Chapter IV: Introduction (2)

Then it occurred to someone to make an investigation. Three deputies of the Duma went to the spot in person and discovered that =in the entire village of Kuzhi there were only six Jewish families—all but one living in miserable huts without cellar space; that the one cellar in a Jewish house was only nine by seven and too low for a man to stand upright in; that it could not possibly hide enough German soldiers to attack, much less annihilate, a Russian detachment; that the few Jews of the town had left it, with the permission of the military authorities, on April 27th, the day before the town had been attacked by the Germans, and were known to have spent the night of April 27–28 at another village, Minstok; and, finally, that no Jews had been tried, convicted or executed at Kuzhi; in brief, that the story was, from beginning to end, an absolute fabrication.=

This Kuzhi story was branded as a lie by the Jewish Deputy Friedman in the Duma on July 19 (August 1), 1915. He was supported by the non-Jewish Deputy Kerensky, who denounced the fabrication in these words:

=“I declare now from this rostrum that I personally went to the town of Kuzhi to verify the accusation that the Jewish population of Kuzhi had committed a treacherous assault on the Russian army, and I feel it my duty to reiterate that this is but an ignominious slander. There was no such case, and under local conditions there could be none.”=

But the refutation of the lie was not spread throughout Russia. It has been consistently suppressed by the military censor, and to this day the great majority of the Russian people, in the absence of disproof, fully believe the story.

The Shavli Case

Another spy story widely circulated in the anti-Semitic press was that the Jews of Shavli had been expelled from Kurland because they were detected in the act of leading the German troops on to Shavli. This also was printed in all the military and semi-official newspapers of Russia and from there reprinted in the general press. The newspaper “Dehn” pointed out the absurdity of this and similar charges:[28]

“Accepting the story as it stands, without demanding the names of the Jews found guilty, or any other details, let us simply examine the map. Shavli is not in Kurland at all. It is in the province of Kovno, and is 50 versts from the nearest point in Kurland, and more than 50 versts from the nearest point inhabitated by Jews. The Germans, we know, moved to Shavli, not through Kurland, but from the opposite direction. =The charge, if true, would therefore mean that the Jews of Kurland went 100 versts out of their way in an entirely strange territory in order to commit treason by communicating with Germans. This is obvious nonsense. Nor is it less obvious that this fiction has been manufactured out of whole cloth.= And this is how it was manufactured: Reports reached the newspapers that the Jews of Kurland were being expelled. The anti-Semitic papers at once argued that if the Jews were being expelled they must have committed some treason, and since the line of the German advance was known to be in the general direction of Shavli, =and since these people were too lazy to consult the map, they promptly decided that the expulsion must have been due to the fact that the Jews of Kurland had guided the Germans to Shavli.”=

And so this preposterous story was started on its way.

Other Spy Stories

No story was too absurd to be given credibility and systematic circulation. It was reported, and seriously believed, that at a place unnamed and a time unknown some Jew had enclosed a million and half roubles in a coffin and shipped the coffin to Germany. The chief Rabbi and the Jewish community of Warsaw telegraphed to the “Novoe Vremya” and several other leading papers, protesting against this monstrous slander against the Jews at a time when their sons were shedding their blood freely on the battlefields. The “Novoe Vremya” declined to publish the telegram.[29]

The Jewish community of Petrograd appealed to the Grand Duke Nicholas, then Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies, in these words:

“The entire Jewish people would cast out, with scorn and indignation,
those base criminals who, forgetting duty and conscience, would, in
this year of universal sacrifice, break their sacred vows of loyalty
to the fatherland. Such treachery is alien to our faith and was never
known to exist among Jews to any greater extent than among other
peoples. =And never yet, in the course of the centuries, no matter
to what persecutions the Jews, under the influence of prejudice
created by their devotion to their ancient faith and customs, may
have been subjected, has any government denounced ALL of its subjects
as traitors to their country. This is the first time in all history
that such an attitude has been assumed by any government toward the
Jews. At the very time that our sons are fighting in the ranks of the
Russian army for the honor and glory of Russia, we, their fathers,
are held responsible for the acts of a few criminals and are being
persecuted for their vile deeds, aimed at the betrayal of our own
sons. Never has any man or any people been subjected to torment
greater than this, to humiliation less bearable or more offensive to
honor or self-respect....= Your Imperial Highness! In this sad hour of
trial we long to implant in our people faith in a brighter future, we
long to preserve that tie of loyalty towards our common country which
is so essential for the welfare of all the peoples inhabiting Russia,
and which was demonstrated so powerfully when the insolent enemy first
threw down the gauntlet to Russia. We do not wish to admit discord,
despair and sorrow where should reign only unity, harmony, hope. =And
we dare to appeal to your Imperial Highness in the hope that measures
insulting to us will cease to be applied, that the stamp of outcast be
removed from our faces and that we may be permitted, as loyal sons of
our country, freed from all suspicion, to use our whole strength in
the struggle with the common enemy.”=

No reply was received to this appeal; on the contrary, the policy of fastening upon the Jews all the blame for Russian defeats was carried out consistently by the military machine. The “Russki Invalid,” the official journal of the War Department, in the spring of 1915, definitely accused the Jews of disloyalty to the State and of sympathy for Germany, and openly attributed Russian disaster to this cause.[30]

Military orders like the following were common:

ORDER No. 89.

ISSUED TO THE SOLDIERS OF THE FORTIFIED REGION, FORTRESS
NOVOGEORGIEVSK, NOV. 27, 1914.

