ome the general
rule: the Jews love the same Russia that is so cruel toward them.

Some one's interests demand that the Jews should be oppressed, stabled
in the "Pale of Settlement," limited in the right to education, and in
other respects. But to whose interest is it? Russia's? Surely not.

Social relations in Russia, as in every civilised state, must rest on
the immovable foundations of justice, reason, and conscience. All
those persons who are united by the fact of their belonging to the
Russian state must have, within the limits of the empire, the minimum
of rights, which, to our shame, are refused the Jews. This minimum
each one of us receives not for his personal or racial deserts or
distinctive traits, but as a citizen of the state. To obey the common
Russian laws, to pay the established taxes, to serve in the army,--all
these are the duties of a Russian subject, corresponding to the amount
of rights of which he can be deprived only by a court ruling for a
crime.

A man not dishonoured by a court decision may not live where he wants
to,--because he is a Jew; a boy who has not been dismissed from any
school for deficiency or misconduct, may not enter the "gymnasium,"
where there are plenty of vacancies, but where the few vacancies set
aside by a percentage rule for the Jewish brats, are eagerly filled by
them; a soldier's wife may not visit her wounded and agonising husband
because he happens to be dying outside the "Pale"; the deceased may
not be buried in the town where he died, for he had no right of
residence in that town,--what does all this mean? Who needs all this?

All these people are Russian subjects, not our enemies, and yet they
are treated in this fashion. What is the purpose of it all? Is it in
order to kindle among the Jews the fire of implacable hatred of Russia
and turn them into our enemies? But then we must be logical and not
tolerate them in the "Pale of Settlement"; we must exile or destroy
them. But a civilised state will never persuade itself to commit such
acts, inhuman though logical. And if it does not decide to do that, it
must, for the sake of its safety and dignity, grant to every Russian
citizen the elementary human rights. It is imperative that every
Russian citizen should have every reason to love Russia and no right
to hate her. If that portion of the Russian population which is
deprived of rights still loves Russia, it is because the people of
purely Russian extraction have no