A striking incident occurred during the debate upon this resolution. One of the leaders of the party, Maklakov, a brother of the former Minister of the Interior, advanced a plea in extenuation of the alleged Jewish treacheries.
“The Jews have suffered such cruel persecutions in Russia,” he remarked, “that they might well be excused even if these spy stories were found to be true.”
“We spurn this right to baseness,” cried out former deputy Vinaver, a Jew. “Our loyalty is not for sale. We are not newcomers here. Our ancestors have lived here for hundreds of years. We are patriots because we feel ourselves bound to Russia. We believe in Russia even more than you do.”
PROTESTS OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS, CITIES, ETC.
Various municipalities outside the Pale have petitioned the government to give equal rights to the Jews.
The Municipal Council of Smolensk, at its session of December 19, 1914 (January 1, 1915), passed a resolution, with only two dissenting votes, petitioning the government “to abolish all measures which restrict the rights of Russian subjects of the Jewish faith, and, in particular, to abolish the Pale of Settlement.” At this session Councillor P. V. Mikhailoff said:
“We are referring not only to those families of Jewish soldiers at the front, to families fleeing from devastated Poland, but even to the soldiers themselves who are placed hors de combat because of their wounds, after having valiantly served in our ranks. Thus, for example, a Jewish soldier wounded in the hand and in the breast, having parents in this city, obtained permission only with the utmost difficulty to stay here three months. At the end of this period he must go back to the Pale and live there without means or medical attention, although he is threatened with tuberculosis.... This is merely one case in thousands which prove to us the horrors of the situation in which Jewish soldiers and their families are placed because of their deprivation of civic rights. Those families whose members have shed their blood for Russia are ruined by the invasion of the enemy. They arrive here to find a refuge from starvation and death, from ruin and violation. We must remember that nearly a half million Jews are fighting side by side with our brave warriors against the common enemy. As to the civilian Jews, they have no less patriotism or enthusiasm than the other inhabitants.... His Majesty, the Emperor, in passing through Lublin, Grodno, and Tiflis, has deigned to express his thanks to the Jews for their faithfulness to our common country. The conclusion from this is clear: There is no serious reason to maintain any longer those measures of restriction so futile and so pernicious and so malevolent.... But the Jewish question is not merely a question of abstract justice. The economic and moral development of our city life is seriously retarded by the restrictions placed upon one part of the population....”[46]
In August, 1914, a meeting of municipality, Zemstvo, Stock Exchange, and University officials and merchants, at Odessa, resolved that the country would benefit by the abolition of all repressive laws and the opening of educational institutions to all citizens.[47]
In August, 1914, the Moscow Conference of Mayors also forcibly condemned the expulsion policy of some governors and resolved to use its influence to ameliorate the position of the Jews.[48]