“The German newspapers print articles declaring that among the Russian
Jews the Germans find reliable allies who, besides supplying them with
food, are often the best and unpaid spies, ready to enter any service
injurious to the cause of Russia, and that in German victory the Jews
see their salvation from Imperial oppression and Polish persecution.
Similar information continues to come in from the army.

In order to protect the army from the harmful activities of the Jewish
population, the Commander-in-Chief has ordered that the forces of
occupation take hostages from among the Jewish population, warning
the inhabitants that in case of treacherous activities on the part of
any one of the local inhabitants not only during the period of our
occupation of a given inhabited point, but also after our leaving it,
the hostages will be executed, which order is to be carried out in
case of necessity.

Upon occupation of inhabited points, careful searches are to be
made to find out whether there are any arrangements for wireless
telegraphy, signaling, pigeon stations, underground telegraphs, and so
forth, and the full penalty of the law is to be meted out to anyone
connected with this.

Reference: Telegram by General Oranovsky of this year under No. 3432.
Signed, Chief of the Fortified Region.

General of the Cavalry, BOBYR.”

This order was issued from the press at six o’clock in the evening, December 2, 1914, and immediately proved profitable to the dregs of the Russian soldiery, as was demonstrated at a court martial held in Lomza, where it was proven that three members of a signal corps had “planted” a telephone in the motion picture theater of a Jew named Eisenbiegel, and had then arrested him and demanded 5,000 roubles blackmail. In the course of the trial it developed that =one of the men was responsible for the hanging of no less than seventeen innocent Jews as spies solely because they were unable or unwilling to pay the blackmail demanded by him.=[31]

Even the loyalty of Jewish soldiers was officially questioned. Order No. 1193 of the General Staff, dated April 27–May 10, 1915, commands all the troops “To watch the Jewish soldiers—especially their readiness to surrender as prisoners—and in general, their entire conduct.”

But the publication and circulation of orders like these reacted disastrously upon the Russian arms. By branding the entire Jewish population as traitorous the military authorities encouraged the Poles to fabricate new slanders, the spread of which only served to heighten the distrust of the populations and to make the fighting area of Poland a quagmire for the Russian armies. The troops did not know whom to trust or distrust. Instead of fighting on friendly ground, welcomed and supported by the moral and economic resources of the civilian population, the Russians fought on ground undermined by hatred, dissension and distrust.

When they began to realize this state of affairs some of the Russian commanders made desperate efforts to check the spy mania.

General P. Kurlov issued the following order in the Baltic provinces on February 25, 1915:

ORDER No. 27

“Of late, more and more anonymous denunciations and reports concerning
crimes and actions closely connected with the peculiar conditions
of war times are coming in in the provinces given over to my
supervision. Such reports not only lack confirmation in most cases,
but investigations prove that they are caused in the majority of cases
not by a patriotic desire to help the military authorities, but by
personal reasons of revenge, not only not admissible in war time, but
also particularly criminal. By distracting the attention of officials
from their necessary duties, these reports promote disorder and
excitement among the local population.

“I have asked the various Governors to order the police officials
under their supervision not to institute any investigations on the
basis of anonymous denunciations except in extraordinary cases
(Article 300 of the Criminal Code), but to forward these denunciations
to me and wait for orders.

“In the case of signed denunciations and reports, the police officials
must first of all question the denunciator, warning him of the
consequence of a false denunciation, and if any signs of crime should
be established in the courses of the examination, he should be dealt
with according to Articles 250 to 261 of the Criminal Code, or the
Governors should impose penalties in their administrative capacity. I
order the police officials to strictly follow Article 254 of the Code
when making an investigation. Witnesses found to bear false reports
shall be subjected to criminal prosecution according to Article 940 of
the Code.

“In view of the particularly criminal character of false denunciations
in war time, I shall apply the most rigorous measures to those found
guilty of this offense.

“I have asked the Governors to make this order public to all.”[32]

SUPPRESSION OF YIDDISH PRESS AND SPEECH

It appears also that the similarity of the Yiddish and German languages further laid the Jews open to distrust. The use of Yiddish, in conversation, in correspondence, over the telephone, in the theatre, etc., was prohibited by legal, military and civil authorities under penalty of heavy fine and imprisonment. In Lodz, Vilna, Riga, Warsaw, and other Jewish centers, the performance of plays in Yiddish was prohibited and theatres closed.

Letters from foreign countries to Russia, in any language except Yiddish were generally passed by the censor after scrutiny, but letters in Yiddish were as a rule not delivered at all.

In July, 1915, the commander of the Russian forces issued the following absolute order:

“On the basis of the power entrusted to me according to Paragraph 6, Article 415, Section 6, I prohibit postal and telegraph communications within the district occupied by the army entrusted to me, in the Jewish, German, and Hungarian languages.”[33]

By this order the Russian government not only branded the entire Jewish people as spies and traitors, but also prevented hundreds of thousands of Jewish soldiers at the front from communicating with relatives and friends, because many of the soldiers had been prevented by educational restrictions from learning to read and write Russian. To the Jewish soldier unable to read or write was thus denied even that scant comfort which his Russian comrades might derive from the stereotyped communications checked on the regulation postal card and mailed by field-post.

