THE SHIELD***
E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/)
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation and unusual spelling in the | | original document have been preserved. | | | | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected | | in this text. For a complete list, please see the end of | | this document. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
THE SHIELD
+--------------------------------------------------+ | THE NEWEST BORZOI BOOKS | | | | ASPHALT | | _By Orrick Johns_ | | | | BACKWATER | | _By Dorothy Richardson_ | | | | CENTRAL EUROPE | | _By Friedrich Naumann_ | | | | CRIMES OF CHARITY | | _By Konrad Bercovici_ | | | | RUSSIA'S MESSAGE | | _By William English Walling_ | | | | THE BOOK OF SELF | | _By James Oppenheim_ | | | | THE BOOK OF CAMPING | | _By A. Hyatt Verrill_ | | | | MODERN RUSSIAN HISTORY | | _By Alexander Kornilov_ | | | | THE RUSSIAN SCHOOL OF PAINTING | | _By Alexandre Benois_ | | | | THE JOURNAL OF LEO TOLSTOI (1895-1899) | | | | THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SUPERTRAMP | | _By William H. Davies_ | | _With a Preface by Bernard Shaw_ | | | +--------------------------------------------------+
THE SHIELD
Edited by
MAXIM GORKY, LEONID ANDREYEV, and FYODOR SOLOGUB
With a Foreword by William English Walling
Translated from the Russian by A. Yarmolinsky
New York Alfred A. Knopf Mcmxvii Copyright, 1917, by Alfred A. Knopf Printed in the United States of America
FOREWORD
This is not merely a book about the Russian Jews. It is a marvellous revelation of the Russian soul. It shows not only that the overwhelming majority of the Russian intellectuals, including nearly all of her brilliant literary geniuses, are opposed to the persecution of the Jews or any other race, but that they have a capacity for sympathy and understanding of humanity unequalled in any other land. I do not know of any book where the genius and heart of Russia is better displayed. Not only her leading litterateurs but also her leading statesmen and economists are represented--and all of them speak as with a single voice.
I am writing on the 16th of March. Yesterday the news reached the world that Russia had probably at last succeeded in emancipating itself from the German-sustained and German-supported autocracy which so long has been renounced by practically all classes of the Russian people. I have pointed out elsewhere that this Second Act of the great drama of social transformation in Russia was to be expected in connection with the present war. It is not surprising that this Act, like the first--the Revolution of 1905--is accompanied by an irresistible demand for the cessation of the persecution of the Jews and other minority races. The first Duma, that of 1906, demanded unanimously that all these races be given absolutely the same rights as other Russians. The rise of Liberalism during the war, in connection with military necessities, had already abolished a number of Jewish disabilities. There is no longer any question that the Jews will be given equality. Without exception the anti-Semitic organisations were supported by the pro-German party, the money which was alone responsible for the pogroms was furnished by these same organisations, and now this Party and these organisations are forever overthrown. It was Dr. Dubrovin, for example, who year by year carried out the murders of the leading representatives of the Jews in the Duma and who almost succeeded in having Milukov assassinated a few weeks ago. Dubrovin was one of the most important of the sinister forces supported by the money of the German Czarina's court party--which was organised by Baron Fredericks and other notorious Germans masquerading as Russians.
