The Pete Quiñones Show - Reading Solzhenitsyn's '200 Years Together' w/ Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson - Part 47

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

53 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 AmazonDr. Johnson's Pogroms ArticlePete 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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Subscribe Star. And if you do that, you will get access to the audio file. So head on over to the Pekignano Show.com. You'll see all the ways that you can support me there. And I just want to thank everyone. It's because of you that I can put out the amount of material that I do. I can do what I'm doing with Dr. Johnson on 200 years together and everything else.

The things that Thomas and I are doing together on, Continental philosophy. It's all because of you. And yeah, I mean, I'll never be able to thank you enough. So, um, thank you. The Pekignana Show.com. Everything's there. I want to welcome everyone back to part 47 of our reading of 200 years together by Alexander Solzhenycin. Dr. Johnson, what are you doing today? You know what I was just doing before, before you called? I was reading the 2025 threat assessment from the intelligence community that Tulsi Gabbard put together. It is the most ridiculous thing. It's taken from major CNN, might as well have written it.

Apparently now, Gabbard and her people are repromoting the Russian electoral manipulation scam. They've mentioned it again, that RT needs to be banned because they're trying to change people's minds about things. all in here. This is now an official publication of the intelligence community in the U.S. But there's no insight to it. They've made some ridiculous. Only smart claim that they made was that the Iranians weren't pursuing nuclear weapons. But you don't have to have specialized knowledge to know that. Otherwise, it's absolute garbage. I feel stupider. I feel less accomplished for having read it. we don't have there's nobody impressive really in government anymore there's no

George tenant there's no I mean even Henry Kissinger I mean it you could say whatever the motivations of these people were you knew that they they knew like you know Ted Cruz the other day doesn't know the population of Iran you knew that like Senator John F. Kennedy knew the population of Vietnam. When he was a senator, he would know what it was. I mean, these people are just, they're just basically drafting, you know, drafting, you get behind, racing, car gets behind another car and gets in his traffic, gets pulled. They're, they're just drafting off of, like, how powerful Zionists were in the past. You know, people are like, oh, Ted Cruz,

who's paying him and who's, you know, who has a sex tape? you know, where he's having sex with a kid. I'm like, they don't need that anymore. That's just who these people are. That's what they believe. An expert walks into their office, you know, from A-PAC and tells them, oh, you know, this is, Iran's going to do this. And they're like, they look at their experts around them,

which aren't experts, their basic retards. And they go, oh, well, that must be the truth. And they just believe it. And there's no one anymore, you know, there's no James Forrestall anymore. There's no one who is going to ask questions. There's no bibliography. There are no footnotes.

We have to take their word for it. It doesn't say where they got this information from. It's just asserted paragraph after paragraph. It's mostly a propaganda piece. Maybe the real threat assessment has been, is classified. And this one is, it's written on maybe an eighth grade level. I wasn't expecting that for something, you know, official like this. I wasn't expecting how awful it was.

And how it just recycles media slogans from years ago. So this is, you know, I was the first person who noticed Tulsi Gabbard when she first started talking about Syria. I was the first one that's, wait a minute, she's not saying what she's supposed to say. She might be halfway decent. And I almost regret that now. everything other than, even though it says that, yes, the Iranians are not making a nuclear weapon, which of course I already knew. However, they are making biological and chemical weapons.

Again, no evidence. But, you know, so this is, this is useless. And this is what, but I have the feeling that this is just a propaganda piece that they put out for the masses. And the real one is classified. Well, we shall see. I mean, I've heard so many different stories about Israel as down to six days worth of missiles and rockets at this point. And, you know, it's just all anybody is waiting for right now is to see whether the United States is going to get involved in this in a way that isn't behind the scenes. And, you know, we, basically, we're at the point where the United States could completely ignore Israel and Israel could be, I wouldn't say destroyed, but they could be changed forever. Like, they'll be changed from the inside forever. They'll be forced to change themselves and how they interact with the world. Because even their power that's in Europe, you know,

city of London, NATO, EU, they're clueless. These aren't impressive people. I mean, the city of London doesn't even have the kind of gold reserves it used to have. So, Sure. There's a lot going against these people. There's a lot going against Israel. So, you know, I don't want to see Israel destroyed because then all those people come here. I want to see them become a Western democracy where they celebrate transgenderism and homosexuality in every corner in every corner of the country, not just Tel Aviv. All right.

