novich Tolstoy, born in 1858, occupied the post of
Minister of Public Instruction at the time of Count Witte's
premiership. In 1907 he was a candidate for election to the Duma,
as deputy from Petrograd. A distinguished archeologist and
connoisseur of art, he was for many years the vice-president of
the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts._

CONCERNING THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE JEWS

BY COUNT IVAN TOLSTOY

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them." (St. Matthew, 7, 12.) This is the divine law,
which it is the task of every one who considers and feels himself a
Christian to follow, and which should also be strictly observed by a
State. Now, would any one of the Christians who owe their allegiance
to the Russian state consent to be treated as the Jews are in Russia?
Would he like to be confined within a certain definite zone of
settlement, to be kept from giving his children an education, and to
find himself excluded from many fields of honest and honourable
endeavour? Would he like, all through his life to be humiliated before
his co-citizens of other faith and birth?

You despise them, hate them, and accuse them of all that it may please
any maniac or liar to invent about them. Yet you demand of the Jews
that they should help you, when you stand in need of help. You,
Jew-haters, serve somebody or something, but truly it is not God, it
is not the cause of goodness that you are serving. In your blindness
you harm, above all, yourself and our country, our dear,
long-suffering Russia, whom the Jews, your co-citizens, love and
cannot help loving more than you do. They know that Russia hates none
of her faithful and loving children and that they are hated only by
people, who, either by nature or because of a poor education, cannot
exist without hating some one or something. By their deeds ye shall
know them, these wolves disguised as sheep.

Combat evil and side with good, do good, and do not judge a man by the
fact that his parents are Jewish or Christian, or that he was born
into one faith or another. Remember that we are all born equally naked
and that we must all die. Therefore, do not boast of your birth; bear
firmly in mind that we are all equal before God, before Truth and
that we must be equal before the Law.

As for the legal disabilities of a portion of citizens who are guilty
of no crime,--such as injustice must be completely condemned. In
prac