The explanation is that the leaders of the Jewish people, and practically the whole body of Jewish Intellectuals, recognized from the first that the war was more than a war of conflicting dynasties; that it was a war of conflicting ideals.  They recognized that the Entente, as a whole, notwithstanding that it included the autocracy of Russia, represented the generous, democratic ideals and principles vital to every Jew in that they must be securely established before the emancipation of the Jew could be realized.  Their hatred of Czarism was not engulfed by any maudlin sentiment; they knew that they had no “fatherland” to defend.  They were not swept on a tide of jingoism to forget their tragic history and proclaim their loyalty to the infamous oppressor.  No.  Their loyalty was to the Entente, not to the Czar.  They were guided by enlightened self-interest, by an intelligent understanding of the meaning to them of the great struggle against Teutonic militarist-imperialism.

Every intelligent and educated Jew in Russia knew that the real source of the brutal anti-Semitism which characterized the rule of the Romanovs was Prussian and not Russian.  He knew that it had long been one of the main features of Germany’s foreign policy to instigate and stimulate hatred and fear of the Jews by Russian officialdom.  There could not be a more tragic mistake than to infer from the ruthless oppression of the Jews in Russia that anti-Semitism is characteristically Russian.  Surely, the fact that the First Duma was practically unanimous in deciding to give equal rights to the Jews with all the rest of the population proves that the Russian people did not hate the Jews.  The ill-treatment of the Jews was part of the policy by which Germany, for her own ends, cunningly contrived to weaken Russia and so prevent the development of her national solidarity.  Racial animosity and conflict was an ideal instrument for attaining that result.  Internal war and abortive revolutionary outbreaks which kept the country unsettled, and the energies of the government taxed to the uttermost, served the same end, and were, therefore, the object of Germany’s intrigues in Russia, equally with hostility to the Jews, as we shall have occasion to note.

German intrigue in Russia is an interesting study in economic determinism.  Unless we comprehend it we shall strive in vain to understand Russia’s part in the war and her role in the history of the past few decades.  A brief study of the map of Europe by any person who possesses even an elementary knowledge of the salient principles of economics will reveal Germany’s interest in Russia and make quite plain why German statesmen have so assiduously aimed to keep Russia in a backward economic condition.  As a great industrial nation it was to Germany’s interest to have Russia remain backward industrially, predominantly an agricultural country, quite as surely as it was to her interest as a military power to have weakness and inefficiency, instead of strength and