RUSSIAN JEW-BAITERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 70, 23 March 1907, Page 9

RUSSIAN JEW-BAITERS

Mr. E. Semcnoff has set himself, in "The Russian Government and Massacres": a page of the Russian counterrevolution," as translated with an introduction by M. Lucien Wolf (John Murray) to show that the bureaucratic reactionaries are directly responsible for the wholesale massacres of the Jews. We are told (says the Sydney Herald) how M. Pobiedonoszeff and his friends used their influence with the Tsar in the direction of repressing the reform movement; how this movement became revolutionary; how the disaster oi the Russo-Japanese war inflamed popular discontent, as it increased the sufferings of the people; and how General Ignatieff, when Minister of the Interior at the beginning of Alexander Ill's reign, tried, In a moment of evil inspiration, to divert popular animosity from the Government, and to direct it against the Jews. . To him belongs the disgrace of inventing the "pogrom," a word which was unknown outside Russia a few months ago, and which is known no.v to everybody as meaning an organised massacre of Jews under official auspices. If Ignatieff was the inventor of" the device, Trepoff and Plehve, of execrable memory, were foramost in applying it. .Frince UrussoH openly charged the Government with complicity m the pogroms, and he did so in his place in the Duma. Trepri&'s reply was the lie direct, but the evidence which M. Scmenoff has brought together in this book convicts Trepoff, and not Urussoff, of lying. He spares us indeed a repetition of the horrors witnessed at Kishineff and Gomel, and during the massacres which have since outraged the feelings of all peoples. He confines himself to the methods of organisation. He shows us how racial prejudices are fomented and how the cupidity of ignorant peasants is worked up into a rage against the pel sons who have property. The lies which passed for gospel in the Middle Ages are resurrected for the benefit of the moujiks. These are reminded that the' Jews crucified our Saviour, and they are assured that every year they shed the innocent blood of Chris- • tian children and use it 'in their sacrifices and religious rites. "Brothers," says a proclamation pudlished in a paper subsidised by the Government, "in Ihe name of our Saviour, \V'ho gave His blood for us, in the name of our very pious Tsar-Batiuch-ka, who watches over the wants of his people, and alleviates their lot by generous manifesto, let us join on Easter Day in the cry oi 'D<own with the Jo\V3 !' L&t as massacre thcise sanguinary monsters who slake their thirst with Russian blood ! act in such a manner that they will remember the pogrom of Odessa, where the troops themselves assisted the people. This time again they' will aid us." M. Scmenoff shows us that the soldiers aro convinced — it does not take much to convince a Cossack — that it is tho Emperor's wish and command that Jews shall be, slaughtered. Official Government newspapers openly urge massacres of Jews, and the Husian Leagus, founded 'by General Bogdanovitch, as openly declares that the Emperor approves of its programme of bloodshed. We are told, too, tha+ from a clandestine printing press in the polico department there issues a regular stream of pogrom proclamations, and there is evidence distinctly showing from official .sources tyat' massacres were deliberately planned by officers high in the favour of the Emperor, such as Trepoff in his time, and Durnovo and Bogdanovitch. Prince Urussoff directly named Komissrroff, a police officer, as being concerned in tho drawing up of such proclamation, and as boasting on one occasion that "we are in a position to start a pogrom when and how we please, with ten or or- itsn thousand men." M. Scmenoff > cpotes whole documents, and gives particular? in every case.