STION AS A RUSSIAN QUESTION

BY DMITRY MEREZHKOVSKY

Russia ... Russia alone should be our deepest concern at present. The
destiny of the numerous races and nationalities that go to make Russia
is the destiny of the Russian Empire itself. One would ascertain the
attitude of these nationalities by asking them: "Are you with Russia
or is it your desire to exist apart from her? If you desire to exist
apart from her--why, then, do you appeal to us for help? If with
us--let us then, in this time of terror, disdain to consider our
personal fortunes and let our thoughts be with Russia and with her
alone. For without her your existence is inconceivable; her rise is
your rise and her fall is your fall."

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.... The moment Russian idealism ventures to
tackle any of those complicated national home problems,--it becomes
weak, impotent and therefore irresponsible.

The Jewish question is a striking illustration of what we have just
said. What do we owe the Jews? Indignation? Or the admission that
anti-Semitism is abominable? But we admitted that a long time ago, and
our indignation runs so high and is so clearly outspoken that it is
beyond one's power even to speak calmly of it. The only thing we can
do is to join our voice to that of the Jews. And we do.

But outcries, loud as they may be, are not sufficient, and it is the
consciousness of the fact, that the outcries are insufficient and that
at the present moment we possess no other weapons with which to fight
the evil that wearies and harrows us.

What misery, and pain, and shame!

But in spite of the pain and the shame we cry out and reiterate and
declare to the people around us, who are ignorant of the table of
multiplication, that two and two make four, that the Jews are human
beings like us; that they are neither enemies nor traitors to their
country; that they are as good citizens as we are; that they love
Russia no less than we do, and that anti-Semitism is a disgraceful
stigma upon Russia's face. But apart from our righteous indignation,
may we not be allowed calmly to utter one thought that occurs to us at
this moment?

"Judophilism" and "Judophobia" are closely related.