Chapter 4

Of course there are many Jews holding minor positions in the Bolshevist regime. It would be quite impossible to name any part of the Russian population to which that statement would not equally apply. For millions of people, Christians and Jews alike, the only possible alternative to starvation and death is to accept service under the Bolsheviki. Even loyal generals of the Tsar's army have accepted such service in order to avoid the starvation of themselves and their loved ones, despite their hatred of Bolshevism and the Bolsheviki. It is a fact, however, that there are very few Jews holding responsible posts in the Bolshevist government of Russia, while there are many Jews prominently identified with the anti-Bolshevist movement. I have followed very closely the accounts of the proceedings of the Bolshevist movement and of the Communist party, as reported in the official press, and have paid special attention to the activity of the Jews. Up to the present my list of Jews holding prominent positions in either the Soviet government or the Communist party contains less than twenty names, yet I believe it is fairly complete. It includes the names of Trotzky, Steklov, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Uritsky, Volodarsky, Sverdlov, Ganetsky, Helfandt (Parvus), Riazanov, Radek, Litvinov, Joffe, and Larin. It will be rather difficult, I think, to name any important omissions. As against this meager list of Jews, a very hastily compiled list of non-Jews who are prominent in the government or in the Communist party contains seventy-five names. In this list I do not include any of the many former generals of the Tsar's army now holding important positions in the Red Army and various departments of the Soviet government. With entire confidence I submit these incontestable facts to my readers in reply to the _Dearborn Independent_.

It is absurdly untrue to say, as the _Dearborn Independent_ does, that "the Jews of Russia came up in a perfect phalanx" after the overthrow of tsarism. Throughout the revolutionary period the Jews in Russia have presented about the same political divisions as the Russian population in general. Like the overwhelming mass of the Russian people, they are anti-Bolshevist. Even if we confine our attention to the Jewish Socialists, overlooking for the moment the large number of Jews belonging to the Constitutional Democrats and other non-Socialist parties, we shall find absolutely no evidence of anything approaching a united Jewish Socialist support of the Bolsheviki. On the contrary, the most implacable and determined opponents of the Bolsheviki have been, and still are, Jewish Socialists. Such Jews as Martov, Dan, Lieber, Abramovich, and others have distinguished themselves by their relentless and unremitting opposition to the Bolsheviki.

In reply to Mr. William Hard, who called attention to the fact that Jews like Vinaver, Martov, and others have been as active on the anti-Bolshevist side as Trotzky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, and others have been on the Bolshevist side, the anonymous writer employed by the _Dearborn Independent_ resorts to a more cowardly and despicable controversial trick than I have hitherto encountered, even in anti-Semitic literature. Having charged that the Jews were united "in a perfect phalanx" in support of Bolshevism, when confronted by Mr. Hard with the evidence that there are Jews at the head of the anti-Bolshevist forces, he coolly abandons his charge and insinuates another. He says: "Look how the Jews control every phase of political opinion in Russia! Doesn't there seem to be some ground for the feeling that they are desirous of ruling everywhere?"

Not often, I venture to say, has any American journalist descended to this low level. I am justified in asking Mr. Ford, who is primarily responsible for the _Dearborn Independent_ and for its policy, whether he considers it to be compatible with sound American citizenship and with the traditions of our race to spread broadcast through the land such cruelly unjust appeals to prejudice. Surely it is not difficult to see this matter from the viewpoint of the Jew, which in this instance is also the viewpoint of every fair-minded non-Jew. For the Jew it is a case of being damned either way. When it is noted that there are a few Jews holding prominent positions in the Bolshevist regime, the whole race is stigmatized and charged with being engaged in a conspiracy to destroy civilization; but when attention is called to the fact that other Jews, far more numerous, are engaged in fighting Bolshevism and attempting to save civilization, no credit for that fact is given to the race; it is not admitted as a fact modifying the previously formed sweeping judgment, but, on the contrary, is held to be additional evidence of guilt. Nothing that Bolshevist propagandists have attempted to do in this country involves anything like the peril to our institutions that is involved in this deliberate attempt to silence the anti-Bolshevist Jews by making even their propaganda against Bolshevism appear as part of a conspiracy against those institutions.

I am not here and now concerned to defend the Jews. Even were my gifts much greater, I should not presume to arrogate to myself that honor. The defense of the Jewish people against the aspersions cast upon them by this cruel propaganda belongs in the first place to Jewish scholars and publicists and can be left to them. My concern is the defense of Christian civilization, of American ideals and institutions, of the noblest Anglo-Saxon traditions. These things are our greatest wealth; they are the heritage of our children. When, therefore, this hateful propaganda imperils these things, it is both my duty and my privilege to defend them. Anti-Semitism has no place in Christian civilization; its spirit and its language are both alien and hostile to our Republic and to the genius of the race of Milton and Lincoln.

It can be demonstrated to the full satisfaction of any open-minded person of normal intelligence that Bolshevism is the negation of the faith and morals which constitute the strongest bond of the Jewish people. Trotzky has many times declared that he is no Jew, but a "general proletarian," and Bela Kun, in a formal statement, declared himself to be opposed to all religions and national cultures, the Jewish included, and that he stood only for the economic interests of the proletariat. I could quote many similar statements by prominent Jewish Bolsheviki, were it necessary. The position taken by these men is, of course, entirely logical. Not only is Bolshevism fundamentally opposed to the Jewish religion; it is equally antagonistic to the principle of nationality itself. How, then, can it be possible to regard Bolshevism as typically and essentially Jewish, or as part of an all-Jewish conspiracy? Is it possible to believe that a great conspiratory scheme to direct the whole weight and influence of the Jewish people to a single political end, conceived and led by the ablest leaders of that great people so remarkable for their intellectual power, would or could rest upon principles diametrically and irreconcilably opposed to the greatest psychological force motivating the conduct of the masses of that people?

These questions by themselves shatter the charge we are discussing. There is, however, an immense mass of direct and positive evidence available to all who desire to know the truth, but which is carefully and studiously ignored by the preachers of anti-Semitism. If such men as Mr. Ford are ignorant of the existence of this evidence, as we must suppose them to be, their offense against America and American ideals is not thereby appreciably lessened; their reckless and irresponsible use of the wealth and other influential agents at their command adds to the sum of their shame and wrongdoing. The greatest and strongest Jewish Socialist organization in Russia and Poland, the "Bund," has stood in solid opposition to Bolshevism and the Bolshevist regime from the very beginning until now. Not only have leaders of the right wing, or moderate section of the "Bund," such as Lieber, fought Bolshevism with their full might, but leaders of the radical left wing, such as Kossovsky and Medem, have been equally courageous and uncompromising on the same side[1]. A tiny and negligible minority split off from the "Bund" because of its anti-Bolshevist character and formed a new organization, the "Communist Bund." Similarly, the overwhelming mass of the Zionist party has consistently opposed Bolshevism and all its works, and such men as Doctor Pasmanick, the well-known Zionist leader of Odessa, have given their full support to every anti-Bolshevist movement, political and military.

I have already referred to the activity of the well-known Jewish leader, Vinaver, in the fight against Bolshevism. Mr. Vinaver is not a Socialist; on the contrary, during many years he has been a consistent opponent of Socialism and one of the foremost leaders of the Constitutional Democratic party, of whose Central Committee he was, and I believe still is, the chairman. Immediately after the March revolution of 1917, Mr. Vinaver was appointed Senator by the First Provisional Government. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Petrograd, and later on, after his escape from Petrograd, served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of the Crimea. This prominent Jewish anti-Socialist testifies that "not a single Jewish Socialist faction has joined the Bolsheviki." From a report on this subject cabled to this country by Vinaver in July, 1919, I quote the following paragraphs, which speak for themselves.

