Try to put yourself in our place. What would you think if "Peter the Painter" had been welcomed in Petrograd, and if our Government had refused to give him up because he had only killed an English policeman, and was therefore entitled to the right of asylum as a political refugee? Of course, such a crime against civilisation is unthinkable on the part of the Russian Government, but it would represent only too faithfully the position which England has been proud to maintain before the world.
At the time of the Sydney Street outrage I asked:
"What I want to know is whether, now that you are suffering a very, very small part of the misery which these murderers have inflicted on us, you are willing to co-operate with the police of the world in extirpating this gang of ruthless murderers? If you are, you will find ready co-operation on our side; if you are not, then, I fear, the world will say that you care nothing for murder so long as it is only Russian police, generals, or ministers who are murdered, and you will remain in the future, as in the past, the refuge and the shelter of the assassins of the world."
Truth compels me to admit that there are blindfolded people in Russia as well as abroad, and it is not only amongst the foreigners that the real nature of the Russian nation has been sometimes misunderstood. Unfortunately there are prejudiced people amongst ourselves who insist upon being blind and unable to see obvious facts, and the meaning of the war of 1876 has been entirely misunderstood. Let us, for instance, quote Count Leon Tolstoy, who had very peculiar ideas about war. Can anybody, not only in Russia but even abroad, doubt his talent? But nevertheless he proved how easy it is to err in politics even in spite of literary gifts.
I must quote a letter published abroad under the pompous title, A Protest, signed by Count Leon Tolstoy and Russian "celebrities." This document had to be presented to the Emperor—for his enlightenment. This document, however, never went so far.
This event should never have been taken au sérieux anywhere, though stated by a talented author.
Nothing amuses Russians more than to see how gravely "Tolstoy's philosophy and theology" is taken abroad. Amongst us he is only great as a novelist. You may, no doubt, find among the Russians, as well as abroad, enthusiasts ready to embrace any craze. Fortunately they have no lasting moral weight.
The Jewish question in Russia is a very difficult problem indeed. We have in Russia millions of Jews belonging to an anti-Christian creed, and those who imagine it is sufficient for our Emperor "to write a few lines ordering the country at large to love the Talmudist Jew," and who fail to see the difference between the latter and the Greek Orthodox Russian, forget that even Jesus Christ's law to love our enemy is often neglected by those who pride themselves on being His followers. I insist upon the term "Talmudist Jews." The Karaite Jews having joined Russia in the greater part of her national aims and duties, deservedly obtained the same privileges and rights as the rest of the people. The Talmudists, unfortunately, take a different ground, and sometimes have to suffer for it.
At the time of the Guildhall Meeting The Daily News, with perfect fair play, allowed a correspondent to state the facts "within their own knowledge." One of them had shortly before visited the Russian southern provinces. Here are his very words: