From the commencement of World War One, continuing until the cessation of Imperial Russia’s military involvement in the conflict, the Chronicle regularly carried news reports covering the military participation of Jewish soldiers in the Russian Army, military awards received by Russian Jewish soldiers, participation of and support by Russian Jewry for Russia’s military, and especially – to a very great degree – the full spectrum of political and social developments affecting the condition of the Jews of Russia.
An example follows below:
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FREEDOM FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW
TO SERVE AS OFFICERS
BAN REMOVED.
REWARD OF BRAVERY.
The Jewish Chronicle
September 11, 1914
The Special Correspondent of the Standard at Petrograd telegraphs as follows, under date of September 5th: –
Jews will in future be admitted as officers of the Russian Army and Navy.
The announcement of this important change in the position of the Jews in the Russian Empire is made on official authority, and has been well received in all quarters.
Up to the present no Jew has ever been allowed to be a military or naval officer. The decision to admit them to the highest ranks of both services is officially stated to be due to the gallantry which Jews serving as common soldiers have displayed in the battles already fought.
An Imperial decree has enabled the Russian Commander-in-Chief to confer officers’ commissions on several hundred Jews who gained exceptional distinction in the fighting that preceded the capture of Lemberg.
I am authorised to state that the admission of Jews as officers of the Army and Navy will be followed in due course by the removal of civil law restrictions on members of the Hebrew community. The Pale will be swept away, and Jews will be admitted to full rights of Russian citizenship.
Those Russian newspapers which were formerly advocates of a relentless anti-Semitism not only refrain from raising any objectives to this startling innovation, but express their approval in the warmest terms.
I find the same feeling prevails in those circles of Russian society in which it was formerly almost a breach of etiquette even to mention the name of a Jew. The war has swept away this particular remnant of medieval barbarism, and has inaugurated a new era for the Jews of Russia.
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[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.] PETROGRAD
The Jewish volunteer Katz has gained much fame in a battle in East Prussia. The Commander of the Army not only personal handed over to him the Order of St. George for bravery, but also presented him to the rank of sub-Lieutenant.
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Those news items covering the participation of Russian Jewish soldiers – the first example of which, for the “volunteer Katz,” appears above – typically list the soldiers’ surnames, and the military awards they received. I believe that the surnames published in such articles were themselves derived (and translated) from lists issued by the Russian government, or, appearing in Russian newspapers.