Ragozin Z., Żydzi
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//-->Russian Jews and GentilesFROM A RUSSIAN POINT OF VIEWBy Mme Z RagozinPublished in The Century Magazine, Vol XXIII, November 1881, page 905.Anti-Semitic feelings feeling still runs high: to this the late most unjustifiabledemonstrations against Sarah Bernhardt in Galicia and Odessa bear witness. That isespecially strong in the eastern part of Europe, where the Israelites are most numerousand most firmly sealed, is another indubitable fact. It also may be safely asserted thatnever, even in the quietest times, is this feeling wholly extinct. Were it otherwise, thepopular outbreaks could not be so violent, so frequent, nor—to use a homely butexpressive word—so “catching,” nor so uniform in character, as they have been withinnot very many years in Romania, Galicia, eastern Prussia and, very lately in the southof Russia. When the effects are identical, the causes must be at least similar, andwhere the former recur with persistent iteration, the latter may be supposed to bepermanent and deeply rooted. Now, looking back along the line of ages we find thatno historical event recurs more surely, though at irregular intervals, than popularoutbreaks against the Jews. Wherein lies the cause of this singularly tenaciousphenomenon? Historians are quick and ready with their answer: “In religiousintolerance, with its attendant spirits of fanaticism and persecution, and in theantagonism of race.” Such an explanation may pass muster for the ages of mediævaldarkness—but sweeping assertions seldom exhaust a subject, and this can be proved tobe no exception to the rule. When the same phenomenon is reproduced periodically inour own time, under our eyes, and we are still told that “its only cause lies in religiousintolerance and the spirit of persecution—more shame to our enlightened nineteenthcentury,” and when this is made the burden of a general hue and cry from the so-calledprogressive and liberal press of most countries, we become slightly skeptical, anddesirous of looking into the matter for ourselves and more closely. We hope betterthings of our own time; we are familiar with it, being a part of it, and we know that itsruling spirit is not that of religious intolerance. We also know, from the teachings ofthe modern philosophical school of history, that the popular mind and feeling,however abrupt and unreasonable their outward manifestations may be, are strictlylogical in their development, and that the masses, when they appear to be swayed bynothing but caprice, or a sudden gust of passion, or at best by a blind and defectiveinstinct, are in reality ruled by irresistible hidden currents of historical life, not the lesspowerful because they act at great depths below the surface. To dive into those depths,to reach those currents, to ascertain their direction and force, is the task of the inquirer.Sometimes chance steps in, and by the discovery of some unexpected clew lightensthe task. It so happens that such a clew, in this particular case, has been offered by arather peculiar combination of circumstances in Russia several years ago, and as theinterest in the subject has been strongly and somewhat painfully revived by thewidespread tumultuous occurrences of the last twelvemonth or so, it is surely worthyof a few moments' serious attention, under the guidance of these revelations, which,though they concern specially the condition, power, and acts of the Russian Jews, willbe found to possess more than strictly local importance. A convenient introduction isafforded us by the general rising against the Jews which took place last springthroughout the south-west of Russia, and of winch scarcely more than a bare mentionwas transmitted at the time to this country.IThe disturbances began at Ielizavetgrad, in the middle of the Easter week. How didthey begin? On what provocation? The immediate occasion was too trifling to havebeen more than a pretense, a signal for something long impending. The first threeholidays had passed over quietly, when, on the afternoon of Easter Wednesday, aquarrel took place at a much-frequented public-house on account of a brokendrinking-glass, for which the offender refused to pay. The tavern-keeper, who was aJew, from angry remonstrances passed to blows. A voice from the crowd around thebar was heard to shout: “They assault our people!” The uproar quickly spread alongthe street, and, in a few minutes, there was a mob of not less than a thousand men,which carried the news and the excitement from end to end of the city. The work ofdestruction began immediately, and raged all through the night and through thefollowing day and evening, as late as midnight, when it stopped—not so much fromfear of the troops who had been telegraphed for and only then had arrived, as becausescarcely anything was left to destroy. To realize the extent of the ravages done, it mustbe kept in mind that Ielizavetgrad, situated on the highway between Poltava andOdessa, is a great commercial thoroughfare and a very wealthy city, with a populationof forty-five thousand, of which fully one-third are Jews. The authorities were whollyunprepared. The ordinary police force was far too small to be of any use, and of themilitary only four squadrons, of cavalry were on hand—a force particularly ill-suitedfor action in narrow, crowded streets—not quite five hundred men in all against a mobof many thousands, half of them women and children. It was a good-natured mob, too,which did not provoke violence by resistance, but dispersed at the first collision; butthe broken groups would join again some streets further off, and carry theirdevastations to other quarters where the field was still clear. As for the citizens of thebetter classes, they, of course, took no part in the proceedings,—but they did nothingto oppose them. Numbers followed the different mobs out of curiosity, as merelookers-on. A certain secret sympathy with the rioters could even be detected, whichthe latter were not slow in perceiving, and acknowledged by sundry marks of friendlyattention. Thus, on the “bazaar,” or market-place, the ground being very wet andmuddy, they spread it with carpets and woolen materials dragged out of the shops, atthe same time politely inviting the spectators “to approach, as they need not lie afraidof soiling their nice shoes.” The citizens would probably not have preserved thispassive attitude had the rioters shown