All right. Ready to go? Yes, sir. And the leaders of the right and the deputies of the right in the Duma? Most often they acted without taking into account the real relationship between their strengths and their weaknesses, showing themselves both brutal and ineffective, seeing no other means of defending the integrity of the Russian state than calling for more bans on Jews. In 1911, the deputy Balakoff developed a program that went against the current and the times, reinforcing the palest settlement, removing Jews from publishing, justice, and the Russian school. Deputy

Zomislavski protested that within the universities, the Jews, the SRs, the Social Democrats, enjoyed a secret sympathy, as if one could overcome by decree a secret sympathy. In 1913, the Congress of the Union of the nobility demanded, as had already been done in 1908 under the third Duma, that more Jews be taken into the army, but that they be systematically, but that they be symmetrically excluded from public functions, the territorial and municipal administration and justice. Well, I know it sounds when you have a name like the Congress of the Union of the Nobility,

it sounds very traditional, but they were not. They were all over the place politically. and masonry had penetrated pretty deeply into it. A lot of this stuff, you know, trying to keep Jews, protecting Jews from their own actions has a lot to do with this too, because they were pushing way too hard and the reactions were just going to continue to happen until, of course, they had no idea the Soviet Union was coming. The only person that predicted the Soviet Union was St. John of Kronstadt, roughly around this time.

saying that, you know, one day they are going to take over, and I know what they're going to do. I had that in a paper I wrote long ago, but there were a tiny handful of others, but Shulton, not Shulton, not Sheputin, sort of. But St. John of Kronstadt was the only one who knew what the state was up against here. In the spring of 1911, Poroskevich, striving with others against an already weak Stollopin, proposed to the Duma these extreme measures. Formally forbid the Jews to take any official duty in any administration, especially in the periphery of the empire.

The Jews convicted of having tried to occupy these functions will have to answer before justice. Thus, the right reproach Stullopin for making concessions to the Jews. When he had taken office in the spring of 1906, Stullopin had to consider the manifesto of October 17th as a fait accompli, even if it had to be slightly amended, that the emperor had hastily signed it without sufficient reflection. It no longer mattered. It had to be applied. The state had to be rebuilt in the midst of difficulties

in accordance with the manifesto and in spite of the hesitations of the Tsar himself. And this implied equal rights for the Jews. That was one of the, you know, I said before, there were really only a handful of issues that separated. left from right at the time. It was the crown, of course, the monarchy, the church and the Jews, maybe to a lesser extent,

their opinion of Great Britain. And that's, you know, that's really about it. But at this, in this era, it's pretty much the Jews. How you view the Jews was where you, you know, stood politically speaking. Yes, he's right here.

you know, it was hastily signed. It was something that it was a mistake. Nicholas II was an actual statesman. He was extremely well educated. He knew personally, every leader in Western Europe, he spoke all European languages. And it was just something that he thought would prevent any further violence in the midst of a very nasty war in the Far East.

And as I've said 100 times before, nothing happened from it. Nothing came from it. It didn't pass anything. And it was just a useless, really talking until the very last one, a talking shop for the left. Air Grid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid is powering up the Northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area, and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say online or in person.

So together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at airgrid.i. 4.North-slash-Northwest. Employers, rewarding your staff? Why choose between a shop voucher or a spend-anywhere card, when with Options Card, you can have both. With Options Card, your team gets the best of both worlds. They can spend with Ireland's favourite retailers or choose a spend anywhere card.

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This Christmas, enjoy a truly unique night out at the Gravity Bar. savor festive bites from Big Fan Bell, expertly crafted seasonal cocktails and dance the night away with DJs from love tempo. Brett take infuse, amazing atmosphere, incredible food and drink. My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at giddlestorhouse.com.

Get the facts be drinkaware, visit drinkaware.com. Of course, the restrictions imposed on the Jews continued, not only in Russia, in Poland, which was considered, as well as Finland, to be oppressed. these limitations were even more brutal. Jabotinsky writes, quote, The yoke that weighs heavily on Jews in Finland is beyond measure, even with what is known of Russia or Romania. The first Finnish man, if he surprises a Jew out of a city, has the right to arrest the criminal and take him to the police station. Most trades are forbidden to Jews. Jewish marriages are subject to compulsory and humiliating formalities.

