It is a
response to the need for new means of influencing the masses. And in
this sense anti-Semitism plays in Russia the same role as it played in
Western Europe.
Bismarck, it will be remembered, called anti-Semitism the socialism of
fools. In order to combat the socialism of intelligent people, it is
necessary to take hold of the ignorant masses and to mislead them by
showing them the imaginary enemy of their welfare instead of the real
one. Anti-Semitism says to the ignorant masses: "There is your enemy,
fight the Jews, and you will improve your life conditions...." It is
well known that such attempts to apply anti-Semitism for the purpose
of creating social parties of the new type were more than once made in
the West. As an example, I shall cite the Christian Social Party in
Austria, with its late leader, Lueger.
There is one small difference between us and the West. In Russia the
masses are not so well prepared to appreciate a social argument, even
when served in a simplified form.
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