Chapter III: Introduction (1)

Russia acquired the great bulk of her Jewish population through the partitions of Poland, from 1773 to 1795. Strongly medieval in outlook and organization as Russia was at that time, she treated the Jews with the exceptional harshness which the medieval principle and policy sanctioned and required. By confining them to those provinces where they happened to live at the time of the partitions, she created a Ghetto greater than any known to the Middle Ages; and by imposing restrictions upon the right to live and travel even within this Ghetto, she has virtually converted it into a penal settlement, where six million human beings guilty only of adherence to the Jewish faith are compelled to live out their lives in squalor and misery, in constant terror of massacre, subject to the caprice of police officials and a corrupt administration—in short, without legal right or social status.

Only twice within the last century have efforts been made to improve the condition of the Jews in Russia; and each interval of relief was followed by a period of greater and more cruel repression. The first was during the reign of Alexander II; but his assassination in 1881 resulted in the complete domination of Russia by the elements of reaction, which immediately renewed the persecution policy. The “May laws” of Ignatieff (1882) which enmesh the Jews to this day, were the immediate product of this régime. The second period, a concomitant of the abortive revolution of 1904–5, was followed by a “pogrom policy” of unprecedented severity which lasted until the outbreak of the present war.

THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT

At the beginning of the war the number of Jews in the Russian Empire was estimated at six million or more, comprising fully half of the total Jewish population of the world. =Ninety-five per cent. of these six million people were confined by law to a limited area of Russia, known as the Pale of Settlement,= consisting of the fifteen Governments of Western and Southwestern Russia, and the ten Governments of Poland, much of which territory is now under the German occupation. In reality, however, residence within the Pale was further restricted to such an extent that territorially the =Jews were permitted to live in only one two-thousandth part of the Russian Empire.=[1] No Jew was permitted to step outside this Pale unless he belonged to one of a few privileged classes. Some half-privileged Jews might, with effort, obtain special passports for a limited period of residence beyond the Pale; but the great majority could not even secure this privilege for any period whatsoever. A tremendous mass of special, restrictive legislation converted the Pale into a kind of prison with six million inmates, guarded by an army of corrupt and brutal jailers.

The Recent “Abolition” of the Pale

In August, 1915, the Council of Ministers issued a decree permitting the Jews of the area affected by the war to move into the interior of Russia. This act has been supposed in some quarters to constitute the virtual abolition of the Pale, this interpretation being chiefly attributable to the extensive publicity given the measure by the Russian government; but the evidence, official and otherwise, clearly indicates that far from being a generous act of a liberal Government toward an oppressed people, it is in reality only a temporary expedient, dictated mainly by military necessity and partly by the need of a foreign loan; it is evident that it was granted grudgingly, with galling limitations which served to emphasize the servile state of the Jews; that it is in practice ignored or evaded at the convenience of the local authorities; and that it has been utilized, if not designed, to mislead the public opinion of the world.

Evidence in support of this view will now be considered:

=1. It is a temporary measure dictated by military necessity. It does not remove any of the disabilities to which the Jews in Russia are legally subject.=

This is admitted officially in the Minute of the Council of Ministers for August 4 (17), 1915, at which session the abolition decree was promulgated. This Minute reads as follows:

“It has been observed, of late, in connection with the military
situation, that Jews are migrating _en masse_ from the theatre of
war and are gathering in certain interior governments of the Empire.
This is explained, on the one hand, by the endeavor, on the part of
the Jewish population, to depart in good time from the localities
threatened by the enemy, and, on the other hand, =by the order,
issued by our military authorities, to clear certain localities in
the line of the enemy’s advance.= The further concentration of these
refugees, whose number has been growing ever greater, in the limited
area now available to them, is causing unrest among the local native
population and may lead to alarming consequences in the form of
wholesale disorders. This excessive accumulation of Jewish refugees
also impedes the Government seriously in its efforts to provide
food, work and medical attention for them. Under these circumstances,
deeming it urgently necessary to take prompt measures to avert
undesirable possibilities, the Acting Minister of the Interior has
made a representation with respect to this matter before the Council
of Ministers.

“Taking up this immediate subject for deliberation and =without
touching upon the question of the general revision of laws now in
force concerning Jews,= the Council of Ministers has found that the
most advisable way out of the situation created would be to grant the
Jews the right of residence in cities and towns beyond the Pale of
Settlement. This privilege, =established because of the exigencies
of the military situation,= must not, however, affect the capital
cities,[2] and the localities under the jurisdiction of the Ministries
of the Imperial Court and the Minister of War.”

The appalling facts back of this dry official statement were already known to all Russia. =Hundreds of thousands of Jews had been expelled from their homes overnight by act of the military authorities.= At a previous session of the Council of Ministers, Prince Shcherbatoff, himself a Conservative, had presented the terrible condition of these refugees. He pointed out that they were perforce driven into forbidden territory, that it was difficult to direct them anywhere, each one naturally seeking some place where he had friends or relatives in the hope of finding some means of livelihood, and that because of the residence restrictions they found themselves outlaws against their will, and poured in petitions and telegrams in tremendous numbers, begging for official permission to reside legally in their new homes. These people, he pointed out, cannot be turned away from places beyond the Pale, because they cannot possibly go back to their old homes.[3]

