Through early 1915 at least four articles had appeared in two English-language Jewish periodicals (The Jewish Chronicle, and, The Jewish Exponent) concerning the ordeal of Jewish civilians situated in the eastern war zone, with the “last” of these four news items – entitled “Russian Accusations Against The Jews” – having been published in the Chronicle on April 16, 1915. Curiously, on the same day, The Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia reprinted a lengthy news item, originally published in The Outlook, which focused on Russian Jewry from an altogether different perspective: That of military service of the Jews of Russia, in the Army of Russia – in terms of Russian Jewry’s self-perception, and, the perception of Russian Jewry among varying levels of the country’s political and military leadership.
The article was penned by a certain George Kennan, but not that (!) George Kennan: Not “George F. Kennan”, American diplomat and historian, perhaps more well known as an “advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War” (quote from Wikipedia), who under the pseudonym “X” (though his real identity was known at the time!) penned the article “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in the July, 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs.
Rather, the article was written by “George Kennan” (no middle initial), who was George F. Kennan’s cousin, twice-removed.
Born on February 16, 1845 (oddly sharing the same birthday as his cousin, albeit the latter having been born in 1904), the elder Kennan was a journalist and war correspondent, who was first (at the age of 12) employed at the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad Company, then by the Russian-American Telegraph Company, and finally in 1878, by the Associated Press. A world traveler and war correspondent of eclectic interests, he accorded much of his intellectual and literary effort to the people, politics, and history of Russia, with a particular focus on the native peoples of Siberia, and, political conditions in Russia as a whole. Though not an advocate of Russian autocracy (he was banned from the country in 1901), he nonetheless opposed Bolshevism and was a critic of the October Revolution.
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George Kennan in 1885 (image from his biography at Wikipedia)
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Kennan’s article opens with a quote from a speech by Deputy Naftali Markovich Fridman of the Duma of August 8, 1914, ardently proclaiming the support of Russian Jewry for the Russian war effort, and then presents various accounts of the bravery and heroism of Russian Jewish soldiers. These are contrasted with the responses and perceptions – some changed; some not – of Russian Jews, by Russian political and military leaders, within the context of this early phase of the Great War. A specific example is that of Cornet* Novikoff, concerning the death in battle of Hussar Meyer Lovinski (from Belaya Tserkov?), versus that of General Dumbadze, whose actions vis-a-vis Jews might be deemed, well … more than mercurial.
In this manner, Kennan seems to suggest that, at the country’s highest levels of leadership, military and political leaders were simply taking cues or “pointers” from the Czar, and acting accordingly.
While some of Kennan’s accounts convey a tone of measured, tentative optimism, his observations convey a deep sense of skepticism, if not pessimism, about the eventuality of full legal, political, and social acceptance of Russian Jewry by the country’s leaders. This is exemplified in the final paragraphs of his article, which focus upon the story of Jewish military pilot Evgeniy Rostislavovich Shpitsberg…
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THE WAR AND THE JEWS OF RUSSIA
BY GEORGE KENNAN
Reprinted from The Outlook
April 16, 1915
In the historic “war session” of the Russian Duma, August 8, 1914, when the representatives of the various nationalities and political parties of Russia were given an opportunity to express their feelings with regard to the government and the war, Deputy Friedman, from the Province of Kovno, spoke in behalf of the Russian Jews as follows:
“Members of the Imperial Duma: Upon me has been conferred the high honor of giving expression at this historic moment to the feelings that inspire the Jewish people. In the great spiritual uplift which has come to the nation the Jews fully participate, and they will go to the field of battle shoulder to shoulder with the other nationalities of the Empire. Although we Jews have long suffered, and are still suffering from grievous civil disabilities, we feel, nevertheless, that we are Russian citizens and faithful sons of our Fatherland. Nothing will ever alienate us from our country, nor separate us from the land to which for so many centuries we have been attached. In defending Russia against foreign invasion we are actuated not only by a sense of duty, but by a feeling of profound devotion. In this hour of trial and in obedience to the summons from the throne, we Russian Jews will take our stand under the Russian banner and repulse the enemy with all our strength. The Jewish people will do their duty to the end.” (Storms of applause and cries of “Bravo!” from the Right, the Centre, and the Left.)
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Naftali Markovich Fridman (image from Wikimedia Commons)
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Five months have passed since deputy Friedman expressed the devotion of the Russian Jews to their country and government that they would “go to the field of battle shoulder to shoulder with the other nationalities of the Empire.” Has that devotion been shown in deeds, and has that promise been faithfully kept?
