The Pete Quiñones Show - Reading Solzhenitsyn's '200 Years Together' w/ Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson - Part 86

Episode Date: November 15, 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 PatreonDr Johnson's CashApp - $Raphael71RusJournal.orgTHE ORTHODOX NATIONALISTDr. Johnson's Radio Albion PageDr. Johnson's Books on AmazonDr. Johnson's Pogroms ArticleThe Unmentionable Genocide: New Khazaria, the Russian Revolutions and Soviet Legality in the 1920s by Dr. Matthew Raphael JohnsonWith Friends Like These. . . Patriarch St. Tikhon, General Anton Denikin and the Defeat of the White Armies, 1917-1922 by Dr. Matthew Raphael JohnsonThe Orthodox Nationalist: Karl Marx “On the Jewish Question” (1844)Pete 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.

You know, If you want to get the show early and ad-free, head on over to the Piquinez Show.com. There you can choose from where you wish to support me. Now listen very carefully. I've had some people ask me about this, even though I think on the last ad I stated it pretty clearly. If you want an RSS feed, you're going to have to subscribe your. substack or through Patreon. You can also subscribe on my website, which is right there,

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Dr. Johnson, how are you doing today? I feel like I'm 86. No, I took a turn slightly for the worse. But, you know, I have a habit. Whenever I get sick, even if it's mild, I tend to either watch or read things repetitively, usually quite random things. And this time, it was the Rhodesian Bush War.

So if I say anything weird, it's from that. You know, it's a long way to nook and bush. or anything like that, that's where it's from. When I had COVID, it was more extreme because I was totally out of it for a while, but in the beginning. But for some reason, I latch onto something, what I don't feel well, and it becomes a comfort video. In this case, it's been combat footage, well, two things.

Combat footage in the, in Rhodesian Bush War, as well as the crisis in the Congo, specifically when you know the white mercenaries from south africa and elsewhere congo mueller and all those people so i've been having a blast with this of course then i have to read about it and i have to come to understand what what happens there so it's not like it's been a waste of time um i have a book that is this close from being finished and um i was able to work a bit last night on it it's almost it's almost i'd have to pick out a cover essentially at this point on the ruso ukrainian war of 2022. It needs to be done. God knows what the regime is putting out, the crap they're putting out in the double day in the big university publications, a publishing houses these

days. So I'm extremely proud of it. I never, I never slaved over a book so much, ever as over this. Obsessing over every term. I'm going nuts my old age. But in this case, I think it's a good thing to good nuts not a bad nuts when you were saying you could just blurt something out it reminded me of that Seinfeld episode where um sign fell when uh kramer got kicked in the head and he was just he was like yo yo ma and they're like it's just yeah you know when i was from new jersey you know hey they didn't they don't have accents you guys have accents but it was funny i don't care symbolism and I don't care. It was genuinely funny. Yeah. And it would have been terrible if they would have turned out in the last episode to be heroes. But no, they were presented as the pieces of shit that the pieces of shit that they actually were. That's right. Yeah. That's right. But the premise of Seinfeld, it wasn't a show about nothing. It was a show about all the unwritten rules of human conduct that we really don't think about. Like how many days? you have to go on for an in-person breakup or how close do you have to stand to someone

to speak to that kind of thing you don't even think about them but that's that was jerry Seinfeld's comedy and uh and that's what made it so interesting to me all right let's get cracking picking up where we left off last time Lauren's views on the anti-semitism of the time were to find echoes later in other authors s Schwartz provides his own variant on anti-semit anti-Semitism as being the result of a vulgar perception of Jews as the main carriers of the new economic policy. But he agrees. The Soviet government, not without basis, saw an anti-Semitism a possible tool of the counter-revolution. In 1968, the author adds, quote, after the Civil War, anti-Semitism began to spread, gripping layers of society which were free of this tendency before the revolution. Now, that's, we've been over this before.

He's referring, of course, to Solomon Schwartz, who in 1968 was, was out, left the Soviet Union. I love how he says, you know, not without bases. In other words, you know, they're not just making this stuff up. But I think the reason he left, I mean, he was such a fanatic that, He wanted something, you know, something banning anti-Semitism in the Constitution. And he didn't get it. There were things that, I think, intimidations of like that, equality of other different peoples of the USSR, stuff like that, but not specifically about Jews. And that outraged him.

And then he just went on to exaggerate. Everything was a pogrom to him. And he was just used as one of the war. but he was there through it through the beginning so he has some value but he is a wild exaggerator which of course the jews are not known for i um i specifically like uh that he says that anti-semitism didn't exist in society before the revolution which um it completely contradicts other jewish writers Yeah, and, you know, the whole thing comes down to Jews being incapable of seeing their own behavior, especially in the punitive organs of the party, you know, the checkup, et cetera, how that could possibly have turned people against them.

Their names everywhere, not just in Soviet Union, but in Eastern Europe after the war, too. You know, their names were everywhere. not everyone changed their names and they still it doesn't it doesn't connect it's that's why trying to argue with them when Willis Cardo used to laugh about this all the time trying to argue with them is it simply impossible they just go around in circles and they go back to if they either start screaming or they go right back to the beginning again that's what he used to say and it's true against this it was necessary to engage not an academic discussion but to act energetically and forcefully. In May, 1928, the CK of the VKPB issued an adjutoprop communication about,

quote, measures to be taken in the battle with anti-Semitism, end quote. As was often the case in implementation of party directives, related documents were not publicized, but circulated among party organizations. The battle to create an atmosphere of intolerance of anti-Semitism was be taken up in educational programs, public reports, lectures, the press, radio, and school textbooks, and finally, authorities were, quote, to apply the strictest disciplinary measures to those found guilty of any anti-Semitic practices, end quote. Sharp newspaper articles followed. In Pravda's article by a highly connected Lev Sasnovsky, he incriminates all kinds of party

and educational officials in anti-Semitism. An official in Kiev openly fires Jews with, the connivance of the local district party committee. Defamatory anti-Jewish graffiti is widespread, et cetera. From a newspaper article, quote, without the growing battle against anti-Semitism, there are demands to solve the problem by increasing repression on those carriers of anti-Semitism and those and on those who protect them.

End quote. Clearly it was GPU speaking through the language of a newspaper article. I don't know what he means by open. fires Jews. Was he saying that they should be unfairable? Again, you know, I feel like I'm saying the same things over and over again, although this has been repetitive so far. But for those maybe who've just joined us, I don't know, Lenin over and over again said that to be anti-Semitic is to be anti-Soviet. To be counter-revolutionary is to be anti-Semitic and vice versa. He said over and over again, which was a strange admission, the fact that Jews did dominate the party

and especially the organs of propaganda and police, you know, this kind of thing, which they were very, very good at. They made so many enemies. And instead of being able to look at themselves, they'd simply simply kill more people or throw more people in prison. after laran's report the issue of anti-semitism was included into various educational curricula while laran himself continued to research the ways to overcome anti-semitism decisively quote until now we were too soft allowing propaganda to spread locally officials often do not deal with anti-semitism as rigorously as they should newspapers should not fear to point attention to the Jewish issue to avoid dissemination of anti-Semitism, as it only interferes with the fight against counter-revolutionary sabotage. Anti-Semitism is a social pathology like alcoholism or vagrancy.

Too often when dealing with communists, we let them off with mere censure. If a person goes to church and gets married, then we exclude them without discussion. Anti-Semitism is no less evil. yeah that last sentence is interesting hmm um sometimes uh what he I think he means in the middle part of this is that newspapers didn't want to mention it at all didn't want to give it any kind of coverage

but the definition of anti-semitism got so low like it is now it's so loose that someone gets picked on at work you know uh someone gets into an argument with a Jew that was a pogrom and and if you read people like Solomon, we've talked about, he exaggerates that into an anti-Semitic act. And it gets included.

The fact that it was within the party, back when I first read this, I was a little surprised. And I think, as I've said before, if you had actual committed Marxists here, Gentiles, who believed in some version of equality, whatever, however they interpreted it. They see the Jews as a caste with far more power than they deserve. They'll be able to keep their wealth. You'll know about Trotsky's millions, stuff like this. Then, okay, well, shouldn't be, shouldn't the revolution be taken against them? Even in the late 19th century, you had you had revolutionary groups who were condemning Jewish power because they had so much capital.