As was shown by Duma Deputy Skobelev, “the question of the Pale was brought up in the Council of Ministers =only when the wave of Jewish refugees had already swept away this medieval dam!”=[4] Another deputy, an Octobrist, Rostovtzev, declared in the Duma: =“What Pale is this you are speaking of? There is no Pale; Kaiser Wilhelm has abolished it!”=

If any further evidence were needed to demonstrate that the abolition decree was not a voluntary act of emancipation but was forced upon the government by conditions beyond its control, the inspired editorial in the semi-official government organ, the “Novoe Vremya,” of August 9 (22), 1915, supplies this evidence. It declares flatly that the reception of the measure by the general press as “the first rays of a new dawn” is entirely unwarranted; that =the question of removing all Jewish disabilities was never discussed; it is not particularly important anyway; it was not even worked out for presentation to the Duma.[5] Certain conditions, created by a state of affairs already existing, had made it necessary to modify some of the regulations with respect to the Pale. That is all. No permanent statute will be enacted=.

=2. The decree was issued in the hope of facilitating a foreign loan.=

Count A. Bobrinski, a Conservative member of the Imperial Council, declared, in a statement to the editor of the “Dehn”:[6]

“The conservative members of the Imperial Council raised no objection whatsoever against the recent Government measure granting permission to the Jews to reside outside of the Pale. I believe that we shall have to become accustomed to the idea of seeing the Jews dwell in all parts of Russia after this war is over. There can be no return to the old conditions.

“The necessities of the war must lead us also to sanction future concessions toward the Jews whenever the need thereof will be recognized by the Government =in order to be able to place a Government loan in America.”=

The attitude of “Kolokol,” the organ of the Holy Synod, reflects this with perfect frankness:

“Power has gradually passed from the mailèd knights, from heroes of the battlefield to the counting house, because in gold there is more power than in fearless argonauts. If Germany excels us in armament and was better prepared in every other way it is because her nation is older than ours, older in its culture by several hundred years. Herein lies our weakness. But the Jews are the oldest people on earth. Their cult is the cult of gold and of brains. It does not matter that they have forgotten their glorious epoch of military heroism, have forgotten how they defended their Jerusalem. It does not matter that they are no longer accustomed to bear arms and to decide with the sword their differences and quarrels. This people has learned to draw to itself the gold of the world. It is like a sponge.... It has learned caution and foresight and is organized into a powerful international force. Under the conditions of the present war the Jews are a power not to reckon with which is to be politically blind. Would it not be advantageous to Russia to throw into its scales these nuggets of gold, these billions of the international bankers?...”[7]

The naïveté of these statements is ridiculed by the liberal press, led by the Petrograd “Retch,” with the comment that “It is difficult for the anti-Semites of yesterday to pour new wine into old flasks. The scare-crows of ‘Jewish freemasonry,’ the ‘universal Kehillah’ and other myths still terrify the editors of ‘Kolokol’; but instead of screaming: ‘The Jews are strong; crush them!’ the cry now is ‘The Jews are strong; yield to them!’ =It does not seem to occur to these new converts that the Jewish question is merely one of elementary civic decency.”=[8]

The significance of this will be appreciated when it is recalled that the liberal press reflects the ideals of the Russian masses just as “Kolokol” reflects the hopes and fears of the Russian government.

=3. The measure was granted grudgingly, with galling limitations which emphasize the humiliating position of the Jews.=

The Jews are even under the provisions of the new decree still debarred from all villages, from the two capitals Petrograd and Moscow, from the vicinities where royal residences happen to be located and from the districts of the Don and Turkestan which happen to be under the jurisdiction of the ministry of war. These restrictions were denounced as senseless by all the liberal elements of the Empire. “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, declares:

“Hereafter a Jew may live in Kaluga, but is excluded from Tashkent; in Yekaterinodar he may not live; in Nizhni he may. It is very hard to find any sense in such distinctions, even from the point of view of the Black Hundreds. If you should ask Markov 2d [the leader of the Black Hundreds.—Tr.] into what cities we ought to admit Jews—whether into Nizhni, or into Tashkent, he would answer at first, of course, that we ought not to admit them into either; but confronted with ‘dire necessity’ he would hardly give preference to Tashkent, already full of alien nationalities.

“And yet to whom, except Markov 2d and his kind, would all these exceptions and limitations give any aid or comfort? Suppose we do allow the Jews perfect freedom of travel within the country; suppose we do find villages where so much as a whole Jew—and not a fractional Jew—exists statistically per hundred of peasant population; suppose we do find a Jewish tailor, a blacksmith or a merchant in a Russian village—would that be such a calamity?”

=4. In practice the act is often ignored or evaded by local officials.=

The Governor of Smolensk has continued to expel Jews entering his province, entirely regardless of the law. The government of Kiev even refused to permit the publication of the ministerial decree until the middle of September, some six weeks after its official promulgation, and has consistently ignored it since. In practically all the other governments of the Empire the administration of the act is entirely dependent upon the whims of the local governors. Late advices bring reports of the expulsions of Jews from the Caucasus, Tomsk, Vladivostok, Siberia, and many other cities and provinces in which, under the terms of the abolition decree, Jews are permitted to reside.[9]