It is very difficult to obtain permission to build the synagogue. The Jews are deprived of all political rights. End quote. Elsewhere in Austrian Galicia, quote, the polls do not hide that they see in the Jews only a material used to strengthen their political power in this region. There have been cases where high school students were excluded from their establishment for cause of Judaism. One hinders in a thousand and one way, a thousand and one way is the functioning of Jewish

schools manifest hatred towards the the jargon, Yiddish, and the Jewish Socialist Party itself is boycotted by the Polish social Democrats." Even in Austria, although a country of Central Europe, hatred toward the Jews was still alive and many restrictions remained in force, such as the Carl's Bad Baths. Sometimes they were simply closed to the Jews. Sometimes they could only go in there in the summer,

and the winter Jews could only access it under strict control. I don't know how many Jews were in Finland at the time. As of 15 years ago, there were about 400, and yet the major newspaper there is owned by a Jew. His last name is Arno. But I don't know why Jabotinsky is bringing this up. These are very vague aspersions. Everyone knew what the Jews were, but so many of them had business dealings with them,

or really didn't know what to do with them. They thought that they somehow contained them, that you can turn them into, a normal group of people, which has been the theme, I think, so far. We're on page 252. That's been the theme that these Gentiles think they could turn Jews into normal people,

rather than the mafia organized criminal enterprise that they really were. And I think Jabatinsky, you know, he came the closest and saying, we need to get out of here. Every right-wing party

as this developed in the 20th century, including the Union of the Russian people, just wanted them removed and sent to somewhere in the Ottoman Empire. Their presence in, but at the same time, you had financial considerations. There was a lot of money.

There was a lot of money to be made. Despite they're not paying taxes very often, they did bring a huge amount of money into the treasury. Chances are, though, I bet you, that they took, more than they, at this point, certainly, they took more than they contributed. And you had just enough, just enough patriotic Jews to make people think, well, maybe, you know, they're not, you know, they're, some of them are okay and we could use those to, to move forward. There was always just

enough decent ones that, that, you then question yourself. And I think that's the role of those, of those guys, just to give people pause. But the Jews had no pause. knew exactly what they were doing and javitinsky you could say was a spokesman for the most extreme jewish nationalism um at the time and um but yeah bringing up finland no poland that's where jews got their you know that's where they earned their wings you know that was you know they they became the most powerful group in europe largely in in poland um but um but i don't even know what he's talking about here. I mean, it was sort of under Russian control, sort of. Again, these aren't countries. Russia wasn't a nation state. It was an empire. So they have a lot of these gradations of relationships,

just like Austria. So I don't know, I don't know what he's talking about there. Austria, you know, you had the Christian Socialist Party that grew very well. This is a lot of anti-Roschild, starting in the 1848 Revolution, and then again in 1872, the contempt for the Rothschild was continuing to grow. They couldn't really hide anymore. And so I think that's the basic context of what Jabokitinsky is talking about. But as far as a Russian right, you know, clearly they weren't doing anything worthwhile, not in the street and not intellectually.

I mean, they were writing. They were putting together material. But as far as state policy is concerned, they had limited influence over the emperor. But the system of limitations in Russia itself fully justified the grievances expressed in the Jewish encyclopedia as a whole. Quote, the position of the Jews is highly uncertain and as much as it depends on how the law is interpreted by those responsible for applying it, even at the lowest level of the hierarchy or even simply their goodwill. This blur is due to the extreme difficulty of achieving uniform interpretation and application of the law is limiting the rights of the Jews. There are many provisions have been supplemented and modified by numerous decrees signed by the emperor on the proposal of various ministries,

and which, moreover, were not always reported in the general code of laws, end quote. New quote. Even if he has an express authorization issued by the competent authority, the Jew is not certain that his rights are intangible. A refusal emanating from a junior official, an anonymous letter sent by a competitor, or an approach made in the open by a more powerful rival seeking the expropriation of a Jew suffice to condemn him to vagrancy. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they've had all these commissions that led to laws being passed in different periods that now sometimes contradict each other.

We've talked about this maybe a couple of months ago that if you go through the statutes on the Jews and the Russian Empire in this era, you know, it's actually a Jewish playground. They love the fact that they can interpret this stuff however they want. This is a little bit of projection here. But it was so confused

because there were so many of these stupid commissions. And it's not just the law code of the empire, but also the decrees of the emperor and traditions, canon law, all these other sources, going back really to the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire, Kiev and Roost and all that. It was very confusing law or a set of regulations, I should say, and no one was quite sure what they really were. All they knew is that they had certain limitations, and that Zorniglis supported them and his father even more so.

