Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920. Oleg Budnitskii
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where pogroms were being carried out by Petliura, Grigoriev, and other “democrats.” He declared that the main supporters of pogromistic “democracy” were “the middle element,” the intelligentsia, bureaucrats, kulaks, and other members of the middle class. “In the face of ‘the Jew’ and ‘the communist,’ the ‘democratic’ bourgeoisie finds someone who is guilty of all evils. In stupid, impotent fury he throws himself at the ‘Yid’ and destroys him. This stupid, dirty animal believes he will feel sated once he has systematically devoured the Jew…”
The role of international capital, of course, was not ignored: “the imperialists will be most pleased if the idiots gnaw at the Jewish bone and leave them in peace.” Vardin claimed that even Jewish capitalists were amenable to the massacre of the Jewish nation in the interest of “class solidarity,” pointing out that most of the victims came from the poor. He declared the protests of the Jewish bourgeoisie in Poland and Lithuania against the pogroms to be hypocritical: “The Jewish bourgeois must know that the Polish lackeys of world capital would not dare to organize pogroms against the will of Clemenceau and Lloyd George. The Versailles oligarchy is completely responsible for pogromistic ‘democracy.’” Although Vardin's accusations in the direction of world capital amount to little more than a stylistic cliché, it is more difficult to take issue with his conclusion: “The salvation of the laboring Jewish masses [lies] not in Paris, but in Moscow.”
The Soviet press continued to pay significant attention to the “Jewish question” at later points as well, informing readers of White atrocities and of the anti-Soviet position of the Jewish bourgeoisie, who it claimed were willing to turn a blind eye to the murders of their fellow Jews. In an article published in Izvestia entitled “General Denikin and two Kharkov Jews,” the Kharkov Jewish bourgeoisie came under attack:
No less than the Russians did they dream in the silent night of the destruction of nightmarish Bolshevism, of the strong and benevolent rule (only without pogroms) of Astrov and Vinaver, of law and order for the preservation of their factories, mines, and shops, and they were overjoyed when there was not a single pogrom after their [the Whites] entry into Kharkov. The four thousand Jewish corpses in Ekaterinoslav, and the murdered Jews of Lozovaia were far away and didn't worry them much, especially as the delegation to Mai-Maevskii assured them that measures would be taken to investigate…116
According to Izvestia, the Jewish bourgeoisie had formed a “Jewish Committee for Assisting the Volunteer Army,” in which a certain L. E. Berg and M. A. Eizler played a leading role in calling on “Russian citizens of the Jewish faith” to enlist in the Volunteer Army.117 Izvestia also faithfully reported on the atrocities committed by troops under the leadership of K. K. Mamontov, who had led a daring raid into the rear lines of the Red Army. The reports placed particular emphasis on the specifically antisemitic nature of their attacks.118 In an article written shortly after the Whites' capture of Kiev, it was claimed that “Denikin's forces [by shooting members of the Cheka] initiated a popular revolt that soon took on the familiar form of a Jewish pogrom.”119
The Life of Nationalities, a newspaper of the People's Commissariat of Nationalities, also published information on the pogroms. On one occasion, it published a detailed report on the pogroms that took place in Ukraine from January to August 1, 1919, which had been prepared by the Committee for the Assistance of Pogrom Victims of the Russian Society for the Red Cross in Ukraine. According to the Committee, 26,000 people were killed and nearly three times that many were wounded during the period in question. This put the total number of those killed or wounded in during the first seven months of 1919 at approximately 100,000 individuals.120
The Life of Nationalities also reported on the rise of antisemitism in Europe, particularly in Poland,121 Romania, Hungary, and Germany, all the while emphasizing that antisemitism was also “one of the best means to combat the workers' movement”: “under this cover they can give the masses any poisonous pills they like, and [the masses] will swallow them whole, paying no attention to the poison.”122
From these examples it is clear that the Soviet press was hardly silent on the matter of pogroms. Nor did it ignore the growth of antisemitism in Russia (and in Europe as well). Trotsky himself was to grace the pages of Izvestia and address the issue. The article stemmed from the recent discovery of a report composed by the former Red Army brigade commander Kotomin, who had gone over to the Whites. The report was intended for Kolchak's army, but Soviet military authorities on the Eastern Front had recently managed to obtain a copy, and through a bizarre twist of fate it had found its way to Trotsky's desk. Trotsky entitled one section of his analysis of Kotomin's report “antisemitism.”
In a curious fashion, Trotsky explained the purely rational reasons for the visible role of Jews in the revolutionary movement, while spending even more time trying to refute Kotomin's claim that Jews were “particularly talented.” He also attacked the Jewish communists of the “most recent mobilization,” claiming their dedication to communism was motivated by national, rather than class, concerns.
Trotsky denied Kotomin's claim that Jewish commissars comprised such a “large percentage,” though he did admit that it was a “fairly significant number.” However, Trotsky particularly took issue with another of Kotomin's claims, which was “similar to those of many other antisemites, that the reason for the significant number of Jewish commissars can be seen in the special talents and capabilities of the Jews”:
In reality, such an evaluation is completely uncalled for. The fact is, Jews are mostly an urban population, and within the urban population they comprise a very large element. The Tsarist regime, which created the most trying conditions of existence for the Jews, not only pushed the Jewish workers in the direction of the Russian workers, but also pushed the bourgeois elements of the intelligentsia towards the path of revolution. Among the many Jewish communists of the latest mobilization, there are many for whom communism did not spring from class concerns, but rather national ones. Of course, these are not the best communists, and the organization of Soviet power does not rely upon them, but on the Petersburg and Moscow proletarians who were tempered in the old underground.
Antisemitism is not only hatred towards Jewry, but also cowardice before Jewry. Cowardice has large eyes, and sees qualities in the enemy with that are in no way inherent to him. The social and legal conditions of Jewish life are sufficient to explain the role of the Jews in the revolutionary movement. However, it has not been proven, and cannot be proven, that Jews are more gifted than Russians or Ukrainians.123
Gorky was to express a different opinion of Jewish capabilities. On one occasion, Dimanshtein came to Lenin with Gorky's pamphlet “On the Jews,” which was published in a huge print run by the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. Dimanshtein wanted Lenin to delay the distribution of the pamphlet, as “Gorky was singing an unbelievable hymn to the Jewish people, praising them without exception, which gave the impression that the revolution was dependent on the Jews, the middle-class elements in particular.” Lenin went only so far as to say that “the pamphlet was not very well designed, for in a peasant country one must occasionally deal with shameful prejudices such as antisemitism.” Nonetheless, Lenin considered the pamphlet to be useful, and did not think that confiscating it would be worthwhile.124
Strangely, other than the single phrase, “In the struggle for Russia's freedom the Jewish intelligentsia has spilled just as much of its own blood as the Russian intelligentsia has,” there is not a word about the role of Jews in the revolution in Gorky's pamphlet. Moreover, there is no mention of the revolution “depending on the Jews.”125 In his usual manner Gorky scolded the Russian people for their laziness and jealousy, and for their inclination to blame someone else (“wife, neighbor, weather, God, anyone but themselves”) for all of their misfortunes. These allegedly inherent qualities of the Russian people were juxtaposed to Jewish perseverance in the struggle for life, their “wise love” towards children and labor, and their belief that the law will be triumphant.126 Gorky's arguments in defense of the Jews were quite distant from the clichés of Bolshevik Marxism. They were, however, probably more readily understood by his audience: “It was the Jews who out of our dirty earth managed to raise a glorious flower, Christ, son of a Jewish carpenter,