In many places the local authorities have even taken advantage of the new decree to deprive the Jews of rights possessed by them under older statutes. In Saratov, for example, a small number of Jewish merchants, professional men and artisans have been permitted to live and engage in gainful occupations since 1893, under the terms of a special Ukase issued in that year, although the city, being outside the Pale, is closed to Jews in general. The regulations, however, required that the Jews obtain special passports from the police department certifying to their right of residence in Saratov, and special permits from the local license boards, based upon the police certificates, authorizing them to engage in their several occupations. But now that the Pale has been “abolished” the police officials have discontinued the issuing of special certificates, claiming that since all Jews have been granted the right of residence throughout the Empire the need for issuing such certificates to individual Jews no longer exists. Yet the license boards persist in their demand for such certificates from the Jews and have, to date, absolutely refused to grant them the necessary licenses without which they cannot continue in their occupations. In other words, the Jews of Saratov now have the legal =right to live= in that city, but are denied the legal =right to secure the wherewithal to live.=[10]

=5. The promulgation of the abolition act, designed to mislead the public opinion, and thereby to win the sympathy, of the civilized world, has not misled the people of Russia.=

This is clearly indicated by the typical expressions of editorial opinion which follow; and at this point it may be well to remind the American reader again that in Russia, more than in any other country, the press must weigh its words carefully, since editorial missteps have serious consequences.

The “Russkoe Slovo,” August 13 (26), 1915, condemns the measure as a half-way measure, as a substitution of one Pale for another, “even though it be granted that the new Pale is larger than the old.” It demands =the full abolition of the Pale—“that greatest misfortune of Russian life.”=

“Unfortunately,” it continues, “we tend to repeat our mistakes only too often. When we do ‘submit’ to the demands of life we do so either too late or with such indecision and so grudgingly that in the end, instead of evoking real satisfaction, we not infrequently evoke a feeling of misunderstanding or produce an effect which is the very opposite of the one intended. Yet an act can be valid and precious and achieve its highest aim only when it is done in good time, cheerfully, frankly, straightforwardly and with decision—as befits a government that is strong and sure of itself.”

The Petrograd “Retch,” the great liberal daily, August 20 (September 2), 1915, points out that the measure is merely tentative and must be legalized by statutory enactment within six months. It hopes that this enactment will not preserve the absurd limitations of the original decree.

“If it has at last been recognized as expedient to remove that shameful blot, the Pale, we ought to leave not even a small speck of it. From a moral point of view,—and even an empire must have a point of view—it matters little whether a man is held by a long chain or a short one. =There should be no chains at all=....”

This is echoed by the Petrograd “Courier”:

“If there is only one corner of Russia left to which Jews may not be admitted, the Pale still remains, no matter what arguments may be used, and no matter what promises of future ‘privileges’ may be made. A principle cannot be measured quantitatively. The step taken so far is merely a beginning, and life demands that it should be completed. Besides the ‘right to live’ there are other rights derived from it:—the right to attend school, to do business, to own property, to choose one’s occupation freely.”[11]

Even the extreme reactionary organ, “Kolokol,” which has hitherto been most insistent in its demand that “True Russians” be protected from Jewish competition by the confinement of Jews to the Pale, now declares:

“Abolish the Pale entirely. Even now it is, in fact, nothing but a sieve. All of real ability in Jewry, every Jewish faculty sharpened for the struggle for existence, easily escapes the Pale. But this constant necessity for circumvention of the law only corrupts the Jews and exasperates them.”[12]

The persons most affected, the six million Jews of Russia, received the “Emancipation Act” with deep mistrust. They were chiefly concerned lest the news of this act should deceive their co-religionists abroad. At a national conference of Jewish publicists and relief workers at Petrograd these resolutions were adopted:

=“We are unwilling that our brethren in other lands shall gain a false impression from our attitude toward the abolition measure.... The permission to reside in cities outside of the Pale in no way remedies the evil, nor does it relieve the pressing needs of our times, nor does it affect in any way the legal restrictions in force against Jews.... In expressing our profound indignation at the humiliation and persecution to which the Jews have been subjected since the beginning of the war, we declare that the State can do justice to the Jews and prevent further persecutions only by the total and unconditional repeal of all special restrictions.”=

The leading Russian Jewish Weekly, “Evreyskaya Zhizn,” of August 23 (September 5), 1915, declared editorially:

“If this measure had been passed in July or August of 1914 we would have met it with faith and joy. Then the Jewish people were ready to appreciate any political measure of relief and looked upon everything as the beginning of a new era. That new era came, but, alas! of what a different nature! Periods of accusations and horrors, of Kovno expulsions and Kuzhi[13] slanders came and the people grew desperate. This half measure of the Ministers, in spite of its practical importance, cannot vitalize the Jewish people, and the main reason lies in the fact that this measure does not carry with it any new view upon the real subject matter of the Jewish question. This measure is only a slight relief in the condition of citizens who have no rights and who remain without rights.... The Jews are considered, in the new order, as citizens of the second class. We remain the same pariahs, from whom something has to be kept back, to whom the villages must be closed with fear, and to whom the chosen centers must be closed with a feeling of loathing.... The element of distinction between Jews and other citizens remains and is even more emphasized. =The principle of equality of rights for Jews has not been realized and without it no material benefits promised by the new act will find their way to the soul of the people. Only acknowledgment of the right of Jews to all rights of Russian citizenship will melt the ice of that cold disappointment which has seized all Russian Jews.”=

Finally, the eminent Jewish historian, Simeon Dubnov, in an impassioned article in “Evreyskaya Nedelya” (September, 1915), denounced the hypocrisy of the government and demanded the immediate abolition of all Jewish restrictions:

“It is fully a year since the terrified faces of the ‘prisoners’ appeared through the bars of that gigantic prison known as ‘the Jewish Pale.’ Part of the prison was already enveloped in the flames of war, and the entire structure was threatened. The prisoners, in deathly terror, clamored that the doors be thrown open. They were driven from one part of the prison to another part that seemed in less danger, but the prison doors remained shut. The warden’s answer to their prayer was that it was impossible to ‘release them,’ even in war time, because later it would be difficult to ‘recapture’ them!