The Jews’ Magnanimity
If anything stands out clearly on the pages of recent Russian history it is the magnanimity and patriotism of the Jews. Denied many of the rights of citizenship, forced to live in a great national ghetto, restricted in the learned professions, limited to a small quota of students in the universities and schools, crowded into cities within the Pale and expelled from cities without the Pale, insulted constantly by the reactionary press, accused of “ritual murder” in the courts, and beaten to death by pogrom rioters in the streets, the unfortunate Jews would seem to have little reason for loyalty or patriotic feeling; and yet, since the war began, they have subordinated personal resentment to a higher sense of duty, and, for the sake of “the Fatherland,” have done all that the most ardent patriots could to do support the monarch who has oppressed them and to defend the State that has discriminated against them.
Soon after the war began the Jews in Petrograd, Moscow, Odessa, and many other Russian cities began to hold meetings in their synagogues to pray for the health and safety of the Czar, and for the success of the Russian armies in the field. At the same time hundreds of young Jews in the universities and higher technical schools who were not liable to conscription volunteered for active service and were sent to the front. Even Jews who were awaiting trial on political charges, or who were already suffering imprisonment for political offenses, offered to enlist as volunteers, and promised that, if they should still be alive at the end of the war, they would give themselves up for trial or go back to prison and serve out the unexpired term of their sentences. “We cannot bear,” they said in their petition, “to sit idle in prison cells while our comrades are fighting for their country and ours.” (Russkoe Bogatstvo, September 14, 1914, p. 316).
Acknowledgement of Jewish Patriotism
As the war proceeded, and the Czar began to go back and forth through Russia on his way to and from the front, Jewish delegations in all the larger towns where he stopped came to him with plates of bread and salt (the Russian emblem of hospitality and goodwill) and presented him with addresses breathing the most ardent spirit of Jewish loyalty and patriotism. In one such address they said:
“It gives us no great happiness to know that our brothers and sons are shedding their blood for the sake of their monarch, for the honor of the country that is so dear to them, and for the cause of right and justice with which your Imperial Majesty’s name will forever be gloriously associated. We beg you, O Gossudar, to receive this assurance of loyalty from your faithful subjects who are followers of the Mosaic Law.”
In places which the Czar did not visit or in which he did not stop, the Jews went with patriotic addresses to the highest local representatives of the Church or the State and this they did even in towns where at the hands of Church or State they had suffered most injustice. If there be in all Russia a city where the Jews, might, naturally record the Russians with enmity and the Government with resentment, it is the city of Kishineff – the scene of the bloodiest anti-Jewish pogrom that has ever blackened the history of the Empire. But even in Kishineff the Jews hastened to show that their consciousness of civic duty was stronger than their sense of injustice. They could not get access to the Czar, so they went with bread, salt and assurances of loyalty to the Archbishop Platon, the local representative of the Holy Orthodox Church. The high ecclesiastical dignitary received them with as much courtesy as could have been expected, and said, in reply to their patriotic address:
“The Jews are completely united with us and they have proved their loyalty. I am personally aware of the fact that they have contributed large sums to the Red Cross and other organizations for the relief of our wounded. Their devotion to the country is beyond question.”
Addresses of Loyalty
In almost every city and large town in Russia delegations of Jews have called on the civil or ecclesiastical authorities and presented addresses confirming or repeating the assurances of loyalty given on their behalf by Deputy Friedman in the Duma.
“But,” it may be said, “it is easy enough to pray in the synagogues and makes professions of loyalty in patriotic addresses. Have the Russian Jews done anything else?”
If the Russian newspapers are to be believed, they certainly have. A recent number of the Petrograd Retch contained an article on this subject in which the writer said:
“This fact (that the Jews have actively participated in the war) does not admit of the slightest doubt. Not only have they made enormous pecuniary contributions, but as soldiers they have shown miraculous courage on the field of battle, and many of them have received military decorations. Such behavior on their part, however, is not to be regarded as especially meritorious. It is only the performance of a sacred duty to their country, and Russian Jews could not act otherwise.”
The same paper publishes also an article commenting upon the fact that in the lists of killed and wounded telegraphed from the front there are Russian names, Polish names, Tartar names, and Armenian names, but not a single name that can be recognized as Jewish. The paper explains, however, that the absence of Jewish names is due to racial discrimination. “Only casualties to officers are reported by telegraph, and no Jew is permitted to become an officer. If deaths and injuries of private soldiers were telegraphed, the lists would be thickly sprinkled with Jewish names. The Jews share in the work of the nation on the battlefield as well as at home. Wherever national help is needed there they participate with contributions and work.”