This is why in Central, going back to the early Middle Ages, I mean, there are church canons. I'd say that Jews are not permitted to hire Christian servants. If you want to talk about exploitation, they can get away with it. They're going to get away with it. And what exploitation means here, I'll leave to the, you know, listener's imagination. So, no doubt it was growing in the party, too. As the USSR, this is continuing. This is all quotes, quoting from Lauren's paper.

As the USSR develops towards socialism, the prognosis is good that Soviet anti-Semitism and the legacy of pre-Soviet relationships will be torn out by the roots. Nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary to impose severe controls on intellectual anti-Semitism, especially in the teaching profession and civil service. So in other words, anyone who can make a historic argument or make an argument from pure logic and not low IQ. Yeah. Yeah, that's the worst. Yeah, that's exactly what they worry about.

They fear exposure. There's something misfiring in their brains, but at some level, they realize. that if the veil is lifted, they're in Syria's trouble, even from their own friends, even from their own party members, comrades, so to speak. But the very spirit of the brave 20s demands stronger language. The nature of modern-day anti-Jewish agitation in the USSR is political and not nationalistic. Agitation against the Jews is directed not just against Jews, but indirectly against the Soviet power.

Or maybe not so indirect. quote, anti-Semitism is a means of mobilization against Soviet power, and those against the position of Soviet authorities on the Jewish question are against the working class and for the capitalists. Any talk of Jewish dominance will be regarded as counter-revolutionary activity against the very foundation of the nationalities policy of the proletarian revolution. Parts of the intelligency, and sometimes the white guards are using anti-Semitism to transmit bourgeois ideology i have you know i've said it all before at this point i think the listener even with basic common sense knows how absurd this is you know the basically right here he's just

saying that yeah this is a jewish movement right and there's this um there's this michelin going around named richard poe who wrote a book that all of the all of the people who don't want to be seen as mean or interviewing him and quoting. He wrote a book saying that MI6, like British intelligence, created communism and then blamed it on the Jews. Yeah, he doesn't seem very bright. I thought you're going to say the Jesuits at some point, you know. I get this book thrown in my face all the time. And here is a Jew writing in the 20, you know, is he writing in the 20s here?

I think, I believe he is, who's saying, yeah, this is this, this was all Jewish. And if you speak against Soviet power, it's anti-Semitism. Yeah, and he's following Lenin in that regard. He's following Trotsky in that regard. They all mentioned it. Well, maybe Trotsky and Lenin were working for British intelligence. They must have been, or the Jesuits. Well, it's always.

It's always Rome. Everything goes back to Rome now. Come on, we know this. Yes, that's it. A white guard whispering campaign, clearly there is planned agitation by secret white guard organizations. Behind the Philistine anti-Jewish agitation, secret monarchist organizations are leading a battle against Soviet power. And from the central organs of anti-Soviet emigration, including Jewish bankers and Tsarist generals, an ideology is transmitted. right into our factories, proving that anti-Jewish agitation in the USSR is class-based, not nationality-based. It is necessary to explain to the masses that encouragement of anti-Jewish feelings and essence is an attempt to lay the groundwork for counter-revolution. The masses must regard anyone who shows sympathy to anti-Semitism as a secret counter-revolutionary or the mouthpiece of a secret monarchist organization. There are conspiracies everywhere.

That's from... my lord that's from uh that's from solzhenyso himself that's right quote the term anti-semit must take on the same meaning in the public mind as the term counter-revolutionary i i just wonder if they are this is this a form of confession or do they not realize what they're saying here because they're coming out and saying that this is a jewish movement um when you have alleged anti-semitism within within the party. However, I will say that the exile organizations knew this very well.