“Ultimately the keepers were compelled to open the doors slightly and to let out a part of the dazed and half-asphyxiated inmates; but even then they were quarantined within three governments, which were immediately congested with refugees; and only now, when the largest section of the Pale, with a Jewish population of two million, has become foreign country—only now are the gates of the overcrowded prison thrown wide open and the prisoners cautiously permitted to leave....

“=Should our further emancipation proceed at the same pace, we shall attain full freedom only after our complete annihilation.=... The sop is thrown to us under conditions internal and external which sharply emphasize its enforced character. This measure is not one of restoration; rather it is like a rag thrown to the victim after his last shirt has been taken from him. This belated, partial, privilege must remind the Jew that of all nationalities in Russia—not excepting the semi-savage tribes—he alone needed _such_ a favor.

“At this time of profound mourning, upon the graves of thousands of our brothers who have fallen victims not only to the sword of the enemy, but because of outrage within our own borders, amidst the ruins of our cities, our weary hearts cannot rejoice over the beggarly dole tossed out to us. In silence shall our people accept the miserly gift from those from whom it is accustomed to receive only blows; but, as ever, it will demand aloud that those rights of which it has been deprived should be restored to it.”

It is apparent, therefore, that the legal status of the Jews in Russia has remained substantially unchanged by the war.

The restrictions normally imposed upon the Jews of Russia (with the exception of certain specially designated—and numerically negligible—fractions) subject them to the following principal disabilities:

1. Other Residence Restrictions

(a) WITHIN THE PALE. Although originally granted the right to live anywhere within the Pale, the privilege was gradually restricted until the Jews were, in effect, confined to the cities and larger towns. By the law of May 3 (15), 1882, the Jews were forbidden to settle in the villages of the Pale. By the law of December 29, 1887 (January 10, 1888), they were forbidden to move from one town to another. By judicial and administrative interpretation “towns” were often designated as villages and the Jews expelled from them overnight. The net result has been the congestion of the Jewish population in the cities and larger towns. Although they constitute only 12 per cent. of the _total_ population of the Pale, they form 41 per cent. of the _urban_ population. As this congestion tended to create a ferocity in competition which reduced incomes and standards to the lowest limits, many Jews of necessity attempted to escape into the interior of Russia. But their illegal stay was possible only with the connivance of a corrupt police. Even then the numerous police raids at midnight or early dawn (_oblavy_—literally “hunts”), accompanied by an excess of brutality, made the life of these illegal residents one of fear and torment.

(b) OUTSIDE THE PALE. The privileged five per cent. that was granted the theoretical right of free travel and residence throughout the Empire, was also continually harassed by arbitrary police and judicial measures which practically nullified their privilege. This class comprises:

_Artisans_, permitted free residence by the law of 1865; but constant restrictions and new interpretations of the term have reduced the number of Jews enjoying this status to a bare fraction of the Jewish population.

_Merchants of the First Guild_, allowed to leave the Pale after five years’ membership in their guild, and on condition of the payment of an annual tax of 800 roubles ($400) for ten years, after removal from the Pale. Numerically insignificant to begin with, this class was further reduced by police blackmail until it became almost negligible.

_Jewish graduates of Russian institutions of higher education._ The operation of the “percentage” rule, however, reduces these to a minimum. (See pp. 33–34.)

_Prostitutes._ Jewish women who have become prostitutes are permitted to live outside the Pale.

2. Occupational Restrictions

The public service of the Empire, or of any of its political subdivisions, is practically closed to Jews. Jews may not be teachers (except in Jewish schools), or, as a rule, farmers. These artificial restrictions operate to drive the Jews into the occupations permitted to them, chiefly trade and commerce, thus overcrowding the ranks of tradesmen and artisans.

3. Property Restrictions

Jews may not buy or sell, rent, lease or even manage land or real estate outside the Pale or outside of the city limits within the Pale. The artisans privileged to practise their handicraft outside the Pale may under no circumstances _own_ their homes. The ownership, direct or indirect, of property in mines or oil fields is also forbidden to Jews.

4. Fiscal Burdens

The Jews pay, in addition to the normal taxes, a candle tax, designed for the support of Jewish schools, and a meat tax, originally destined for Jewish religious purposes; but in practice these funds are diverted to general, non-Jewish, purposes, and even used, in part, for the enforcement of police measures against the Jews.

5. Educational Restrictions

Jews are not admitted to the secondary or higher educational institutions and universities, except in proportions varying from 3 to 15 per cent. of the entire number of non-Jewish pupils. (For high schools: 10 per cent. within the Pale and 5 per cent. outside the Pale, except in the two capitals St. Petersburg and Moscow, where it is only 3 per cent.; and for universities all over the Empire, about 3 per cent.)