Valor in Battle
But even racial discrimination fails to exclude Jewish names wholly from the newspapers. They may not become officers, but the Russian generals who command them insist that they shall have crosses of honor for gallantry in action, and then their names are telegraphed and published. The highest military decoration that is given in Russia is the Cross of St. George, which corresponds with the Iron Cross of Germany and the Victoria Cross of Great Britain. Every few weeks a common Jewish soldier distinguishes himself so greatly that he is awarded this coveted honor, and not long ago a Jew won two of these decorations in a single week. The latest case that has come to my attention is that of Mendel Gluckman, who received the Cross of St. George about a month ago for a whole series of daring exploits under the walls of Przemysl. (Petrograd Retch, November 22, 1914.)
Moscow and Petrograd newspapers publish many letters from Russian officers describing the bravery of Jewish soldiers in action.
In a letter Cornet Novikof, of a Hussar regiment, writes:
“Meyer Lowinski, born in the village of White Church, died a hero’s death on the 26th of August, near the forest of Laschchova. Disregarding a heavy fire, he rode constantly in advance, reconnoitering coolly the enemy’s dispositions. But a bullet hurled the gallant soul from his saddle, and he died heroically for his country, his Czar, and his people. One the following day we recovered his body and turned it over to the Jews in Lashchova, who buried it with all honors in the Jewish graveyard. May the kingdom of heaven receive my dear Lovinski – unforgettable comrade and fellow soldier!”
Gallantry of a Jew in Action
In this last letter two things are particularly noticeable: first, the tribute of a Russian to the coolness and gallantry of a Jew in action; and, second, the affection of a Russian for a Jew in an environment of danger and death. Cornet Novikof seems wholly to forget that the dead man was an alien and unbeliever, and evidently hopes to meet his, “dear, unforgettable comrade and fellow soldier in the kingdom of heaven.”
But it is not only Russian lieutenants and cornets who speak well of the Jew. The Russkyia Yedomosti, of Moscow, published recently a letter from the well-known philanthropist, N.A. Shakhof, pleading for justice to the Jew, and closing with the words: “One wants to believe that better days will come for Russia’s stepson, and that he will be in future not the stepson but the real son of the Fatherland for which he is shedding his blood.” A Russian general at the front read these lines a week or two later, and was so moved by them that he wrote an open letter to Mr. Shakhof over the signature “A General in Active Service,” in which he said:
“It is impossible to read your admirable letter – and especially the part of it that refers to the Jews – without a feeling of approval and sympathy. The great and warm heart of the Russian people, like gold in the furnace, is only now showing its worth. Less and less frequently are heard expressions of intolerance and hatred, and more and more apparent becomes the virtues that lie in the depths of the Russian soul. I profoundly believe that a multitude of our people, whose consciences and Christian feelings have not been smothered by hatred, and whose common sense has not been eclipsed by prejudice, will join heartily in your hope that the Jews may soon become the real son, and not the stepson of the Fatherland for which he is shedding his blood.”
If the Russian Jew is thus regarded by generals in active service, if archbishops declare that his “devotion to the country is beyond question,” if Russian commanders in the field of recommend him for the Cross of St. George, and if his Russian leaders in battle refer to him when he is dead as their “dear son and unforgettable comrade and fellow soldier,” and hope to meet him in the “kingdom of heaven,” who are his haters and persecutors?
Recognition Expected
When Germany declared war against Russia and the so-called “alien” nationalities of the Empire united with the “true Russians” in support of the Czar and his Government, it was confidently believed by everybody that the Jews in particular would receive some reward for their loyalty, or at least some recognition of their patriotic devotion to the State. It did not seem reasonable to suppose that when they contributed liberally to war funds, volunteered for military service, prayed for the Czar in their synagogues, and fought for him in the field, that they would not be relieved from some of their disabilities, even if they were not granted all the rights of Russian citizenship.
This general belief that something would be done for the Jews was strengthened by the change in the Czar’s attitude toward the Poles. They, too, had been persecuted and oppressed, but to them was given the promise of a brighter future. To the Poles the Grand Duke Nicholas said:
“The hour has come for the realization of your fathers’ and your grandfathers’ dreams. Russia meets you with an open heart and with the outstretched hand of a brother. Under the sceptre of the Russian Czar, Poland, with freedom of religion, language, and local administration, shall be reborn.”
General Dumbadze, in whose province the Czar’s Crimean winter palace is situated, has always been a fanatical Jew hater, and had banished from the territory under his jurisdiction even the Jewish soldiers of a Russian regiment stationed there. When, however, it seemed likely that the Czar would show the Jews favor, General Dumbadze immediately changed front, and not only attended services in the synagogue of Alshta, where he happened at the time to be, but assured the Jews that “he desired their happiness; that he hoped they would come to him with all their needs, and that he would try hard to meet them halfway.”
