The catastrophic events that befell Holy Russia in the early 20th century, culminating in the triumph of Bolshevism, cannot be fully grasped without a clear understanding of the profound and often hostile actions taken by elements within the Jewish population against the Russian people, their sacred Orthodox Christian faith, and the very foundations of the Russian state.
These actions, rooted in historical grievances and manifesting in various spheres of life, contributed significantly to the tragic disintegration of Russian society and the persecution of its soul.
Economic Enslavement and Exploitation
For centuries, a persistent theme in Russian-Jewish relations was the perception of Jewish economic dominance and the ruthless exploitation of the Christian population.
As early as the 11th century, accusations were made that Jews had seized all trades from Christians and inflicted great damage on commerce.
This sentiment endured, with the belief that regions where Jews resided were terribly ruined by their means of debt. The very "epic songs of Little Russia" were said to burst with bitter complaints against 'Jewish farmers' who oppressed the inhabitants.
This economic disparity was seen not merely as a matter of commercial competition, but as a deliberate strategy. During the collectivisation of the 1920s and 30s, Jews including engineers like Naum Granovsky, were perceived to act with ruthless intent, driven by a motive of "vengeance toward Russia".
Furthermore, Jewish involvement in the management of landed estates, re-renting land to peasants on excessively difficult terms, was a widely recognised cause of hostility.
A famous Jewish contemporary acknowledged that Jews were beaten "because they amassed a fortune on other people’s needs, other people’s work, and did not make bread with their own hands".
It was widely asserted that the Russian people, having endured Tatar and German rule, would not tolerate it when "the Yid began to harass the people for a ruble".
The economic and social upheaval of the early 20th century further intensified these perceptions. In Moscow, a housing crisis worsened as masses of people are crowding into areas not fit for habitation and at the same time people see others pouring in from other parts of the country taking up housing. These arrivals are Jews.
The disproportion in the government structure, in daily life and in other areas was often linked to Jews occupying formerly "vacant" apartments and taking the place of Russian bourgeoisie and intelligentsia.
A sense of deep resentment grew as Russians saw "Russian women, elders and children freezing on the street 9 to 11 hours a day, getting soaked by the rain in their tents at the market and when they see relatively warm covered Jewish kiosks with bread and sausage they are not happy".
Beyond internal exploitation, external financial pressures were also attributed to Jewish influence. During World War I, American Jewish financiers, notably Jacob Schiff, were perceived to actively prevent loans to Russia, demanding resolution of the "Jewish Question" as a condition for credit to England and France, thus hindering Russia's war effort.
This was seen as Jewish bankers attempting to exploit Russia’s misfortune for their own gains.
Assault on Orthodox Faith and Russian Tradition
The spiritual heart of Russia, the Orthodox Church, faced an unprecedented assault under Bolshevism, in which Jewish "commissioners" played a zealous and disproportionate role. This went far beyond mere secularisation; it was a campaign of blasphemy and profanation directly targeting Christian beliefs and symbols.
The Talmud was considered an "anti-Christian compendium", and with The Book of Kahal, it was seen that Jews essentially formed a separate State within the State and did not consider themselves subject to national laws.
The persecution of Christians under Bolshevism "surpassed in violence and amplitude all previous persecutions known throughout History". Orthodox churches were profaned, defiled, plundered almost exclusively, while synagogues were left untouched.
Militant [[Atheism]] found its most zealous actors among Jewish *'commissioners'.*
Leading figures, such as investigating magistrate Chpitsberg, publicly outraged religious beliefs, openly mocked ritual gestures, and gave "abominable names" to Jesus Christ, profoundly upsetting the Orthodox faithful.
The profanation of holy relics and the public display of such acts led many Russians to believe: "All that, it is the Jews who have plotted it. It makes no difference, to those who crucified Christ".
Placing a Goubelman-Iaroslavski at the head of the Union of the Godless was considered an "act of religious effrontery" in the face of the Russian Orthodox people.
This destructive zeal of our co‐religionists against Orthodoxy was seen as a profound sin of Judaism against Ben Israel.
Jewish Bolshevik administrators were also accused of ruining good relations with local populations by forbidding the teaching of the Ten Commandments and driving off priests.
Revolutionary Zeal and the Imposition of Alien Rule
The participation of Jews in the revolutionary movement, and subsequently in the Bolshevik regime, was widely regarded as disproportionate and deeply hostile to the historical Russian state.
From as early as the 1870s, it was asserted that Jews were at the root of the revolutionary-social movement and regicide. The failure to integrate educated Jewish youth into Russian society was seen as a cause for their large-scale involvement in revolutionary activity.
Jewish intellectuals were accused of obsessing over equal rights while ignoring pressing social conflicts, and Jewish socialists were seen as abandoning their own communities for the broader all-Russian movement.
The radical and revolutionary movements within the Russian Jewish community were perceived as aiming to destroy the old order to achieve equal rights.
Many Jewish public men were actively involved in organisations like the Union for Liberation, proving defeatists during the Japanese war and applauding the 'executions' of ministers.
The Bund, a Jewish social-democratic organisation, was labelled "radically anticlerical" and an embodiment of Jewish interests against Russian ones.
