This article places Jewry before the following dilemma: They must either repent, i.e., take upon themselves all the sins of the Soviet government before the volunteer army and their leaders, or they must perish. The Denikin government had really devoted the Jews to destruction. And in this they found moral support in the Cadet party (Constitutional Democrats). This party of the humblest opposition to His
Majesty (the tsar) forms, in the excellent characterization of Maxim Gorky, a sore, consuming the Russian intelligentzia, for they adapt themselves to the absolutist regime of Rasputin and Shekheglovitov, who brought the country to the brink of ruin. The party which called itself in Siberia the "party of the coup d'etat" proved to be an ultra-reactionary party in the Ukraine. In the Ukraine the Cadets supported from the very beginning the Ataman Skoropadsky as soon as this stage-dictatorship came into being with the help of Baron von Mumm and German bayonets. The main leader of the party, Pavel Nikolaievich Miliukov, approved of this act and at once went over from a pro-English to a pro-German policy. In the south of Russia the central committee of the party, as well as the party as a whole, were the only "moral" support of Denikin, whose predecessor Alexeiev had also been supported by them. The Cadet party demanded a "military dictatorship." Miliukov declared that the Russian democracy was not able to organize the state and a military dictatorship alone was able to do this. The party yielded to the will of its leader, and demanded that all power be taken over by the volunteer army and that all democratic organizations, the provincial and city administrations, etc., should renounce all independent policies and all independent activity as organs of force, for "the time demands a military dictatorship." This party, which was so proud of its liberalism and had Jews also among its leaders, took the standpoint of Shulgin in respect to the pogroms. Their attitude to the Jews is the same as that of the author of the terribly candid article except that they are not so frank and cover their thoughts with a pharisaic cloak. At the party conference of
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the ipth of November in Kharkov, where all the organizations of South Russia and the Ukraine were assembled, the following resolution was adopted on the Jewish question (taken from the Warsaw Jewish paper, "Moment," of the I4th of December, 1919): "The Kharkov conference of the party for popular freedom (Cadets) expresses the conviction that Jewish pogroms are undesirable not merely from humanitarian considerations, but also from the point of view of the great purpose which the volunteer army is fighting to realize. At the same time the conference repudiates every suspicion that the deeds of violence are not counteracted by the competent authorities. The conference considers it its paramount duty to approve a whole line of means and measures undertaken by the government for the prevention of pogroms and the protection of the innocent population. The Jewish pogroms," the resolution continues, "are a consequence of the general demoralization due to Bolshevism as well as the result of direct incitement by Bolshevist agents in their attempt to create confusion behind the front. The reasonable and the leading circles in Jewry must carry on a bitter and unrelenting fight against all elements in Jewry who take active part in the Bolshevist movement and thus are guilty of a wicked and criminal deed. Russian Jewry must understand that if absolute and unconditional support is not given to the national dictatorship and the volunteer army, who are restoring Russian political life, there is no source of safety left. Nothing but a strong order based on law, such as the national government administration is endeavoring to establish, can guarantee the security of all citizens of Russia without distinction of nationality or religion."
If we add to this that in the Cadet organ "Svobodnaya Rossia" (Free Russia) anti-Semitic articles of the not unknown Mr. Nashivin were published, in which the proposal is made to declare all Jews foreigners, the picture becomes clear. The first paragraph of the resolution does not change the matter in any way. To be sure, the party (just like Shulgin) is opposed to pogroms if the Jews will unconditionally support the volunteer army and the national dictatorship which aim to exterminate these very Jews.