The entire Russian Jewry struggles against Bolshevism. This is true not only with regard to the bourgeoisie, but to the democratic classes of the Russian Jewry as well. It is sufficient to say that not a single Jewish Socialist faction has joined the Bolsheviki. All political factions of the Russian Jewry are struggling against Bolshevism.

The great majority of the Jewish population, including many of the poor, are being classed by the Bolsheviki with the so-called bourgeoisie, and every place where the Bolsheviki rule, the Jewish population, not to speak of very insignificant exceptions, is suffering and starving.

The Bolshevist regime has destroyed the industries and the trade, and the Jewish population, which made its living mostly through participation in the industrial and commercial life, is suffering probably more than other nationalities. At the same time, the Bolsheviki are persecuting all religions, and the Jewish religious institutions have suffered from their despotic rule not less than the institutions of the Christian religion.

The anti-Semites are making very wide use of the fact that Trotzky is a Jew, but the participation of several Jews among the Bolshevist leaders does not nullify the fact that the Russian Jewry, in its overwhelming majority, struggles actively against Bolshevism. _It is significant that Bolshevism spread mostly in central and eastern Russia where the Jews constitute an insignificant minority._

It is a significant fact that the only Socialist elected to the United States Congress in the recent election, Meyer London, a Russian-born Jew, is a vigorous opponent of Bolshevism. In view of such evidence as the foregoing, it is surely not less than ridiculous to attempt to make Bolshevism appear as a phase of Jewish Socialism, and a part of a world-wide Jewish conspiracy, instead of what it is--namely, the wild anarchical outburst of despairing and desperate masses of men. I venture to say that when the history of this tragic episode in the life of Russia is authoritatively written, it will be found that Jews have not been responsible for the most objectionable features of Bolshevism. Not even Trotzky need be excluded from this generalization, for, while it is true that his genius made Bolshevism the formidable military power it became, the brutal excesses of the Red Terror must be charged against such men as Peters, the Lett, and Dzerzhinsky, the Pole.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] see the articles published in the New York pro-Bolshevist weekly, _Die Neue Welt_, June 27, July 4 and 11, 1919.

VI

BOLSHEVISM AND THE JEWS

No one who knows how the Jews of Russia, in common with the rest of the population, have suffered from Bolshevist misrule will be likely to give credence to the theory that Bolshevism is part of a Jewish conspiracy. As everybody knows, Jews made up a very considerable part of the commercial class in Russia. The indemnities levied upon this class by the Bolshevist commissions in the cities have applied equally to Jew and Gentile. It is a fact that ordinary Jewish shopkeepers have been compelled to pay their full share of the indemnities so levied. Scores of thousands of Jews have had their property confiscated and been reduced to abject poverty. Many thousands more have had to flee, leaving everything behind them, thankful only that they could save their lives. The _Chresvy-chaikas_ have drawn no distinction between Jew and Gentile, and the available records, meager as they are, prove that the Jews have contributed their full quota to the long list of the victims of these infamous terrorist organizations. Pogroms and other manifestations of anti-Semitism have been too common in Bolshevist Russia to permit any suspicion that Bolshevism is a pro-Jewish movement. The evidence upon this point is overwhelming.

I am quite well aware that the statement that pogroms have been common in Bolshevist Russia will be challenged and indignantly denied by many of our American defenders of the Bolsheviki, Jews and Gentiles alike. It is none the less a well-attested fact. I have in my possession a mass of evidence which amply proves the truth of the statement. At the same time, I do not mean to charge that the Soviet government has deliberately instigated or authorized pogroms. Indeed, I am quite ready to believe that the Soviet government has honestly desired and attempted to prevent such pogroms. Lenin accepted the presidency of an organization formed to combat anti-Semitism. The truth seems to be that just as pogroms have admittedly taken place in the new republic of Poland, despite the efforts of the Polish government to prevent them, and just as pogroms were carried out by Denikin's Volunteer Army despite General Denikin's attempts to prevent them, and the severe punishments inflicted by him upon the culprits, so regular Bolshevist troops in southern Russia have plundered and murdered Jews and raped and mutilated Jewish women and girls. Just as these lines are being written word comes, from sources of unquestionable authority, of pogroms against the Jews in the Ukraine, in which Bolshevist troops participated.

The Pogrom Victims' Relief Committee of the Russian Red Cross Society published a report of its investigations of the Jewish pogroms in southern Russia during the period when General Denikin's forces were fighting the Bolsheviki. The report, based upon evidence of unquestionable reliability, showed that Jews had been plundered and murdered not only by disorderly troops of Denikin's Volunteer Army, and by the troops of Petlura and by the robber bands led by "atamans," like Makhno, _but also by regular Bolshevist troops_. The report attributes to the latter the destruction of at least thirteen Jewish communities in southern Russia and the murder of five hundred Jews. And this is only one report of many. Before me as I write is the account given by an eyewitness of the pogrom which opened at Novo-Poltavka on September 1, 1919, and lasted through the whole of the week following. _More than one hundred Jews were murdered, numerous women and girls were raped, and the entire colony was plundered._ This pogrom was carried on by the guerrilla bands led by "atamans" Makhno and Grigoriev, together with regular Bolshevist troops.[2] Do you ask me to believe that these pogroms were deliberately brought about as part of a "Jewish" conspiracy?

Under the rule of the Bolsheviki the local organs of Jewish autonomy in the Ukraine were entirely destroyed.[3] The chairman of the Jewish Community in Kiev, Mr. D. Levenstein, has testified to the brutal treatment of the Jews in that city during the Bolshevist occupation. Vladimir Kossovsky, one of the foremost leaders of the "Bund," well known in Socialist international circles, in an article published in the Jewish Socialist monthly, _Die Zukunft_, of New York, says:

Jewish pogroms in Bolshevist Russia have occurred with particular intensity during the first half of 1918. I shall point, as an example, to the pogroms in Gulkhov, in the government of Chernigov, where they assumed a particularly brutal form, and in a number of places in the Poliesiye. _All of these pogroms were the work of Bolshevist troops._

The Glukhov pogrom, which has attained such sad notoriety, started on February 28, 1918, after a Bolshevist detachment had entered the city. The Red Army men, transformed into savage beasts, murdered the arrested Jews who were being taken under guard to the building of the Soviet, _and the street which housed the Soviet was literally sodden with Jewish blood. All Jewish stores and residences were sacked._ Peasants from the near-by villages soon joined the plunderers of the Red Guard in their work of looting and pillaging. According to newspaper reports, four hundred and fifty Jews were murdered, among these some Jewish soldiers who had been rewarded with "St. George" medals for bravery. Long lists of victims--such as could be identified--were at that time published in the newspapers. _The pogrom was directed exclusively against the Jews, and the Christian population of the city did not suffer in the least._

Concerning the pogroms in Poliesiye, Kossovsky quotes from the official organ of the Menshevist party, the _Novaia Zaria_, of Moscow, June 10, 1918, the following:

The large Jewish population of this region (Poliesiye) finds itself in a particularly tragic situation. The "activity" of the Red Army in Novogorod-Sieversk, Seredina-Buda, and Glukhov, where the Soviet detachments massacred the Jewish populations, has found an echo in other cities, and the sword of Damocles hangs at present over the unfortunate Jewish people. In the city of Potchep the Jews saved themselves from a pogrom by collecting in time fifteen thousand rubles, which they handed over to the pogrom-mad Red Army detachment upon its entrance into the city, in addition to giving it a splendid reception and a sumptuous feast. As reward for this reception the bashi-bazouks of the Soviet decided to spare the city.