Eyewitness accounts from the 1905 revolution describe Jewish youth dominating revolutionary gatherings, overturning imperial symbols, insulting soldiers, and even attempting to pull down a statue of Emperor Nicholas I.
Such acts of profanation were deeply offensive to Russian national sentiment, leading to riots and pogroms as a retaliation against the offence to national sentiment.
Following the February Revolution, Jews rapidly occupied key positions in the central and regional administrations for the first time in Russian history. The Provisional Government was deemed complacently-blind and effectively had its power destroyed by the dictates of Jewish leaders.
The new regime's ideology was seen as permeated and dominated by the intransigent hostility to the historical Russian state that ordinary Russians did not share. This hostility intensified significantly after the Beilis trial and the mass expulsions of Jews in 1915.
The enormous power wielded by Jewish Chekists was undeniable, and they were considered "supreme, by status and rank, representatives of Russian Jewry". The Kiev Cheka, in particular, was staffed by an overwhelming majority of Jews in its command.
This destructive process found voluntary executants and a climate of sympathy within the Jewish milieu, with many Jews failing to find self-restraint to opt out. The Russian people, who had never seen any Jews in command before, now saw them at every step. Invested with a ferocious and unlimited power.
The "mixture of ignorance and arrogance... filled the government, social and cultural elite. The brazenness and ardor with which all Bolshevik policies were carried out... gave Bolshevik power in the 20’s a certain Jewish stamp".
The overly zealous participation of Jewish Bolsheviks in the oppression and destruction of Russia led to Soviet rule being identified with "Jewish rule", turning fierce hatred of Bolsheviks into equally fierce hatred of Jews.
It was widely understand across Europe that Jews created Bolshevism and that the revolution in Russia was a Jewish revolution. This was often explained by the belief that Jews are "inherently revolutionaries" and have always been against the established order.
Manipulation of Public Discourse and Historical Record
A consistent pattern observed was the manipulation of information and historical narratives to serve a particular agenda.
This included the manipulation of pogrom casualty figures and the terrifying exaggerations of horrors, not to remember the tragedy, but to strike the tsarist power and blacken Russia.
Fabricated accounts of Pogroms were disseminated in the West by Jewish defence organisations, which were readily believed while the far greater suffering of the Russian people under Bolshevism was ignored.
The progressive press was accused of defending the thugs and ignoring the moral sufferings and material situation of the mobbed Jewish people, instead viewing the catastrophe from the perspective of the aggressor.
After the revolution, a "disgusting stream" of accusations against Russia emerged from Jewish voices. There was "hate against all things Russian", with derogatory expressions about Russian culture becoming common.
Accusations of pathological features of the Russian character were made, and it was even claimed that "Russian Nationalism will inevitably end in an aggressive pogrom," implying all Russians who love their nation are potential pogromists.
Despite their own suffering under Communism, and their supposed rejection of it, many Jews were seen to "curse and kick not communism, but Russia itself".
They were accused of coyly clear of any responsibility for their participation in Cheka shootings, for sinking the barges and their doomed human cargo for their role in collectivisation, the Ukrainian famine and in all the abominations of the Soviet administration, for their talented zeal in brainwashing the natives.
This was not as contrition, but as a deliberate attempt to shift blame.
Direct Acts of Violence and Antagonism
Beyond the systemic issues, there were direct instances of aggression and provocation attributed to Jewish individuals and groups. During the Gomel pogrom, Jews were observed to actively mobilise and arm themselves, attacking Russians indiscriminately, including old people, women, and children.
One instance saw a peasant fatally stabbed, and police were met with a hail of stones and by revolver shots. These actions were described as an anti-Russian pogrom.
In Kiev, groups of Jews were noted for very provocative manner and actively opposed the army and the police, firing shots and throwing stones at troops attempting to protect property and attacking isolated Russians, including soldiers. They were described as particularly cruel with police officers when they managed to catch them.
During street brawls in 1917, shouts of "Smash the Yids!" became common, often arising from incidents where Jews were perceived as assaulting Russians or for their alleged involvement in revolutionary unrest.
The Jewish youth had always openly expressed its deepest satisfaction concerning the war, refused to fulfil military obligations, and engaged in acts of violence and the killings of agents of the State, displaying an insulting attitude towards the armed forces.
This behaviour incontestably provoked exasperation towards the Jews among the working class.
The Enduring Scar on Russia
The cumulative effect of these perceived actions has left an indelible and painful mark on the Russian historical consciousness.
The disproportionate participation of the Jews in the work of barbaric destruction during the revolution and the subsequent Soviet era led to an deep-seated perception that "Russia now agonises under the power of Jewish dictatorship and Jewish terror".
The very term "[[Bolshevism]]" became inextricably linked with the Jewish Question, with cries of "The Soviets without the Jews!" becoming common.
This tragic period was not merely a political struggle but a fundamental assault on the spirit of the Russian people, orchestrated and zealously carried out by those enemies of Christ and Russia, and tragically, actively enabled by elements within the Jewish community.
The silence from much of the Western world and even from within Jewish circles regarding the immense suffering of the Russian peasantry during collectivisation and famine, in contrast to the outcry over Jewish grievances, further compounded the sense of betrayal and misunderstanding.
The willingness to denounce Russia while absolving themselves of their own role in the atrocities of the Soviet regime remains a source of profound anguish and resentment for the Russian people.