At the beginning of the war the military censors assumed command of the entire press of Russia. That they used their power with the utmost unfairness against the Jewish press was charged without contradiction in the Duma by Professor Milyukov, Deputies Bomash, Suchanov and others, who pointed out that if the aim of the censor was to suppress every truth and encourage every lie against the Jews, they could not possibly have pursued a more consistent policy. Deputy Bomash furnished the following concrete instances of perversion of facts by the censorship.

1. It systematically expunged or mutilated the names of Jews to whom
the cross of St. George had been awarded.[34]

2. When the Mayor of Petrograd congratulated the Jewish community
upon the heroic conduct of a lad of 13, named Kaufman, the censor
suppressed the fact that Kaufman was a Jew, and that the community
referred to was the Jewish community.

3. Stories in the Russian press of the valor of Jews in the French
armies are either suppressed or the Jewish names cut out.

4. A news item referring to the fact that General Semenov, whom Jewish
soldiers had saved from capture by the Germans, was treating Jews
kindly was suppressed by the censor.

5. Letters of regimental commanders to the parents of Jewish hussars
congratulating them on the valor of their sons, or notifying them of
medals of honor bestowed upon them, were suppressed by the censor.

6. The military censorship also suppressed news of an absolutely
non-military nature, whenever it might in any manner have been
construed as friendly to Jews. Thus, a news item referring to the
non-sectarian activities of the National Relief Committee, headed
by the Princess Tatyana, daughter of the Czar, was suppressed. A
news item regarding the disapproval of the Council of Ministers of
the policy of expelling Jews _en masse_ and of wholesale charges of
treachery was also suppressed.

7. Even the official declaration of Count Bobrinski, Military-Governor
of Galicia, referring to the correctness of the conduct of the Jews of
Galicia, was suppressed.

8. But—outrageously false items published in the notoriously
anti-Semitic papers were generally passed by the censor without
hesitation. The “Novoe Vremya,” the “Russkoe Znamya,” and other
anti-Semitic organs, systematically published reports of wholesale
Jewish desertions, treachery, spying, etc., without at any time
producing an iota of evidence. Thus, “Russkoe Znamya,” declared that
the loyalty of not a single Jewish soldier could be depended upon.
The “Novoe Vremya” declared that the Jews were without exception
embittered enemies of the Russian army, and that during the Japanese
war 18,000 out of 27,000 soldiers voluntarily surrendered as prisoners
to the Japanese. Stories without name, date or place to the effect
that small Polish boys warned the Russian soldiers to take nothing
from Jews because everything they would furnish was poisoned were
passed by the censor, and made much of by the press. The notorious
Kuzhi canard was not only passed by the censor and printed in the
official and semi-official press of Russia, but the censors even
hinted to that section of the press which hesitated to publish a tale
so manifestly absurd that future relations with the censorship might
be imperilled if the story were not given proper publicity. Editors
received a continuous stream of circulars forbidding the touching of
questions which had absolutely no relation to the war.

9. When the great writers and publicists of Russia decided that it
would be desirable, for the honor of Russia, to speak a good word
for the Jews and thereby indirectly deprecate before the world the
merciless governmental policy, the pamphlet containing their symposium
was suppressed by the military censor. Even the preliminary letter of
inquiry sent out by these eminent Russians, soliciting information as
to the participation of Jews in the war, was suppressed. The Jewish
weekly, the “Novy Voskhod,” was fined 2,000 roubles and ultimately
suppressed because of the publication of this letter.

In spite of these suspensions, however, the six million Jews of Russia still continued, in a measure, to inform themselves as to the conduct of their sons in the field, and as to matters of Jewish interest in general, through the half dozen, or more, Jewish newspapers, which managed to struggle on in spite of the repeated fines and suspensions imposed by the censor. But on July 5, 1915, the entire Jewish press was suppressed. Lately several papers have been revived in new form, but today the Jews of Russia are practically in the dark. They have no effective means of communicating with one another or with the Russian public. They can neither prevent the instigation of calumnies nor refute them when spread abroad. They live in a constant state of terror lest some new Kuzhi slander set the country aflame against them.

WHOLESALE EXPULSIONS

This public official distrust of the Jewish population of Russia increased with the Russian reverses, and the assumption by the authorities that the loyalty of all the Jews was open to suspicion gave added impetus to the spy mania, set the Jews apart as a dangerous people and delivered them helpless into the hands of the Cossack soldiery and the hostile Poles. The atrocities committed upon the Jews in Poland and Galicia have already been referred to. But a more disastrous, though less spectacular, consequence of the governmental attitude towards the Jews was the systematic expulsion of the entire Jewish population from the war zone, an act which assumed the character of a merciless war by Russia upon its own population.

From the very beginning of the war there were individual cases of Jews, who, being suspected of bad faith, were ordered to leave a given locality. There were also sporadic expulsions, or rather a forced exodus, of the entire civilian population of localities which the authorities desired to clear for military operations. But it was in March, 1915, that the authorities began systematically =to expel Jews from all the Polish provinces, even those not occupied by German troops,= and from the governments of Kovno and Kurland, thus affecting about 30 per cent. of the entire Jewish population of the Empire. Even the Jewish deputy from the Kovno district, Friedman, was expelled, in spite of his constitutional privileges as a member of the Duma.

