BEHIND COMMUNISM
by Frank L. Britton
Probably published in 1952
NB The encyclopaedia which Mr Britton refers to is available on line at Encyclopædia Britannica although it may be an earlier edition than the one he mentions. The Jewish Encyclopedia is also on line and very probably censored.
Behind Communism by Frank L. Britton (undated - 1952?)NOTE [BY FRANK BRITTON]: Encyclopedia Britannica is used as a reference source because of its ready availability to the average reader. It is not an "anti-Semitic" publication. In fact, the Encylopedia Britannica Corporation was purchased by the Julius Rosenwald interests in 1920, and since then all material pertaining to the Jewish question his been re-written to conform to the Jewish outlook.The Funk & Wagnall's Jewish Encyclopedia [ see Jewish Encyclopedia ] is uniformly referred to throughout this work as the "Jewish Encyclopedia." Consisting of 12 volumes, it is available in all major libraries. It should not be confused with the 10 volume "Universal Jewish Encyclopedia," published by Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc., New York, 1939. Both, however, are authoritative Jewish publications, compiled by and for Jews. Valentine's Jewish Encyclopedia, Shapiro Valentine Co., London - 1938. England. Outline of History, third edition, by H. G. Wells. |
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Expelled
The Fourth Lateran Council restricted Jewish commercial
advantage but it did not end the Jewish problem. Beginning in the latter part
of the 13th century, one European country after another expelled its Jewish
population as the only final solution to the problem. First to take the step
was England which banned them in 1290. Fifteen years later in 1306 the French
followed suit. In steady succession the various states of Europe emulated
this example with Spain being one of the last to enforce the ban in 1492.
The situation in Spain is worth noting. Says Encyclopedia Britannica:
[page 57, vol. 13 - 1947]: "... The 14th century was the golden age of
their history in Spain. In 1391 the preaching of a priest of Seville, Fernando
Martenez, led to the first general massacre of the Jews who were envied for
their prosperity and hated because they were the king's tax collectors."
Ferdinand and Isabella, after uniting Spain and driving out the Moors turned
their attention to the Jewish problem, with the result that they were evicted
completely in 1492. In 1498 Portugal evicted its Jewish population also.
The Exploiters
A great deal has been said about the "persecution"
of the Jews in Europe and elsewhere, and they have pretty well convinced the
world (or at least Americans) that these hardships were inflicted on an innocent
people. But these rich Spanish Jews we see being evicted in 1492 were not
down-trodden folk. They were the wealthy, the privileged, the exploiters:
they were the well-fed merchants and the gouging tax collectors ...
So it was in Portugal; in that country we find that
the deportation of the Jews ... "deprived Portugal of its middle class
and its most scientific traders and financiers." [Encyclopedia Britannica,
page 279, vol. 18 - 1947.] Undeniably this class of traders and financiers
was put to hardship by this banishment, but it does not follow that they were
victims of discrimination in the accepted sense, nor were they underprivileged
in any way. Rather we see a wealthy merchant group being ousted from its seat
of vested privilege by a thoroughly outraged, and a thoroughly exploited Christian
society ...
The situation in England was similar. The Jews had
come to England in the wake of the Norman conquest and had quickly gained
a position of wealth and prosperity. Says Valentine's Jewish Encyclopedia
of this period: "Their numbers and prosperity increased, Aaron of Lincoln
being the wealthiest man in England in his time ... his financial transactions
covering the whole country and concerning many of the leading nobles and churchmen
... On his death his property passed to the crown and a special branch of
the exchequer had to be created to deal with it."
England
England, ironically enough, was the last country to
be invaded by the Jews and the first to evict them. After the Fourth Lateran
Council the Jews had become increasingly difficult to deal with and there
were a number of anti-Jewish riots. Perplexed by the problem posed by this
alien minority which seemed well on its way to corralling the kingdom's wealth,
and failing in an attempt to force its assimilation. Edward I confiscated
all Jewish wealth and evicted them permanently in 1290. Not until 1655 was
a Jew legally permitted to re-enter England. Britain thus established the
precedent for the later eviction which soon followed on the continent.
France
In France too the Jews were dominant in trade and
finance and had been since before Charlemagne's time. Under Philip the Fair
(1285-1314) one of the last, and certainly one of the greatest of the Capetian
line, France had become the greatest power in Europe. It was Philip's need
for money which led him to seize Jewish wealth and drive them from the country.
He had already before 1306 taken desperate measures to raise money, which
was in short supply, by forbidding the export of gold and silver from France.
The same need for money brought him into conflict with the Templars, whose
wealth he also seized. But it was the Jews who controlled the greatest supply
of floating wealth. In 1306 Philip solved his financial problem—and France's
Jewish problem—by expropriating their wealth and evicting them. Thus ended
the centuries-long commercial dominance of the Jew in France. Later a few
were permitted to return and these were in turn ejected in 1394.
Back to Poland
By 1500 all of Western Europe except northern Italy,
parts of Germany, and the Papal possessions around Avignon, had been rid of
the Jewish invasion. For a while, at least, Europe was free of the Jews; not
until 1650 did they return in any numbers. Says Encyclopedia Britannica:
[page 57-58, vol. 13 - 1947.] "The great mass of the Jewish people were
thus to be found once more in the East, in the Polish and Turkish empires
. . The few communities suffered to remain in western Europe were meanwhile
subjected at last to all the restrictions which earlier ages had usually allowed
to remain as an ideal; so that in a sense, the Jewish dark ages may be said
to begin with the Renaissance."
The Ghettos
"Wherever Jews have settled, since the beginning
of the Diaspora, they have proceeded to create their own communal organizations.
Various factors of an internal character—religious, cultural, social, and
economic—as well as external factors, have contributed to this factor" (Page
201, The Jewish People, Past and Present, by the Central Yiddish Culture
Organization (CYCO), New York).
It is virtually impossible to comprehend the character
of Judaism without some knowledge of the nature of the Medieval Jewish community.
(Kahal; Ghetto). Probably one of the commonest fallacies extant today concerns
the true origin of the ghetto. Most history books defer to Jewish sensibilities
by giving the Jewish version, namely that the Jewish people were for centuries
forced to reside in a special quarter of the city as a result of the bigotry
and intolerance of the Christian majority. This is not true, and no scholar
of Judaism believes it to be.
Valentine's Jewish Encyclopedia describes the
origin of the ghetto as follows: "At any rate the word became general for
a Jew's quarter. Already in antiquity the Jews voluntarily occupied special
quarters; In the Middle Ages, Jew's streets or Jewries were to be found from
the end of the 11th century, but the motive of their concentration was no
longer religious or social: trade caused them to settle near the market, or
danger made them seek the protection of the reigning prince, the protector
also wishing to have them together for the easier collection of taxes. It
was not until the 13th century that the Jew's quarter was turned into a compulsory
Ghetto. ... The concentration of Jews in Ghettos, although unintended, had
its good result. It preserved the communal feeling and the traditional Jewish
culture."
As a point of fact these ghetto-communities existed
only because the Jews wanted them to exist—they represented a desire on the
part of Jewry to remain aloof and exclusive of Christian Society. Says Valentine's
Jewish Encyclopedia [p 589]: "There were as a rule officially recognized
authorities in the Jewish communities in Europe during the Middle Ages to
regulate their own affairs and to treat as a body with the civil government.
Even with no other incentive but that of living up to the requirements of
Judaism the Jews of a locality were compelled to organize themselves into
a community (Kahal; Kehilla), in order to regulate ritual, educational and
charitable institutions. Courts of law were also a necessity, since Jewish
litigants were expected to obey the civil code of the Talmud."
The ghetto was not merely a place of residence; it
was in the fullest sense a community within a community. Here the Jews maintained
their culture, their religion, and their tradition of solidarity. Here they
nursed their age-long hatred for Christian civilization. Says Encyclopedia
Britannica [p 59, vol. 13 - 1947.]: "All these activities necessitated
a great deal of legislation and in this the autonomous Jewish community was
granted the widest latitude. Ordinances were enacted by Jews governing every
phase of life: business, synagogue attendance, social morals, policing, prescriptions
for dress, and a detailed regimentation of amusements ... The characteristic
common to the medieval Jewish community were: self imposed discipline, the
considering of all religious, philanthropic, educational, and self defense
problems as common concerns, and a strong sense of solidarity fortified by
a uniform way of life."
