey had been sick when the catastrophe overtook them or because theyfell ill on the way, and there are many pregnant women among them. Asa result of their long wanderings, wives have lost their husbands andmothers their children and they eagerly question everybody about thosedear to them. 

Little has been written in the newspapers about the Jews deported fromthe zone of military activities, and so far little has been heard ofeither the state or the social organisations coming to the assistanceof these "war sufferers, " who feel the burden of war even more heavilythan those who fled from the war-stricken districts on their ownaccount. There was a vague statement that the Pirogov Society isaiding the Jews deported to the Government of Poltava and that meagresums were contributed by the Union of Towns and the Ministry of theInterior, --that is all the newspapers have so far reported. 

The burden of taking care of the newcomers fell entirely on the localJewish communities. It was a heavy burden, for there are no more thanabout twenty thousand Jewish families in the entire government ofTavrida. These twenty thousand families had to take care and tosupport seven thousand homeless people, mostly small tradesmen andpeddlers who had had no time to liquidate their businesses and whocould not take along any property, for bedding was the only thing theywere allowed to carry. 

They had to find housing facilities in all haste, to organisetransportation and medical aid, and to solve the food and employmentproblems. An attempt was made to utilise the deported in agriculture, in which labour is nowadays exceedingly scarce in Crimea. But the oldpeople and the children are not fit for agricultural work and it wouldtake too long to train the able-bodied women. On the other hand, thelargest and more prosperous Crimean towns, such as Simferopol andSebastopol, Yalta, Yevpatoria, and Theodosia, where the deported Jewscould easily find employment, are closed to the newcomers. Only thesmaller and poorer towns and townlets where even the local Jews canscarcely get employment, are put at the disposal of the newcomers astheir places of residence. There was even a project to settle aportion of these people in the city of Perekop. This town counts onlyone Jewish family among its population. It consists of a prison andseveral deserted shanties, and reminds one of that legendary Siberiantown, which was made up of a single pillar erected as an indication ofthe site where the city was supposed to stand. 

The local Jewish communities spend about fifty thousand rubles monthlyon feeding the deported. This sum does not include the expenses oftransportation and housing. The local communities applied to thePetrograd Committee, but it took upon itself only fifteen thousandrubles. The remaining thirty-five thousand are contributed by theJews, who have also to support their specific cultural institutions aswell as municipal institutions of a general character. 

The representatives of the Simferopol Jewish community applied to theGovernor of Tavrida for financial help. I do not know whether theywere successful. Meanwhile, other parties of deported Jews areexpected here, and how the Jews will be able to handle them, is morethan I can tell. 

The War has ruined many homes and made many men, women, and childrenhomeless. But it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that fate hasbeen most ruthless to these deported Jews. The so-called "refugees, "after all, acted freely; they brought with them, if not what theywanted at least what they had time, what they were able to take; theycould go wherever there was work. The refugees were everywherewelcomed and helped by both the authorities and the publicorganisations. Special days for the soliciting of donations wereappointed and large sums collected. Wherever they went people tried toalleviate their sufferings. But the deportation of the Jews took placeas if on the sly, without attracting any one's attention, withoutengaging the sympathies of the people at large to the degree whichmight be expected. 

The deported proved a heavy burden not only for the Jewish but alsofor the Gentile population of the humble villages of the government ofTavrida, which were flooded by the newcomers. The prices of food, andthe rent soared up, and competition among tradesmen and smallmerchants grew more ruthless, --in a word, life here became much harderthan the War alone would have made it. 

II

As one observes these throngs of old men, children and pregnant womenwho are deported and tossed from one end of the country to the other, simply because they are Jews, one wonders to whom it brings profit orhappiness. It is clear that it does no one any good and no one findsthis wholesale deportation either just or necessary. 

"In discussing the deportation of Jews the Minister of the Interiorpointed out that this measure was not justified by the actualbehaviour of the Jewish population, which is in general loyal to thecountry and cannot bear responsibility for the actions of criminalindividuals, of whom unfortunately no nationality is free" (_YuzhnyiaVyedomosti_, No 10). The same communication contains the followingstatements: "It was asserted that the wholesale accusation of the Jewsas traitors is wholly groundless. . . . In view of this the council ofMinisters, by an overwhelming majority, decided to make intercessionto put an end to the deportation of the Jews. "

Whether the Council of Ministers has interceded and whether itsefforts were crowned with success, --I know not. The papers publishedseveral orders whereby separate groups of deported Jews were permittedto return to their former places of residence, --for instance, thedeported Galician Jews were allowed to return to Galicia, --but therewas no general rescript which would put an end to the deportation. . . . 

