They speak of
Russia with the same longing and the same tenderness as the Russian
emigrants; they are equally eager to return and equally saddened, if
the return is impossible. Wherefore should they love Russia, who is
so harsh and inhospitable toward them?"
It is useless for Americans to deceive themselves into thinking that
the Russian Jewish question is either unimportant or incomprehensible
from the point of view of our progress and democracy. Do we not have
our negro and Asiatic problems? Do not the English have their Irish
and Indian questions? I do not suggest that the parallel is complete,
but it is clear that the Russian writers in the present volume are
perfectly correct in referring both to our negro question and our
question of yellow labour as closely similar to their Jewish problem.
Both the brilliant and fascinating discussions by Andreyev and
Merezhkovsky will apply almost as well to any other so-called "race
question" as to that of the Russian Jews. Says Merezhkovsky:
"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.
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