The first sufferers were the Jewish inhabitants of the smaller towns, because these were readily segregated. In a very brief space of time the region where the Jews constitute over eighty per cent. of the population of the small towns was absolutely denuded of Jewish inhabitants.[35] It was only the rapid invasion of this territory by the Germans which prevented the complete expulsion of every one of the two million or more Jews who inhabited this area. And those who have remained in this territory for the present have been promised, by decree of the supreme military authorities of Russia, immediate expulsion as soon as the Russian troops regain a foothold here.[36]

The enforcement of the expulsion orders was carried out ruthlessly. The time generally allowed was twenty-four hours, rarely forty-eight hours. The Jewish inhabitants of the governments of Kurland and Kovno were given from five to twenty-four hours’ notice.[37]

The Jews of the city of Kovno were notified on the evening of May 3 (16) to leave not later than midnight of May 5 (18), 1915.

Cruelty of Officials

In a speech delivered in the Duma the non-Jewish deputy Dzubinsky declared:

“As a representative of our 5th Siberian division I was myself on the scene and can testify with what incredible cruelty the expulsion of the Jews from the Province of Radom took place. =The whole population was driven out within a few hours during the night. At 11 o’clock the people were informed that they had to leave, with a threat that any one found at daybreak would be hanged. And so in the darkness of the night began the exodus of the Jews to the nearest town, Ilzha, thirty versts away. Old men, invalids and paralytics had to be carried on people’s arms because there were no vehicles.=

=“The police and the gendarmes treat the Jewish refugees precisely like criminals. At one station, for instance, the Jewish Commission of Homel was not even allowed to approach the trains to render aid to the refugees or to give them food and water. In one case a train which was conveying the victims was completely sealed and when finally opened most of the inmates were found half dead, sixteen down with scarlet fever and one with typhus....=

=“In some places the Governors simply made sport of the innocent victims;= among those who particularly distinguished themselves were the governors of Poltava, Minsk, and Ekaterinoslav ... who illegally took away the passports of the victims and substituted provisional certificates instructing them to appear at given places in one of five provinces at a given date. When they presented themselves at these designated places they =were shuttled back and forth from point to point at the whim or caprice of local officials.=

=“In Poltava the Jewish Relief Committee was officially reprimanded by the governor for assuming the name ‘Committee for the Aid of Jewish Sufferers from the War,’ and ordered to rename itself ‘Committee to Aid the Expelled’ on the ground, as stated explicitly in the order, that the Jews had been expelled because they were politically unreliable—and, therefore, presumably, deserved no help.”=[38]

No distinction of age, sex or physical condition was made. As most of the able-bodied young men were at the front, those affected by the expulsions were the persons least able to bear up under the suffering and privation entailed—old men and women, children, the sick from the hospitals, the insane from the asylums, even wounded and crippled Jewish soldiers—all were driven out en masse, without the slightest regard for human comfort or decency. Women in labor were given no consideration and many births occurred along the route. Mothers were separated from their children, entire families were broken up and dispersed all over Russia. The Jewish and liberal Russian press is filled with long lists of victims seeking their lost relatives. Where transportation was provided, the exiles were packed in cattle-cars and forwarded to their destination on a way-bill, like so much freight. In many places thousands of them were forced for weeks at a time to stay in congested villages which were absolutely unable to afford them a roof and shelter, or to sleep in the freight cars or in the open fields. And tens of thousands were forced to tramp weary distances along the open road, or, in the fear of the soldiery, to take to the back roads, the woods and swamps, there to die of hunger and exposure.

The total number of Jews who have been expelled to date is unknown. Expulsions are still going on. At the beginning of June, 1915, at the deliberation of the Petrograd Central Committee for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers, which was participated in by the most prominent provincial committees, it was calculated that the total number of homeless Jews ruined by the expulsion—in Poland and the northwestern district—is 600,000 at the least.[39] After the Kovno-Kurland expulsions there collected in the Vilna government alone some 200,000 exiles.[40] In Riga there gathered, by May 18 (31), some 9,600 families or 42,000 persons.[41] Up to August 6, 1915, there collected in the government of Volhynia upwards of 250,000 refugees.[42]

Hostages

There is evidence to indicate that the Russian government, overwhelmed by the consequences of the expulsion policy, has suggested to the military authorities the advisability of repatriating the exiles; but these authorities have refused to consider the suggestion except on condition that the Jews voluntarily give hostages from among their own ranks, these hostages to include the Rabbi and other leading Jews. This proposal has been universally rejected by the Jews through their representative in the Duma, Deputy Friedman, in a letter to the President of the Council of Ministers:

“As a deputy from the province of Kovno, from which I, together with all other Jews, have now been expelled, I consider it my duty to call the attention of your excellency to the following:—

“According to the latest decrees of the authorities the Jews who have been expelled from their homes are to be allowed to return on condition that they give hostages. =This monstrous condition, which the government aims to impose upon its own subjects, the Jewish people will never accept. They prefer to wander about homeless and to die of starvation rather than to submit to demands which insult their self-respect as citizens and Jews. They have honestly performed their duty toward their country and will continue to do so to the very end. No sacrifices frighten them and no persecutions will make them swerve from the path of honor. But neither will any persecutions force them to accept a lie, to give testimony, through base submission, that the monstrous accusations against them are true.= When the insolent enemy threw down the gauntlet to Russia the Jews arose to shield their country with their breasts, and I had the honor to appear at the historic session of the Duma as their spokesman in the expression of this spontaneous, inspiring enthusiasm. =The Jews gladly assumed all the sacrifices demanded of them by their country because of a feeling of duty to the land to which they are bound by century old, historic bonds, and also because of a sincere hope for a brighter future. And I may say with deep conviction that even now, after all that we have gone through, this sense of duty is as strong as ever.= But with the very same deep conviction I consider it my right and my duty to declare that =no privations will shake our firm conviction that as Russian subjects we cannot be made the victims of measures applicable only to enemies and traitors; that we consider ourselves and shall never cease to consider ourselves above all suspicion of treason to our duty and our vows.= If the authorities really desire to return the Jewish people to the places from which they were driven away by order of the authorities they must take cognizance of this feeling which I can testify under oath, on the basis of many conversations and observations, is universal among us. =This permission to return under shameful conditions is only a new and senseless insult. So the entire Jewish population feels, and this feeling is shared by me, their representative.”=