The wholesale deportation of the Jews caused a great perplexity amongthe population of Crimea. Even people who are not over-sensitive toproblems of truth and justice and whose sympathies are far from beingbroad, show signs of being stirred up. Suppose the Council ofMinisters is mistaken, they say, and the presence of the Jews in thegovernments of Kovno and Kurland is really a danger for the State, butthen do not Germans live in those provinces, in even larger numbersthan Jews? Time and again we read in the newspapers of the friendlyreception of the German armies by the German population of Kurland. There were also registered cases where penalties were imposed onindividual persons who either showed too great an enthusiasm for theGerman troops or rendered them material services. Nevertheless, nothing was heard about the German population of the Government ofKurland being deported in a wholesale manner, --at least, not a singletrain with Kurland Germans has reached Crimea. 

On the other hand, --so thinking people keep on arguing, --if the Jewshave proved to be more German than the Germans themselves, and theTeutonic population of Kurland act like loyal Russian subjects, whythen liquidate the land owned by the Crimean Germans, who have beenliving in Crimea for more than a century, who have never shown anydisloyalty to Russia, who, furthermore, are separated from the Germanfrontier by thousands of versts and who are, therefore, by no meansable to inform the Germans from Germany about the movement of ourtroops in the provinces of Kurland and Kovno. 

And once more rises the question: "In whose interests is all thisdone?"

The matter has also another aspect. How many Jews were deported--tensor hundreds of thousands--no one knows exactly; but seeing the largemasses which are being shifted from place to place, people wonder howmany cars were necessary to transport all these throngs. And then itoccurs to them that all these trains could bring in enormous cargoesof coal, sugar, kerosene and other wares which are so badly neededhere, and carry away grain and fruit, which are needed elsewhere, thusmaking life more livable in many corners of our vast country. 

And people who have the enviable capacity of not losing theirequanimity under any circumstances, remark that in this fashion theJewish problem is being settled and the Pale of Settlement removed. 

"Here already the provinces of Voronezh and Penza are opened toJews. . . . Little by little all of Russia will be opened up. . . . "

 * * * * *

THE JEW

 _Mikail Petrovich Artzibashef, the author of Sanine was born in the year 1878 in Southern Russia. He is widely read both in his own country and outside of its borders. In 1905 he took part in the revolutionary movement, and was indicted, but escaped punishment because of the temporary success of the popular movement at the end of that year. _

THE JEW

(A STORY)

BY M. ARTZIBASHEF

It so happened that the second platoon of the third squad of theAshkadar regiment found itself completely cut off from the main bodyof the army, and this without the loss of a single cartridge orsoldier. 

How this came about, and why a group of men, fifteen or twenty strong, had suddenly become an independent fighting unit, none of them couldtell. 

At the outset, the entire Ashkadar regiment zealously trudgedthroughout the long autumn night along an interminable road, leadingno one knew where, into the dark, damp, and hostile distance. To smokeor to converse was forbidden. In the dark, the black mass of theregiment, bristling with its bayonets like some huge, porcupine-likecreature, crawled steadily onward, filling the air with the shufflingof innumerable feet. The men kept stumbling over each other, andswore viciously in half tones; they slipped in the mud and sankknee-deep into the wheel-tracks filled with cold water. "Some road!"they sighed quietly. 

At dawn the regiment was brought to a halt and was stretched along theedge of a wide potato field, which the soldiers had never seen before. It was drizzling with sickening persistence, and the dark-bluedistances, mildly sloping and mournful, were blurred in the haze ofthe rain. On both sides, as far as eye could reach, ranks of greyofficers and soldiers were wretchedly soaking in the rain. Water wasdripping from their sullen faces and it looked as though they were allweeping over their fate--the fate which had cast them upon thisstrange, unknown, God-forsaken field. In a few hours many of them willperhaps be lying dead amidst the half-rotted potato stems on the wetsoil with their pallid faces upturned to the cold heavens, the veryones which now weep also over their dear, distant country. 

Behind, a battery crew was vainly attempting to set the cannon whichwere sinking into the soaked plough-land. One could hear the hoarseangry voices, the cracking of whips, and the heavy, strained snortingof horses. In front of them lone officers wandered in drenched cloaksin the rain; still farther behind the curtain of rain and the thickfog there rumbled cannons and it was impossible to tell whether theybelonged to the enemy or not. At times the shooting seemed to comefrom afar-off on the right. Then the rumble of the guns was deep andmuffled like the sound of heavy iron balls rolling over the ground; atother times, the discharges were quite near and rent the air with acrash, bursting over the men's very heads, as it were. 