A Change of Front
Advocate Shmakof, who was one of the most bitter and unrelenting prosecutors of the Jew Beilis in the Kieff “ritual murder” trial, soon followed General Dumbadze’s example, and declared that racial hatred and the persecution of aliens in Russia were “things of the past.”
General Rennenkampf, before he went to the front, attended services in a Jewish synagogue, and even such representatives of the “Black Hundreds” as Purishkevitch, Orlof and Markof deprecated the further continuance of racial discord, and declared that all parties and nationalities should “get together and shake hands.”
It soon became apparent, however, that these advocates of peace and goodwill had turned their coats too hastily. Thinking that the Czar must necessarily show some favor to the nationality that had given him such rounds of loyalty and patriotism, they quickly adjusted themselves to the expected change in his Jewish policy. When Jews began to come to him with symbols of goodwill and assurances of loyalty, as they did in Petrograd, Grodno, Lublin, and other Russian towns, he might very naturally have said to them:
“The storm of war is causing more suffering to you than to Russians generally because most of your people live near the German frontier. Poland and the Western provinces of the Pale are now the scene of conflict, and tens of thousands of Jews are being driven, in desperate condition, from their homes. In view of this fact and of the patriotic loyalty that you have shown, I shall devote particular attention to your needs, and shall change or modify as far as possible the laws and administrative regulations that bear most heavily upon your race.”
The significance of the coldness and reticence with which the Czar received the Jewish delegations was first noticed by such monarchical and nationalistic journals as the Russian Zemstchina. Taking his attitude as a guide – or, as we should colloquially say, a “pointer”, these papers soon resumed the anti-Jewish agitation which they had temporarily suspended. Then all the bureaucratic officials, from the Minister of Public Instruction and the provincial Governors to the chiefs of police and the censors, took their cue from the monarchical press and “the spheres,” and proceeded to enforce the laws relating to the Jews with even more than ante-bellum strictness and severity. Take for example, the field of education.
Vacancies in the Universities
Inasmuch as many young Russian students volunteered for military service, leaving vacancies in the universities, it might reasonably be supposed that the government would allow these vacancies to be filled, at least in exceptional years, by Jewish applicants for admission, even though the Jewish quota (three per cent) might already be full. The Minister of Public Instruction, however, would not listen to such a suggestion. In the early part of October, 1914, the Governing Council of the Petrograd University asked the minister to sanction the admission to that institution of twenty-five young Jews, who had been graduated with gold medals from the gymnasia of Petrograd and Wilna, but who had failed to get into the University for the reason that they had not drawn lucky numbers in the admissions lottery. The petition was not denied on the ground that the Czar, in 1908, ordered strict observance of the rules relating to the admission of Jews. The Council then asked the Minister to sanction the admission of eighteen fully qualified Russian Jews who had been forced out of German and Austrian universities by the war. This petition was also denied and for the same reason.
In November the City Council of Marianpol begged the Minister of Public Instruction to allow the children of Jewish soldiers who had gone to the war to enter the Marianpol public schools. The petition was denied, as were many more from other Russian towns.
Back to the Pale!
In almost every other field of Russian social life the treatment of the Jews since the war began has been equally harsh, cruel and barbarous. Late in November, 1914, the Minister of Justice, M. Shcheglovitch, refused to confirm the election of twenty-four Jewish lawyers as members of the Petrograd Bar Association. They were duly qualified and the association wanted them; but the Minister vetoed their election on racial and religious grounds.
If Jews are worthy of acceptance as soldiers, their sisters would seem to be worthy of acceptance as hospital nurses; but Governors of provinces and officials of the Red Cross do not allow them to serve, even when they have been chosen by the Union of Russian Zemtsvos for its own war hospitals. But admittance to some of these hospitals is denied even to wounded Jewish solders brought back from the front. Drs. Kucherof and Pustnykof refused to take them into the hospital at Taganrog, and a protest against such actions was made to the Medical Society of the Don.
The regulations of the Government with regard to residence outside of the Pale of Settlement are enforced against the Jews now almost as strictly as they were a year ago. From Petrograd, Kursk and many other Russian towns Jews are being expelled just as they were in 1913. The civil authorities of late years have been giving to certain privileged Jews permits to reside anywhere in the Empire, but have not included in such permits personal descriptions of the bearers. The lack of such descriptions – for which the authorities themselves are responsible – is now made the ground for sending such Jews back to the Pale of Settlement. The fact that the Pale has been ravaged and desolated by war makes no difference. If a Jew belongs in the Pale, to the Pale he must go, no matter whether he can live and support himself there or not.
