CHAPTER SEVEN
Events Preceding The Russian Revolution

The invasion of Russia in 1812 by Napoleon shook the Russian people to the core.  Tzar Alexander I set about the task of organizing a recovery programme.  In the hope that he could bring about a united effort throughout the Russian Empire, he relaxed many of the restrictions which had been imposed on the Jews when they were confined to the Pale of Settlement in 1772.  Special concessions were made to the artisans and professional classes.  A determined effort was made to establish Jews in agriculture.  Under Alexander I they were given every encouragement to assimilate themselves into the Russian way of life.

Nicholas I succeeded Alexander I in 1825.  He was less inclined to favour the Jews, because he viewed their rapid inroads into the Russian economy with alarm.  His government viewed with great displeasure the determination of the Jews to maintain their separate culture, language, mode of dress, etc.

In order to try to assimilate the Jews into the Russian society Nicholas I, in 1804, made it compulsory for all Jewish children to attend Public School.  Nicholas thought that if the young Jews could be convinced that they would be welcomed into Russian society it would go a long way to eliminate misunderstandings.  His avowed purpose was to offset the one-sided story of religious persecution which was drilled into their minds from early infancy.

The net results of the Russian experiment didn’t turn out as expected.  Education for non-Jewish children was not compulsory.  The Jews became the best educated segment in Russia.^[1]

Alexander II followed Nicholas I to the throne of Russia in 1855.  Benjamin Disraeli referred to Alexander II as “The most benevolent prince that ever ruled over Russia”.  Alexander devoted his life to improving the conditions of the peasants, poorer classes, and the Jews.  In 1861 he emancipated 23,000,000 serfs.  This unfortunate class had been FORCED to work on the land.  They were LITERALLY slaves.  They could be transferred from one owner to another in all sales, or leases, of landed estates.

Many Jews, who had taken advantage of the compulsory education, entered universities.  They found themselves severely handicapped after graduation when seeking employment.  To correct this injustice Alexander II ruled that all Jewish graduates be allowed to settle and hold government positions in Greater Russia.  In 1879 Jewish apothecaries, nurses, mid-wives, dentists, distillers and skilled craftsmen were permitted to work and reside, anywhere in Russia.

But the Jewish revolutionary leaders were determined to continue their movement for Popular World Revolution.  Their terrorist groups committed one outrage after another.  They worked to enlist the support of disgruntled Russian intellectuals and to plant the general idea of violent revolution in the minds of the industrial working population.  In 1866 they made their first attempt on the life of Alexander II.  They tried to murder him a second time in 1879.  In some miraculous manner both attempts failed.  It was then decided a very special effort had to be made to remove Alexander.  His benevolent rule was completely upsetting their claim “That much needed reforms can only be brought about speedily by revolutionary action”.  The conspirators hatched their next plot against the life of Alexander II in the home of the Jewess Hesia Helfman.  The Tzar was murdered in 1881.

While the Revolutionary Forces within Russia were trying to embarrass the government in every way possible, and committing all kinds of outrages, including assassination, the “Secret Powers” behind the W.R.M. from their headquarters in England, Switzerland and the United States were trying once again to involve Britain in war with Russia.  In such a war neither Empire could make any appreciable gains.  The final outcome of such a war would be to weaken both Empires materially and leave them easier prey for revolutionary action afterwards.

In the Nineteenth Century, October issue, 1881, Goldwyn Smith, professor of modern history at Oxford University wrote :  “When I was last in England we were on the brink of war with Russia, which would have involved the whole Empire — the Jewish interests throughout Europe, with the Jewish Press of Vienna as its chief organ, was doing its utmost to push us in.”^[2]

The assassination of the Russians’ “Little Father” in 1881 caused wide-spread resentment which was expressed by a spontaneous outbreak of violence against the Jewish population in many parts of Russia.  The Russian Government passed “The May Laws”.  These were harsh laws passed because the Russian officials who sponsored them argued “That if the Jews could not be satisfied and reconciled by the benevolent policy of Alexander II then it was obvious that they would be satisfied with nothing less than the absolute domination of Russia.”  Once again the whole Jewish Race were being punished for the sins of a few self-appointed revolutionary leaders.