themselves at all cruelly inclined, andthreatened the persons of the Jews instead of venting their rage only on their property.But, as it was, the worst instincts of a mob were not called into play, in great partowing to the prudence of the Jews themselves, who mostly kept out of sight. Had they“shown fight” at all, matters might have taken a more tragical turn, for the rioters gavesigns of manifest irritation in the rare instances when revolvers were fired, veryharmlessly, from windows. Crowds of women and children, and townspeople of thepoorer sort, followed in their wake, picking up and carrying away all they could of thevaluable property which covered the ground, or lay piled in mud-bespattered heaps,and literally could be had, not for the asking, but for the taking. A noteworthy feature,and one that shows how entirely the actors were mastered by one feeling, that ofanimosity toward the Jews, is that the rioters—mostly workmen, handicraftsmen, andpeasants from the environs—did not take anything for themselves; they merelydestroyed. Some shop-keepers and householders tried to ransom their goods withsums of money. One gave a thousand rubles, another two thousand; many gave ahundred and fifty or two hundred. The rioters took the money, but only to fling thecoin away and tear the paper to shreds, and then went on with their work. The onlytemptation which they could not resist was whiskey(vodka).In the cellars ofwholesale spirit-warehouses, every barrel was staved in or the faucets were taken out,till the whiskey stood several feet deep and the barrels actually swam. Three men weresaved from drowning only by the timely assistance of the soldiers. Many lay senselessabout the streets, and were picked up in that condition hours afterward. [1] Yet, on thewhole, the mob behaved—for a mob—with remarkable coolness and discrimination.Not a single Russian house or shop was touched, even by mistake, although protectedonly by crosses in white chalk on the doors and shutters, and occasionally by somesaints' images(ikonas)and Easter loaves placed in the windows—a device which wasfound so efficient that the Jews did not fail to adopt it in other towns, where manysaved their houses by it. Jews living in Christian houses were not molested; neitherwere Hebrew physicians and lawyers, they being considered useful members ofsociety. Exceptions were made in favor of well-recommended individuals. Thus, at thedoor of one house belonging to a Jew, the mob is confronted by the porter: “Boys”says he, “leave him alone! He is a good man, and often gives you work. I have beenten years in his service.” “All right!” say the rioters, and pass on.When the outrages were stopped at last, and the excitement had worn itself out, thecity presented the strangest, wildest aspect. The streets were as white as after a fall ofsnow; for one of the mob's chief amusements had been to rip up every feather-bed andpillow they came across, and fling out the contents. The wooden houses wereshattered, the furniture broken to pieces and left in heaps, mingled with kitchenutensils and household goods of every kind. Here might be seen the hulk of a grandpiano, with lid and legs wrenched off and strings hanging out; further on, finemahogany reduced almost to chips, with velvet rags still clinging to them, and close tothat thedébrisof painted furniture of the commonest description. Not a pane of glass,not a window frame, not a door was left whole. Inside the houses the same ravageshad been committed everywhere, with methodical regularity; every object, even thesmallest, was broken or spoiled for use; the very stoves were demolished; nothingescaped destruction.The pawnbrokers' offices were the first to suffer; then came the public-houses, thewholesale wine and spirit shops, then the other shops, and lastly whatever the mob seteyes on that belonged to Jews. The marketplace or bazaar was one motley chaos ofdry-goods, broken crockery, ready-made clothes, iron-ware, leather goods, spilt flourand grain. Of course, a vast amount of property was secured and carried off bymarauders of the poorer classes, especially women and children, who followed therioters for the purpose; but when a bill was posted all over the city, explaining thatsuch conduct would be considered as robbery or secretion of stolen goods, andrequiring all such unlawful prizes to be delivered at the different police stations withinthree days, whole wagon-loads began to arrive, not only from different parts of thecity, but even from the surrounding villages. These simpletons actually did not knowthat they were committing a blamable act and incurring a severe responsibility. Whenquestioned or rebuked, they answered with the greatest candor: “Why, we did not stealthese things; they were lying around, so we picked them up. We meant no harm.” Ofcourse there were exceptions, and in several instances, especially in other cities, greatquantities, of valuable goods, as jewelry, watches, silks, and the like, where found inthe possession of people whose social position put the plea of ignorance out of thequestion. Nay, well dressed women—ladies they could not be called—had been seento drive to the scene of destruction and to fill their carriages with plunder. Many aprivate grudge, too, may have been indulged under cover of the confusion, as in thecase of a certain, tradesman in Kiev, who rushed into the house of a wealthy Hebrewmerchant at the head of a band of rioters, gave the signal of destruction by shatteringwith his own hands the piano and largest mirror, and under whose bed many valuablesbelonging to the same merchant were afterward found.In Kiev and Odessa the riots broke out a few weeks earlier, in May and June, andtook, a rather more malignant character; more personal outrages were committed; thetroops and police were resisted, so that several people were killed and about twohundred wounded; passers-by, who were accidentally met by infuriated bands, were inimminent danger, and escaped it only by crossing themselves ostentatiously, after twomen had already been struck down by mistake; two or three times the mob viciouslyhad recourse to fire, poured kerosene on pieces of dry-goods, or set fire to barrels ofoil, petroleum, tar, and pitch, and only the greatest vigilance prevented a generalconflagration.While all this was going on in the large cities, the small towns naturally followed suit.
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