For ten centuries preceding the great evictions, in
virtually every Christian nation of Europe (and in Mohammedan Spain, Africa,
and Asia Minor) these Jews settled into these parasitic ghetto-communities
and here they nurtured and maintained a culture which was quite a thing apart
from the culture of the European. When finally they were driven from Western
Europe in the centuries preceding the Renaissance, we find them settling and
establishing ghetto-communities in Poland and Russia which have lasted down
to the present day. The Medieval ghetto did not disappear with the ending
of the Dark Ages—it was transferred, unimpaired, to Eastern Europe, where
the majority of the world's Jews settled.
The institution of the ghetto has enabled two basically
different cultures and peoples to remain side by side—one Asiatic and Judaic,
the other European and Christian—without becoming integrated. It is primarily
for this reason that the Jew has remained an alien in spite of centuries of
exposure to Christian civilization. And that is why the Spanish Jew remained
a Jew first and a Spaniard second, and why the Polish Jew, the Russian Jew,
and the German Jew, have given their first allegiance to Judah and rendered
a sort of second-hand loyalty to the country of their abode.
The Chazars [This map is based on Britton's reproduction from Funk & Wagnall,
itself based on Atlas de Géographie Historique by Schrader. Shading
showed Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Mohammedans, Jews, and Pagans.
The modern Jew with his Yiddish culture and rapacious
financial traditions should not be confused with the biblical Hebrews, who
were mainly a pastoral people. The international Jew of modern times is indeed
the bastardized product of a bastardized past. He does not truly worship the
Bible, but the Talmud; he does not speak Hebrew, but Yiddish; he is not descended
from Israel, but from the scum of the eastern Mediterranean. This is vividly
illustrated by H. G. Wells in his great Outline of History:
"The Jewish idea was and is a curious combination
of theological breadth and an intense racial patriotism. The Jews looked for
a special saviour, a Messiah, who was to redeem mankind by the agreeable process
of restoring the fabulous glories of David and Solomon, and bringing the
whole world it last under the benevolent but firm Jewish heel. As the political
power of the peoples declined as Carthage followed Tyre into the darkness
and Spain became a Roman province, this dream grew and spread. There can
be little doubt that the scattered Phoenicians in Spain and Africa and throughout
the Mediterranean, speaking as they did a language closely akin to Hebrew
and being deprived of their authentic political rights, became proselytes
to Judaism. For phases of vigorous proselytism alternated with phases of
exclusive jealousy in Jewish history. On one occasion the Idumeans, being
conquered, were all forcibly made Jews. (Josephus). There were Arab tribes
who were Jews in the time of Muhammad, and a Turkish people who were mainly
Jews in South Russia in the ninth century. Judaism is indeed the reconstructed
political ideal of many shattered peoples—mainly Semitic. It is to the Phoenician
contingent and to Aramean accessions in Babylon that the financial and commercial
tradition of the Jews is to be ascribed. But as a result of these coalescences
and assimilations, almost everywhere in the towns throughout the Roman Empire,
and far beyond it in the east, Jewish communities traded and flourished, and
were kept in touch through the Bible, and through a religious and educational
organization. The main part of Jewry never was in Judea and had never come
out of Judea." [Outline of History page 493-494, third edition,
by H. G. Wells. Section 'Christianity and Islam', with a footnote recommending
the Cambridge Medieval History.-RW]
The "Turkish" people whom Wells mentions were the
Chazars [Chazar=Khazar], who built an empire in south Russia in the 9th century
A. D. This Chazar empire was infiltrated by large numbers of Byzantine Jews.
By process of intermarriage and conversion these Chazars became identified
as Jews and in all Jewish histories and encyclopedias the words "Chazar" and
"Jew" are used interchangeably. In the tenth century a succession of invasions
destroyed the Chazar empire and large numbers of these Chazar-Jews settled
in the area of what is now Poland. Others found their way to western Europe
and Spain, where they mingled with the already bastardized conglomeration
of European Jewry.
The modern Jew is descended from a mixture of Asiatic peoples,
largely Semitic in origin, but not Hebraic.
I've indicated the boundaries, on the same map, of the Khazars,
the Pale, and Russia; and emphasised where Ukraine is. The rectangle corresponds
to the maps of Poland, below-RW]
Poland's Fate
These Jews we find settling in Poland in the early
14th century came there at the invitation of Casimir I, who seems to have
been under strong Jewish influence. As early as the 10th century the Jews
(chiefly of Khazar origin) were influential in Poland, and by the 12th century
they were well enough entrenched to monopolize the coinage of Poland's money.
Says the Jewish Encyclopedia: [Funk & Wagnall's Jewish Encyclopedia,
page 56, vol. 10] "Coins unearthed in 1812 in the Great Polish village
of Glenbok show conclusively that in the reigns of Mieczyslauw III (1173-1209),
Casimir, and Leshek (1194-1205), the Jews were, as stated above, in charge
of the coinage of Great and Little Poland." It is interesting to note
that these coins bore Jewish as well as Polish inscriptions.
The history of Poland for the next 3 centuries revolves
around the struggle for supremacy between the native Polish people and the
Jews. During the greater part of that time Poland was more or less dominated
by the Jews—a situation most beneficial to all, according to Jewish history
books. But when, as occasionally happened, there was a lapse in Jewish fortunes,
these same histories are replete with accounts of gentile cruelty and bestiality
to the chosen race. And because these laments have been repeated often enough
and loudly enough there is a widely held belief that Poland has been a land
of oppression for Jewry ...
It has been the unhappy fate of Poland to be saddled
for the greater part of its history with a large proportion of the world's
Jewish population. This, more than anything else, accounts for the tragic
disunity which has kept Poland from taking its place among the great nations
of the earth.
In 1793 (third partition) Poland was divided between
Prussia and Russia and thus ceased to exist as a nation. Russia thus fell
heir to a full fledged Jewish problem.
Russia
The third partition of Poland was an event of paramount
significance in Russian history because as a by-product of the partition she
acquired the world's largest Jewish population. From this moment on Russia's
history became hopelessly intertwined with the Jewish problem, and eventually,
as we shall relate, the Jews brought about the downfall of Imperial Russia.
No one can possibly understand the nature of present
day communism, nor of Zionism, without some knowledge of the situation existing
in Russia in the century preceding the October revolution of 1917. We have
already noted the presence of Khazar Jews in Poland in the 10th century, and
these same Khazar Jews are to be found in Russia from that time on. But whereas
Poland had invited the evicted Jews of western Europe to settle in vast numbers
within its boundaries in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, the Imperial
Russian government had permitted no such immigrations, and had in fact sealed
its borders to them. As would be expected, therefore, the Imperial government
was something less than enthusiastic over this sudden acquisition of Poland's
teeming masses of Jews.
Pale of Settlement
From the very beginning the Tsarist government imposed
a set of restrictions designed to protect Russia's economy and culture from
the inroads of the Jew. It was decreed (in 1772) that Jews could settle in
Greater Russia, but only in certain areas. Within this "Pale of Settlement"
Jews were more or less free to conduct their affairs as they pleased. But
travel or residence beyond the Pale was rigidly restricted, so that in 1897
(date of Russia's 1st census) 93.9% of Russia's Jewish population lived within
its boundaries, and only 6% of the total resided in other parts of the Empire.
To prevent smuggling, no Jew was permitted to reside within 50 versts of the
border.
From the standpoint of Jewish history, the Pale of
Settlement ranks as one of the most significant factors of modern times. Here
within. a single and contiguous area the greater part of Jewry had gathered,
and was to remain, for something like 125 years. For the first time Jewry
was subjected to a common environment and a common ground of experience. Out
of this common experience and environment there evolved the Yiddish speaking
Jew of the 20th century. Here too were born the great movements of Zionism
and Communism.
The Kahal
We have already remarked upon the habit of Jewry from
ancient times of establishing and maintaining their own tribal community (kahal)
within the framework of Christian society. We have noted also that as the
Jew was driven from Western Europe, he brought with him to Poland this ancient
custom. The Kahal was an established institution in Poland, and as the Jews
settled within the Pale they set up these autonomous communities here too.