Pogroms and other manifestations of anti-Semitism have been so common in Bolshevist Russia as to make the "Jewish question" one of extreme difficulty and importance. In numerous Soviets, notably Yaroslavl, Vitebsk, and Smolensk, Jewish members were openly insulted by the Bolsheviki; such epithets as "_szhid!_" ("sheeny!") were hurled at the Jewish members. Once more I quote from the article by Kossovsky:

In the provinces the pogrom mania invaded even the Soviets, not mentioning the Red Army which became more and more infected with it. According to the Kiev _Naiye Zait_, in the Vitebsk Soviet shouts were heard, "Chase the Jews out of the Soviets and its institutions!" In the Yaroslavl Soviet, according to information printed in the Moscow Social-Democratic newspaper, _Vperiod_, there were often heard insulting and shameful cries directed against the Jews. In Smolensk, according to _Svobodnaya Rossia_, members of the Red Army would come to the Soviet and demand that Jews be barred from holding posts as war commissaries and commanders. A lively anti-Semitic propaganda was carried on in Moscow and Petrograd, too, though it never reached the stage of a pogrom. In Petrograd anti-Jewish posters, signed by a "Kamorra of the People's Revenge," were spread broadcast. As a result of the apprehensiveness aroused, detachments for self-defense were organized by the Jews of Moscow. In Petrograd the Bolshevist authorities did not permit the organization of self-defense bodies, fearing lest the weapons of the self-defense detachments be turned against the Soviet.

Upon the initiative of the Petrograd Jewish Community the day of May 23, 1918, was designated as a Jewish National Day of Mourning throughout Russia as a protest against the latter-day Jewish pogroms in Russia. On that day the Jews were to close all their business establishments, not to issue newspapers, etc., etc. The May 23d issue of the Petrograd Jewish daily, _Unser Tagblat_, appeared in a black border and was full of articles relating to anti-Jewish attacks and pogroms, entitled: "Protest by Mourning," "Let Jewish Blood Boil," "The Day of Sorrow," "The Bloody Roll (Statistics Concerning Jewish Pogroms)." To convey to the reader the substance of these articles I will quote the closing words of the article, "The Bloody Roll": "The old tsarist, bloody Russia, fell, and a new Russia, a radical-Socialist, a communist, Russia came in its place. And still, as before, we stand facing a roster of Jewish pogroms, a roster which is, as yet, far from ended, as each day adds new names, new victims, and new massacres."

Mr. Louis Marshall, who is universally recognized as one of the foremost leaders of the American Jewry and who headed the American-Jewish delegation to the Peace Conference, in an interview published in the New York Jewish daily newspaper, _The Day_, July 27, 1919, categorically denied the assertion that there have been no Jewish pogroms under the rule of the Bolsheviki. He declared that such pogroms took place in the districts of the Ukraine controlled by the Bolsheviki as well as in those controlled by the robber bands. "We know of such pogroms having occurred," he said, "and very often the Bolsheviki care just as little about the Jews as others who make pogroms. It is possible that some of their pogroms are at times different, but in substance there were Jewish pogroms in Bolshevist territory as well." Mr. Marshall added the following observation: "_All Jewish representatives that I have met in Paris who came from Russia are strong opponents of Bolshevism. Even to this day the Jewish Socialist parties are no less sharp in their condemnation of the Bolsheviki than are the bourgeois parties._"

So far as I have been able to discover, there is not a large Jewish Community in Russia which has not repudiated Bolshevism. Not in a single instance has the support of the leaders of such a Community been given to the Lenin-Trotzky regime. For example, I have before me the report of the annual general meeting of the Jewish Community of Archangel, which took place on May 11, 1919. Therein is contained a Memorandum by the Council of the Community on the relation of the Jews to Bolshevism. The Memorandum points out that, while it is true that there are Jews among the leaders of the Bolsheviki, it is also true that there are many Jews among the leaders of the anti-Bolshevist forces. It names such men as MM. Vinaver, Gotz, Minor, Bliumkin (who assassinated Count Mirbach), Kannengisser (who shot Uritzki), and Dora Kaplan (who attempted to assassinate Lenin and forfeited her own life).