Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/71

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RUSSIAN v. GERMAN CULTURE
55

every country. It is becoming a difficult problem even in the United States. But it is especially acute in Russia. Russia has a larger Jewish population than all the other countries of the world together. Russian Poland alone has a Jewish population of five millions. Nor has she ever been able to assimilate or to conciliate her Jewish population. As Mr. Stephen Graham points out in his recent book, "Russia and the World," there has been in the past an irreconcilable conflict between the Russian and Jewish racial elements. At various times Russia has made desperate efforts to reject the alien element from her body politic. The deliberate and often cruel and always futile policy of the Government towards the Hebrew race, and the instinctive hatred of the people, have frequently resulted in pogroms and in organized massacres. And the victims of Russian persecution have naturally avenged themselves by maligning their oppressors. Surely no member of the Hebrew race can be blamed if he is not enamoured of the Russian Government.

All these hostile elements: Revolutionists, Polish refugees, and Polish-Russian Jews have