At first the Imperial government recognized the autonomous
Kahal organization permitting them to raise taxes and set up courts of law,
where only Jewish litigants were concerned. In addition to the individual
communities, there were district Kahal organizations which at first were permitted
to assess local Jewish communities with taxes. In 1786 these privileges were
drastically curtailed and Jews were there after obliged to appear before ordinary
courts of law and the Kahal organization was restricted to matters of religious
and social nature.
Although Jewish propagandists have complained long
and loudly of being oppressed by the Imperial government, it is a fact that
up until 1881 they prospered beyond all expectation. Jewry settled in the
Russian economy like a swarm of locusts in a field of new corn. Very quickly
they achieved a monopoly over Russia's liquor, tobacco, and retail industries.
Later they dominated the professions as well. Under the reign of Alexander
I many of the restrictions against residence beyond the Pale of Settlement
were relaxed, especially for the artisan and professional classes. A determined
effort was made to establish Jews in agriculture and the government encouraged
at every opportunity the assimilation of Jews into Russian national life.
The Pale of Settlement extended from the Crimea to the Baltic
Sea, encompassing an area half as great as western Europe. By 1917, seven
million Jews resided there, comprising perhaps half the world's total Jewish
population. It was within the Pale of Settlement that the twin philosophies
of Communism and Zionism flourished. Both movements grew out of Jewish hatred
of Christian civilization (persecutor of the "chosen race"), and both movements
have spread wherever Jews have emigrated. The Pale of Settlement has been
the reservoir from which the world-wide forces of communism have flowed.
It is worth noting that half of the world's Jewish
population now resides in the U.S., and that all but a handful of these are
from the Pale, or are descendants of emigrants from the Pale.
Nicholas I
Alexander's successor, Nicholas I, was less inclined
to favor Jewry, and in fact viewed their inroads into the Russian economy
with alarm. He was much hated by the Jews. Prior to his reign, Alexander I
had allowed any male Jew the privilege of escaping compulsory military duty
by paying a special draft-exemption tax. In 1827 Nicholas abolished the custom,
with the result that Jews were for the first time taken into the Imperial
armies ...
In 1844 Nicholas I further antagonized Jewry by abolishing
the institution of the Kahal, and in that same year he prohibited by law the
traditional Jewish garb, specifying that all Jews should, except on ceremonial
occasions, dress in conformity with Russian standards. These measures, and
many others like them, were aimed at facilitating the assimilation of Jewry
into Russian life. The Tsarist government was much concerned by the Jew's
failure to become Russianized, and viewed with extreme hostility the ancient
Jewish custom of maintaining a separate culture, language, mode of dress,
etc.—all of which contributed to keep the Jew an alien in the land of his
residence. It is to this determination to "Russianize" and "civilize" the
Jew that we can ascribe the unusual efforts made by the Imperial government
to provide free education to its Jews. In 1804 all schools were thrown open
to Jews and attendance for Jewish children was made compulsory. Compulsory
education was not only a novelty in Russia, but in any country in the early
19th century. In Russia education was generally reserved for a privileged
few, and even as late as 1914 only 55% of her gentile population had been
inside a school. The net result of the Imperial government's assimilation
program was that Russian Jewry became the best educated segment in Russia.
This eventually worked to the destruction of the Tsarist government ...
The reign of Alexander II marked the apex of Jewish
fortunes in Tsarist Russia. By 1880 they were becoming dominant in the professions,
in many trades and industries, and were beginning to filter into government
in increasing numbers. As early as 1861 Alexander II had permitted Jewish
university graduates to settle and hold governmental positions in greater
Russia, and by 1879 apothecaries, nurses, midwives dentists, distillers, and
skilled craftsmen were permitted to work and reside throughout the empire.
Nevertheless Russia's Jews were increasingly rebellious
over the remaining restraints which still bound the greater part of Russian
Jewry to the Pale of Settlement, and which, to some extent at least, restricted
their commercial activities. Herein lay the dilemma; the Imperial government
could retain certain of the restrictions against the Jews, and by doing so
incur their undying hostility, or it could remove all restraints and thus
pave the way for Jewish domination over every phase of Russian life. Certainly
Alexander viewed this problem with increasing concern as time went on. Actually
it was a problem capable of being solved. [sic-RW]
Alexander II lost a considerable amount of his enthusiasm
for liberal causes after an attempt was made to assassinate him in 1866. He
dismissed his "liberal" advisors and from that time on displayed an inclination
toward conservatism. This is not to say he became anti-Jewish, but he did
show more firmness in dealing with them. In 1879 there was another attempt
on his life, and another in the following year when his winter palace was
blown up. In 1881 a plot hatched in the home of the Jewess, Hesia Helfman,
was successful. Alexander II was blown up and so ended an era.
The New Policy
The reaction to the assassination of Alexander II
was instantaneous and far reaching. There was a widespread belief in and
out of the government, that if the Jews were dissatisfied with the rule of
Alexander II—whom the crypto-Jew, D'Israeli, had described as "the most benevolent
prince that ever ruled Russia"—then they would be satisfied with nothing less
than outright domination of Russia.
Up to 1881 Russian policy had consistently been directed
in an attempt to "Russianize" the Jew, preparatory to accepting him into full
citizenship. In line with this policy, free and compulsory education for
Jews had been introduced, repeated attempts had been made to encourage them
to settle on farms, and special efforts had been made to encourage them to
engage in the crafts. Now Russian policy was reversed. Hereafter it became
the policy of the Imperial government to prevent the further exploitation
of the Russian people by the Jews. Thus began the death struggle between Tsar
and Jew.
All through 1881 there was widespread anti-Jewish
rioting all over the empire. Large numbers of Jews who had been permitted
to settle beyond the Pale of Settlement were evicted. In May of 1882 the
May Laws (Provisional Rules of May 3, 1882) were imposed, thus implementing
the new governmental policy.
The May Laws shook the empire to its foundations.
The following passage is taken from Encyclopedia Britannica [page
76, volume 2, 1947]: "The Russian May Laws were the most conspicuous legislative
monument achieved by modern anti-Semitism ... Their immediate results was
a ruinous commercial depression which was felt all over the empire and which
profoundly affected the national credit. The Russian minister was at his wit's
end for money. Negotiations for a large loan were entered upon 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 operation
... In this way anti-Semitism, 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."
Thus, within a period of 92 years (from the 3rd partition
to 1882) the Jews, although constituting only 4.2% of the population, had
been able to entrench themselves so well in the Russian economy that the nation
was almost bankrupted in the attempt to dislodge them. And, as we have seen,
the nation's international credit was also affected.
After 1881 events served increasingly to sharpen the
enmity of Jewry toward Tsarism. The May Laws had not only restricted Jewish
economic activity, but had attempted—unsuccessfully, as we shall see—to preserve
Russia's cultural integrity. Hereafter Jews were permitted to attend state-supported
schools and universities, but only in ratio to their population. This was
not unreasonable since Russia's schools were flooded with Jewish students
while large numbers of her gentile population were illiterate, but to the
Jews this represented another bitter "persecution," and all the world was
acquainted with the enormity of this new crime against Jewry ...
On May 23rd a delegation of Jews headed by Baron Gunzberg
called on the new Tsar (Alexander III) to protest the May Laws and the alleged
discrimination against Jewry. As a result of the investigation which followed,
Tsar Alexander issued an edict the following Sept. 3rd, a part of which is
given here:
"For some time the government has given its attention
to the Jews and to their relations to the rest of the inhabitants of the empire,
with a view of ascertaining the sad condition of the Christian inhabitants
brought about by the conduct of the Jews in business matters ...
During the last twenty years the Jews have gradually
possessed themselves of not only 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 by their wiles its inhabitants, and particularly
its poor inhabitants. This conduct of theirs has called forth protests on
the part of the people, as manifested in acts of violence and robbery. The
government, while on the one hand doing its best to put down the disturbances,
and to deliver the Jews from oppression and slaughter, have also, on the other
hand, thought it a matter of urgency and justice to adopt stringent measures
in order to put an end to the oppression practised by the Jews on the inhabitants,
and to free the country from their malpractices, which were, as is known,
the cause of the agitations." [Russia and Turkey in the 19th Century
by E. W. Latimer, page 332. A. C. McClury & Co., 1895.]
It was in this atmosphere that the twin movements
of Marxism and Zionism began to take hold and dominate the mass of Russian
Jewry. Ironically, both Zionism and Marxism were first promulgated by westernized
German Jews. Zionism, whose chief advocate was Theodore Herzl, took root in
Russia in the 1880s in competition with Marxism, whose high priest was Karl
Marx, grandson of a rabbi ... Eventually every Russian Jew came to identify
himself with either one or the other of these movements.