Misery of Refugees

This sudden uprooting of an entire people from the land in which it has dwelt for centuries has brought irretrievable disaster to the Jews of Poland and Russia. It has been estimated that nearly three of the six million Jews of Russia and Poland are now without means of support.

Overwhelming and incalculable as the economic loss may be, the moral losses far exceed them in intensity. Jewish communal life is disrupted. Many of the cities and towns from which the expulsions took place were centers of Jewish culture. Most of the Jewish colleges and schools have been closed and many of the buildings and synagogues have been destroyed. It is safe to say that these losses cannot be repaired for generations to come.

The demoralization and pauperization of the individual refugees is painfully noticeable everywhere. Beggary, which was practically unknown among the Jews, is now only too frequent.

The appalling misery of the refugees is fully described in the appended report of the Russian Jewish Committee for the Relief of War Sufferers (see p. 98). The Jews of the Empire living outside of the war zone, have assumed a system of self-taxation which, added to their normal—or rather normally excessive—burden of taxation is practically impoverishing them. The small Jewish community of Moscow alone gives about 85,000 roubles a month, ranging from an average of 200 roubles per month imposed upon 265 manufacturers down to the 10 roubles per month imposed upon their poorest clerks. Other cities are contributing in proportion but they cannot possibly keep pace with the ever-growing need.

Unfair Administration of Relief

And in the midst of this catastrophe the old struggle between the Poles and Jews has continued with unabated ferocity. The local relief committees refused to accept Jews as representatives, denied Jews any help whatsoever and even drove them away, by intimidation and force, from the relief stations supported by their own people. Of seventy-one relief committees operating in Poland, fifty-two contained no Jewish members, although the Jews constituted nearly one-half of the urban population and thirteen to fourteen per cent. of the rural population in these places. In the other nineteen committees the Jewish membership constituted scarcely ten per cent. of the total, although the Jewish population ran from thirty-five to sixty-eight per cent. of the total population in the cities and from ten to fifteen per cent. in the rural districts.[43] And =in most of these places the Jews had contributed the major part of the relief funds.= Even institutions supported solely by Jewish contributions were expropriated by the Poles.

Thus “the magnificently equipped Hospital for the Wounded, in Warsaw, created at the expense of the Jewish Kehillah, which had refitted the Roman Hotel for the purpose, has been running until now under the official name of the Warsaw Local Relief Committee. But this has turned out to be an anti-Semite organization without a single Jewish representative, its board being made up of rabid Judeophobes, who feel no scruples in the methods and means of their anti-Jewish policy. Private donations, the personal labor of Jews—all this has gone into Polish institutions, all this has disappeared in the Polish river-bed,” declares “Novy Voskhod,” Sept. 11 (24), 1914.

The present attitude of the Jews of Russia toward this problem is well reflected in a letter, published in a recent issue of “Evreyskaya Zhizn,”[44] from a Jew, the owner of a salt mine, who had been invited, among others, to contribute salt for the poorer people of Warsaw, without distinction of race or creed. He replied, in effect, that the proposal met with his deepest sympathy, but he took the liberty of inquiring as to who would have charge of the distribution of the salt. “Everybody knows,” he wrote, “the intolerant attitude of the Polish Relief Committee toward the Jews. This makes us doubt whether your high principle would be carried out conscientiously if administered by Polish hands. The Warsaw Committee is particularly distrusted, and it would be extremely unpleasant for me to feel that the necessaries that we contributed should be withheld from our own fellow Jews. On the other hand, we would welcome gladly every effort on the part of Russian organizations to undertake to cooperate with Poles and Jews in this matter to insure an equitable distribution.”

When the Central Citizens’ Committee of Warsaw was dissolved by the German governor of Poland, in September, 1915, its accounts showed that it had distributed over eleven million roubles ($5,500,000) since the outbreak of the war, =of which the Jews received scarcely 100,000, although they constitute one-sixth of the population and the funds had been gathered with the express understanding that the distribution be absolutely without discrimination between Poles and Jews.= The Liquidation Commission which disposed of the balance on hand at the time of the dissolution of the Central Committee—some 1,290,000 roubles—allotted it all to Polish institutions. =Although there are 300,000 Jews in Warsaw, the majority of them in dire need, not a rouble was offered for their relief.=

Finally it must be noted that the occupation of Poland by the German forces has afforded little relief to the Jews, as the scarcity of food in Germany precludes the shipment of any considerable quantities of provisions to ameliorate the distress of the starving Jews of Poland.

PROTESTS OF LIBERAL RUSSIA

The cruelty of the government’s policy toward the Jews has not received the support of the Russian people, as the numerous protests uttered in the Duma, in public assemblies and in the press clearly indicate. When it is remembered that those non-Jews who, in Russia, dare to utter a word in favor of the despised Jews, risk their position and prestige to a degree unparalleled in any other country, the following calendar of protests and manifestoes constitutes a body of evidence against the Russian government which must compel conviction.

