r as closely similar to their Jewish problem.
Both the brilliant and fascinating discussions by Andreyev and
Merezhkovsky will apply almost as well to any other so-called "race
question" as to that of the Russian Jews. Says Merezhkovsky:

"We would like very much to say that there is no such thing as the
Jewish, Polish, Ukrainian, Armenian, Georgian, question; that there is
only one question--the Russian. Yes, we would like to, but we cannot;
the Russian people have yet to earn the right to say that, and therein
lies their tragedy...."

"'Judophilism' and 'Judophobia' are closely related. A blind denial of
a nationality engenders an equally blind affirmation of it. An
absolute 'Nay' naturally brings forth an absolute 'Yea.'"

"That is why we say to the 'Nationalists': 'Cease oppressing the
non-Russian element of our empire, so that we may have the right to be
Russians, and that we may with dignity show our national face, as that
of a human being, not that of a beast. Cease to be 'Judophobes' so
that we may cease to be 'Judophiles.''"

Is it not clear from the recent discussion in the British Parliament
that the Irish problem weighs like an almost intolerable burden just
as much upon the British Empire as it does upon Ireland? Is it not
equally clear from England's concession of a cotton tariff to India
that she will be obliged for her own sake to make further concessions
to justice in that country? And can America ever hope to have any
standing in the court of nations as long as our infamous persecution
of the negroes and our atrocious attitude towards Asiatics continues?
Nations can indulge themselves for a certain period in such gross and
stupid crimes, but the longer the settlement is postponed the greater
the blood-price that must be paid in the end--and in the meanwhile all
our civilisation is poisoned, if not actually rotted, by the network
of lies by which the persecutors are forced to defend their
infamies--lies which are necessarily more far-reaching and impudently
false in a democracy than they are in an autocracy where the existing
system maintains itself rather by force than by public opinion.

But few of us educated Americans have the intellectual and moral
courage of the educated classes of Russia. We feel that we can avoid
our moral and intellectual responsibilities by turning our back on
existing crimes. It has frequently been pointed out that in spite of a
government even more anti-democratic than