st
come into being. The opinion of the first two sessions of the Duma is
well known. The People's representatives in the first two Dumas
announced directly and unambiguously that the realisation of full
civic freedom, for Jews as well as for the rest of the citizens, was
one of their first tasks. Then a new reactionary election law was
introduced. It made a radical change in the composition of the
Imperial Duma and also in the attitude of the latter toward the Jewish
question. The outright usefulness of the part played by the Jews in
the economic life of both town and village,--this fact, which even
reactionary governments, ministers and committees ceased doubting, was
again questioned by the newly elected representatives of the Russian
people. It is only from that moment on that it became possible to plan
such measures as the abolition of those meagre rights which the Jews
are still enjoying. Thus, together with the victory of political
reaction the new anti-Semitism, which we cannot any longer overlook,
has become triumphant.

Our historical excursion enables us also to explain the reason why in
the present phrase of Russian social life the Jewish problem has again
arisen in an unprecedented form. It was simply a new political weapon,
in a sense, the result of the new form of political life. As long as
the nation was voiceless, as long as all matters were decided by the
bureaucracy in the quiet of offices, committees, and ministries, it
was possible for the Government to ignore the people as a factor in
legislation, and to take into account nothing but the needs and the
welfare of the state as it understood them. But when the nation was
called to participate in state affairs, there arose the need of
influencing it in a certain sense. It became necessary to work up the
masses, to act on their intellect and will. Official anti-Semitism is
the most primitive means of satisfying this need, a simplified attempt
to bridle the masses, to suggest to them the feelings, motives, views
and methods which are in the interest of those who play the game. In
other words, demagogy came into being. For the purposes of demagogy a
special political weapon, corresponding to the political conditions
under the new regime, was created,--namely artificial political
parties.

Thus, anti-Semitism of the new type, however strange this conclusion
may appear, is the product of the constitutional epoch. It is a
response to the need for new means