The commander of the squad stood right in front of his men and keptlighting cigarettes shielding them with the skirts of his cloak. Hedid it so often that it seemed as if he had been vainly attempting tolight the same cigarette for the last three hours. The soldiers wereattentively looking at his back and were all morbidly anxious to helphim. It was cold and damp, and they felt an incessant, nauseatinggnawing in the pit of the stomach. It was not fear but an indefiniteanguish, a sort of _the-sooner-over-the-better_ feeling. 

Several hours passed in this manner, but towards noon it all changedabruptly. Though the sky was still as grey as before and it drizzledcontinuously, it grew lighter, the clouds in one spot became white andshining and one felt that the sun was somewhere behind them. Butamidst this cold white light a disquieting feeling pervaded theatmosphere and the gnawing anxiety was turning into unbearable agony. Suddenly, an aide-de-camp dashed past on a horse, covered with frothand fuzzy with dampness. Officers began to scurry back and forth;sharp commands were heard; and the bugles resounded. 

"Well, comrades!" . . . Said some one in the ranks in a high, false toneof voice. Every one heard this exclamation and understood it, but noone turned around to see where it came from. The grey mass of peoplesuddenly stirred, gave a sigh, surged like the sea whipped by a gale, and, sinking at each step into the mud, the entire regiment rolledforward, over the expanse of the shoreless fields which now suddenlylooked strange and dreadful. The soldiers, their faces haggard andqueer, were crossing themselves as they ran. They marched in disorder, and when they were stopped on the hill-crest, they turned theregiment into a confused mob of breathless and perplexed men. Someeven forgot to lower their rifles. 

Before them the hazy network of rain was still hanging and thedistances stretched, strange and hostile. But now the fields wereastir with flickering pale flames and a ceaseless scattered crackingof guns. In the grey sky a small black dot was discernible, seeminglymotionless, but changing in size. When it grew larger, a faint buzzingwas heard from above and made the soldiers turn their grey, ghastlyfaces upward. . . . Then a mighty buzzing suddenly resounded behind theregiment, and a Russian aeroplane flew over the heads of the men likea drenched bird. As the aeroplane rose higher and higher, the soldierswatched the distance between it and the small black dot far up in thesky grow smaller and smaller. 

Voices were now heard from the ranks and when the black dot wasrapidly beginning to grow smaller, sinking, as it were, in the sky andapproaching the horizon, those voices became loud and gay. 

"He don't like it, what! See him run for his life! Well done! Finefellows!" . . . Was heard along the ranks. 

The soldiers suddenly became lively and for a moment forgot aboutthemselves and the uncertain fate that was in store for them. 

"Why not put you on that aeroplane, Yermilich!. . . You'd be quite handyat it, wouldn't you!" the soldiers were poking fun at each other. 

All at once a confused many-voiced cry and a disorderly crackling ofrifles was heard ahead of them; then a crowd of soldiers came runningfrom that direction, at first singly, then in groups, and finally in amass. They belonged to another regiment of the same division. Onecould discern from afar their wide-open eyes, rounded mouths, and anexpression of frantic terror on their pale faces. 

The officers of the Ashkadar regiment, waving their swords and yellingsomething indistinct, were running over the washed-out field to meetthe running men, but the grey crowd momentarily knocked them down, trampled upon them, completely covered them, and mingled itself withthe Ashkadar men. And everything that, but a while ago, was so clearand important now became confused and meaningless. 

Like the waters that wash off a dam pierced in but a single point, even so did the running soldiers confuse and sweep away the regiment. The Ashkadar men themselves were partly infected by the panic andbegan to run they knew not why, apparently possessed by thatmysterious power which is transmitted from man to man and which pushesone from behind and compels him to run farther and farther, aimlesslyand blindly. 

The entire mass of men started down the slope, but having encounteredthe battery with a crew yelling and waving their hands, it swervedaside. Then as this mass ran into the regular line of soldiers, whowere rapidly coming to meet them, their rifles carried at charge, itthrew itself to one side, then to the other, then backwards andforwards and finally scattered over the fields, filling the air withmad outcries and disorderly shooting. It was at that very time thatthe second platoon of the third squad strayed from its regiment andits officers. Seventeen in all, instinctively keeping together, theyfound themselves outside of the battle-field in a narrow loamy ravineovergrown with dwarfish trees. The ravine was deep and had washed-outclay slopes. High above it stretched a muddy, uneven strip of greysky, which poured an unceasing rain upon the soaked red clay, upon thesmall wet birch trees, and the group of soldiers, who had lost theirway and driven by inertia were hurrying further downward. 

