Early in the session of the Duma the Left groups proposed an
interpellation of the Government with respect to its illegal acts
against the Jews. After some debate the proposed questions were
referred to the Committee on Interpellations, which reported them out,
on August 30, 1915, in this form:
I. Do the president of the Council of Ministers and the Ministers
of the Interior and Justice know of the illegal conduct of their
administrative officers with respect to the following:
=1. That officers of the prison administration received persons
taken by the military authorities as hostages from the local Jewish
population of Riga, Prushkov ... etc.?=
=2. That the prosecuting attorneys took no steps to obtain the
immediate release of these persons, accused of no crime and illegally
imprisoned?=
=3. That the expelled were driven by agents of the police in
Vilikomir, Zhagory and Shadov into freight cars inadequate for the
accommodation of one-tenth of them, and that the remainder, including
children, aged men and women, and invalids were compelled to follow
afoot?=
=4. That the officers of the local governments took no steps to check
the repeated robberies by the local population of the property left by
the exiles?=
=5. That the officers of the Gendarmerie of Homel prohibited the
supplying of food to the exiles, even though they were at the point of
exhaustion from hunger and thirst?=
=6. That in Novozybkov individuals who sent telegrams appealing for
help were arrested?=
=7. That the officers of the Gendarmerie, with armed threats, refused
to admit to sealed cars persons who brought food to the expelled at
the station of Bielitsa, on the Poliess railroad?=
=8. That the police officers locked the exiles in sealed cars for
several days at a time?=
=9. That in the shipment of these exiles from Zolotonosh to Kovno and
back some of them were kept in the cars ten days?=
=10. That the local government administration of the cities of Minsk,
Samara and Rostov required the reprinting in the local paper of the
story of Jewish treason in the village of Kuzhi, first published in
“Nash Viestnik”?=
=11. That the local administration of Tashkent ordered prayer for the
delivery of the army from the treachery of the Jews?=
II. If the illegal acts of the authorities are known to the indicated
individuals what steps were taken by them towards the punishment of
the guilty and the prevention of similar breaches of law in the
future?
The significance of this interpellation cannot be overestimated,
insofar as the facts implied in these questions are officially accepted
by the great standing committee of the Duma as worthy of cognizance.
Had the questions originally proposed by the Left groups been without
foundation they would have been rejected without reference to the
Committee on Interpellations; and had the Committee on Interpellations
found, upon examination of the evidence underlying each question by
both the Right and Left deputies on the Committee, that the evidence
was defective or inadequate, the interpellation would never have been
reported out in this form. =The fact that it was so reported indicates
that the evidence was incontrovertible, and was so accepted by the
Liberals and reactionaries alike.= The report of the Committee is dated
August 30, 1915, but as the Duma was prorogued immediately afterwards,
the Government’s answer to the interpellation is not known.
In the course of the debates on these and other questions affecting the
Jews the expressed attitude of the representatives of the great bulk of
the Russian population left no doubt of their absolute opposition to
the Government on the Jewish question.[45]
Professor Milyukov, the leader of the Constitutional Democrats,
declared on July 19 (August 1), 1915:
“The strongest factor in the disruption of our national unity was
the government’s policy toward our alien subjects. =The foul play
upon the obscure racial prejudices of the masses, with the customary
weapon of this kind of strife—anti-Semitism and the persecution of
all dissenting nationalities or religions—has been exercised with
unparalleled effrontery. Under the mask of military precaution,
measures worse than credible are taken against crimes that are
imaginary.... At a time when nations are struggling for the liberties
and rights of small peoples, such terrible deeds embitter our friends
and evoke joy among our enemies.”= (Loud applause from the left.)
=Deputy Kerensky.= “We are fighting this war in a territory occupied
by non-Russian nationalities. But =did not our government, this very
year, cause these peoples to doubt the wisdom of the path they took a
year ago, when they linked their destiny with ours?”=
=Deputy Tchkheidze.= Aug. 3 (16), 1915: “It is well known to you that
the Government régime has been based on Jewish oppression and that at
all critical moments =it aimed its blows first of all at the Jews,
because they were in the line of least resistance....=
“A year ago the war began and at once accusations of treachery against
the Jews were started by the Government. To-day Russia and the whole
world knows who is to blame for the condition in which Russia found
herself. The guilty ones were not at all the Jews, as the whole
country will confirm, but those who stuffed their pockets with the
money which they made on Government orders for army supplies (shouts
from the left: “That’s true!”) The guilty ones were those who, with
the aid of men like Myasoyodyeff, Grotgus and other traitors, betrayed
Russia....
“This is supposed to be a war for liberty, fraternity, and equality,
but what justice is there in making a whole nation answer for the
crimes of individuals, granting that there are any?
=“In the name of what truth is the Kuzhi slander being published in
the ‘Pravitelstvenny Viestnik?’=
=“In the name of what truth are the various periodical publications
ordered to reprint this communication under penalty of a fine?=
=“What justice demands that a Jewish volunteer who has several times
been wounded be expelled within twenty-four hours when he tries to
find a place in Russia to recover from his wounds?=
=“In the name of what humanity is it forbidden to hand food to
starving Jewish refugees cooped up in freight trains? In the name of
what brotherhood is one part of the army aroused against the Jewish
soldiers who are in the trenches side by side with our own soldiers?=
=“We accuse the Germans of breaking the laws of warfare, of using
poison gases and mutilating prisoners. Such acts can call forth only
indignation and protest. Let these acts be a stain upon the ruling
classes of Germany. But, gentlemen, in the name of what laws of
humanity are orders issued to the Russian army to drive peaceful Jews
ahead of the troops and to expose them to fire?=
=“In the name of what laws of humanity are Jewish-Russian subjects
taken as hostages and put into prisons and tortured and shot?=
=“We denounced the Germans for having destroyed Louvain and the
Cathedral of Rheims; but I ask you in the name of what ethical
or esthetic principles is a Jewish woman who seeks refuge in the
synagogue violated?”=
=Baron Rosen, former Russian Ambassador to the United States,= also
protested outspokenly against the continuation of the anti-Jewish
policy of the Government in a speech before the Council of the Empire,
Aug. 22 (Sept. 4), 1915. (See Appendix, p. 117.)