On May 23rd, 1882 a Jewish delegation, headed by Baron Ginzberg,^[3] called on the new Tzar Alexander III and officially protested the May Laws.  The Tzar promised a thorough investigation into the whole matter concerning the conflict between the Jewish and non-Jewish factions of the Empire’s population.  On September 3rd he issued this statement :  “For some time the government has given its attention to the Jews, and their problems and their relations to the rest of the inhabitants of the Empire with a view to ascertaining the sad conditions of the Christian population brought about by the conduct of the Jews in business matters.  During the last twenty years the Jews have not only possessed themselves of every trade and business in all its branches but also of a great part of the land by buying or farming it.  With few exceptions they have, as a body, devoted their attention not to enriching, or benefiting the country, but to defrauding the Russian people by their wiles.  Particularly have the poor inhabitants suffered, and this conduct has called forth protests from the people as manifested in acts of violence against the Jews.  The government, while on one hand doing its best to put dawn these disturbances;  and to deliver the Jews from oppression and slaughter;  on the other hand thought it a matter of urgency, and justice, to adopt the stringent measures to put an end to oppression as practiced by the Jews on the other inhabitants, and to rid the country of their malpractices, which were, as is well known, the original cause of the anti-Jewish agitations.”

The May Laws had been passed by the Government not only as an act of resentment because of the assassination of Tzar Alexander II, but also because Russian economists had been urgently warning the Government that the national economy was in danger of being ruined if measures were not taken to curb the illegal activities of the Jews.  The economists pointed out that while the Jews only represented 4.2 per cent of the whole population they had been able to entrench themselves so well in the Russian economy that the nation was faced with economic disaster.  How correct the economists proved to be is shown by the action taken after Baron Ginzberg’s deputation failed to have the May Laws rescinded.  The International Bankers imposed economic sanctions against the Russian Empire.  They almost reduced the nation to bankruptcy.  They exercised an embargo on Russian trade and commerce.  In 1904, after they involved the Russian Empire in a disastrous war with Japan, the English Banking House of Rothschild repudiated its promise of financial aid and tried to render the Russian Empire bankrupt, while Kuhn-Loeb & Co. New York extended to Japan all the credit asked for.

Encyclopedia Britannica, page 76, Vol. 2 — 1947 says this of the May Laws :  “The Russian May Laws were the most conspicuous legislative monument achieved by modern anti-semitism ... Their immediate results were a ruinous commercial depression which was felt all over the empire and which profoundly affected the national credit.  The Russian Minister was at his wits end for money.  Negotiations for a large loan were entered into with the House of Rothschild and a preliminary contract was signed when the Finance Minister was informed that unless the persecutions of the Jews were stopped, the great banking house would be compelled to withdraw from the contract ... In this way antisemitism, which had already so profoundly influenced the domestic policies of Europe, set its mark on the International relations of the Powers, for it was the urgent need of the Russian Treasury, quite as much as the termination of Prince Bismarck’s secret treaty of mutual neutrality, which brought about the Franco-Russian Alliance.”

Many orthodox Jews were worried because of the ruthless terrorism being practised by their compatriots.  They knew that a similar policy was being carried out in France, Germany, Spain and Italy.  The less radical Jews worried because they feared a continuation of such terrorism would result in such a wave of anti-semitism that it could quite possibly end with the extermination of the Jewish race.  Their worst fears were confirmed by a German Jew, Theodore Herzl, who informed them of Karl Ritter’s anti-semitic policy and warned them that it was rapidly being spread throughout Germany.  He suggested the organization of a Jewish Back to Israel Movement on the part of orthodox Jews.  This was the beginning of the Zionist movement.^[4]

After Tzar Alexander III had issued his verdict blaming AVARICIOUS Jews as the cause of the Empire’s unrest, and economic ruin, the leaders of the revolutionaries organized “The Social Revolutionary Party”.  An utterly ruthless man named Gershuni was appointed organiser of the Terrorist Groups.  A tailor named Yevno Azev was appointed to organize the “Fighting Sections”.  The leaders of the Social Revolutionary Party also emphasized the importance of enlisting Gentiles in the movement.  Gentiles, who passed the tests to which they were submitted, became full members.  It was this decision that brought Alexander Ulyanov into the party.  Before the revolutionary leaders would admit him into full membership he was ordered to take part in the plot to assassinate Tzar Alexander III.  The attempt on the Tzar’s life failed.  Alexander Ulyanov was arrested.  He was tried, and condemned to death.  His execution caused his younger brother, Vlasimir, to dedicate himself to the revolutionary cause.  Vlasimir rose in power until he became leader of the Bolshevik Party.  He assumed the name of Lenin.  He ultimately became the first Dictator of the U.S.S.Rs.

Between 1900 and 1906, in addition to causing serious labour trouble, and creating terrible misunderstanding between all levels of Russian society, the Revolutionary Party rubbed the sore of religious bigotry until it developed into a festering boil.  This boil was brought to a head by the hot applications of wholesale murders and assassinations.  The boil burst in the form of the revolution of 1905.

footnotes