THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
The downfall of the Czardom in Russia was undoubtedly one of the greatest events in the world’s history. Russia entered into a period of revolution which seemed to bring with it all the blessings of right and liberty. The restrictions affecting nationalities and creeds were removed. But far from destroying Zionism, the new liberty gave it an immense stimulus.
In Moscow a Zionist District Committee was formed, comprising many Provinces: Astrakhan, Vladimir, Vologda, Voronesh, Kazan, Kaluga, Kostrooma, Kursk, Moscow, Nijni-Novgorod, Simbirsk, Smolensk, Tambov, Tula, Ufa, Jaroslav, and the Don District.
At Odessa, a Zionist demonstration took place. Entire battalions of Zionist soldiers bore through the town blue and white banners, with the motto:—
“Liberty in Russia, Land and Liberty in Palestine.”
A hundred and fifty thousand men followed these banners, to which the Military Governor of Odessa insisted on showing honour publicly.
Zionist meetings were also held at Minsk, Saratov, Juriev, Kharkov, Nijni-Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, Homel, Proskurov, Baku Dubrovno, Riazan, Ekaterinoslav, Moscow, etc.
At Kieff, when the procession approached the Town Hall, the Zionist flag was hoisted on the balcony, where the “Hatikvah” was played by the municipal orchestra.
At Berdicheff fifteen thousand Jews marched through the principal streets carrying Zionist banners. The Municipality, the Administration Executive of the town, and the chiefs of Ukraine National Organizations, greeted the Zionist demonstrators.
In Turkestan and Bokhara the Zionist movement made remarkable progress. The entire Sephardi element has adhered to the movement. The Ashkenazim and Sephardim worked together peacefully at the great Zionist Conference held at Samarcand. A meeting of five thousand Jews was held there, and a resolution adopted in favour of a Jewish Palestine.
In Moscow, in the Great Hall, a Jewish Mass Meeting took place. Dr. E. W. Tschlenow was elected president. The following resolution was adopted:—
“The Jewish Mass Meeting in Moscow salutes freedom with great joy. We are firmly convinced that the Constituent Assembly, which is to be elected by universal suffrage, will establish in Russia a thoroughly democratic administration, and that not only civil rights, but also national rights, national autonomy, and a free national evolution, will be secured to the Jewish as well as to all other peoples of Russia. The Meeting resolves to convoke a general Jewish Congress in Russia.”
The Conference at Petrograd on May 24th, 1917, received official recognition. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Teretschenko, wished the Conference success in its deliberations.
Dr. Tschlenow delivered an Address, in the course of which he said, among other things:—
“We beg the Provisional Government to believe that it may fully depend upon our forces and our support in its heroic efforts directed toward the strengthening of the freedom and greatness of Russia.
“What is necessary, and what we strive for, is to create a national territorial centre for our scattered people. The construction of that centre is already begun, and it will continue. The centre will gradually be filled by the forces and means of the Diaspora.
“Who of you has not keenly followed for the last year and a half the life of the youngest branch of the Jewish people: the American? Hundreds of thousands of working men are unified in their demand for national rights in the Diaspora and an autonomous centre in Palestine. The New York Kehillah, representing a million and a quarter Jews, comes forward with the same slogan. Finally, the powerful Congress movement, embracing the entire three million Jewry, is to close the coming autumn with most important decisions. Weigh all the facts, and you will agree that the harmony of which we dream is already coming to pass. With hope and with love we follow the work of our Trans-oceanic champions, and send to them our brotherly greetings.
“But what could not have been prophesied and what fills our hearts with untold joy and pride, is the attitude towards our ideal on the part of the broad stratas of Jewry, which has revealed itself since the time of the Great Revolution.
“From all corners of our great Russia come to us, together with cheers of joy over the emancipation, assurances of unshattered faith in the eternal ideal—the renaissance of our native Palestine. Old and young, rich and poor, from the front and from the rear, orthodox and free-thinkers, declare in one voice: ‘Now, even now, freed from the chains of slavery, shall we be able zealously and gladly to give ourselves to the service of our ideals?’
“I cannot refrain here from underscoring, with the feeling of deepest recognition, the invaluable services which the Government of the United States has so nobly and warmly shown to our pioneers. The noble President of the United States has acted from motives of humanity and brotherly relation of peoples, but at the same time, also, from deep sympathy in our regeneration. The noble impulses of America have found a worthy instrument in the person of the former Ambassador Morgenthau, that faithful son of the Jewish people, whose services in these hard years Jewry will not forget.