“Is This Just?”
In July, 1914, a young Russian Jew was studying electrical engineering in Switzerland. When the war broke out it was not easy for him to get back to Russia, so he went to Paris, enlisted in the French army, and was assigned to the electrical corps in the field. A month or six weeks later, he was so severely wounded as to be incapacitated for further duty. When he was discharged from the hospital the French authorities, in recognition of his meritorious service, gave him four hundred francs for his traveling expenses, and he returned by way of Sweden and Finland, to Russia. As soon as he reached Petrograd he was ordered out of the city because, as a Jew, he had no right of residence there. He showed his wounds, explained that he had been fighting with the French, and was finally allowed to remain two weeks. At the end of that term he went to the authorities and asked for the traveling expense allowance which was made at that time to destitute Russian refugees driven out of Germany and Austria by the war. The authorities informed him that his application was too late; it should have been made as soon as he arrived. He had been living in Petrograd two weeks, and, as he had thus become a resident, he must get back to the Pale of Settlement, where he belonged, as best he could. Whether he ever did get back or not I don’t know. This is all of his story that was given in the Novoe Vremya. Even that anti-Semitic journal was shocked by it, and published it under the headline “Is This Just?”
I have space only for one more illustration of the Czar’s attitude towards loyal Jews who have prayed for him, fought for him and died for him.
On the 19th of last October, the Petrograd Retch published the following obituary notice showing censor’s excisions:
“News has reached Petrograd that the young (censor’s excision) Eugene R. Shpitzberg has perished in the field of military operations. The deceased was twenty-four years of age. He was born in one of the towns of the Baltic provinces, and after his graduation from one of the privileged schools in Petrograd he went to France.”
(Censor’s excision.)
“Toward the end of April, this year, E.R. Shpitzberg returned to Petrograd.”
(Censor’s excision.)
“Afterwards the deceased visited Riga and other towns in the Baltic provinces.”
(Censor’s excision.)
“About the middle of July, E.R. Shpitzberg made preparations to go to the United States of America.”
(Censor’s excision.)
“Perished in the Field of Operations”
I regret my inability to fill all of the blanks in this extraordinary obituary notice; but I can partly fill some of them. Eugene Shpitzberg, as his name shows, was a Jew. Finding it impossible to get higher education at home, on account of the university regulations and Mr. Kasso’s lottery admission device, he went to Paris. There he became interested in aviation and learned to fly. In April last he returned to Russia, and visited his birthplace, in one of the Baltic provinces. His conduct in Petrograd and at home was evidently regarded with disapproval by the censor, but why I do not know. Perhaps he saved somebody’s life in the Baltic provinces, and was given a reception by the Petrograd Aviation Society. Such incidents would be creditable to a Jew, and of course the censor would cut them out. In July he decided to go to the United States of America – for the reason, perhaps, that we have no Czar here to regulate Jews. Before he could carry this intention into effect, however, the war broke out and he volunteered for military service. The censor would not allow the Retch to explain just how he “perished in the field of military operations”, but I happen to know, from another source, that he was killed in an aeroplane while making a military reconnaissance near Sandomir, on the frontier of Austria (“Annals of the War” Petrograd, No. 10, November 7, 1914). The censor of the Retch would not permit this fact to be stated.
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Pilot Evgeniy Rostislavovich Shpitsberg (Летчик Евгений Ростиславович Шпицберг) (image from RU.Wikipedia)
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What kind of a heart can it be that excludes wounded Jewish soldiers from hospitals; rejects the services of Jewish nurses and sister of mercy; drives into the Pale disabled Jews who have been fighting for Russia in France; excludes from the public schools the children of army surgeons who wear two crosses of honor for gallantry on the field of battle; and finally denies to a dead Jewish aviator even the poor boon of a friendly death notice in the newspaper of the country for which he has given his life?
The oligarchy that governs Russia would like to have the world believe that the ill treatment of the Jews in that country is due to invincible popular prejudice and hatred. But it is not the people who are to blame.
So far as the Czar is concerned, he has received from the Russian Jews, since the war began, as loyal and faithful service as any ruler could desire.
References and Suggested Readings
Hofmeister, Alexis, “A war of letters – What do we read in soldiers’ Letters of Russian Jews from the Great War?” (“Une guerre de lettres. Que disent les lettres de soldats juifs de Russie écrites pendant la Grande Guerre?”), Revue des études slaves, LXXXVII-2, 2016
George Kennan, biography at Wikipedia
Evgeniy Rostislavovich Shpitsberg, biography at Ru.Wikipedia
*Cornet: A Rank in cavalry equal to that of a Second Lieutenant.