But, you know, it was what happened in 1905, 1906 was a disaster for Russia, not so much in the Far East, but domestically, and it was Jewish from top to bottom. Stalepin understood very well the absurdity of such a state of affairs and the irresistible movement that then pushed for a status of equality for the Jews, a status had already existed to a large extent in Russia. The number of Jews established outside the Pala settlement increased steadily from year to year. After 1903, the Jews had access to an additional 101 places of residence, and the number of these was still significantly increased under Stullopin, which implemented a measure which the

Zahar had not taken in 1906 and which Aduma had rejected in 1907. The former Jewish encyclopedia indicates that the number of these additional places of residence amounted to 291 in 1910 to 1912. As for the new encyclopedia, it puts the number to 299 for the year 1911. The old encyclopedia reminds us that from the summer of 1905 onwards in the wake of revolutionary events, the governing bodies did not take into account the numerous clauses for three years. From August 1909 onwards, the latter was reduced from what it was before in the higher

in secondary schools, now 5% in the capitals, 10% outside of the palest settlement, 15% within it, but subject to compliance. However, since the proportion of Jewish students was 11% at the University of St. Petersburg in 24 at that of Odessa, this measure was felt to be a new restriction. A restrictive measure was adopted in 1911, and numerous clauses was extended to the outside world. For boys only and in girls' institutions, the real percentage was 13.5% in 1911. At the same time, artistic, commercial, technical, and vocational schools accepted Jews without restriction. After secondary and higher education, the Jews rushed into vocational education, which they had neglected until then. Although in 1883, Jews in all municipal and regional vocational schools accounted for only 2% of the workforce,

12% of the boys, and 17% of the girls in 1898. In addition, Jewish youth filled private higher education institutions, thus in 1912, the Kiev Institute of Commerce had 1,875 Jewish students and the Psychoneurological Institute thousands. Beginning in 1914, any private educational institution could provide courses in the language of its choice. Well, the context here, remember, is that because there was a, you know, Russia was a creditor nation, it had huge gold reserves like it does today. it was spending a very large amount of money on education, both boys and girls and at all levels.

So new schools are constantly being established from the countryside right into the biggest of cities. Now, of course, to refresh our memory, the numerous clauses was the restriction or the proportion that Jews were allowed to have in various educational institutions, pendant on the location. But I even think that was a problem because even if it was enforced, it didn't take very many of them

to turn the school into a revolutionary outpost. That's what they did the entire time. But that's at least the foundation of this. The Jews would love for you to believe that they do it because the Russians are so stupid. We all know that. And Jews are so superior. They couldn't take it. And so they tried to keep Jews under schools.

We know the truth. Jolzanita knows the truth. We've been talking about this for a very long time. I guess to some extent, the universities and even the secondary schools are kind of actually teaching now. This is kind of post-1905. But the very fact that they were the center of the 1905-06 rebellion, that they were taken over by Jews and used as their basis. throughout the country, but especially in the panel settlement, shows what they really were.

And the professors often were right there with them. But that also puts the Tsar in a very difficult position. How much could he do? You know, how did he have it in his capacity to totally clean? He could do whatever he wanted. But he also didn't want to give the appearance of being oppressive in that regard. And he said, many times. And of course, I had to smile when the Jewish students at the Psychoneurological Institute,

you know, not as shocked to anybody. I'm not sure what they got out of that. But, but anyway, the general point was massive amounts of money were being shoveled into education at the time. Had Russia survived World War I, it would have been extraordinary. It would have been extraordinary. It would have borne fruit, no question. But we'll never know. We'll never know that for sure. And the Jews were trying to take advantage of it. Airgrid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid is powering up the northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in person. So together we can create a

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It's simple to buy, easy to manage, and best of all, there are no extra fees or hidden catches. Visit OptionsCard.I.E. Today. On the many nights of Christmas, the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee Christmas nights at Gravity. This Christmas, enjoy a truly unique night out at the Gravity Bar. Savour festive bites from Big Fan Bell, expertly crafted seasonal cocktails, and dance the night away with DJs from Love Tempo. Brett take infuse, amazing atmosphere, incredible. incredible food and drink. My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at giddlestorhouse.com. Get the facts be drinkaware, visit drinkaware.com. It is true that

compulsory education for all was part of the logic of the time. Stalepin's main task was to carry out the agrarian reform, thus creating a solid class of peasant owners. His companion in arms, Minister of Agriculture A. Krivashin, who was also in favor of abolishing, who was also in favor of abolishing the palest settlement, insisted at the same time that be limited the right of anonymous companies with shares to proceed with the purchase of land, and to the extent that it was likely to result in the formation of a significant Jewish land capital, indeed, the penetration into the rural world of Jewish speculative capital risk jeopardizing the success of the agrarian reform. At the same time, he expressed a fear that this would lead to the emergence of anti-Semitism, unknown

