Russian Memories

by Olga Alekseevna Novikova

In my indignation I even ventured to assume the mantle of prophecy. "While your meeting," I wrote, "will have no effect whatever upon Russians, it will have a great effect upon the Jews of Russia. It will proclaim aloud, in the hearing of these millions, that England and its great Lord Mayor, with all the wealth of London at their back, have undertaken the cause of the Russian Jews. And these poor people will believe it, and thousands and tens of thousands will sell all they have and come over to experience the first fruits of the generosity which promises them a new land of Canaan—in the City of London.

"I adjourn the further discussion of the Jewish question until you have had, let us say, ten per cent of the immigration which these meetings will invite."

In a little more than the ten years I mentioned the Aliens Act had become law!

The Guildhall meeting was held on December 10th, 1890, and the Memorial to the Russian Emperor was carried without a dissentient voice and duly sent to Petrograd. In February the Russian Ambassador handed the Memorial to Lord Salisbury with a request that he would have the kindness to return it to the Lord Mayor unanswered; as a matter of fact it had not even been read in Russia.

I need scarcely add that I was assailed by Jews from every quarter as "one whom the whole Jewish race recognised as their bitterest enemy," and yet all I said in effect was that if the Montagues hate the Capulets, and the Capulets the Montagues, then all the Acts of Parliament will not ensure peace. And yet we women are called unreasonable.

I will quote again from one of my letters to The Times, for although written thirty-four years ago, I see no reason to change so much as a word.

"The Jewish question is not entirely religious, but social. Englishmen ought to understand it, for they have to deal very often with the same difficulties. An Anglo-Indian member of Parliament, of great eminence as an administrator in Bengal, was kind enough to lend me the other day an interesting Blue Book on the riots in the Deccan, from which I learn that the most innocent agriculturists in India have repeatedly attacked the Hindoo money-lenders, exactly as our peasants attacked the Jews, and for the same reason. And how did you deal with this difficulty? Not by increasing the licence, but by restricting the opportunities of the Hindoo money-lenders; and as you do it with some success, your example can be useful indeed. In short, you do as General Ignatieff proposed to do in his famous rescript which you abuse so much. Seek to remove the cause of the disorder by protecting the peasants against the extortionate practices of the village usurers."

In those days I was not lazy and wrote as well as I could; but how difficult people were to convince. They seemed unable to distinguish between a Yiddish-speaking Jew, who had been domiciled in Russia, and a true Russian, and nothing can be more insulting to a Russian than this. The Yiddish jargon is not used by men of the Russian race, who have at their command so rich, so musical, so melodious a language as that which Pouschkin, Tourguenieff, and Tolstoy found an adequate instrument for the expression of their genius.

A Yiddish-speaking man may be a Russian subject, but he is no more a real Russian on that account than a Hottentot, being a British subject, is a real Englishman. Although we Russians may be as bad as some people describe us, we have at least one virtue which is not always recognised: we do our utmost to prevent murderers, thieves, and burglars, and other criminals crossing the frontier. No Russian subject is allowed to leave Russia without a passport, which is never granted to any known criminal. If any such criminals evade our vigilance, our police are only too anxious to inform your police and solicit their co-operation in the arrest of the fugitive. But such offenders have only to allege that they are political refugees, to be welcomed in England and protected by the authorities. In England murder used to be regarded as no murder when the victim was a Russian policeman. But when the same criminals kill an English policeman, as they did in the Sydney Street affair, the matter is not seen in quite the same light.