=A ministerial decree issued in August, 1915, permits the children of all Jews actively connected with the war to enter any educational institution in the country regardless of the percentage norm; but in practice this decree, like the decree abolishing the Pale, is entirely subject to interpretation and modification by the local authorities, who have, so far, virtually ignored it.=

The result of the percentage norm applied to the admission of Jews to secondary schools and universities is that in the towns to which the Jews are restricted by the domiciliary regulations and where they constitute in many cases a very large proportion of the population, =the great majority of the Jewish youth are denied the means of a higher education.= In Warsaw, the Jews constitute 36.30 per cent. of the population; in Lodz, 47.59 per cent.; in Lomza, 39.42 per cent.; in Kovno, 54.60 per cent.; in Vilna, 40 per cent.; in Grodno, 52.45 per cent.; in Bialostock, 65.62 per cent.; in Brest Litovsk, 78.81 per cent.; in Pinsk, 80.10 per cent.; in Berditcheff, 87.52 per cent., etc., yet in all these towns only the stipulated percentage of Jewish students may be admitted.

In addition to this restriction, many secondary schools (School of Military Medical Hygiene, School of Railroad Engineering, School of Electricity, etc.), are entirely closed to Jews. Even commercial schools, maintained by Merchants’ Guilds, admit Jews only in proportion to the Jewish membership of the Guilds.

=The Government also restricts the establishment of higher schools under Jewish auspices.= In 1884, it closed the Technical Institute of Zhitomir (founded in 1862), on the ground that, in the southwestern Pale provinces, the Jews contributed a majority of the artisans, and a special Jewish technical school would increase this disproportion. In 1885 it closed the Teachers’ Institute (a noted center of Jewish learning) because “there was no further need for it.”

As a consequence of these limitations and restrictions there has been a scramble among Jews to gain admission to these institutions. Parents have employed every expedient to have their children enrolled. Another consequence is that many Jewish young men emigrated to Switzerland, Germany and France, to obtain a higher education, and thereafter to return to Russia to enter professional life. A recent calculation shows that about 3,000 Jewish students from Russia annually exile themselves in order to attend foreign universities.

6. Military Service

The Jews constitute only 4.05 per cent. of the population of the Empire, but the proportion of Jews in the annual army contingent was estimated, at the outbreak of the Japanese war, at 5.7 per cent. This is due to the fact that a great many exemptions which the law provides for non-Jews are made inapplicable to Jews. =In the army the Jews can achieve no rank higher than that of corporal.= A penalty of 300 rubles ($150) is placed upon each Jewish defection, and the whole family, including parents and relatives by marriage of the person accused, is held responsible therefor.

The results of these repressions and persecutions are known. Politically outlawed, socially and economically degraded, the Jewish population imprisoned in the Pale has festered in misery. The merchants have been obliged to resort to fearful competition. Workingmen, overcrowding their industries, have been compelled to work for starvation wages. Most of the Jewish homes in Russia are miserable hovels, with little air or light. In the great cities, the proportion of paupers approximates a fifth of the Jewish population. In Odessa in 1900, of a population of 150,000 Jews no less than 48,500 were supported by charity; 63 per cent. of the dead had pauper burials, and a further 20 per cent. were buried at the lowest possible rate. In the Governments of Ekaterinoslav, Bessarabia, Pietrikov, Chernigov and Siedlets, the number of charity cases at the Passover festival increased from 41.9 per cent. to 46.8 per cent. in four years.

THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR

It was against this background of ever-spreading persecution and misery that the great war broke upon the Jews. They accepted it as loyal Russian citizens, and not without hope that it might lead to some improvement in their own conditions.

The Kehillas (communities) of Petrograd, Odessa and other cities officially sent large sums in gold for the reservists, established hospitals for the use of the wounded without distinction of race or creed, held great patriotic demonstrations in the synagogues, at which the Rabbis urged the Jewish youth to render their full share of military service, and in other ways, presented, as the Mayor of Odessa said, “an example of readiness to sacrifice everything for the army.”

The spirit of the Jews of Russia at the outbreak of the war is well expressed in the appeal which the Jewish community of Vilna, the oldest in Russia, at the very heart of the Pale, issued in connection with the establishment of a military hospital:

“Our beloved Fatherland—the great Russian Empire—has been provoked to bloody, terrible conflict. It is a struggle for the integrity and greatness of Russia. All true sons of Russia have risen as one man to shield their country, with their own breasts, against the onslaught of the enemy. Our brothers of the Jewish faith, all over the Russian Empire, have also responded to the call of duty ... and many have voluntarily joined the army which has gone forth to the field of battle. But circumstances now demand that those of us who have not been fortunate enough to be called forward to fight for our country with weapons in our hands should also make whatever sacrifices we can. We owe a sacred obligation to those who have left their families behind, those who are defending our country, and us, with their blood and their lives. It is our duty to assume all responsibility for the families of the reservists. It is our duty to take care of those who will fall wounded or ill in the war. No doubt this sacred duty will be assumed by the entire Jewish population of the Empire, by individuals no less than by entire communities. The history of all past wars, especially those of the nineteenth century, beginning with the war of 1812, shows that the Jews have honestly and sacredly fulfilled their duty as citizens and were ever ready to sacrifice upon the altar of their country their wealth, their blood and even their lives.... In like manner, at this great crisis in the life of our country, we, the representatives of the Jewish community of Vilna, the oldest in Russia and at the very heart of the present conflict, take the liberty of appealing to our co-religionists to begin at once the work of organizing relief for the wounded and for the families of the reservists. =We must care equally for all the soldiers of our glorious army, without distinction of race or creed, for all are brothers, sons in common of our great Fatherland....”=