Father Gapon
One of the most outstanding trade union leaders—and
certainly the most unusual—was Father Gapon, a priest in the Russian Orthodox
Church. On the day Port Arthur fell a number of clashes occurred in Petersberg's
giant Putilov works between members of Father Gapon's labor organization and
company officials. A few days later the Putilov workers went on strike.
Father Gapon resolved to take the matter directly
to the Tsar. On the following Sunday thousands of Petersberg's workmen and
their families turned out to participate in this appeal to the "little father".
The procession was entirely orderly and peaceful and the petitioners carried
patriotic banners expressing loyalty to the crown. At the palace gate the
procession was met by a flaming volley of rifle fire. Hundreds of workmen
and members of their families were slaughtered. This was "Bloody Sunday",
certainly one of the blackest days in Tsarist history.
Was Tsar Nicholas II responsible for Bloody Sunday,
as Marxist propagandists have claimed? He couldn't have been because he was
out of the city at the time. Father Gapon had marched on an empty palace.
But the harm had been done. ...
Revolution of
1905
Bloody Sunday marked the beginning of the 1905 revolution.
For the first time the Jewish-Marxists were joined by large numbers of the
working class. Bloody Sunday delivered Russia's industrial population into
the hands of the Jew-dominated revolutionary movement.
A strike broke out in Lodz in late January, and by
June 22nd this developed into an armed insurrection in which 2000 were killed.
The Tsar acted at once to recover the situation. In early February he ordered
an investigation (by the Shidlovsky Commission) into the causes of unrest
among the Petersberg workers, and later in the year (August) he announced
provisions for establishing a legislature which later came to be the Duma.
Not only that but he offered amnesty to political offenders, under which,
incidentally, Lenin returned to Russia. But these attempts failed.
On October 20th the Jewish Menshevik-led All-Russian
Railway union went on strike. On the 21st a general strike was called in Petersberg,
and on the 25th there were general strikes in Moscow, Smolensk, Kursk, and
other cities.
Parvus
On Dec. 20th the Jew, Parvus, assumed control of a
new executive committee of the Soviet and organized a general strike in Petersberg
which involved 90,000 workers. The next day 150,000 workers went on strike
in Moscow, and there were insurrections in Chita, Kansk, and Rostov. But within
a week the government had gained the upper hand and by the 30th of December
the revolution was over.
After 1905
As an outcome of the 1905 revolution, Tsar Nicholas
II set about remedying the shortcomings of his regime in a most commendable
manner. At his decree, Russia was given representative government and a constitution.
An elective legislative—the Duma—was established, and free elections were
held. By these measures and others which followed, Russia seemed well on the
way to becoming a constitutional monarchy patterned after the western European
model, and as a point of fact it was only the outbreak of World War I which
prevented this from becoming a reality.
As would be expected, the Jewish revolutionary parties
bitterly opposed these reforms, looking on them as merely a device by which
the forces of revolution would be dissipated. Actually these measures did
succeed in pacifying the Russian masses, and the years between 1905 and 1914
were ones of comparative quiet and progress. No man deserves more credit for
this state of affairs than Premier Peter Arkadyevich Stolypin, who in the
year following the 1905 revolt emerged as the most impressive figure in Imperial
Russia.
From 1906 to 1911 it is no exaggeration to say that
he dominated Russian politics. It was he who gave Russia the famed "Stolypin
Constitution," which among other things undertook to guarantee the civil rights
of the peasantry, which constituted 85% of Russia's population. His land
reforms, for which he is most famous, not only gave the peasant the right
to own land, but actually financed the purchase with government loans. Stolypin
was determined to give the peasant a stake in capitalism, believing that
"the natural counterweight of the communal principal is individual ownership."
Were the Stolypin land reforms effective? Bertram
Wolfe, who is on all points anti-Tsarist and pro-revolutionary, has this
to say [Three Who Made a Revolution, page 360, by Bertram Wolfe, Dial
Press, New York, 1948] "Between 1907 and 1914, under the Stolypin land
reform laws, 2,000,000 peasant families seceded from the village mir and
became individual proprietors. All through the war the movement continued,
so that by Jan. 1, 1916, 6,200,000 peasant families, out of approximately
16,000,000 eligible, had made application for separation. Lenin saw the matter
as a race with time between Stolypin's reforms and the next upheaval. Should
an upheaval be postponed for a couple of decades, the new land measures would
so transform the countryside that it would no longer be a revolutionary force.
How near Lenin came to losing the race is proved by the fact that in 1917,
when he called on the peasants to "take the land," they already owned more
than three-fourths of it."
Russian Jewry wanted revolution, not reform. As early
as 1906 an attempt had been made to assassinate Premier Stolypin when his
country house was destroyed by a bomb. Finally in Sept. of 1911 the best premier
Russia ever had was shot down in cold blood while attending a gala affair
at the Kiev theatre. The assassin was a Jewish lawyer named Mordecai Bogrov.
Thus it was that Russia had since 1902 lost two premiers to Jewish assassins.
Many of Stolypin's reforms were carried out after
his death. In 1912 an industrial insurance law was inaugurated which gave
all industrial workmen sickness and accident compensation to the extent of
two-thirds and three-fourths of their regular pay. For the first time the
newspapers of the revolutionary parties were given legal status. Public schools
were expanded and the election laws were revised. In 1913 a general amnesty
for all political prisoners was given. Not even the severest critic of Tsarism
can deny that these measures represented a sincere attempt on the part of
the Imperial government to bring about reform. Why in spite of all this, was
the Tsar overthrown?
World War I
One of the chief factors contributing to the destruction
of the Imperial government was the onset of World War I. Before the war the
Imperial military establishment had contained perhaps 1,500,000 professional
troops, well trained and loyal to the crown, ... "but by 1917 the regular
army was gone. Its losses for the first ten months of the war were reckoned
as 3,800,000, or, to take the reckoning of the Quartermaster-General, Danilov,
300,000 a month and the officers, who went into action standing, while commanding
their men to crawl, were falling at twice the rate of the men." [Russia,
page 41, by Bernard Pares, New American Library, New York, revised 1949.]
Altogether 18 million men were called to the colors, most of whom were conscripted
from the peasantry. Although courageous in battle they proved politically
unreliable and were easily incited by agitators.
Large numbers of the industrial population were also
drafted into the armies, and their places were taken by peasants, fresh out
of the country. As a result, Russia's principal cities came to be populated
by a working class which was peasant in origin and habit of thinking, but
which lacked the conservatism and stability which seems to go with tenure
of the land. This new proletariat was in reality an uprooted and landless
peasantry, poorly adjusted to city life, and easily stirred up by propagandists.
Now—It should be remembered that the Russian revolution
was carried out by a handful of revolutionaries operating mainly in the larger
cities. While something like 85% of Russia's gentile population was rural,
these country people took virtually no part in the revolt. Conversely only
2.4% of the Jewish population was actually situated on the farms; the great
majority of the Jews were congregated in the cities. Says the Universal
Jewish Encyclopedia: [page 285, vol. 9, Universal Jewish Encyclopedia,
Inc., New York, 1939] "... it must be noted that the Jews lived almost
exclusively in the cities and towns; in Russia's urban population the Jews
constituted 11%. Two additional factors are taken into consideration. On the
one hand the rural population took practically no part in political activities,
and on the other there was virtually no illiteracy among the Russian Jews."
As a matter of fact, the Jews represented a substantial portion of Russia's
educated class. Not only that, but the overwhelming majority of Russia's professional
class were Jews. So complete was the Jewish domination of the professions
that only one out of eight of Russia's professional people were gentile.
In other words, the Jews, who constituted 4.2% of Russia's pre-war population
comprised something like 87% of its professional class.
The Evacuations
Also significant was the fact that the theatre of
war was situated in those areas most heavily populated by Jews. By 1914,
it should be remembered, Russia's Jewish population was nearing the seven
million mark. (The exact figure given in the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia
is 6,946,000). A substantial number of these resided in Russian-Poland, which
was a war zone. The majority of these Jews, out of hatred for the Tsarist
regime, were inclined to favor a German victory. As a result, the Imperial
high command was compelled to remove all Jews from the war area in the early
part of 1915. In May of 1915, for example, the supreme command expelled all
Jewish residents from the provinces of Courland and Grodno. Altogether, nearly
a half million Jews were forced to leave their homes in the military zone.