These protests have been grouped, for convenience, into four classes:

THE VOICE OF THE DUMA

Early in the session of the Duma the Left groups proposed an interpellation of the Government with respect to its illegal acts against the Jews. After some debate the proposed questions were referred to the Committee on Interpellations, which reported them out, on August 30, 1915, in this form:

I. Do the president of the Council of Ministers and the Ministers
of the Interior and Justice know of the illegal conduct of their
administrative officers with respect to the following:

=1. That officers of the prison administration received persons
taken by the military authorities as hostages from the local Jewish
population of Riga, Prushkov ... etc.?=

=2. That the prosecuting attorneys took no steps to obtain the
immediate release of these persons, accused of no crime and illegally
imprisoned?=

=3. That the expelled were driven by agents of the police in
Vilikomir, Zhagory and Shadov into freight cars inadequate for the
accommodation of one-tenth of them, and that the remainder, including
children, aged men and women, and invalids were compelled to follow
afoot?=

=4. That the officers of the local governments took no steps to check
the repeated robberies by the local population of the property left by
the exiles?=

=5. That the officers of the Gendarmerie of Homel prohibited the
supplying of food to the exiles, even though they were at the point of
exhaustion from hunger and thirst?=

=6. That in Novozybkov individuals who sent telegrams appealing for
help were arrested?=

=7. That the officers of the Gendarmerie, with armed threats, refused
to admit to sealed cars persons who brought food to the expelled at
the station of Bielitsa, on the Poliess railroad?=

=8. That the police officers locked the exiles in sealed cars for
several days at a time?=

=9. That in the shipment of these exiles from Zolotonosh to Kovno and
back some of them were kept in the cars ten days?=

=10. That the local government administration of the cities of Minsk,
Samara and Rostov required the reprinting in the local paper of the
story of Jewish treason in the village of Kuzhi, first published in
“Nash Viestnik”?=

=11. That the local administration of Tashkent ordered prayer for the
delivery of the army from the treachery of the Jews?=

II. If the illegal acts of the authorities are known to the indicated
individuals what steps were taken by them towards the punishment of
the guilty and the prevention of similar breaches of law in the
future?

The significance of this interpellation cannot be overestimated, insofar as the facts implied in these questions are officially accepted by the great standing committee of the Duma as worthy of cognizance. Had the questions originally proposed by the Left groups been without foundation they would have been rejected without reference to the Committee on Interpellations; and had the Committee on Interpellations found, upon examination of the evidence underlying each question by both the Right and Left deputies on the Committee, that the evidence was defective or inadequate, the interpellation would never have been reported out in this form. =The fact that it was so reported indicates that the evidence was incontrovertible, and was so accepted by the Liberals and reactionaries alike.= The report of the Committee is dated August 30, 1915, but as the Duma was prorogued immediately afterwards, the Government’s answer to the interpellation is not known.

In the course of the debates on these and other questions affecting the Jews the expressed attitude of the representatives of the great bulk of the Russian population left no doubt of their absolute opposition to the Government on the Jewish question.[45]

Professor Milyukov, the leader of the Constitutional Democrats, declared on July 19 (August 1), 1915:

“The strongest factor in the disruption of our national unity was the government’s policy toward our alien subjects. =The foul play upon the obscure racial prejudices of the masses, with the customary weapon of this kind of strife—anti-Semitism and the persecution of all dissenting nationalities or religions—has been exercised with unparalleled effrontery. Under the mask of military precaution, measures worse than credible are taken against crimes that are imaginary.... At a time when nations are struggling for the liberties and rights of small peoples, such terrible deeds embitter our friends and evoke joy among our enemies.”= (Loud applause from the left.)

=Deputy Kerensky.= “We are fighting this war in a territory occupied by non-Russian nationalities. But =did not our government, this very year, cause these peoples to doubt the wisdom of the path they took a year ago, when they linked their destiny with ours?”=

=Deputy Tchkheidze.= Aug. 3 (16), 1915: “It is well known to you that the Government régime has been based on Jewish oppression and that at all critical moments =it aimed its blows first of all at the Jews, because they were in the line of least resistance....=

“A year ago the war began and at once accusations of treachery against the Jews were started by the Government. To-day Russia and the whole world knows who is to blame for the condition in which Russia found herself. The guilty ones were not at all the Jews, as the whole country will confirm, but those who stuffed their pockets with the money which they made on Government orders for army supplies (shouts from the left: “That’s true!”) The guilty ones were those who, with the aid of men like Myasoyodyeff, Grotgus and other traitors, betrayed Russia....

“This is supposed to be a war for liberty, fraternity, and equality, but what justice is there in making a whole nation answer for the crimes of individuals, granting that there are any?

