Let me to this extent forestall what I shall have to say about the violation of women. All the worst of these crimes were the work of Moldavians, and not of Russians. This, I am convinced, is absolutely true. Many of these Moldavians are descended from the colony of convicts and criminals founded by Pagan Rome in the country now known as Roumania; and the several centuries’ experience by the race of Turkish rule, before being inflicted as subjects upon more civilised governments, has not morally improved the original taint in the blood of their present-day representatives.
Two letters,[4] one signed by Count Tolstoy and the other from Maxime Gorky, addressed to the committee in charge of the labour of relief in Kishineff, express the hateful feeling of indignation and of abhorrence with which the cultured Russian mind looks upon these revolting deeds of mediæval savagery in our day.
Letter I
Kishineff, May 21st.
The first survey of the situation here satisfies me there is no likelihood of any further serious outbreak for the present. The military precautions seem fully adequate to the task of dealing with any emergency.
The Jews, however, are still terror-stricken, and in fear of renewed violence. Wealthy families have fled the city, but the vast mass of the Hebrew community, numbering fully fifty thousand souls, are too poor to purchase the means of seeking protection in flight.
All the Russians I have met, from Odessa to this city, condemn the abominable acts of the anti-Semitic mobs as strongly as other people.
The true origin of the massacres will need patient and careful inquiry, but it can in a general way be put down to combined racial, economic, and other factors, inflamed by violent incitations of the local anti-Jewish press.
The latest list of the killed and wounded, and accounts of looting and destruction, gives these figures: Killed, 44; badly wounded, 83; injured, 500. Houses wrecked, 700; shops and small stores looted and damaged, 600; 2000 families are said to be ruined in their business and employment, and 10,000 people require relief.
The wealthy Jews of the City and Pale have subscribed about forty-five thousand dollars, while donations from Germany, France, England, and the United States amount, so far, to some thirty thousand dollars more.