These expellees were at first required to remain within the Pale of Settlement,
but in August of 1915 they were permitted to settle in all cities in the
empire. Thus it was that as the war progressed a flood of Tsar-hating Jews
began infiltrating the cities beyond the Pale ...
Lenin
Lenin (real name Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov) was born
on the banks of the Volga in the provincial city of Simbirsk, in 1870. He
was born to a station of comparative privilege, being the son of a government
official whose title of "Actual State Counsellor" carried with it the privilege
of hereditary nobility. Lenin's father did not himself inherit the title,
but acquired it as a reward of service as a school supervisor.
By every rule, "Lenin" should have become a respected
member of Russian society. He was of middle class background, was university
educated, and was admitted to the practice of law. That he dd not do so can
be ascribed in part to the fate of his older brother, Alexander, who in 1887
was executed for participating in an attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander
II. This is said to have influenced Lenin to take up the career of a professional
revolutionary.
In any event the year of 1895 finds young Lenin—then
25—meeting in Switzerland with the leaders of the "Group for the Emancipation
of Labor". Shortly thereafter he returned to Russia in the company of young
Julius Martov (Tsederbaum), a Jew who had already become prominent as an agitator
in the Pale of Settlement, and who was one day to become the leader of the
Menshevik faction. Their purpose was to raise funds for revolutionary activity.
In Petersberg they became involved in a series of
strikes which swept the city in 1895, and in the autumn of the same year
Lenin, Martov, and a number of others were convicted and sent to prison for
revolutionary activity.
In February of 1897 Lenin completed his prison term
and began his period of exile in Siberia. He was permitted to travel to Siberia
at his own expense and he took with him his Jewish wife, Krupsakaya [sic;
everyone else spells her Krupskaya-RW] and her Yiddish speaking mother.
It should be explained that, contrary to popular belief,
political exiles—unless convicted of a criminal act—were not imprisoned in
Siberia; rather they were paroled there. In exile the government provided
a pension, sufficient usually to maintain an existence. To supplement this,
the exile sometimes sought local employment (Trotzky worked as a bookkeeper)
or they got funds from friends and family. Lenin received a government allowance
of 7 rubles 40 kopeks monthly, "'enough to pay for room, board and laundry."
[Lenin (abridgement by Donald P. Geddes), page 26, by David Shub, New
American Library, 1950 (Mentor Books).]
While in Siberian exile Lenin, Martov, and an accomplice
Potresov, formulated the idea of an "All Russian Newspaper" which would serve
to combine the thought and energies of the entire revolutionary movement.
The Marxists in 1900, as at all times in the future were divided and subdivided
into a great many factions. Lenin's idea was to weld these various factions
into a single organization.
Iskra Communism as an organised movement began with the publishing of
ISKRA (The Spark) in December of 1900. Three years later, in
1903, the "Iskrists" joined with the Polish Social Democrats, the Jewish Bund,
and others, to form the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (which later
changed its name to the Communist Party). ISKRA, like every other
Communist publication which followed, was mainly edited and controlled by
Jews.
In February of 1900 Lenin was released from exile
and applied for, and got, permission to go to Switzerland. In Geneva he joined
the "Group for the Emancipation of Labor", and in December the Group began
the publication of Iskra (The Spark). The establishment of Iskra
marked the beginning of Russian Marxism as an organized movement, and the
beginning of Lenin's role as a party leader.
The editorial board consisted of the "oldsters", Plekhanov,
Zasulich, Axelrod, and their disciples, Lenin, Potresov, and Martov. Lenin's
Jewish wife, Krupsakaya, was the board's secretary. Later, in 1902, young
Trotzky (Bronstein) joined the editorial board, but without voting privileges.
Four of the above—Martov, Axelrod, Zasulich, and Trotzky—were Jews, while
Plekhanov, Lenin, and Potresov were gentile. The editorial board thus contained
four Jews and three gentiles, but since Trotzky was without vote, and since
Plekhanov had retained two votes, the voting strength was exactly reversed,
with the Jews having 3 votes to the gentile's four.
It is interesting to note the editorial contributions
of the first 45 editions of Iskra. The largest number of articles was
written by Martov, who contributed 39. Next was Lenin, who wrote 32 articles,
followed by Plekhanov with 24, Petresov with 8, Zasulich with 6, and Axelrod
with 4. In addition, articles were written by Parvus, Trotzky, and Rosa Luxemberg,
all of whom were Jewish. It is worth recording that the only other revolutionary
paper in existence at this time was "Rabochee Delo" (Workers Cause), organ
of the "Economist" faction, of whom the Jew, Theodore Dan was the editor.
Iskra was actually printed in Munich, Germany.
For a time the editorial board met in London, but in 1903 it was moved back
to Geneva. From there copies of Iskra were smuggled into Russia by
ship and courier. In this way Iskra built up an underground organization
of professional revolutionaries, first known as "Iskrists", and later as Bolsheviks
and Mensheviks.
In Switzerland Axelrod eked out an existence by
peddling yogurt, and Plekhanov is said to have addressed letters for an income.
But the founders and leaders of communism were not proletarians. Almost without
exception they were highly educated Jewish intellectuals, few of whom had
ever performed a useful day's labor.
Unification Congress
In 1903 a Unification Congress convened in Brussels,
Belgium. Its purpose was to unite the various Marxists groups into the Russian
Social-Democratic Labor Party, which technically had been formed in 1898,
but which had failed to bring unity.
Altogether, 60 voting delegates attended, four of
whom were, or had been, workers. The rest were mostly Jewish intellectuals.
Represented were the groups which had formed the party in 1898: The Jewish
Bund, the Georgian Social Democrats, Rosa Luxemberg's Polish Social democrats,
and the Group for the Emancipation of Labor, now identified as "Iskrists".
The Maximalist's newspaper, "Rabochee Delo" was also represented by 3 delegates.
These groups, their leaders, and their disciples, made the revolution of 1917.
Here, Communism as we know it, was born.
In early August the Belgium Police deported a number
of delegates and the Unification Congress moved en masse to England, where
it convened from August 11th to the 23rd. One very important outcome of the
congress was the ideological split which divided the Iskrists into two camps:
The Bolsheviks (majority faction), headed by Lenin and the Mensheviks (minority
faction), headed by Martov.
The final act of the congress was to elect Lenin,
Plekhanov, and Martov to the editorial board of Iskra. This new board
of three never actually functioned, due to the hostility between Martov and
Lenin. After issue No. 53 Lenin resigned leaving it in the hands of Martov,
Plekhanov, Axelrod, Zasulich and Petresov, the latter three being admitted
to the board following Lenin's resignation.
Although Lenin's faction clung to the Bolshevik label,
they did not at any time command a real majority in the party. Lenin had temporarily
been able to dominate the Unification Congress when the Jewish Bund's delegation
had walked out in a huff over party policy. Because Lenin had been temporarily
able to martial [sic-RW] a majority of the remaining delegates to his support,
his faction had been identified as the Bolshevik, or majority faction, and
always thereafter Lenin and his followers were known as Bolsheviks. It is
important to note that this Bolshevik-Menshevik split was among the Iskrists
only. The two other major factions of the party—Rosa Luxemberg's Polish Social
Democrats and the Jewish Bund—were neither Bolshevik nor Menshevik, although
both factions usually teamed up with the Mensheviks on party policy. (In
1917, however, both the Polish party and the Bund merged into the Bolshevik
faction.)
Revolution of
1905
The 1905 revolution came unexpectedly. Jewish agitators,
seizing upon the discontent engendered by Russia's defeat by the Japanese,
and capitalizing on the "Bloody Sunday" incident—which we have already described—fanned
the flames of insurrection into being in what was to be a dress rehearsal
of the 1917 revolution.
The revolt, coming so quickly on the heels of the
Bloody Sunday incident, caught the party leadership by surprise. Lenin was
in Geneva and he did not return to Petersberg until October—shortly before
the Petersburg Soviet was organized. Martov the Menshevik leader,
returned at the same time. Rosa Luxemberg arrived in December, by which time
the insurrection had ended. Axelrod got only as far as Finland, and Plekhanov
never returned at all. The 1905 revolution was principally led by second-string
leaders, virtually all of whom were identified with the Mensheviks.