then in the countryside of greater Russia. Neither Stalepin nor Krivashin could allow that the peasants remain in misery due to the fact of not owning land. In 1906, Jewish agriculture settlements were also deprived of the right to acquire land belonging to the state, which was now reserved for peasants. I'm not really sure what he's aiming for here. First of all, there was a lot of anti-Jewish thinking in the countryside. That's a little, that's an odd statement. I guess he means it wasn't politicized. You know, there was no union of the Russian people in the, in the, you know, rural commune or anything like that.

But he does make a very important point that allowing Jewish capitalists, full rights of buying and selling land would lead to a total oligarchy, especially in southwest Russia where the pale of settlement was, where the old Khazar Empire was, and the peasants would be totally landless. That is absolutely true. So there had to be control over it. That was the key. Russian land policy was an amazing success up until the war, up until it collapsed.

Because at this point, peasants were the landlords. And they were allowed loans with no interest. even those with interest, it was usually, after a certain amount of years, canceled. You know, no repayments were, I mean, that you know, a czar could do that. But what Sulepun was trying to do was build essentially an individualist approach, you know, a yeoman mentality, which does not, did not exist in Russia, was not popular, where individuals can then own land in their own name. But if you do that at the same time,

full Jewish emancipation or in other words allowing them to become oligarchs even more than they were that would have been total and complete disaster going back to the Djerjavan Commission we know what how the Jews interacted with with peasants and what they did and how they manipulated them the state had to be there the czar had to be there in order to make sure that their land was inalienable one of the great aspects of the Russian version of feudalism was that no one could take their land from them. And that's the core of peasant interest. And of course, don't forget, too, Russia was feeding the planet. What is the Midwest of the U.S. and Russia?

We're in competition of feeding the rest of the world. The Soviet Union never reached this level of agricultural production. Not even close, I should say. Not even close throughout its entire existence. So Russia was dealing with a tremendous success in this regard. But when we talk about things like Jewish emancipation or equal rights or other, other slogans, that's what they're referring to. The permissibility of buying and selling land,

stealing it from peasants, pulling the rug out from under the peasants, keeping everyone in debt. As I had done elsewhere, that that was impossible so long as the Tsar was alive. And Szilipin would recognize that contradiction. Now, it was allowed for individual Russian peasants to buy and sell land under certain circumstances. But only a handful did. I think it was 7% left the commune. The commune was so Russian, one of the most Russian things in the world.

It was an orthodox, it was almost a religious institution. That's how Russia survived. That's how Russia survived everything. And, of course, that would have been completely destroyed. But trying to impose some kind of individualism was a disaster. The Jews would have loved that because the last thing, Jews like are, you know, support as individualism. They are completely cohesive. cohesiveness is their is their weapon so even after Stolipin though peasants 96% of the land was owned by the peasants

who tilled it of course the Soviets were to take that all away the economist m Bernadzki cited the following figures for the pre-war period 2.4% of Jews worked in agriculture 4.7% were liberal professionals. 11.5% were domestic servants. 31% worked in commerce. Jews accounted for 35% of merchants in Russia. 36% in industry. 18% of the Jews were settled in the pale of settlement. In comparing the latter figure to the 2.4% mentioned above, the number of Jews residing in rural areas and occupied in agriculture had not increased significantly, while according to Bernadzky, it was in the interest of Russians that Jewish forces and resources were invested themselves in all areas of production. Any limitation imposed on them represented a colossal waste of

the productive forces of the country. He pointed out that in 1912, for example, the Society of Producers and Manufacturers of an Industrial District in Moscow had approached the president of the Council of Ministers so that the Jews would not be prevented from playing their role of intermediary link with Russian industrial production sensors? Well, Bernadzky is full of it. And it wasn't, you know, economic growth as this liberal Judea concept. It was stability. It was having enough for your family and for the commune.

It was justice. It had nothing to do with growth. There was certainly enough land that peasants were so. close to it. I know I said this before, but when you had people from the cities observing the peasants, they really thought that they can speak to animals. And that suggests that they knew these animals so well, you know, from, you know, as long as the animal's been alive, that it seems like they could talk to them, that they knew every aspect of, of, you know, the weather, the soil, where they lived. Yeah, they might not have been able to write a

scientific treatise on it, but they certainly knew more than any scientists in Russia at the time. And it blew their mind. There was a book that I can't think of the title of it. I had to, years ago, I had to make a Xerox copy of it of how urban Russians viewed the peasants. And overwhelmingly, it was incredible. They thought these peasants were absolutely brilliant in what they can do, what they knew how to do, with both a draft animals and the land and how they figured out. You know, this has been, the mirror has existed for generations and generations and generations. This isn't something that you can mess with. This is why Stolipin's reform didn't really work,

but it did allow your more energetic peasants to buy land on its own. But no, the commune is what anchored Russian land and kept it Russian. That's the important thing. Airgrid, operator of Ireland's electricity grid, is powering up the Northwest. We're planning to upgrade the electricity grid in your area, and your input and local knowledge are vital in shaping these plans. Our consultation closes on the 25th of November. Have your say, online or in-person, so together we can create a more reliable, sustainable electricity supply for your community. Find out more at airgrid.i.4 slash Northwest.

Employers, rewarding your staff? Why choose between a shop voucher or a Spend Anywhere card when with Options Card you can have both. With Options Card, your team gets the best of both worlds. They can spend with Ireland's favourite retailers or choose a Spend Anywhere card. It's simple to buy and easy to manage. There are no hidden fees, it's easy to use and totally flexible.

They can even re-gift or donate to a good cause. Make your awards more rewarding. Visit OptionsCard.i.e. today. On the many nights of Christmas, the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee, Christmas nights at Gravity. This Christmas, enjoy a truly unique night out at the Gravity Bar. Savour festive bites from Big Fan Bell, expertly crafted seasonal cocktails, and dance the night away with DJs from love tempo. Brett take infuse, amazing atmosphere, incredible food and drink. My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse.

Book now at giddlestorhouse.com. Get the facts be drinkaware, visit drinkaware.com. B.A. Kamenka, chairman of the board of directors of Azov Bank and the Don, turned to the financing of the mining and metallurgical industry and sponsored 11 important enterprises in the Donets and Urals region. There was no restriction on the participation in Jews and joint stock companies in the industry, but the limitations imposed on joint stock companies wishing to acquire property triggered an outcry in all financial and industrial circles.

And the measures taken... Yeah, I know. And the measures taken by Krivashin were to be abrogated. V. Shulgin made the following comparison. Quote, the Russian power seemed very ingenuous in the face of the perfectly targeted offensive of the Jews. The Russian power reminded one of the flood of a long and peaceful river. An endless expanse plunged into a soft sleepiness.

There is water. Oh my God, there is, but it is only sleeping water. Now this same river, a few versed farther away, enclosed by strong dikes, is transformed into an impetuous torrent whose bubbling water precipitate itself madly into turbines. It is the same rhetoric that is heard on the side of a liberal economic thought. Russia, so poor and highly skilled workforce, seems to want to further increase its ignorance and its intellectual lagging in relations to the West. Denying the Jews' access to the levers of production amounts to, quote, amounts to a deliberate refusal to use their productive forces. I know I said this before, but even after the February Revolution,

Kerensky's government was forced to admit that Russian, whether they be peasants or your mid to high level urban workers, were treated better than anywhere else in Europe. And not just because of how much they were paid,

but also because the cost of living was fairly low. And taxes were extremely low. There was no reason to complain. These people are talking about Russia's so poor. wasn't poor. Although I don't know how he's defining poor here.

Ignorance, intellectual lagging. And that goes back to Peter the Great, that peasant who wants to maintain what he has and keep what he has and not give his land over to the turbines mentioned above for the sake of progress is ignorant. And there's no truth to that. And that's why the Soviets, had to deal with the peasants the way that they did.

Stolipan saw very well that this was wasteful, but the different sectors of the Russian economy were developing too unevenly. And he regarded the restrictions imposed on Jews as a kind of customs tax that could only be temporary until the Russians consolidated their forces in public life, as well as in the sphere of the economy. These protective measures secreted

an unhealthy greenhouse climate for them. finally but after many years the government began to implement the measures for the development of the peasant world from which were to result a true and genuine equality of rights between social classes and nationalities a development which would have made the russians fear of the jews disappear and which would have put a definitive end to all the restrictions of which the latter were still victims he's talking about stolipin's point of view because this is this is nonsense third, I was under the second for that matter, brought the peasantry into its own, with its own banks and its own systems, its own rights and its own responsibilities.

And obviously, they were immensely productive, given the fact that, at least in most of Russia, it was very hard to farm. Weather-wise, soil, southern regions were a different story, of course, where the pale settlement is, but elsewhere, farming was very difficult. You didn't have the kind of return that you would get in the black soil regions, obviously,

but they still made it work. One of the reasons they made it work was the concept of Sabonos, the idea of the commune using everyone's labor to the maximum, but because it didn't lead to what they considered progress, they were ignorant and stupid.

So equality of right. Those are the slogans. The reality was already there. There were plenty of reasons to dislike Jews at this period of time. And Stolipin is, his heart was in the right place. Let me put it that way. Stilipin was considering using Jewish capital to stimulate Russia's economy by welcoming their many joint stock companies, enterprises, concessions, and natural resource businesses.

At the same time, he understood that private banks, dynamic and powerful, often preferred to agree among themselves rather than compete. But he intended to counterbalance... Yeah. Gee, what is that? Yeah, they prefer to agree. Okay. Sorry. That's okay.

Let's read that again, because that is a good one. At the same time, he understood that private banks, dynamic and powerful, often preferred to agree among them. themselves rather than compete. But he intended to counterbalance this phenomenon by nationalizing credit. That is, strengthening the role of the state bank and the creation of a fund to help entrepreneurial peasants who could not obtain credit elsewhere. I don't know what he's talking about. The peasant land banks still existed. They were the creation of Alexander III and his finance minister, Bunga. You know, I think he had something else in mind. mind here. But then again, you know, Ushri was something not, you know, it existed, but it was not

looked upon favorably. And we all know what debt is. It's a method of control. It's a method of domination. It's better than any weapon out there. But this stuff already existed. I don't know what he's talking about. But Stalipin was making another political calculation. He thought that obtaining equal rights would take some of the Jews away from the revolutionary movement. Among other arguments, he also put forth at the local level, bribery was widely used to circumvent the law, which had the effect of spreading corruption within the state apparatus. Among the Jews, those who did not give in to fanaticism realized that, despite the continued restrictions, in spite of the increasingly virulent but impotent attacks on right-wing circles, those years

offered more and more favorable conditions to the Jews and were necessarily leading to equal rights. Just a few years later, thrown into emigration by the Great Revolution, two renowned Jewish figures meditated on pre-revolutionary Russia. Self-taught out of poverty at the cost of the greatest efforts, he had passed his bachelor's degree as an external candidate at the age of 30 and obtained his university degree at 35. He had actively participated in. He had actively participated in in the liberation movement and had always regarded Zionism as an illusory dream. His name was Iosov Menechevitz Bikerman. From the height of his 55 years of age, he wrote, quote,

despite the regulations of May 1882 and other provisions of the same type, despite the palest settlement and numerous clauses, despite Kishinev and Bialestock, I was a free man and I felt as such a man who had before him a wide-ranked of possibilities to work in all kinds of fields, who could enrich himself both materially and spiritually, who could fight to improve his situation and conserve his strength to continue the fight. The restrictions were always diminishing under the pressure of the times and under hours, and during the war, a wide breach was opened in the last bastion of our inequality.

It was necessary to wait another five or 15 years before obtaining complete equality before the law. We could wait. I don't know if belonging to someone who he, you know, kind of like when the president does his state of the union, he has people out in the audience that he likes to point to. I think this is like someone that still even like to point to saying, you see, you see, they all don't despise us as if this is relevant. I'm sure there were plenty of Jews who thought this way. the way he you know he doesn't seem to understand where the so-called pogroms came from or where the numerous causes came from of course he was a free man

whether or not he actually wanted to work you know we've been through this a generation earlier the Jews refused to work or paid taxes you know in the last days of the Kahali did the same thing it's amazing how these restrictions didn't apply to anyone else not the handful of Arabs that were quite successful down south, the Tartars, not the Armenians, who were, of course, heretics, the Germans. It didn't apply to anyone else but the Jews, and he will never ask himself why that's the case. Belonging to the same generation as Bikerman, he shared very different convictions

and his life was also very different. A convinced Zionist, a doctor, he taught for a time at the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva, an essayist and a politician, Daniel Samoyevich Pasmannik, and immigrants as well, wrote at the same time as Bikerman the following lines. Quote, under the Tsarist regime, the Jews lived infinitely better, and whatever may be said of them, their conditions of life before the war, both materially as well as others, were excellent. We were then deprived of political rights, but we could develop intense activity in the sphere of our national and cultural values, while the chronic misery that had been our lot disappeared progressively. The chronic economic slump of the Jewish masses diminished day by day, leaving room for material ease, despite the senseless deportations of several tens of thousands of Jews out of the front areas.

The statistics of the mutual credit societies are the best proof of. of the economic progress enjoyed by the Jews of Russia during the decade preceding the coup. And so it was in the field of culture. Despite the police regime, it was absolute freedom in comparison with the president Bolshevik regime. Jewish cultural institutions of all kinds prospered. Everything was bursting with activity. Organizations were booming. Creation was also very alive and vast prospects were now open.

He's comparing the lot of Jews or anyone? in say 1910 versus under the Bolsheviks. He's not exactly out on a limb here. You know, he's making very obvious statements. They weren't deprived of political rights. They couldn't handle the fact that they didn't dominate the currency. They didn't dominate banking. And they were forbidden to control the liquor trade as they had in the past.

But, you know, we've been over this before in this many, many episodes, that the previous generation was not interested in work. They may be officially listed as craftsmen or even agriculturalists or something like that, but they weren't. I don't know. I don't know. At the top of my head, I don't remember what Osmonic really did. But pointing these guys out just to say that all Jews weren't really. revolutionaries is silly. Of course you're going to find people like this. But everything these two

men have said is very obvious. They've done extremely well. Better probably than any other minority, maybe except the Germans in the northern part of the country. So what kind of misery is he talking about here? No more than any other group, ethnic group in the population. It's just this malignant narcissism. They're constantly. self-absorbed and they can't see anything outside of their bubble of of of information to say that yes we were better off mean even though the bolsheviks were were massively Jewish it was extremely difficult you never knew when you were going to end up in front of the checka that's true no matter what you were to say

that that that was um um worse than than the time he lives, he's not saying anything. No kidding. But the very fact that they were doing well, extremely well, apparently it didn't dawn on him that why does the revolutionary movement exist? Why is it so heavily Jewish? So, you know, they'll talk like this. It sounds real nice.

They don't really say anything, but the obvious questions aren't asked or answered. In a little more than a century under the Russian crown, the Jewish community had grown from 820,000, including the Kingdom of Poland, to more than 5 million representatives, even though more than 1.5 million chose to emigrate, an increase of a factor of 8 between 1,800 and 1914. Over the last 90 years, the number of Jews had multiplied by 3.5, going from 1.5 million to 5.25 million, whereas during the same period, the total population of the empire, including the new territories,

had multiplied by only 2.5. However, the Jews were still subject to restrictions which fueled anti-Russia propaganda in the United States. Stalepin thought he could overcome it by explaining it, inviting members of Congress and American journalists to come and see in Russia itself. But in the autumn of 1911, the situation became so severe that it led to the denunciation of a trade agreement with the United States dating back 80 years. Stalepin did not yet know what the effect of a passionate speech of the future peacemaker Wilson might be, nor what the unanimity of the American Congress could mean. He did not live long enough to know. Yeah, well, Stilipin, it's like, it's like he's learned nothing.

Over and over again, we come across Russians who think that if we treat them a certain way, give them whatever they want, they're going to like us and maybe become Russians or become normal people. That never works. That's not in their in their psyche. It never will work. Wilson was vehemently anti-Russian. They all supported the revolutionary movement, whether February or or October, at least in part for for this reason, maybe almost almost entirely. in some cases for this reason. That's why

by the time of the Russian Civil War the propaganda against Russia was so ingrained that there was no attempt to give a bullet, a penny to the white armies despite the endless mythology to the contrary.

No aid ever went to the white armies. In fact, much of the time, they function based on battlefield where they were able to get from the from the from the from the they always were running out of ammunition uh both fixed though never had a problem we have a drastic change in the subject here even though we're still talking about staleepin so i think we should cut here and uh continue on the next episode that sounds good yeah i

think you're right yeah all right so um thank you dr johnson and as i do at the end of every episode please go over to the show notes go to the video uh the comment the description in the videos and there will be links to ways that you can support Dr. Johnson and his Patreon's on there and then there's links to his website. So please do that. Please keep Dr. Johnson flush. So we can keep this going even though we may be doing it for another year or two. Yeah. And from here on in maybe different books, but the same process. I love it. And I think our listeners love it too. Yeah, I actually mentioned a book to you at the end of the last episode that we both like. Let's not say what that one is, but that is a, that is a,

I've read that book twice and I think I'm going to reread it again because it's just, there's so much in it in such a short book. All right. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. Talk to you, in a few days. All right, my friend. Bye-bye.