The soldiers, all reservists, were thick-set, bearded and pock-markedpeasants from the governments of Kostroma and Novgorod and among them, was a dark little Jew, Hershel Mak, who alone thought and planned forthe rest of them. All these country people taken right from the ploughwere unable to grasp how it all happened, and were not even surewhether anything had happened at all. They could not tell whetherthere was a battle or not, whether it was good or bad to be leftwithout officers in this confounded ravine, and what would come of itall. Only Hershel Mak understood that there was a battle, that thefront ranks came right under the crossfire of the machine-guns, that apanic resulted and that the Ashkadar regiment was knocked off itsfeet by a crowd of runaways. He knew that the regiment was broken upwithout a shot and that now they were left to their own fate, in aplace which might well be within the very centre of the enemy'sposition. Hershel Mak was well aware of the fact that for the presentno one would or could worry about them and that they must alonedisentangle themselves from this mess, --and his versatile mind beganat once to work to the utmost of its ability. 

The rain was rushing in murmuring streams down the slopes of theravine and along its bottom, and the noise of the water drowned thecrackling of the machine-guns and the thundering of the cannon. Theravine extended further down, and apparently into the forest, for thetrees were becoming thicker, and on the ground a deep layer ofhalf-decayed leaves was mingled with the clay. Once or twice, a heavybuzzing was heard overhead, and the soldiers involuntarily liftedtheir eyes, but there was no aeroplane in sight, and one could nottell whether it was the enemy or not. 

Hershel Mak was walking behind the others, and was deep in thought. 

"What are we going to do when we meet the enemy? When we were with theregiment, we knew what to do. . . . But we don't know the high militaryrules! Maybe, we shouldn't fight at all, --maybe, according to the highmilitary rules it is necessary to retreat a bit?. . . How is one to tellI'd like to know. "

Just then on the opposite bank of the stream which in its overflowingformed shallow muddy puddles something dark began to flicker among thetrees, and the enemy soldiers in light grey cloaks, and varnishedhelmets protected with linen covers came forward. This was an enemydetachment which had also strayed away from its regiment. Anon-commissioned officer, husky and red-bearded, was in charge of it. The Germans' gait was also uncertain. They walked with rifles carriedat charge, timidly looking about and were just going to stop to talkover their situation, when they noticed the reddish-grey cloaks andthe bayonets. 

"Halt!" yelled out a flaxen-haired Kostroma peasant. 

He did it so forcefully that two crows flew off in fright and rosehigh above the ravine. 

Hershel Mak nearly fell into the water. The red and the grey soldiersseparated by about fifty steps and a small, turbid, rain-beatenrivulet were eyeing each other with amazement rather than with terror. Thin scattered cries of terror and dismay were heard from the otherside, and all at once it grew still with an ominous strainedstillness. 

"Listen . . . Eh, " . . . Whispered Hershel Mak, touching the gun of theKostroma reservist. But at this very moment, the soldiers as if inresponse to a command stepped back a pace or two, got down on theirknees and an uneven crackling of guns rent the damp air. 

The flaxen-haired Kostroma peasant and another soldier, a father of alarge family, nick-named "uncle, " threw up their arms and fell heavilyupon the soaked clay. 

The first was killed on the spot, but as to the "uncle, " he clutchedhis abdomen, sat up and began to howl in a thin, piercing voice:"Bro-o-thers!"

And the soldiers were seized with a savage anger, immense andterrible, similar to the nervous fury with which one tramples upon asnake. Scattered bullets began flying amidst the wet trees, and wildoutcries filled the air. The bullets hissed far over the forest andsank with a swish into the clay; birch leaves, quietly circling, werefalling to the ground where three light-grey figures were writhing inconvulsions of pain and horror. 

The husky non-commissioned officer was the first among these to ceasestirring. He lay there with his face stuck in the cold mud of thestream. A volley of bullets, still more uneven than the first answeredit, and presently single shots, interrupted by furious outcries ofpain, by groans of the wounded and rattling of the dying came fromboth sides. 

Pale flames flickered everywhere; the bark was being ripped from thesmall birch trees; here and there were seen ghastly distorted facesand shivering hands hurriedly fussing with the guns. The biting odourof blood and gun-powder filled the air, and a bluish smoke rose slowlyto the sky, passing through the twigs shivering, as it were, withfear, and under the birches there lay two groups of men, chargingtheir guns, shooting, slaying one another, and strewing the wet earthwith crippled, writhing, moaning bodies. 