Trotzky alone of the top leadership had sensed the
significance of "Bloody Sunday," and at the first word of revolution he and
a Jewish compatriot, Parvus, had struck out for Petersberg.
Using the pseudonym Yanovsky, he very quickly became
a leading member of the Soviet, and by the end of October was generally recognized
as the most influential member of the Executive Committee. In addition, he
edited (with Parvus) the Menshevik organ, Nachato. Later, under the pseudonym,
"Peter Petrovich" he edited the "Russkyaya Gazeta." On Dec. 9, as we have
previously related, he was elected president of the Petersberg Soviet, and
following his arrest Parvus assumed leadership of the revolt.
Although Lenin had been in St. Petersberg throughout
the life of the Petersberg Soviet, neither he nor any member of his faction
played a prominent part in its activities. When the 300 members of the Soviet
were finally arrested, not a single prominent Bolshevik was among them. The
revolution of 1905 was strictly a Menshevik affair.
The London Congress In communist Russia the penalty for revolutionary activity is
always death. Under the more tolerant rule of the Tsars the penalty was exile
in Siberia. Stalin was exiled no less than 5 times. The photo above shows
him with a friend (Suren Spandaryan) during exile in Monastyrskoye, Turukhansk,
Siberia.
In 1907 (May 13 - June 1) a fifth Congress of the
Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was held, this time in London. This
was by all accounts the most impressive one of all, and it was the last one
held before the 1917 revolution. Represented at the Congress were:
The Bolsheviks, led by Lenin—91 delegates.
The Mensheviks, led by Martov and Dan—89 delegates.
The Polish Social Democrats, led by Rosa Luxemberg—44
delegates.
The Jewish Bund, led by Rafael Abramovitch and M.
I. Lieber—55 delegates.
The Lettish Social Democrats, led by "Comrade Herman"
(Danishevsky).
Altogether there were 312 delegates to the Congress,
of whom 116 were, or had been, workers. Dominating the Congress were the great
names of the party: there were the founders of the movement, Plekhanov, Axelrod,
Deutch, and Zasulich—who after 1907 played roles of diminishing importance
in party affairs—and their disciples, Lenin, Martov, Dan (Gurvich), and Trotzky.
There were Abramovich and Lieber (Goldman) of the Bund, and Rosa Luxemberg,
the latter one day being destined to lead a revolution of her own in Germany.
Present also were Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Stalin, none of whom were important
in 1907, but who are listed here because one day they would be the three
most powerful men in Russia. Significantly all of those named were Jewish,
excepting Lenin, Plekhanov, and Stalin.
Perhaps one of the most important matters taken up
by the London Congress was the bitterly controversial question of "expropriations."
It should be explained that Lenin's Bolshevik faction had to an increasing
degree resorted to outlawry to replenish its finances. Robbery. kidnapping,
and theft became regular party activities. And on one occasion a loyal Bolshevik
married a rich widow to secure funds for the party treasury. These activities
were referred to in party circles as "expropriations." The most famous expropriation
was the Tiflis bank robbery, engineered by young Josef Stalin shortly after
the London Congress.
The Mensheviks bitterly criticized these tactics,
while Lenin stoutly defended them as a necessary means of raising capital.
The "expropriation" question broke out again and again as a point of contention
between the two factions. Actually a great deal of Lenin's strength came from
this source. With money thus raised he was able to pay the traveling expenses
of delegates to these various congresses, and this gave him a voting power
which was probably out of proportion to his following. Lenin's opposition
on the expropriation question came not only from Martov's Menshevik faction,
but also from the Jewish Bund and Rosa Luxemberg's Polish Social Democrats.
The Jewish Bund and Rosa Luxemberg's faction usually sided with the Mensheviks
in these intra-party squabbles. and it was not until 1917, when they were
actually incorporated into the Bolshevik faction, that Lenin was able to actually
control the entire party.
The Tiflis bank robbery has now become a part of the
legend which surrounds Stalin, and it is perhaps worth while to give it some
attention. Although the robbery was engineered by Stalin, then a minor party
worker, the actual hold-up was carried out by an Armenian by the name of Petroyan,
who is known in Russian history as "Kamo." Kamo's method was crude but effective:
he tossed a dynamite bomb at a bank stage which was transporting 250,000
rubles in currency. In the resulting explosion some 30 people were killed
and Kamo escaped with the loot, which consisted mainly of 500 ruble notes.
The Bolsheviks encountered considerable difficulty
in converting these 500 ruble notes into usable form. It was decided that
agents in various countries would simultaneously cash as many as possible
in a single day. The operation was not a complete success. The Jewess, Olga
Ravich, who was one day to marry Zinoviev was apprehended by police authorities,
as was one Meyer Wallach, whose real name was Finklestein, and who is better
known as Maxim Litinov. [sic-RW] Litinov later became Commissar of Foreign
Affairs (1930-39).
The Year 1908
In the autumn of 1908 the Bolsheviks began publishing
the Proletariie, with Lenin, Dubrovinsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev (the
latter two Jewish) as editors. In the same year the Menshevik organ, Golos
Sotsial-Demokrata began publication, edited by Plekhanov, Axelrod, Martov,
Dan, and Martynov (Pikel), all of whom were Jewish with the exception of Plekhanov.
In Oct. of 1908 the Vienna Pravda was launched, with Trotzky as editor.
The Troika
In 1909 the Lenin-Zinoviev-Kamenev "troika"
was formed. It was to endure until Lenin's death in 1924. Zinoviev and Kamenev
were Lenin's inseparable companions. Later, when the Bolsheviks were in power,
Trotzky would become co-equal with Lenin, and even something of a competitor,
but Kamenev and Zinoviev were never Lenin's equals nor his competitors—they
were his right and left hand. They would argue with him, and fight with him,
and oppose him in party councils, but the "troika" was broken only when Lenin
died.
January Plenum
In January of 1910 the 19 top leaders of the Party
met in what historians refer to as the "January Plenum of the Central Committee."
Its purpose was, as always, to promote party unity. One outcome was that
Lenin was compelled to burn the remainder of the 500 ruble notes from the
Tiflis expropriation, which he had been unable to cash anyway. Another outcome
of the January Plenum was the recognition of the newspaper, Sotsial Demokrata,
as the general party newspaper. Its editors were the Bolsheviks, Lenin and
Zinoviev, and the Mensheviks, Martov and Dan. Lenin was the only gentile.
Trotzky's semi-independent "Vienna Pravda" was declared to be an official
party organ, and Kamenev was appointed to help edit it. Who could have foretold
in the year 1910 that within seven short years this Yiddish crew would be
the lords and masters of all Russia?
The 1917 Revolution
The 1917 revolution, like that of 1905. caught the
top leaders of the party unprepared. Lenin and Martov were in Switzerland,
and Trotzky was eking out an existence in New York's East Side.
Shortly after the March revolution the German government
did a peculiar thing. It arranged to ship Lenin, Martov, Radek, and 32 members
of the party across Germany to Russia. The German strategy seemed to be based
on the assumption—which later proved correct—that the communists would work
to sabotage the Russian war effort, now being prosecuted by the Provisional
Government. Perhaps the Lenin group had some such agreement with the Germans,
no one knows. But one thing is certain: 48 hours after the Bolsheviks came
to power, Trotzky began negotiations for an armistice. But that story comes
later.
On April 3rd, just 23 days after the provisional government
had been formed, Lenin and his party arrived in Petersberg. Within 7 months
he and his faction would be the supreme dictators of all Russia.
[Table of Contents] | [Top]
It Controlled the Mob
We have already given a description of
the March Revolution which overthrew the Tsar, and we have told of the establishment
of the two governing bodies which came into existence on March 12th, namely
the Provisional Government and the Petersberg Soviet.
The Petersberg Soviet, although it controlled
the mob, was reluctant to assume the responsibility of governing—at least
in the beginning. The Soviet was originally organized by second-string leaders
who were quite capable of stirring up trouble, but who had little capacity
for leading a revolutionary government. Furthermore, it was not clear in the
early days of the revolution as to what the final outcome would be. Petersberg
was, after all, only one city in the empire, and the attitude of the country
as a whole, and of the soldiers at the front, was unknown. For this reason
the Soviet preferred that the Provisional Government—which had some semblance
of legitimacy—should temporarily rule.