The Jewish press also gave resonant voice to this spirit of loyalty and devotion. The “Novy Voskhod,”[14] one of the leading Jewish organs in Russia, issued this call:

=“We were born and brought up in Russia. Our ancestors are buried here. We Russian Jews are bound to Russia by ties which cannot be broken, and our brothers who have been driven beyond the ocean by cruel fate cherish their memories of Russia all through life. Custodians of the commandments of our forefathers, nucleus of the entire Jewish nation, we, the Jews of Russia, are nevertheless united inseparably with the country in which we have dwelt for hundreds of years, and from which neither persecution nor oppression can tear us away. At this historical moment, when our country is threatened by foreign invasion, when brute force has taken up arms against the great ideals of humanity, the Jews of Russia will bravely go forth to battle and will fulfil their sacred duty....”=

The Jewish contingent in the Russian army numbered from 350,000 (an estimate made by the Mayor of Petrograd before the Conference of Russian Mayors in August, 1914), to 400,000 (the estimate made by the Jewish Colonization Association, Petrograd). The thousands of Jewish students who have matriculated at foreign universities because the “percentage rule” had closed the Russian universities to them, returned to enroll under the colors, even though they knew that there was no hope of preferment for them.

On the field of battle the Jewish soldiers distinguished themselves for valor. Over one thousand received the Medal or Cross of St. George. From the many letters of appreciation and affection written by Russian officers to the relatives of Jewish soldiers under their command who had been disabled or killed, it was evident that the Jews had won the affection and respect of the fighting men in the field. But it was their eternal misfortune that the war, by the logic of military geography, had to be fought out, on the Eastern side, in Poland; for between the Poles and the Jews there had long been a state of open conflict—and the developments of the campaign in Poland foredoomed the Jews to disaster appalling and almost irretrievable.

POLES AND JEWS

The conflict between the Poles and Jews dates back to the earliest period of Jewish life in Poland.

In its early stages it was purely religious. The Church Synod of 1542 declared that: =“Whereas the Church tolerates the Jews for the sole purpose of reminding us of the torments of the Savior, their number must not increase under any circumstances.”=[15]

The Synod of 1733 reiterated this gospel of hate by declaring that the reason for the existence of the Jews is:

=“That they might remind us of the tortures of the Savior, and by their abject and miserable condition might serve as an example of the first chastisement of God inflicted upon the infidels.”=[16]

In its later stages the struggle was chiefly political and economic. When Russia acquired Poland, through the several partitions in the eighteenth century, it frankly adopted the old Roman principle of DIVIDE ET IMPERA. It persistently fomented hostilities between the Polish and Jewish population by crowding them together in a restricted area where neither could make a decent livelihood, by pitting them against each other in an economic struggle conducted on the lowest possible plane and on the most hopeless terms, by playing off religious and racial prejudices and by every other device possible to a government with unlimited power and an unprincipled policy. And the Poles, politically undeveloped, instead of combining with the other victims of Russia against the common oppressor, turned upon their fellows with a ferocity truly unparalleled in European history.

Several years before the war broke out this struggle came to a climax over the election of a deputy to the Duma. The Jews of Poland felt that they were entitled to at least one member to represent them in the Duma, particularly in the city of Warsaw, where they constitute nearly half of the population. It happened, however, that in the city of Lodz they unexpectedly elected one Jewish deputy, Bomash. The Jews, therefore, seeking to conciliate the Poles and not to wound their national pride by insisting upon the election of a Jewish deputy from Warsaw, the ancient Polish capital, offered to compromise, stipulating only that the Polish candidate be not an avowed anti-Semite. The Poles, however, insisted upon putting up a notorious anti-Semite. The Jews, equally unable to support such a candidate in self-respect or to elect one of their own, united on a Polish Socialist candidate, electing him to the Duma. This led to retaliation in the form of a boycott directed not only at Jewish tradesmen, but even at Jewish physicians, artisans and other workingmen, which soon spread destitution throughout Poland, affecting, as it did, Jews and Poles alike. So ugly and bitter a form did the boycott assume that at times even the Russian government was compelled to take the part of the Jews as against the Poles.

Anti-Semitism in Poland

A significant observation upon the economic character of the Polish-Jewish struggle was made by the well known Russian journalist, Madam A. E. Kuskova.

“I found red-hot anti-Semitism everywhere in Poland. We have anti-Semitism in Russia, but of a different kind.... Anti-Semitic papers like ‘Dva Grosha’ accused all Jews of all sorts of crimes, without protest from the Progressive press, and succeeded in arousing the Polish people. In Pyasechna, a ruined place near Warsaw, where ten-day battles took place, I spoke to many peasants who accused the Jews of many of their troubles, but could never explain what they really blamed them for. We Russians held a meeting to try to find the causes of this feeling.... =We came to the conclusion that ... the Polish-Jewish question is really a Russian-Polish-Jewish question, and touches us as much as the Poles. They have not room enough to live,= and more and more Jews are coming there. Even democratic organizations are compelled to take cognizance of this. One peasant organization expresses through its organ the idea that it is true that the Jews are a burden to Poland, but it warns the peasants against anti-Semitism nevertheless.”[17]

THE WAR IN POLAND

When the fighting armies overran Poland, the Poles saw their chance and seized it. The dream of a free Poland had never been absent from their minds. When the world catastrophe came the Poles saw in it not only an opportunity to regain their land, that had been dismembered more than a century before, but also an opportunity to avenge themselves on the hated Jews. Just as the Russians had always played the Poles against the Jews, so now the Poles hoped to play Russian, German, Austrian and Jew against each other. It was indeed to the interest of both Russia and Austria to court the sympathy of Poland. And the Poles seized the occasion to denounce the Jews, now to the Russians, now to the Germans, as spies and traitors.