 * * * * *

Suddenly the shooting ceased just as unexpectedly as it had begun. There was no one upon the clearing except the wounded, and the dead. The reddish soldiers hid behind the stones and the grey behind thetrees. 

The fire ceased. The hearts of the men beat rapidly and painfully witha vicious inhuman terror, but no one fired a single shot. An hourpassed and then another. The men lay silently behind the stones andthe trees, each group eyeing the enemy sharply and closely watchingtheir slightest movements. 

"Uncle" alone, his back leaning on a trunk of a tree, was moaningplaintively and softly like a fly caught in a spider's web. And on theother side a young soldier was making severe attempts to lift up hisbody out of the mud puddle, while the eyes of his pale youthful facewere already covered with the film of death. But no one paid theslightest attention to either of them. Each one felt upon himself thekeen, merciless eye of the enemy and dared not budge or even stretchout a benumbed foot. A grey soldier attempted once to change hisplace, whereupon three shots thundered from the other side, and theman only turned over and remained still. Later two men were killed, one on each side, and again everything grew still. 

The clatter of the rain alone was heard, as though, invisible to theeye, some one wept bitterly in the forest. The hours were passing, andthe nervous tension grew intolerable, assuming the intensity of agony. It was quite apparent that things could not go on in this way muchlonger, and every one knew that whoever would lift his head would bekilled on the spot. Lord only knows the odd and horrible thoughts thatwere passing in these terror-stricken, muddled minds. 

Hershel Mak felt very keenly that he was eager to live; that like therest of these men, he had a father and mother and also his own littledesires, remote from this place and sacred to him alone. He was alsosorry for "uncle" and for that dying German, who lay in the puddle, and who had been killed, perhaps by a bullet from "uncle's" rifle. 

The hours were passing and the unbearable nervous horror grew, andthe inner tension, terrible and so taut that it seemed to be ready tosnap every second, was beginning to turn into a sort of nightmare, which makes one shiver all over, which dims one's eyes with red mist, which banishes all fear of death and suffering and turns all that ishuman into an elemental, savage fury. 

At the very moment, when the tension reached its highest point and thenightmare was about to pass in a ruthless engagement, Hershel Mak, unable to control his strained nerves any longer began to prayplaintively in the tongue of his forefathers. "_Shma Isroel! ShmaIsroel!_" . . . His comrades did not understand him and glanced at himin terror, as at a madman, but from the opposite side anotherfrightened and plaintive voice answered him in Jewish: "A Jew!. . . AJew!. . . "

Hershel Mak's heart fell within him. The mad joy that took hold of himis indescribable. It was undefiled human joy that filled him to thebrim, when from the place whence he expected only death and hatredthere came familiar human words. Forgetting the deathly peril, hesprang to his knees, threw up his arms and cried out, as if respondingto a voice heard in the desert. 

"I!. . . I!. . . "

A shot crashed; but it was only Mak's cap, that jumped up and landedin the mud puddle. From beyond the stream and the trees a typical headwith ears projecting from under the varnished helmet looked straightat him. 

"Don't shoot!. . . Don't shoot!" yelled Hershel Mak in Russian, Germanand Jewish all at once, waving his hands frantically. And the otherJew, in a long light-grey cloak was also yelling something to hisfellow-soldiers. Now not one but about ten pairs of eyes looked atHershel Mak, with astonishment and sudden joy. A vague, faint hope wasseen in these frightened human eyes, which suddenly became simple andsympathetic. Then Hershel Mak and the Jew in the light-grey cloakrushed to the clearing and, splashing in the water, trustingly ran toeach other. 

They met between the two ranks of still hostile gun-barrels andembraced each other in a fit of unreasoning human gladness. 

"Are you a Jew?" asked the grey soldier. They kept looking at eachother like two old friends who met where they least expected to findeach other. 

In the twilight, after the soldiers gathered up their dead andwounded, they went each their own way along the ravine, now blue withthe evening fog. Those in the rear kept looking back at the enemy, suspiciously eyeing them, and nervously clutching with their hands thecold muzzles of their guns. 

Only Hershel Mak and the Jew in the light-grey cloak walked calmly. Hershel chattered like a monkey, joining now one now another of thesoldiers. He was saying something about his joy, about the greatmission of Judaism. But no one listened to him, and one of thesoldiers said good-naturedly: "Go to the devil, you dirty Jew. "

THE END

 * * * * *

[Illustration]

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