Chapter XXI: Appendix: IV

FATHER JOHN OF KRONSTADT RECANTS

A Reuter’s telegram from St. Petersburg dated the 13th of June, stated:

“The famous Orthodox priest, Father John of Kronstadt, whose fiery condemnation of the Kishineff massacre was published in a Liberal newspaper of St. Petersburg, has published the following statement in the anti-Semitic journal _Znamya_, the new St. Petersburg organ of M. Kroushevan, formerly editor of the _Bessarabetz_:

“To my beloved brethren of Christ in Kishineff: From the newspaper accounts that followed those first published about the Kishineff catastrophe, I have come to the conclusion that the Jews themselves were the cause of those disorders and the wounds inflicted and the murders committed on April 6 and 7 [old style]. I have arrived at the conclusion that it is the Christians who have suffered in the end, and that the Jews have been doubly repaid for their losses and injuries by their own brethren and others. I know this from letters which I have received from my people, who have lived for a long time in Kishineff who are well acquainted with the state of things there, and who are most trustworthy. Therefore I say to Kishineff Christians, forgive the reproach which I cast upon you alone on account of the horrors perpetrated. From letters of eye-witnesses I am convinced that one cannot lay all the blame upon the Christians, who were incited to the disorders by the Jews, and that the latter are mainly responsible for the catastrophe.”

No Russian newspaper of any influence, with the exception of the _Novoye Vremya_, has attempted to palliate the massacre, or to lay the blame for it on the Jews.