The position of the Jews under this cross-fire became unbearable. Here are several cases, selected at random, showing its effect upon the Jewish population:

One of the first towns in Russian Poland captured by the Austrians was Zamosti, near the Hungarian frontier, taken by a detachment of Sokol troops in September, 1914. They were soon driven out by the Russians; and at once the Poles of the town denounced the Jews to the Russian commander, accusing the Jews of having given aid to the enemy during the Austrian occupation of the town. Twelve Jews were arrested. They denied their guilt but were sentenced to death. Five of them had already been hanged, when, in the midst of the execution, a Russian priest, carrying an image of the Virgin, appeared and with his hand on the image took oath that the Jews were innocent and that the accusation was merely a product of Polish vindictiveness. He proved that the Poles of the town themselves had supported the Austrians and that even a telephone connection with Lemberg could be found. The seven remaining Jews were then set free. But five had already been hanged.[18]

At Lemberg, in September, 1914, the Poles accused the Jews of firing on Russian troops; as a consequence a great many Jews were arrested, and nearly seventy were attacked and wounded; but an investigation proved them all innocent, and Drs. Rabner and Diamond, the Jews who had been taken as hostages, were released.[19]

At Kieltse and Radom the Poles plundered many Jewish shops and when the Russians returned after the German retreat the Poles denounced the Jews as German sympathizers. Here also those Jews who were arrested were found to be innocent and released after investigation.[20]

At Mariampol, near the East Prussia frontier, because of a similar accusation, the entire Jewish male population, with their Rabbi, Krovchinski, at their head, were compelled to work the roads for three days—September 22–24 (October 5–7), 1914 (the first two of these days falling on the Sukkoth holiday.)[21]

In this town, also, one Gershenovitz was sentenced to penal servitude for six years =because he acted as Mayor during the German occupation,= although the inquiry held by the Russians showed that =he had been forced by the Germans to accept the office.=[20]

At Jusefow the Jews were accused of poisoning the wells. Seventy-eight were killed outright, many Jewish women were violated and all the houses and shops plundered.[22]

In Drsukenihi a mill owner, Chekhofski, was accused of having given a signal for the German bombardment of the town by blowing his mill whistle. When the Russians reoccupied the town he was brought to trial before the Military Tribunal and the charge was proven to be groundless.[23]

These are only a few instances, taken at random, of Polish slanders. =In not a single known case were the charges justified; on the contrary, their gross absurdity was demonstrated on numerous occasions before military tribunals that could not possibly be charged with prejudice in favor of the Jewish side of the issue.= A perfect illustration of this is furnished by the story of the villages of Groitsi and Nove-Miasto, near Warsaw.

The Case of Nove-Miasto

The Germans, in their first advance on Warsaw, in September–October, 1914, occupied these villages for a few days. When the Russian troops recaptured the towns the Poles at once denounced the Jews as having welcomed the German troops and having aided them in every possible way—whereas the Poles, according to their own account, had accepted the German rule passively, doing only whatever they were forced to do by the military authorities. They pointed out seven persons, five Jews and two Germans, who had demonstrated such devotion to the invaders as to merit trial for treason and the death penalty. One Jew, Goldberg, it was charged, had revealed to the Germans the hiding place of ten Russian soldiers, resulting in their capture; another Jew had shown them where they might requisition horses and food, and had acted as guide.

The case was brought to trial before the military guard, and there, under strict examination, it assumed an entirely different aspect. A priest, Zemberzhusky, testified that Jews and Poles had acted precisely alike toward the Germans; that their reception of the Germans expressed no joy, that all alike had complained of the invaders’ requisition and pillage, and that it was only due to the tactful conduct of the citizens that the town of Nove-Miasto was not entirely demolished. It was shown that not a single Russian soldier had been captured by the Germans and that the Goldberg charge was entirely false. All the other charges were similarly disproved. It developed that they were based on two facts. In the preliminary investigation the trial officers, being ignorant of Polish, were compelled to employ interpreters. One of these interpreted the statement of a Polish witness to the effect that he had seen a certain Zilberberg walk the streets arm in arm with a German officer. The fact brought out in the new trial was that =the witness had actually seen the German officer seize Zilberberg by the neck!= In the second place, the story had been started in sheer malice by two notorious gangsters, whose evidence was unworthy of any consideration. All of the accused were therefore acquitted.[24]

The significance of this episode lies in the fact that the Colonel in command in this particular case happened to be a kindly man, who, being unwilling to see injustice done, went to the trouble to have the case carefully investigated. Hundreds of other cases based on equally groundless accusations came to court without the possibility of such a fair investigation.

Another case of this sort is reported from Suvalki. It was charged by the Poles that the Jews of Suvalki had met the Germans with bread and salt (the national Russian custom in welcoming guests). The facts were that practically the entire population of Suvalki had fled at the approach of the Germans. The Germans, however, had, with their usual thoroughness, made out in advance a list of the leading citizens of Suvalki who were to be appointed to the deputation that was “to welcome” the Germans. Only one Jew was on this list.