=“In the name of what truth is the Kuzhi slander being published in the ‘Pravitelstvenny Viestnik?’=

=“In the name of what truth are the various periodical publications ordered to reprint this communication under penalty of a fine?=

=“What justice demands that a Jewish volunteer who has several times been wounded be expelled within twenty-four hours when he tries to find a place in Russia to recover from his wounds?=

=“In the name of what humanity is it forbidden to hand food to starving Jewish refugees cooped up in freight trains? In the name of what brotherhood is one part of the army aroused against the Jewish soldiers who are in the trenches side by side with our own soldiers?=

=“We accuse the Germans of breaking the laws of warfare, of using poison gases and mutilating prisoners. Such acts can call forth only indignation and protest. Let these acts be a stain upon the ruling classes of Germany. But, gentlemen, in the name of what laws of humanity are orders issued to the Russian army to drive peaceful Jews ahead of the troops and to expose them to fire?=

=“In the name of what laws of humanity are Jewish-Russian subjects taken as hostages and put into prisons and tortured and shot?=

=“We denounced the Germans for having destroyed Louvain and the Cathedral of Rheims; but I ask you in the name of what ethical or esthetic principles is a Jewish woman who seeks refuge in the synagogue violated?”=

=Baron Rosen, former Russian Ambassador to the United States,= also protested outspokenly against the continuation of the anti-Jewish policy of the Government in a speech before the Council of the Empire, Aug. 22 (Sept. 4), 1915. (See Appendix, p. 117.)

RESOLUTIONS OF CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY

The leading political party of Russia—the Constitutional Democratic Party—officially voiced its sentiments on the Jewish question at a national convention of the Party, held at Petrograd on June 19–21 (O. S. June 6–8), 1915, at which the Central Committee of the Party submitted a comprehensive report which was adopted unanimously, and which, summarized in the form of a resolution, was ordered published. This resolution, after citing the loyalty and patriotism of the Jews at the outbreak of the war, continues:

“This intense spirit of patriotism manifested by the Jews in the hour
of Russia’s danger seemed for a time to have broken down the rooted
prejudices of the Government and to have cleared the way for the
recognition in Russia, of that civic equality which is accorded the
Jews throughout the civilized world. But this would have deprived
our reactionaries, those champions of an outlived past, of their old
and well-tested weapon of black demagoguery—anti-Semitism. And so we
see that under the direct influence of these notorious Jew-baiters
measures were early adopted by the Government to set the army and the
people against the Jews. Every advantage was taken of the exigencies
of war. Isolated cases of espionage, likely to occur among the border
populations of all nations, were seized upon as a basis for universal
accusations and furnished the occasion for the invention of incredible
myths and rumors circulated exclusively to the injury of the Jews....
The Jews have been held collectively responsible for the acts of
individuals among them—a policy which outrages the most elementary
sense of justice, a policy which is no longer sanctioned by the laws
of any civilized land, a monstrous survival of the remote past....
Needless to mention the spread of discord and hatred, the growth of
mutual suspicion and distrust among the races inhabitating Russia
which must of necessity follow such a policy....

=“Not only in the name of brotherhood; not only in the name of that
harmony so necessary where different nationalities are fated to live
under the shelter of a common government; not only for the sake of
keeping alive among the Jewish people, now being driven to despair,
some hope of a brighter future, and some faith in that progress
of which they have ever been the valiant champions, but also for
the sake of the attainment of that ideal of the Russian people—the
elevation of our beloved Fatherland to the status of a truly
enlightened empire—must we offer united opposition against the forces
of reaction.... Our adversaries hope to continue, even after the war,
to use the poisoned weapon of primitive race hatred which they have
used until now. It is our task to demonstrate to the masses of the
people that they are again being duped, that their base passions are
now being aroused in order to distract their attention from their own
vital interests. We must continue, as before, to point out, firmly
and persistently, that there is only one path to a brighter future
for Russia, the same path along which the entire civilized world has
traveled, and that along this road there is only one solution of the
Jewish question—a solution demanded by the most elementary principles
of civilized government—and that is to grant them, as individuals,
full civic rights, and as a people, the right to free racial and
cultural self-development.”=

A striking incident occurred during the debate upon this resolution. One of the leaders of the party, Maklakov, a brother of the former Minister of the Interior, advanced a plea in extenuation of the alleged Jewish treacheries.

“The Jews have suffered such cruel persecutions in Russia,” he remarked, “that they might well be excused even if these spy stories were found to be true.”

=“We spurn this right to baseness,” cried out former deputy Vinaver, a Jew. “Our loyalty is not for sale. We are not newcomers here. Our ancestors have lived here for hundreds of years. We are patriots because we feel ourselves bound to Russia. We believe in Russia even more than you do.”=

PROTESTS OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS, CITIES, ETC.

Various municipalities outside the Pale have petitioned the government to give equal rights to the Jews.

The Municipal Council of Smolensk, at its session of December 19, 1914 (January 1, 1915), passed a resolution, with only two dissenting votes, petitioning the government “to abolish all measures which restrict the rights of Russian subjects of the Jewish faith, and, in particular, to abolish the Pale of Settlement.” At this session Councillor P. V. Mikhailoff said:

“We are referring not only to those families of Jewish soldiers at the front, to families fleeing from devastated Poland, but even to the soldiers themselves who are placed _hors de combat_ because of their wounds, after having valiantly served in our ranks. Thus, for example, a Jewish soldier wounded in the hand and in the breast, having parents in this city, obtained permission _only with the utmost difficulty_ to stay here three months. At the end of this period he must go back to the Pale and live there without means or medical attention, although he is threatened with tuberculosis.... This is merely one case in thousands which prove to us the horrors of the situation in which Jewish soldiers and their families are placed because of their deprivation of civic rights. Those families whose members have shed their blood for Russia are ruined by the invasion of the enemy. They arrive here to find a refuge from starvation and death, from ruin and violation. We must remember that nearly a half million Jews are fighting side by side with our brave warriors against the common enemy. As to the civilian Jews, they have no less patriotism or enthusiasm than the other inhabitants.... His Majesty, the Emperor, in passing through Lublin, Grodno, and Tiflis, has deigned to express his thanks to the Jews for their faithfulness to our common country. The conclusion from this is clear: =There is no serious reason to maintain any longer those measures of restriction so futile and so pernicious and so malevolent.... But the Jewish question is not merely a question of abstract justice. The economic and moral development of our city life is seriously retarded by the restrictions placed upon one part of the population....”=[46]