The Provisional
Government When the Bolsheviks came to power, they systematically undertook
to destroy every vestige of opposition by exterminating the upper classes
of Russian society. The fury of the Red Terror can be explained only as a
manifestation of Jewish hatred against Christian civilization.
The Provisional Government was not a revolutionary
body. Of its 12 members, only one, Kerensky, was a "Socialist." The others
were typical upper-middle class members of the Duma, with possibly mild leanings
to the left. Head of the Provisional Government was Prince Lvov, whose reputation
as a liberal may have qualified him for that position more than some of the
others. This 12 man government had sprung into being simply because no other
semblance of a government existed in Petersberg on March l2th—it did not in
any way participate in the revolution. In the months following the overthrow
of the Tsar, however, its power grew considerably, so that by July when an
abortive Bolshevik uprising occurred, the Provisional Government was able
to quell the affair and arrest or force into hiding the Bolshevik leaders.
The Provisional Government undertook to continue the
war against Germany. The great mass of people were, of course, patriotic Russians,
and Germany was looked on as a dangerous threat to Russian sovereignty. The
Provisional Government, during its entire tenure, was primarily occupied with
the prosecution of the war.
The Provisional Government took two steps, however,
which were to profoundly affect the revolution. The first, and most fateful,
was the decision to permit the return of all exiled political prisoners from
Siberia and abroad. By doing so it sealed the fate of Russia. Here is the
way one American writer, Edward Alworth Ross, has described it [Russian
Bolshevik Revolution, page 58, by Edward Alsworth Ross, Century Company.
New York. 1921]:
"One of the first acts of the Provisional government,
however, is to bring back to Russia the political victims of the autocracy.
From Siberia about eighty thousand are brought out. From Switzerland, France,
Scandinavia, the United States, even from Argentina and other remote countries,
come perhaps ten thousand who have been refugees from the tsar's vengeance.
In all ninety thousand at least, virtually all of them of socialist sympathies,
stream into European Russia in late April, May, June, and July. Honored by
a grateful people for their voluntary sacrifices and sufferings they quickly
rise to a commanding influence in the local soviets and carry them irresistibly
toward the political left."
These ninety thousand exiles constituted the heart
of the approaching Bolshevik revolution. They were almost to the last man
professional revolutionaries, and with few exceptions they were Jewish. Stalin,
Sverdlov, and Zinoviev were among the exiles who returned from Siberia. Lenin,
Martov, Radek, and Kamenev—as we have seen—returned from Switzerland. Trotzky
returned, with hundreds of his Yiddish brethren, from New York's East Side.
These were the inheritors of the revolution. Until their return the revolution
had been without leadership—largely it had been conducted by second string
leaders who happened to be on the spot. Now the elite were returning. Let
us take another quotation from the starry-eyed Edward Alworth Ross, whose
prose is almost as poor as his judgment: "The bewildered leaderless Russian
masses are thrilled and captivated by these ready, self-confident men who
tell them just what they must do in order to garner for themselves the fruits
of the revolution. This is why refugees, obscure to us although not to Russians,
who in exile had been obliged to work in our steel mills and tailor shops
for a living, former residents of New York's "Eastside", who lived precariously
from some Russian newspapers we Americans never heard of, will rise to be
the heads of soviets and, later, cabinet ministers of a government ruling
a tenth of the human race. In all modern history there is no romance like
it." [Russian Bolshevik Revolution (ibid p. 45), page 67]
Soon these hordes of returning Jews would exercise
the power of life and death over 150 million Christian Russians. Soon every
factory, every government bureau every school district, and every army unit
would function under the gimlet eye of a Jewish Commissar. Soon the blood
of human beings would be oozing from under the doors of communist execution
chambers as tens of thousands of Christian men and women were butchered like
cattle in a slaughterhouse. Soon five million landowners would be deliberately
starved to death as part of a premeditated plan. Soon a move would be under
way to exterminate the gentile leader class of the entire nation by murdering
every Christian factory owner, and lawyer, and government leader, and army
officer, and every other person who had been, or might be, a potential leader.
Soon the standing population of the slave labor camps would exceed 15 million.
Soon every church and cathedral would be gutted and every priest and preacher
would become a criminal in his own community. Soon Russia would have a zombie-proletariat
docile, willing to work, easily controlled, incapable of revolt ... Such was
the "romance" of the Bolshevik revolution.
Constituent Assembly Elections
A second important act of the Provisional Government
was to create the machinery for the election of a Constituent Assembly. It
was provided that delegates from all of Russia should be chosen in free elections,
and these were to meet in a Constituent Assembly for the purpose of writing
a constitution for Russia. It was to be, as one writer puts it [Stalin:
An Appraisal of the Man and His Influence, by Lev Trotsky (translated
by Charles Malamuth), Harper Bros., New York & London, 1941] "a body
encompassing the purposes of both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional
Convention of the American Revolution."
When the Constituent Assembly did meet, in January
of 1918, the Bolsheviks had already been in power a month. "It met at the
Tauride Palace in Petrograd and lasted less than 13 hours; from four in the
afternoon of Jan. 18, to 40 minutes past four of Jan. 19, when it was dispersed
by Bolshevik troops, chiefly soldiers of Lettish regiments." One of the
factors which precipitated the October Revolution was the forthcoming elections
for the Constituent Assembly.
All-Russian Congress
of Soviets
One other event occurred which was to affect the outcome
of the revolution. This was the convening of the First All-Russian Congress
of Soviets in Petersberg on June 3rd, 1917. It should be explained that
the word "soviet" means "council", or "committee". Following the March Revolution,
literally hundreds of local revolutionary Soviets were organized all over
Russia by the various Marxists parties. It was decided that a congress of
these soviets should meet for the purpose of unifying the forces of the revolution.
This first Congress of Soviets was dominated by the
Mensheviks and Essars. (Essars = Social Revolutionary Party). The Bolsheviks
had fewer than 40 delegates out of several hundred attending.
Before disbanding, the Congress of Soviets set October
20th (later changed to Nov. 7th) as the date for the convening of the next
Congress. This date is extremely important because it marks the date of the
Bolshevik Revolution. When the Second Congress of Soviets did convene, on
the evening of November 7th, the Bolsheviks had already gained control of
the Petersberg Soviet and had overthrown the Provisional Government a few
hours earlier. The Bolsheviks were thus able to present the Second All-Russian
Congress of Soviets with a "fait accompli". This Second Congress of Soviets
became the official government of Communist Russia on that same evening of
November 7th, 1917.
Lenin Returns
But now we must turn our attention back to Lenin and
his party at the time of their arrival from abroad. When Lenin arrived in
Petersberg in April of 1917, he found the Petersberg Soviet dominated by the
Mensheviks, with the Essars (Social Revolutionaries) second in membership,
and the Bolsheviks in the minority. President of the Soviet was the Menshevik,
Tcheidze, a "defensist" who strongly supported the war effort. Of the two
vice-presidents, one was Skobelev, also a Menshevik, and the other was Kerensky,
the only member of the 12 man Provisional Government who also belonged to
the Soviet.
Although the Mensheviks controlled the Petersberg
Soviet, they were badly divided among themselves. The main body of the Menshevik
faction—the defensists—was headed by Theodore Dan (Gurvich) and M. I. Lieber
(formerly of the Jewish Bund). The other group of Mensheviks,—the internationalists—was
headed by Martov.
Lenin bitterly criticized this state of affairs. He
regarded the provisional government as an instrument of the "bourgeois" and
he immediately and violently advocated its overthrow. Throughout April, May,
and June the Bolsheviks preached the destruction of the Provisional Government,
and among the factory workers and the military garrisons around Petersberg
this propaganda began to take effect. Under the slogan "all power to the
Soviets", the Bolsheviks had succeeded by July in recruiting to their
banners large numbers of the city's more radical elements.
The returning influx of exiles also enhanced the position
of the Bolsheviks. These exiles were not all originally Bolsheviks, but they
were almost without exception extremists, and they had waited a long time
for revolution to come: they were hungry for power. And they were inclined
to favor the Bolsheviks because they were the most radical advocates of direct
action. Trotzky, who had in 1905 began a Menshevik, and who had later been
a "neutral", immediately joined the Bolsheviks on his return from New York.
So it was with many others.