“But all this time, while working and building, we have not lost sight of the basic point inscribed upon our banner—the public, legal character of the hearth which we are creating. We are convinced that the moment has come for reiterating our programme.
“We deem it necessary that the nations called upon to establish the standard of the future national political life should reckon with the definitely expressed will of the Jewish people, to populate and regenerate Palestine as its national hearth. We deem it further necessary that all obstacles should be removed from our path, and that guarantees and conditions should be created which will ensure the unobstructed and speedy development of our work in the land.”
The Conference was attended by five hundred and fifty-two delegates from six hundred and forty towns. There were delegates from Turkestan, Bokhara, and the Crimea. In addition, there were present five hundred visitors from provincial towns and over one thousand one hundred visitors from Petrograd.
A unique historic document was placed before the Convention when the Chairman read the full text of the Military Order of the Day, issued and signed by General Alexeieff, Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front, permitting the Jewish soldiers to elect from their number delegates to the Convention, and furnishing passes and transportation to the delegates to facilitate their presence at the gathering.
The spokesman of the soldier-delegates read the following resolution, which had been adopted by his colleagues:—
“We—Jewish soldier-delegates from the Army—who participate in this Convention, avow to the Convention, and to the Jewish people:
“Hundreds and thousands of Jews are in battle in the Russian Army. In a time of outlawry and terrible persecution, under the burden of false accusations, the Jewish soldiers fulfilled their full military duty. In the ocean of blood poured out by the heroic Russian Army, there is no little of Jewish blood.
“Now, having become free citizens of Russia, and fully privileged members of the Army, the Jewish soldiers will continue their efforts in a new spirit of enthusiasm. Believing that the strengthening of the revolution, and the strengthening of the peoples in Russia can be accomplished only through the union of all the peoples and by a strong discipline in the free army, the Jewish soldiers declare triumphantly that they are prepared to follow the call of the revolutionary democracy to defend Russia against her enemies.
“We believe that the Russian democracy, which has assumed the task of freeing all the peoples of the world, will understand the strivings of our people, and will support Jewry in its efforts to create a national centre for the Jewish people, on its historic soil, Palestine.”
The Conference carried the following resolutions:—
“Considering first that the Jewish people, in view of its disposition and dispersion all over the world, can recreate for itself conditions for the normal development of its national, cultural, and economic life, only through the restoration of a national autonomous centre in its historic home, Palestine,
“Secondly, that the Jewish nation has never severed its ties with its ancient home, and has always longed for it, and that its moral and historic right to Palestine is incontestable and irremovable,
“Thirdly, that the aspirations of the Jewish nation, so manifested, fully coincide with the great principle of self-definition, of freedom and independence for the development of all nations proclaimed by the democracies and governments of all countries:
“The Zionist Conference in Russia unanimously expresses its firm belief that when establishing the basis of the future national and political life, the nations will recognize and count with the clearly-stated will of the Jewish nation for the resettlement and rebirth of Palestine as its national centre, and will consequently create conditions guaranteeing the free and successful development of the concentrated Jewish forces and of the restoration of Palestine.
“To ensure the concrete and full manifestation of the will of the Jewish nation, the Conference considers it necessary first to organize among the Jews a referendum on the question; secondly, to lay before the All-Russian Jewish Congress the question of Jewish claims in Palestine; and thirdly, to claim the admission of a representative of the Jewish nation at the future peace conference, to be held upon the closing of hostilities, for the expression of the wishes of the Jewish nation, and for the defence of its historic and national rights and interests.”
The same spirit was revealed also by the Jews of Poland. In May, 1917, a Zionist Conference was held in Warsaw, attended by nearly four hundred delegates representing a large number of committees, synagogues, societies and groups consisting of all classes of the Jewish population. A sort of plebiscite was arranged among the Jews of Poland, with a view to ascertaining their attitude towards Zionism. The plebiscite resulted in the acceptance of a resolution in favour of Zionism.
All these and many other facts prove that the Zionist idea has made great progress among the Jewish masses. But under the new circumstances Zionism required more than the usual propaganda: it required work, political work.