In August, 1914, a meeting of municipality, Zemstvo, Stock Exchange, and University officials and merchants, at Odessa, resolved that the country would benefit by the abolition of all repressive laws and the opening of educational institutions to all citizens.[47]

In August, 1914, the Moscow Conference of Mayors also forcibly condemned the expulsion policy of some governors and resolved to use its influence to ameliorate the position of the Jews.[48]

So also the Congress of Delegates from cities of Western Siberia petitioned for the abolition of all Jewish disabilities.[49]

Within the past few months the municipalities of Samara, Saratov, Ekaterinoslav and other important centers; the Siberian Municipal Conference, and the Conference of twenty Zemstvos held at Yaroslavl, all petitioned the government and the Duma to remove the disabilities affecting the Jews of Russia.

PROTESTS OF TRADE AND PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

The Military-Industrial Committee, organized in May, 1915, to integrate the economic resources of the country on a war basis, met on August 25, 1915, and condemned the incompetence of the government openly. In his presidential address P. P. Riabushinski deplored the tardiness of the government in calling upon the social forces of the country. “This leadership of the country has been attempted by persons incapable of leadership, and it is now evident to everybody that a =new personnel is needed within the government....= We have observed the workings of the government departments from the very beginning of the war, and have come to the conclusion that these departments are unable to cope with the situation. The supply of war material is altogether unorganized, as the army well knows.... The government will from now on transfer to us more and more of its functions. =But the longer this is deferred the less benefit will result....= This work cannot be done through a poorly organized government.... The State is a huge business enterprise, whose parts must work harmoniously.... The war has now changed from a struggle of will and spirit into a struggle of machinery. =Therefore, the persons entrusted with the defense of the country must know the country....= It cannot be denied that Russia is at the present moment facing a great danger, and we fear that the time may come when our courage will sink.... (_censored_). Our army is suffering heroically.... (_censored_). We know that after a while, with the war continuing in the same poor fashion as at present, the government will be ready to meet us half-way, but we also know by experience =that it will then be too late and even the very best man called by the government will be unable to accomplish anything.”=

This address was met with thunderous applause. Another speaker, Prof. E. L. Zubashov, referring to the Jews, declared that: =“The sons of the Jewish nation are now fighting side by side with the Russians for their country. Unfortunately this country has until now been only a step-mother to them. Let us express the hope that it may now become a mother to them.”= He therefore proposed a resolution favoring the abolition of all restrictive laws against the Jews. His proposal was met with prolonged applause and was accepted by the convention.[50]

At a meeting of the Free Economic Society—the foremost economic organization of Russia—on January 16, 1915, the following resolution was adopted unanimously:

“The Commission ... has taken into account the exceptionally difficult position in which the Jewish population finds itself, in view of the residence restrictions to which they are subject.

“While they are suffering all the terrors of war together with the rest of the population, the Jewish population, being mainly urban, has suffered particularly from the general disorganization of economic relations not only within the immediate region of military activities, but far beyond.

“Under these conditions it would be a great relief to the suffering population if measures were adopted which would make it easier for them to move about in search of work. In view of the size of our country and the unlimited economic resources of its regions, especially those of the interior, have hardly been touched by the miseries of war. There are regions in the interior of Russia where economic conditions have even improved somewhat, since they have assumed many of the industries abandoned in Poland, and since the commissary department placed large orders here.

“At the same time the Jewish population is even at this exceptional time artificially confined to the cities of Poland and the western provinces by force of existing legal limitations which increases the hardships of war for them. =If in time of peace these restrictions,= which are economically harmful and morally degrading, =are recognized as a relic of barbarism that must be abolished, it is all the more difficult to reconcile ourselves with them at the present time, when hundreds and thousands of Jews serve under the Russian banners on the battlefield.=

“In view of these facts the Commission has decided to request the Council of the Free Economic Society to communicate with the government and members of the society who are members of the legislative bodies:—

=“To immediately stop the functioning of all restrictive laws relating to the Settlement rights of Jews,= and

=“To abolish them immediately and permanently by legislative enactment.”=[51]

Numerous commercial and technical associations have passed resolutions declaring that the main cause of Russia’s economic backwardness lay in the restrictions placed upon Jews, and that the sole means of combating German predominance over Russian industry and trade is through the abolition of these restrictions. Among these organizations are the national grain, lumber, fur and gold trades; the Chambers of Commerce of Moscow, Petrograd and the leading cities of Russia and Siberia, and the national Congress of Bourses; the Russo-American Chamber of Commerce, etc. Practically every national convention of every industry has petitioned the government to liberate the economic talents of the Jews by the removal of all legal restrictions.

PROTESTS OF RUSSIAN WRITERS AND PUBLICISTS

Just as the commercial and industrial elements of Russia demand equality for the Jews on economic grounds, so the intellectual elements of Russia demand it on broad human grounds.

The great manifesto issued at the beginning of the war by 225 of the leading publicists and writers of Russia, declares: