The Pete Quiñones Show - Reading Solzhenitsyn's '200 Years Together' w/ Dr. Matthew Raphael Johnson - Part 15

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

59 MinutesPG-13Dr. Matthew Raphael Johnson is a researcher, writer, and former professor of history and political science, specializing in Russian history and political ideology.Pete and Dr. Johnson continue a project in which Pete reads Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's '200 Years Together," and Dr' Johnson provides commentary.Dr Johnson's PatreonRusJournal.orgTHE ORTHODOX NATIONALISTDr. Johnson's Radio Albion PageDr. Johnson's Books on AmazonPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

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this is over the nation at Amstere, is there goa and not great gree in on doon, and leant of Gala to give the family father to Gaelan. In Ergred,

we're taking a talk in one-of-he, one-of-in-voin-ha. There's ozchrote, to do you have to do you ever, lecturers on as good all the time

people cariff in the past to want to ask. There's era of cooctuagin. Follam next more in Airgrid Pongahee.

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I think sometimes you see that I'm putting out two, even three a day. And, yeah, can't do it without you. So thank you for the support. Head on over to freeman beyond the wall.com forward slash support and do it there. Thank you. I want to welcome everyone back to this is part 15 of, of our reading of 200 years together by Alexander Solchani Sond. How are you doing, Dr. Johnson?

I'm joined today by my Turkishangora kitten Chubapurdy, who's next to me on her bed. Now, I say this because she's deaf, like many of the white, blue-eyed versions of that breed. So she's loud. She has no idea how loud she is. So she decides to wake up and she's a, my God, she plays constantly. I've been raising cats my whole life, but she is definitely special.

And I don't mean that in an Olympian kind of a way. I mean, she's really very extraordinary, but she is loud. No problem. I was recording with two other gentlemen the other night, and all of our, all three of our cats wanted in on the recording. So kind of used to it. Well, that's good. All right, picking up where we left off.

And the growth of the Jewish population of Russia was rapid and confident. In 1864, it amounted to 1.5 million without counting Jews in Poland. And together with Poland in 1850, it was 2,0.350,000. And in 1860, it was already 3,980,000. From the initial population of around 1 million at the time of the first partitions of Poland, to 5,175,000 by the census of 1897, that is, after a century, it grew more than five times. At the start of the 19th century, Russian jury amounts it to 30% of the world's Jewish population, while in 1880 it was already 51%.

This was a major historical event. At the time, its significance was grasped neither by Russian society nor by Russian administration. This fast numerical growth alone, without all other peculiarities of the Jewish question, had already put a huge state problem for Russia. And here it is necessary, as always, in any question, to try to understand both points of view. With such an enormous growth of Russian Jewry, two national needs were clashing ever more strongly. On one hand, was the need of Jews and a distinct feature of their dynamic 3,000-year existence, to spread and settle as wide as possible among non-Jews

so that a greater number of Jews would be able to engage in manufacturing, commerce, and service intermediaries and to get involved into the culture of the surrounding population. On the other was the need of Russians, as the government understood it, to have control over their economic and then cultural life and develop it themselves at their own pace. I'm surprised that Solzhenitsyn says their dynamic 3,000, year existence. We know that that's not true. This is not the same group of people

religiously nor ethnically that we call Israelites of the Old Testament. This is, if anything, they're very negation, like the Talmud is the negation of the Old Testament that they reject. Don't forget, the Talmud has Isaiah and several other prophets in hell because they criticized they criticized Jewish leadership in fact that's all the prophets ever did I know Isaiah in fact I have a citation for that but but the others I'm not sure

they're a negation of everything so this is very it's surprising to me that he's saying this but the population growth is a big deal demographics and this is why you know with Western countries collapsing in terms of

population, people are power and everyone knows that. One of the reasons that Israel in the Middle East is not a viable option for much longer is that although the Jewish population is growing, it's not growing nearly as quickly as the Arabs. And the Arabs are much younger than the Jewish population. But Shultznihan is right to say that, this is a huge problem. They can't be isolated for very long,

not with these numbers. And it's, this is a, this is a huge deal. And more importantly, that I guess when he says a major historical event, I guess he means the population growth itself

over 100 years, that that itself wasn't fully understood. So, the solution was going to, and we're in era where Zionism is just starting to gain some traction. Really after the murder of Alexander that you hear about it more in the 1880s. But it still is growing in some especially in secular circles.

You know, you can't say isolated when you have this many people. And this was both an opportunity and a threat to the Jewish leadership at the time. Let's not forget that simultaneously with all these relief measures for the Jews, the universal liberating reforms of Alexander II were implemented one after another, and so benefiting Jews as well as all other peoples of Russia. For example, in 1863, the capitation tax from the urban population was repealed, which meant that the tax relief for the main part of the Jewish masses, only land taxes remained after that,

which were paid from the collected kosher tax. Yet precisely the most important of these Alexandrian reforms, the most historically significant turning point in the Russian history, the liberation of peasants in the abolition of serfdom in 1861, turned out to be highly unprofitable for Russian Jews and indeed ruinous for many. The general social and economic changes resulted from the abolition of peasant servitude had significantly worseen the material situation of broad Jewish masses during that transitional period. The social change was such that the multi-million disenfranchised and immobile peasant class ceased to exist,

reducing the relative advantage of Jewish personal freedom. And the economic change was such that the peasant, liberated from the servitude, was less in need of the services by the Jew, that is, the peasant was now at liberty from the strict prohibition against treating his products and purchasing goods himself. That is, though anyone other than a pre-assigned middleman in the western provinces, almost always a Jew. And now, as the landowners were deprived of free surf labor in order to not to be ruined,

they were compelled to get personally engaged in the economy of their estates, an occupation where earlier Jews played a conspicuous role as renters and middlemen in all kinds of commercial and manufacturing deals. I do want to disagree somewhat with Solst & Eason's assessment here. As we've read about before, the enforcement of laws was really only done by the landlord and his counsel. The only other check was, you know, the church on the one side which had been badly weakened at this point and the regional governor on the other. I don't think that liberated from servitude he needed the Jew any less.

I think very enterprising peasants were selling their products however they needed. Surf labor was not free. There was investments that were substantial from the landlord or else they couldn't function or these were not slaves by any means. And at least some of them, some landowners did get personally engaged.

Many of them simply lost their land, despite the fact that the government was giving them many incentives they essentially took a buyout this is why the peasants ended up running everything but I don't think the peasants would have ended up running everything if the Jews were capable of functioning legally as full landowners one of the great victories of the Russian monarchy

was that its peasant class was by far the best the best off financially and legally than anywhere else. There were landowners, plus they had their communal institutions. The nobility ended up going to the county government or the Zemstva, which was, you know, elected these were all elected positions.

And I guess what he really means here is that there's, he calls it a transitional period, which I guess I understand. You know, one door open, another door is going to a door closes, nothing the world is going to open. But again, this really depended on the region, on the estate,

on the governor. I know he's speaking very generally, as we historians, you know, have to do, but I think he's overstating the case. Let me put it that way. Ready for huge savings?

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Terms and conditions apply. Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland Limited, trading as Cooper Financial Services, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. And now this is over the same year after you're in the handsire. It's leargoal to doer and not great greeing in Aondon and leant of Gala

to give the amalfa Gia Lada Gailta Deereon. In Ergrid, we're dig toward in Woonaha with Foonivein'Oan. It's a uschral to do you ever

time, Gnough and Pubble tariff in Tarefewan Tashty. There's era of Cooctuagin. Foll, I'm not more, in Ergrid Pongahee. It's noteworthy that the land credit introduced in those years was displacing the Jew as the financial manager of the menorial economy. The development of consumer and credit associations led to the liberation of people from the tyranny of usury.

An intelligent contemporary conveys to us the Jewish mood at the time. Although access to government service and free professions was open to the Jews and although the industrial rights of the Jews were, broadened, and there were more opportunities for education, and on every corner, the rapprochement between the Jewish and Christian populations was visible, and although the remaining restrictions were far from being strictly enforced, and the officials now treated the Jewish population with far more respect than before, yet the situation of the Jews in Russia at the present time is very dismal. Not without reason, Jews expressed regret for good old times. everywhere in the pale of settlement

one could hear the Jewish lamentations about the past for under serfdom and extraordinary development of mediation took place. The lazy landowner could not take a step without the Jewish traitor or agent and the browbeaten peasant also could not manage without him. He could only sell the harvest through him and borrowed from him also. Before the Jewish business class derived the enormous benefit from the helplessness, wastefulness, and impracticality of landowners, but now the landowner

had to do everything himself. Although the peasant became less pliant and timid, now he often establishes contacts with wholesale traders himself, and he drinks less, and this naturally has a harmful effect on the trade in spirits, which an enormous number of Jews live on. The author concludes that the wish that the Jews, as happened in Europe, would side with the productive classes and would not become redundant in the national economy? It's going to have to wait for Alexander III, one of the greatest monarchs, whoever ruled anywhere, but he established the peasant land bank, and this offered loans at zero interest, or minimal interest that was eventually canceled to peasants to buy up land around them.

and so the most productive within the communal system could still, and anything that was lost by the landlord, the state was able, at least for a while, to provide. So the land went to the commune, and they had to pay, you know, the peasants had to pay the so-called redemption tax, which was eventually, you know, to compensate the landowner, but that was eventually canceled. See, in places like Russia with a monarchy like this,

you can cancel debt. You can't cancel debt in an oligarchy. You can't cancel debt in Western Europe or the U.S. today. But if it's canceled, it's canceled, and everyone has to deal with it. And I think that whether or not the landowner was no longer lazy, I think he still needed, to some extent,

the Jew or even more, had to, you know, he went up, he ended up in the cities as a, as a professional. You know, this was a steep decline of the, of the noble class, the landowner class, and the peasantry had taken over. I just wonder how much these laments about the past concerned the Cahal, which now was, you know, non-existent than anything else. But again, this was a transitional period, but as people like Alexander III, who, because he was a very strong monarch,

who didn't have to answer to anyone to God, was able to ensure that peasants became landowners, canceling redemption payments, canceling even the loans that were offered were eventually canceled for the sake of having a prosperous peasant class. And this is why I say that Russian peasants were better off, you know, farmers,

were better off than any other peasant class in Europe. Now Jews had begun renting and purchasing land. The Novorossi's Governor General, 1869, requested in a staff report to forbid Jews in his region to buy land, as was already prohibited in nine Western provinces. Then in 1872, there was a memorandum by the Governor General of the Southwestern Kray, stating that Jews rent land for agricultural occupations, but only for industrial aims.

They hand over the rented land to peasant, peasants, not for money, but for a certain amount of work, which exceeds the value of the usual rent on that land, and thereby they establish a sort of their own form of servitude. And though they undoubtedly reinvigorate the countryside with their capital and commerce, the Governor General considered concentration of manufacturing agriculture in the same hands, uncondusive, since only under free competition can peasant farms and businesses avoid the burdensome subordination of their work and land to Jewish capital, which is tantamount to their inevitable and impending material and moral perdition.

However, thinking to limit the renting of lands to Jews and the Kray, he proposed to give the Jews an opportunity to settle in all of the greater Russian provinces. The memorandum was put forward to the just-created commission for arranging the Jewish way of life, the eighth of the Jewish commissions, according to count, which was then highly sympathetic to the situation of the Jews. It received a negative review, which was later confirmed by the government, to forbid the Jewish rent of land would be a complete violation of rights of landowners. Moreover, the interests of the major Jewish renter merged completely with those of other landowners. Well, it is true that the Jewish proletarians group around the major Jewish renters and

live off the work and means of the rural population. But the same also happens in the estates managed by the landowners themselves, who to this time cannot manage without the help of the Jews. Which is what I said before. You know, whether the, whether serfdom existed or not, they still needed Jewish capital, because as we all know, they had access to a international pool of liquidity, which meant that they could offer rates far lower than anyone else. and had access to more money than anyone else. But it's just bizarre

how they were actually recreating their own form of serfdom here by, you know, the government said, you know, Jews buy a certain chunk of land. And then they rented out to peasants and they end up being a landlord just like you had before. And this is one of the reasons. This is the reason, in fact, that Jews, you have people like him who have just refused.

to allow them to buy land, although the state disagreed with it. But you notice something else here. The Jewish proletarians, of course, were many. The ethnic connection with other Jews was far more important than anything else. You didn't have a strong association between Jewish and non-Jewish landowners. you did have of course association between poor Jews and rich Jews whether it be in land or anything else

but they certainly weren't buying or renting land to farm these these poorer Jews were essentially hangers on and you know essentially one scam after another and it all revolved around their ability to buy land I don't think that the interest of the major Jewish renter merged completely as we read here

with those of the other landowners I think you're talking about two different species here in terms of economic thinking. However, in the areas inhabited by the Don Cossacks, the energetic and economic advancement of the Jews was restricted by the prohibition of 1880 to own or rent the real estate. The provincial government found that in view of the exclusive situation of the Donne province, the Cossack population, which is obligated to military service to a man, is the only reliable way to save the Cossack account.

from ruin to secure the nascent manufacturing and commerce in the area. For a too hasty exploitation of a region's wealth and quick development of industry, are usually accompanied by an extremely uneven distribution of capital, and the swift enrichment of some and the impoverishment of others. Meanwhile, the Cossacks must prosper, since they carry out their military service on their own horses and with their own equipment, and thus they had prevented a possible Cossack. If there was any group of people in the Russian Empire who knew the Jews very well would be the

Cossacks, these are the people who we spoke of weeks ago. They still spoke of Kimo-Ni-Ki and everything else in their legends in their stories. The only thing that would bring the Cossacks to ruin is the Jewish ability to buy land, to lend money, and then once the Cossack gets into a certain amount debt take that. They didn't buy land. You know, it was sold to them because they had no choice. It's like, you know, an organized crime, like a gambler, you know, they had no choice but to sell.

And because they were responsible for producing infantry, well, not infantry, Calvary, actually, for the Russian Empire. They had to do all of this themselves. They had to pay for the horse, everything else. They had their own special units right up until the United States. right up until the end, and they still exist today. They had their own special units, and so they needed an even level of land ownership,

of commerce, and everything else in order to do that. They had the best horses in the world. They were the best riders in the world. No one denies that. They're still doing it. And that requires capital inputs. Therefore, the Jews would be an utter disaster if they were permitted total freedom down there

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Savour sumptuous farm-fresh dining. Relax in our exquisite accommodations. Step outside and be captivated by the Wild Atlantic Surounds. Your five-star getaway, where every detail is designed with you in mind. Give the gift of a unique experience this Christmas with vouchers from Trump-Dunbeg. Search Trump-Ireland gift vouchers. Trump on Dunbiog, Kush Faragea. So what happened with the conscription of Jews into military service after those Alexandria

relief measures of 1856? For the 1860s, this was the picture. When Jews managed to find out about the impending imperial manifest about recruit enrollment before it is officially published, all members of Jewish families fit for military service flee from their homes in all directions. Because of the peculiarities of their faith and the lack of comradeship and the perpetual isolation of the Jewish soldier, the military service for Jews was the most threatening, the most ruinous, and the most burdensome of duties. Although from 1860, the Jewish service and the guards was permitted, and from 1861 promotions to petty officer ranks and

services clerks, there was still no access to officer ranks. Orshansky, a witness, a witness, of the 1860s certifies. It is true. There is much data supporting the opinion that in the recent years, the Jews, in fact, had not fulfilled their conscription obligations number-wise. They purchase old recruit discharges and present them to the authorities. Peasants sometimes keep them without knowing their value as far back as from 1812. So now Jewish resourcefulness puts them to use. Or they hire volunteers in place of themselves and pay a certain sum to the Treasury. Also, they try to divide their families into smaller units, and by this, each family claims the privilege of the only son. The only son was exempt from the military service.

Yet he notes, all the tricks for avoiding recruitment are similarly encountered among the pure-blooded Russians and provides comparative figures for Ekaterina Slav Gobernia. Orshansky had even expressed surprise that Russian peasants prefer to return. turn to the favorite occupation of the Russian people farming instead of wanting to remain in the highly paid military service? Well, it's true. That kind of draft dodging is going to be found anywhere, and at all times. In terms of proportion, there is no comparison.

Jews were absolutely dedicated to not serving in the military, whether it's a positive experience or not. They rejected it, you know, fighting for, in their minds, fighting for Amalek is absolutely out of the question. And of course, they were much better scammers than everybody else. So, yeah, of course, you're going to get draft dodging everywhere, but probably every Jewish family was involved in this, where amongst Russians it probably was probably was. you know, a much lower percentage, a much lower proportion.

In 1874, a unified regulation about universal military service had replaced the old recruit conscription obligation, giving the Jews a significant relief. The text of the regulation did not contain any articles that discriminated against Jews. However, now Jews were not permitted to remain in residence in the interior provinces after completion of military service. Also, special regulations aim to specify the figure of a man. of male Jewish population were introduced, for to that day it largely remained undetermined and unaccounted. Information about abuses of laws by Jews wishing to evade military service was circulated to governors. In 1876, the first measures for ensuring the proper fulfillment

of military duty by Jews were adopted. The Jewish Encyclopedia saw a heavy net of repressive measures in them. Regulations were issued about the registration of Jews at conscription districts and about the replacement of Jews not fit for service by Jews who were fit, and about verification of the validity of exemptions for family conditions for violation of these regulations, conscription of only sons was permitted. A contemporary and then influential St. Petersburg newspaper, Golos, cites quite amazing figures from the official. governmental report on the results of conscription in 1840. For all, the shortfalls of recruits was 3,309.

Out of this, the shortfall of Jews was 3,054, which amounts to 92%. Yep, that's no shock to anybody. Schmachoff, a prominent attorney, now well-disposed towards Jews, cites such statistics from the reference, privateel... I can't pronounce that. It's the government bulletin. For the period 1876 to 1883.

Out of 282,466 Jews subject to a conscription, 89,105, that is 31.6%, did not show up. The general shortfall for the whole empire was 0.19%. The administration could not help but notice this and a number of steps towards the elimination of such abuse were introduced. This had an effect, but only in short term. In 1889, 46,190 Jews were subjected to call up, and 4,255 did not appear. That is 9.2%.

But in 1891, from a general number of 51,248 Jews recorded on the draft list, 7,658, or 14.94% failed to report. at that time the percentage of Christians not reporting was barely 2.67%. In 1892, 16.38% of Jews failed to report as compared to 3.18% of Christians. In 1894, 6,289 Jews did not report for the draft. That's 13.6%. Compare this to the Russian average of 2.6%. given the structures of the time for the majority of Russians of course were part of peasant communes the commune would get together

and decide who should go assuming the commune was even in the draft region so this wasn't like someone was dragged out of his house you know communes could be quite large and you know this was a this was a communal decision it's possible

I don't know for a fact but it's possible the same thing occurred amongst the guilds in the cities but everything in Russia was communal and came to a conclusion

based on communal discussion and unanimity as much as humanly possible now the Cahal used to be in charge of this for the Jews and we read before

they would just you know get rid of their rotten ones that way. I have the feeling that a lot of that was still going on, but you didn't have the institutional structure. This is a transitional period for Jewish self-rule, too. You had to have had some, you know, phantom khal, some communal issue, not quite a legal one,

like the khala used to be, but I think they were in a transitional period in terms of how they would choose. And I still think that it was their, you know, ones that they really wanted to get rid of. This was not the case in the commune. There was a lot of benefits of being a part of the Russian army. And you had, you know, when you read about the, how conscription worked, because of the sheer size of the empire, a number of people there, it was, you know, one person out of a huge area.

So this didn't affect, you know, Jews, again, they're always. always being, you know, over-dramatic. It didn't affect very many Jews. I still suspect, though, that they were sending. They're the ones that these proletarians, as we've read about before, I have the feeling they're the ones who ended up in the army. What kind of soldiers they were, I don't know. However, the same document on the 1894 draft states that in total, 873,143 Christians, 45,801 Jews, 27,4244 Muhammadans, and 1,311 pagans were to be drafted. These are striking figures. In Russia, there were 8.7% Muslims, according to the 1870 count, but their share in the draft was only 2.9%.

The Jews were in an unfavorable position, not only in comparison with the Mohammedans, but with the general population too. Their share of the draft was assigned 4.8%, though they constitute only 3.2% of the Russian population in 1870. The Christian share in the draft was 92%, 87% of the Russian population. From everything said here, one should not conclude that at the time of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, 1878, Jewish soldiers did not display courage and resourcefulness during combat.

In the journal the Russian Jew, we can find convincing examples of both virtues. Yet during the war, much irritation against Jews arose in the army, mainly because of dishonest contractor quartermasters. And such were almost exclusively Jews, starting with the main contractors of the Horowitz, Greger, and Kagan Company. The quartermaster supplied, undoubtedly under protection of higher circles, overpriced poor quality equipment, including the famous cardboard, souls due to which the feet of Russian soldiers fighting in the Shepka Pass were frostbitten.

Yeah, this was eventually solved. Again, the Jews made their own bed here. It wasn't the individual Jewish soldier, one way or another. It was, it were these people. And because they had access to finance, they were used quite often to supply the army. But after this particular scandal, this, this stuff didn't happen again. But it goes to show, you know,

how much they hated Russia and how much they hated Russians. Now, I don't know about the ideological indoctrination of Russian draftees, conscripts. Of course, there was always a professional core. I mean, really, you know, Cossacks were professional

too. That was their whole reason for their existence. And you can't depend all that much on conscripts. no army no army can but right up until World War I you have Jews

at the highest you know they weren't officers but they were feeding these companies these divisions

these armies and they got into a lot of trouble but later on these for the most part these kind of scandals didn't occur again you catch them

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In the age of Alexander II, the half-century-old official drive to accustom the Jews to agriculture was ending in failure again. I added again. Yeah, well, you're right. After the repeal of disproportionate Jewish recruitment, farming had immediately lost all its appeal for Jews

or, in words of one government official, a false interpretation of the manifest by them had occurred, according to which they now considered themselves free of the obligation to engage in farming and that they could now migrate freely. The petitions from the Jews about resettling with the intent to work in agriculture had ended almost completely. Conditions in the existing colonies remain the same, if not worse. Fields were plowed and sewed pathetically just for a laugh or for appearance's sake only. For instance, in 1859, the grain yield in several colonies was even smaller than the amounts sown.

In the new paradigmatic colonies, not only barns were lacking, there was even no overhangs or pens for livestock. For livestock, the Jewish colonists leased most of their land to others to local peasants or German colonists. Many asked permission to hire Christians as workers, otherwise threatening to cut back on sewing even further, and there were granted such a right, regardless of the size of the actual crop. It was a stupid thing to begin with. This is what you should expect. It's such nonsense to take these strictly urban scammers.

And even with peasant training, which I would have loved to have been able to record some of that, especially since the language barrier sometimes was pretty severe. Yeah, it was just for show. It was just for appearance sake. It shouldn't have been done at all. And I don't know how these Jews were as landlords. They were being approached.

And remember, peasants were very shrewd. Their literacy rate was going through the roof at this point, especially with Alexander's educational reform. But even without that, they weren't bad businessmen in their own right. And so nothing like the Machiavellian Jew, but they were able. and, as we already heard, because they had now more responsibility, at least the Solzhenitsyn would say, they're drinking a lot less.

And that's a huge problem for the Jews in general. Of course, they were affluent Jewish farmers among the colonists. Arrival of German colonists was very helpful, too, as their experience could now be adopted by Jews. And the young generation born there was already more accepting toward agriculture and German experience. They were more convinced in the advantage. of farming in comparison to their previous life in the congestion and exasperating competition

of Stettles and towns. Yet the incomparably larger majority was trying to get away from agriculture. Gradually, inspectors' reports became invariably monotonic. What strikes most is the general Jewish dislike for farmwork and their regrets about their former artisan, occupations, trade, and business. They displayed tireless zeal in any business opportunity, for example, at the very high point of field work. They could leave the fields if they discovered that they could profitably buy or sell a horse and ox or something else in the vicinity. They had a predilection for penny-wise trade, demanding, according to their conviction, less work and giving more means for living. Making money was easier for Jews in nearby German, Russian, and Greek villages, where the

Jewish colonists would engage in tavern keeping and small trade. Yet more damaging for the arable land were long absences of the workers who left the area for distant places, leaving only one or two family members at home in the colonies while the rest went to earn money in brokerages. In the 1860s, a half century after the founding of colonies, such departure was permitted for the entire families or many family members simultaneously. In the colonies, quite a few people were listed who had never lived there. After leaving the colonies, they often evaded registering with their trade guild in the new place, and many stayed there for several consecutive years with family, unregistered to any guild, and thus not subject to any kind of tax or obligation. And in the colonies, the houses built for them

stood empty and fell into disrepair. In 1861, Jews were permitted to maintain drinking houses and the colonies. Everything for them was a scam. It's just, it's in their blood. Because even in the Army, as we've already read, you know, they eventually adopted the role of, you know, a semi-merchant. You know, keep in mind that the Russian government didn't know how many Jews were really there. Their census records were so incomplete. And it got even more chaotic after the Kahawas was abolished.

The only thing they cared about was, you know, urban usury trade and brokerages, which are just getting started, very much a Jewish creation. And so even if the family was at home doing absolutely nothing, somewhere in the caucuses, they were well taken care of. No one was suffering in the Jewish population. the one thing that they could do, and that have been doing for centuries, is setting up taverns and everything that that implies. And that's what they were doing here, and eventually the government just gave in. Finally, the situation regarding Jewish agriculture had dawned on the St. Petersburg

authorities in all its stark and dismal reality. Backed taxes for given on numerous occasions, such as an imperial marriage, grew, and each amnesty had encouraged she used not to pay taxes or repay loans from now on. In 1857, when the 10 years granted to collect past due taxes had expired, five additional years were added, but even in 1863, the debt was still not collected. So what was all that resettling privileges and loans for? On the one hand, the whole 60-year epic project had temporarily provided the Jews what means of avoiding their duties before the state, while at the same time failing to instill love for agriculture among the colonists. The ends were not worthy of the means. On the other hand, simply a permission to live outside of the pale, even

without any privileges, attracted a huge number of Jewish farmers who stopped at nothing to get there. If in 1858 there were officially 64,000 Jewish colonists, that is, 8 to 10,000 families, then by 1880, the ministry had found only 14,000. That is, less than 2,000 families. For example, in the whole southwestern Cray in 1872, the commission responsible for verifying whether or not the land is in use or lay unattended had found fewer than 800 families of Jewish colonists. Russian authorities had clearly seen now that the entire affair of turning Jews into farmers had failed. They no longer believe that their cherished hope for the prosperity of colonies could be realized. It was particularly difficult for Minister Kislyev to part with this dream, but he

retired in 1856. Official documents admitted failure, one after another. Resettlement of the Jews for agricultural occupation has not been accompanied by favorable results. Meanwhile, enormous areas of rich productive black topsoil remain in the hands of the Jews unexploited. After all, the best soil was selected and reserved for Jewish colonization. That portion, which was temporarily rented to those willing, gave a large income, Jewish colonies lived off it, as the population of the South grew and everyone asked for land. And now even the worst land from the reserve, beyond that allotted for Jewish colonization, had also quickly risen in value. The Novorosik Kray had already absorbed many active settlers

and no longer needed any state-promoted colonization. The colonists went along with it because they were exempt from taxes for a certain period of time. They were exempt from the draft for a certain period of time. They received regular subsidies instruction. Their failures were indulged. And I had forgotten, we had said this already, that the best black soil was meant for Jewish colonies. This is not exactly an oppressed group.

And yet they were getting income from a thousand other things, including smuggling, which was still going on, prostitution, of course, alcohol, and remittances from Jews living, you know, family members from all over the world in the brokerages and things like that. And yet the demand for the land they had been granted was going up as the population was increasing

in general, Jewish and otherwise, so they were going to make out anyway. For the Jews, like the Jewish encyclopedia, you to talk about this. If this is some sort of oppression, it's probably one of the most Jewish things I've ever heard. So the Jewish colonization had become irrelevant for state purposes. And in 1866, Alexander II had ordered an end to the enforcement of several laws aimed at turning Jews into farmers. Now the task was to equalize Jewish farmers with the rest of the farmers of the empire. Everywhere, Jewish colonies turned out to be incapable of independent existence,

in the new free situation. So now it was necessary to provide legal means for Jews to abandon agriculture, each individually and not in whole families, 1868, so they could become artisans and merchants. They had been permitted to redeem their parcels of land, and so they redeemed and resold their land at a profit. So they get all of these subsidies and privileges

to create these colonies, and when they fail, they get more subsidies. and legal privileges to leave. No wonder they call it Goyim. I mean, my God, the whole thing was a scam. And they get to sell the land that a profit, land that was just given to them. But their existence there was horrible, and to this day they lament it. The Russians were evil, yes.

However, in the dispute over various projects in the Ministry of State Property, the question about the reform of Jewish colonies dragged out and even stopped altogether in 1880, In the meantime, with a new recruit statute of 1874, Jews were stripped of their recruiting privileges, and with that any vestiges of their interest in farming were conclusively lost. By 1881 in the colonies, there was a preponderance of farmsteads with only one apartment house, around which there were no signs of settlement, that is, no fence, no housing for livestock, no farm buildings, no beds for vegetables, nor even a single tree or shrub. there were very few exceptions.

The state counselor, Ivashinsev, an official with 40 years of experience in agriculture, was sent in 1880 to investigate the situation with the colonies. He had reported that in all of Russia, no other peasant community enjoyed such generous benefits as had been given to the Jews, and these benefits were not a secret from other peasants and could not help but arouse hostile feelings in them. Peasants adjacent to the Jewish colonies were indignant, because, Due to a shortage of land, they had to rent the land from Jews for an expensive price. The land, which was given cheaply to the Jews by the state in amounts, in fact, exceeding the actual

Jewish needs. It was namely this circumstance, which in part explained the hostility of peasants toward Jewish farmers, which manifested itself in the destruction of several Jewish settlements. I have nothing to say. You know, at the risk of repeating myself, I'm not going to say anything. In those years, there were commissions allotting land to peasants from the access land of the Jewish settlements. Unused or neglected sectors were taken back by the government. In Volnisk, Poldosk, and Kiev, Gubernius, out of 39,000 Esyatins, is 2.7 acres, only 4,082 remained under Jewish cultivation.

Yet several quite extensive Jewish farming settlements remained. Yakichia in the Minsk governmental region, not known for its rich land, had 740 desyotsons for 46 Jewish families, that is, an average of 16 de Seatsons per family, something you will rarely find among peasants in central Russia. In 1848, in Oningov, of Mugulov, the governmental region, also not vast in land. 20 Jewish families received 20 desyatins of state land each, but by 1872, it was discovered that there were only 10 families remaining, and a large part of the land was not cultivated and was choked with weeds. In Wyshenki of Mogheriev governmental region, they had 16 dexatins per family, and in Ordignos,

Chinchina of Grodno governmental region, 12 decianths per Jewish family. In the more spacious southern governmental regions in the original settlements, there were remained 17 per Jewish family in Bolshoi Nagarov, 16 per Jewish family in Siddharinuk, and 17 per family in Norobarislav. In the settlement of Roskoyat, Roskoshnaya, in Akaterasinislav, governmental region, they had 15 per family, but if total colony land is considered, then 14 per family. In Veselaia, by 1897, there were 28 per family. In Sagaiduk, there were nine per family, which was considered a small allotment. And in Kiev provinces, El Yuvka, there were six Jewish families with 400 among them, or 67 per family.

and land was rented to the Germans. I think that given everything that we've read so far, that if a Jew was to put his heart and soul into farming, if he had a desire for it, maybe he had an aptitude for it, he's going to be shunned by other Jews. They're in exile. Farming the land is almost a negation of that. They think that this is not your home.

You don't serve people. This is, we, we are barely tolerated in their minds, you know. And, you know, with the, with the, with the, with the, Kahal had been brainwashing them about the Goyim for, for years and years. But, but when he, every time he says, you know, a Jewish farmer, first of all, the phrase sounds weird. But, um, I have the feeling that there were, there was others. It was being rented out or that there were, uh, Christian pest.

who had extra money, I don't think they were actually doing the farming. I'll go so far as to say that to be, with very rare exceptions, to be a Jewish farmer and a very good one at the time would be tantamount to conversion. Yet from a Soviet author of the 1920s, we read a categorical statement that czarism had almost completely forbidden the Jews to engage in agriculture. Soviets, they're saying that now. They say it. and every university across the country. They had to lend money because they weren't allowed to do anything else. They were an oppressed group of people picked on for no reason.

That's still being said. Soviet author, I think I'll define that in a certain way. Yeah, of course. On the pages which summarizes painstaking work, the researcher of Jewish agriculture, Vienn Nikitin concludes, the reproaches against the Jews for having poor digilance and diligence in farming for leaving without official permission for the cities to engage in commercial and artisan occupations are entirely justified. We by no means deny the Jewish responsibility for such a small number

of them actually working in agriculture after the last 80 years. Yet he puts forward several excuses for them. The authorities had no faith in Jews. The rules of the colonization were changed repeatedly. Sometimes officials who knew nothing about agriculture or who were completely indifferent to Jews were sent to regulate their lives. Jews who used to be independent city dwellers were transformed into villagers without any preparation for life in the country. At around the same time in 1884, N.S. Lesguff, in a memorandum, intended for yet another governmental commission on Jewish affairs headed by Palin, had suggested that the Jewish lack of habitation to agricultural living had developed over generations, and that it is so strong that it is equal to the loss of ability in farming, and that the Jew would not become a plowman again unless the habit is revived gradually.

Yeah, and they're right. Now, the previous author from the previous paragraph, you know, the Jews were demanding these rule changes. These rule changes existed because the Jews, simply weren't doing what they were supposed to do. But in general, they're correct. You can't expect this to develop. I'm not sure, even now, having read so much stuff on this question over the last 25 years,

the Jew couldn't be a Jew if he was to take up farming and willingly go into the army and things like that. they they you know and that you still had people right up until the administration of of of zar nicholas the the second who still maintained this naive view that oh yeah it could if we just gradually introduce it to them they'll be fine it didn't go away this bizarre optimism yeah russian life at the time and right up until the revolution was very good economic growth industrial growth, urban growth, population growth. There was a lot to be

proud of at the time. And so that's a little bit of the optimism here. There were winning wars. Finland and Poland were pretty much independent, although technically a part of the Russian Empire. So you had this general concept of optimism until, of course, many of these Jewish groups began, you know, blowing up carriages and robbing banks, which we'll read about some time

in the future. Not to mention the things that Nikitin is complaining about the regulations we've already proven were not even enforced. Right. So he's complaining about something that didn't happen, basically. Yeah. Lev Telstoy had allegedly pondered, who are those confining the entire nation to the squeeze of city life and not giving it a chance to settle on the land and begin to do

the only natural man's occupation farming. After all, it's the same as not to give people air to breathe. What's wrong with Jews settling in villages and starting to live a pure working life, which probably this ancient, intelligent, and wonderful people has already yearned for? On what planet was he living? What did he know about the 80 years of practical experience with Jewish agricultural colonization? Yeah, that's exactly the proper response. Tolstoy was always like that. he saw himself as a Jew of sorts I've read so much of his of his work over the years some of it

brilliant the Cossacks is my favorite I guess I would say but after all this time he's still saying this well if you just settle them in a village they'll live a pure working life and they're they're yearning for it yeah what planet was either either he was just very shielded from reality

or he had another agenda in mind and saying such nonsense, giving the Jews a reason to revolt and reason to hate, not to hate Russia, that he was totally ignorant about the 80 years of practical experience here. It's conceivable, but I'm not sure. And yet the experience of the development of Palestine where the Jewish settlers felt themselves at home had showed their excellent ability to work the land.

Moreover, they did it in conditions much more unfavorable than in Novorosia. Still, all the attempts to persuade or compel the Jews toward arable farming in Russia and afterwards in the USSR had failed, and from that came the degrading legend that the Jews in general are incapable of farming. And thus, after 80 years of effort by the Russian government, it turned out that all that agricultural colonization was a grandiose but empty affair. All the effort, all the massive expenditures, the delay of the development of Novorosia, all were for nothing. The resulting experience shows that it shouldn't have been undertaken at all.

And that's been our thesis since we really started this, this whole project of the Jewish committees, one after another. And people like Tolstoy are still writing that? They're still saying things like that? Western textbooks, right this minute, are, are. are saying the same kind of things. It's this deliberate ignorance. Or they're simply so sheltered from reality, which of course censorship in a sanitized world,

a university, which is dedicated to censorship, it permits that. They really don't have access to a lot of this information, and they certainly don't have access to this book. And if you did on a college campus, you'd be in serious trouble. But that last paragraph,

which is where we'll end, obviously, is that's a summary of everything we've done in these last 88 pages. All righty. We will pick this up in a couple of days. Remember to go to the show notes, I have hot links everywhere to support Dr. Johnson and his work. And once again, after 15 episodes of, we have no idea how many it's going to be at this point.

Not a clue. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. And from everything I'm hearing, from everyone who's reaching out, they appreciate you so much. There are people who have read this, and they say that just listening to it, they're getting so much more out of it because of what you can bring to it. So thank you for myself and from all of those people. Well, I'm very happy I could help. That's what I do, I guess. Take care.

See you in a couple days. Bye-bye.