Not all the Poles were bitterly hostile to the Jews, as may be seen from the following story, reprinted from the Polish paper, “Novo Gazeta,” in “Rasviet,” February 8 (21), 1915, p. 36:

“An army officer, a Pole, reports this: Where our detachment was stationed, I found a group of soldiers surrounding a muzhik, who was telling them that the Jews had cut the telegraph wires. The soldiers were furious and ready to take revenge on the miserable Jews. I approached the group and said to the muzhik: ‘I am glad to see that your patriotic impulses urge you to expose these Jew traitors. You must take me to them at once. You say you know the guilty ones. Show us how we can capture them and dispose of them.’

“The muzhik became confused at once. He stammered: ‘I didn’t—say anything about them. I didn’t see them myself. I didn’t see anything myself. People say so. Everybody says so.’

“I assumed a severe attitude and said to him: ‘You know these people perfectly well, but you don’t want to expose them. You are trying to shelter these traitors. You must take me to them at once!’ After more evasions, the muzhik broke down completely. Thereupon the soldiers turned upon him, and wanted to beat him, but I took him under my protection. He confessed completely to me and I sent him off and told him to beg his priest to preach on the following Sunday on the text ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’

“Another instance was this. In a Warsaw street car filled with passengers, I saw a Polish woman physician looking out at a Jewish automobile ambulance. ‘Look here,’ she cried, ‘These Jews also have motor ambulances. I think they must be stolen.’ I took it upon myself to ask her for an explanation of this. She was decent enough to admit that she knew nothing at all about it and that she had said these words without thinking.

“In these two cases it happened that I came out as a Pole defending the honor of Poland, because I believe that Poland does not require such outrageous falsifications and slanders for its regeneration. If they were not so painful to relate, I could give you a whole series of such incidents.”

Even the Polish clergy, usually anti-Semitic, felt compelled to protest against the excesses of their followers. Thus in January, 1915, the priests of Plotsk, headed by Archbishop Kovalsky, interceded on behalf of the Jews with the Russian authorities who had made numerous arrests upon the denunciations of Polish agitators.

So outrageous was the attitude of the Poles that at a Conference of Progressive Deputies of the Duma held at Petrograd in January, 1915, resolutions were passed to extend no help whatever to the Polish Deputies in any of their nationalist projects in the Duma because of their attitude toward the Jews.

The Polish weekly, “Glos Polsky,” published in Petrograd, contains an interview with Professor Milyukov on the Polish question:

“Our point of view is that along the River Vistula live not only Poles, but that there also lives another people, the Jewish people, which has a right to be recognized....

“When the Polish question will be taken up in the legislative chambers, we shall demand that the fundamental act should guarantee the rights of the Jewish minority as well....”[25]

At several conferences of Russian, Polish and Jewish communal workers which took place in Petrograd and Moscow in January, 1915, =the majority of the Russians expressed their solidarity with the Jews in this matter.=[26]

Even the most reactionary Russians foresaw danger to Russia in the Polish campaign of vilification against the Jews. Thus the “True Russian” (anti-Semitic) leader, Orloff, after a visit to Poland, declared: “I have seen nothing bad on the part of the Jews, although the Poles made up all sorts of accusations against them. But in these Polish reports you feel prejudice, vindictiveness, hatred, nothing else.... =The Jews are loyal and brave, and it is most inadvisable to pursue a policy which might convert six million subjects into enemies.”=[27]

The Kuzhi Case

But the Russian military authorities, seeking a scapegoat for their own failures, eagerly seized upon the Polish stories, and gave them official standing and wide circulation. The notorious Kuzhi incident illustrates the methods used. The story, as first published in the military paper “Nash Viestnik,” the official organ of the northwestern army, on May 5 (18), 1915, in the official daily newspaper issued by the Russian government, the “Pravitelstvenny Viestnik,” May 6 (19), 1915, and elsewhere, ran as follows:

“On the night of April 28th, in Kuzhi, northwest of Shavli, the Germans attacked a detachment of one of our infantry regiments resting there. This disclosed the shockingly treacherous conduct of a part of the population—especially the Jewish part—towards our troops. The Jews had concealed German soldiers in their cellars before our troops arrived, and at a signal they set fire to Kuzhi on all sides. The Germans, leaping out of the cellars, rushed to the house which our regimental commander was occupying. At the same time two of the battalions, supported by cavalry, attacked our outposts and captured the village. The house in which the commander had his headquarters soon fell in. Colonel Vavilov ordered that the regimental colors be burned, and, refusing to surrender to the Germans, was killed. Our reinforcements then arrived, drove the Germans out of Kuzhi at the point of the bayonet, and saved the remnants of the burning standard. All the local inhabitants who had taken part in this terrible affair were brought before a court-martial and the ringleaders will be sent to Siberia. This sad incident again demonstrates the need of keeping constant guard, particularly over all those Jewish towns which have at any time been held by the enemy.”

This story, in all its circumstantial details, was spread broadcast throughout the Empire, in all the official and semi-official organs of the government, on the bulletin boards, wherever the Russian populace congregates. By military order it was brought to the attention of every man in the army, down to the last private. Country editors were ordered to reprint the story under threat of prosecution. Not a hamlet in all Russia but shuddered at the monstrous treachery of the Jews. In Tashkent the clergy offered a prayer in the Cathedral, petitioning God to deliver the Russian army from the machinations of Jewish traitors. Even the Liberals, usually sympathetic toward the Jews, were silent, as no defense was possible in so black a case.