On July 17th this anti-government agitation resulted
in an unscheduled uprising by thousands of the city's inflamed worker-soldier
population. In modern Russian history these are known as the "July Days".
Kerensky, who by now had become the dominant figure in the Provisional Government
dealt with the insurrection with considerable firmness. The mob was fired
on, and in the course of the next three days several hundred people were killed.
As a result of the "July Days" uprising, the top Bolshevik
leadership was either arrested or forced to flee. Lenin and Zinoviev temporarily
hid out in Sestroretsk, outside of Petersberg. Trotzky, Kamenev, and Lunacharsky
(soon to become prominent) were arrested. Stalin, at that time an editor of
Pravda, was not molested.
One result of the "July Days" was the collapse of
the Provisional Government under the premiership of Prince Lvov. On July
20th, Kerensky (Adler) the Jewish Napoleon, became Prime Minister of a 'salvation
of the revolution' government. Kerensky was quite an orator, and he applied
himself to the task of whipping up enthusiasm for an offensive against the
Germans. Although he met with moderate success at first, the offensive failed
and Kerensky's influence declined steadily in the next three months.
|
The above cut [Outmoded expression meaning 'woodcut'] is taken from Trotzky's book Stalin. It is a reproduction of a postcard widely circulated in Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution. It is entitled "Leaders of the Proletarian Revolution". Trotzky uses this as evidence to prove that Stalin, whom he despised, was not an important figure in the October Revolution—which it does nicely. But it also reveals the Jewishness of these original leaders of the Communist Party: Four of those appearing above are Jews, and a fifth, Lenin, is married to a Jewess. Shown above are (1) Lenin, (2) Trotzky, (3) Zinoviev, (4) Lunacharsky (a gentile), (5) Kamenev, (6) Sverdlov. These were the leaders of the Communist Revolution of 1917. |
Military Revolutionary
Committee
The Military Revolutionary Committee, under the chairmanship
of Trotzky, was organized for the express purpose of preparing the revolution.
Time was running out and it was a matter of striking soon or not at all. The
Constituent Assembly elections were only a few weeks off, and when it convened,
Russia was to have a new government. There was another reason for striking
soon. The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was to meet on Nov. 7th.
The Bolsheviks feared—and with reason—that the Kerensky government would
arrest or disband the entire congress and thereby doom the revolt. For these
reasons it was felt essential to overthrow the Provisional Government by
or before the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets convened on Nov. 7th.
On November 4th the Military Revolutionary Committee
arranged huge mass meetings in preparation for the forthcoming revolt. On
.the following day the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress declared itself
in alliance with the Bolsheviks. On the 6th Kerensky made one last attempt
to forestall revolution by ordering the arrest of the Military Revolution
Committee, banning all Bolshevik publications, and ordering fresh troops to
replace the Petersberg garrison. These measures were never carried out.
Revolution
On the evening of November 6th Lenin came out of hiding
and joined the Military Revolutionary Committee at Smolny Institute which
served as revolutionary headquarters. At two A.M. the following morning the
revolution began.
By noon the city was largely in Bolshevik hands. At
three P.M. Lenin delivered a fiery speech to the Petersberg Soviet—his first
since July. At nine P.M. Bolshevik troops began their two day siege of the
Winter Palace, last stronghold of the Provisional Government.
At eleven P. M. the Second All-Russian Congress of
Soviets convened with the Bolsheviks in a clear majority. The Congress was
now the official government of Russia. The Jew Kamenev, was elected its first
President. Lenin became Premier. Trotzky was made Commissar of Foreign Affairs.
Before dawn it had elected a Central Executive Committee under the chairmanship
of Kamenev, who thus had the distinction of being the first President of the
"Soviet Republic".
Within a few days (Nov. 21) the Jew, Sverdlov, succeeded
Kamenev, and thus became the second Jewish president of the "Soviet Republic".
A relatively minor figure in Bolshevik circles six months before the revolution,
he very quickly became one of the five top men in the party.
Before his early death two years later he had become
the party's chief trouble-shooter and had assumed absolute control over Russia's
economic life.
War Commissar
Meanwhile the enemies of the new regime were gathering
strength. Before the year was over the Soviet Government was under attack
on six war fronts. Some of these anti-communist armies were organized by pro-Tsarist
sympathizers; others were organized and financed by foreign governments. These
"White Russian" forces constituted a dangerous threat to the new regime, and
in March Trotzky relinquished his post as Commissar of Foreign Affairs to
become Commissar of War, a position which gave him authority over the Soviet
Government's entire military resources. It was he who organized and led the
Red Army to victory Not until 1921 were the last of the anti-communist forces
destroyed.
Murder of the
Royal Family The above is a reproduction of a banner displayed by the Bolsheviks
on the first anniversary of the Communist Revolution. After having butchered
the royal family and a substantial part of the nation's ruling class, the
Bolsheviks set out to "educate" the Russian people to the joys of proletarian
life. So successful has this program of "education" been, that the enslaved
Russian people actually believe they are privileged to live under Jew-Communism.
The above poster, incidentally, again reveals the Jewishness of the Communist
leadership: of the twelve shown, five are Jews and one (Lenin) is married
to a Jewess. To the right of Lenin: Pokrovsky, Kamenev*, Sverdlov*, Lunacharsky,
Kollontai, Krylenko, Zinoviev*, Bukharin, Trotsky*, Rykov, Radek*. *NOTE:
On a previous page Mme. Kollontai is inadvertently identified as Jewish. Her
nationality is unverified.
Shortly after the March Revolution of 1917 the Tsar
had applied for permission for himself and his family to leave the country.
Nicholas II was closely related to the royal families of England and Denmark,
and he felt exile there was preferable to remaining a prisoner in his own
land. The Provisional Government had been inclined to grant his request, but
the Petersberg Soviet had blocked the move and the royal family had been transferred
to Ekaterinburg, in south Russia. There, in 1918, they were housed in the
home of a local merchant named Ipatiev. On July 17th anti-Bolshevik troops
advanced on Ekaterinburg and the local commissar, a Jew by the name of Yorovsky,
ordered the family—and their household servants—executed. Yorovsky personally
dispatched Nicholas with a pistol shot in the head. The rest of the family
was executed by a firing squad. Their bodies were then soaked in oil and
burned ...
Should the reader be moved to look up the position
of Ekaterinburg on a modern day map of Soviet Russia, he will find no trace
of it. The former city and province of Ekaterinburg has been renamed "Sverdlovsk",
in honor of the Jew, Yakov Sverdlov, president of the "Soviet Republic" at
the time of the execution ...
The Third International
A basic tenet of Marxist ideology was, and is, the
promotion of world revolution. The Bolshevik leadership undertook in 1919
to further this aim by establishing the Third International, which convened
in March of 1919. Its presiding officer was Lenin, and its first president
was the Jew, Zinoviev, who remained its head until 1926.
The prime objective of the Third International was
to establish communist parties in the various countries of the world, and
to lend them aid and assistance in overthrowing their respective governments.
Prospects of success were bright in the spring of 1919 ...
Rosa Luxemberg's
Revolution
The first country to experience a communist revolution
outside of Russia was Germany. The German government, which had abetted the
Bolshevik coup in 1917 by facilitating Lenin's return to Russia via the sealed
railway car, was in 1918 faced with a revolution of its own.
In many respects the German Revolution paralleled
the one in Russia. As World War I reached the climatic year of 1918, and
as German manpower losses mounted, the Jew-dominated German Social Democratic
Party spread the seeds of defeatism among the German population much as the
Bolsheviks had done in Russia. On November 3rd a mutiny broke out in the
navy at Kiel, followed by rioting by the Social Democrats. On November 9th
the Kaiser renounced his throne and the Social Democrats proclaimed a Socialist
Republic. Two days later, on Nov. 11th, they agreed to an Armistice with
the Allies.
There now occurred an event which was to embitter
the German people against the Jews for all time, and which eventually resulted
in the rise of Adolph Hitler. This was the demobilization of the German armies.
It should be explained that Germany did not surrender by the terms of the
November 11th Armistice; the agreement was that all German armies were to
withdraw to the pre-war boundaries of Germany as a preliminary to a negotiated
peace. But as the German armies retreated to German soil, the Revolutionary
government, fearful lest the Revolution be upset, ordered them demobilized.
On November 11th Germany still posses