They knew it from the beginning, and they continue to lecture and talk about this stuff right up to the present day that, yeah, there's both a class and a nationality issue going on as far as the Jews. are concerned. Masons are concerned. They're always quick to point out. You cannot entirely point to the Jews. That's ridiculous. That's a historical. This anti-intellect. That's false. However, their role in these punitive organs, especially in the 20s and 30s, was so overwhelming

that they made more enemies than you can imagine. So anyone able to flee the country knew what was going on and and Sultan Ethan was one. Yeah, just to

all of this is coming from the article written by what is his name, Lauren, and it was written in 1928. It's in 1928 in Pravda, just for because I mentioned it before. All right.

Yeah, yeah. And that means it's official doctrine, but it's come from the very top for quite a while. Well, and also anyone who says that, you know, British intelligence is responsible for communism, that means that the Jews who are here bragging about the fact that, you know, they, anything against a revolution is against Jews, that means that they're pretty low IQ if they've been tricked by British intelligence. So you either have to give up, you know, inventing common. Communism or the whole high IQ myth. Just pick one, whichever one you won't.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's not this guy, let's not give this guy anymore airtime. Okay, okay. The authorities had seen through everything and named everything for what it was. Counter-revolution, white guards, monarchists, white generals, and, quote, anyone suspected of being any of the above. For the thick-headed, the revolutionary order elaborates, quote, the methods of fighting anti-Semitism are clear, at a minimum to conduct open investigations and sessions of people's tribunal against anti-Semitism at local levels under the motto

explanations for the backward workers and repressions for the militias. There is no reason why Lenin's decree should not apply. Now, I think here we get into, now I have a paper on this. I would have sent it to you. I will send it to you. to put along with this, you can make like a workbook that goes with these lectures on Lenin's decrees and laws concerning anti-semitism. And he starts now from July 27, 1918. Under Lenin's decree that from July 27, 1918, active anti-Semites were to be placed outside of the law. That is,

to be shot even for agitating for a pogrom, not just for participating in one. The law encouraged each Jew to register a complaint about any ethic insult visited upon him. Oh, that's, that's wonderful. That's not going to be used as a weapon at all. That wasn't used as a weapon at all. Yeah. Yeah. My Lord, that's not, that's not even in the decree. I read Lenin's decrees. That was just added later as time went on. But I also want to point out for those who still hold to the Stalin myth that he was, no, he, he maintained and enforced these

laws with the same level of violence as, as Lennon did. Don't be fooled by that. Now, some later author will object that the 27, July 27 Act was ultimately not included in the law and was not part of the Criminal Code of 1922.

Though the Criminal Code of 1926 did include an article about the quote, the instigation of ethnic hostility and dissension, There were no specific articles about acts of anti-Semitism. This is not convincing. Article 59-7 of the Criminal Code, propaganda or agitation intended to incite national or religious hatred or dissension,

was sufficient to send one to prison, and the article provided for confiscation of the property of perpetrators of widespread disturbances and under aggravated circumstances, for instance, class origin, death. Article 59-7 was based on the RSF-SR Penal Code of February 26, 1927, which widened the definition of instigation of national hatred, making it equal in seriousness to dissemination or preparation of storing and storing of literature. I don't know why anyone would make that argument to begin with. Consider it like an executive order in the U.S. it didn't necessarily have to be part of the criminal code lennon said it lennon wrote it and it was no doubt it was carried out so whether or not it was part of anything uh it stood by itself as a command there was no question

about it and this is just horrible marxism marxism under true Marxism no one's going to care about anti-Semitism. If you're, when you're thinking about Marx, I mean, look at what Marx wrote. I mean, this is just, could it be any more obvious that this is just an ethnic movement? Well, I tell you what Marx wrote later in his, in his career, along with Engels, that no revolutionary movement can win until the Tsarist system is destroyed. and that there is something in the in the East Slavic blood

that creates counter-revolutionaries they have to be destroyed which is why Marx was a big fan of the Crimean War on the European side fought all the anti-war demonstrations including socialist ones you know it always had a strong Jewish tint to it

and we discussed a long time ago of all these leftists every Prudhon and Bakun and the founders of the anarchist movement, who all said the same thing. They all knew what the Jew was. And that Marx became the dominant revolutionary because he was financed by the Rothschild family, according to Bakunin's account. And because of that, he got kicked out of the first international.

The Rothschilds, too, despised Russia and not just the government, but the people. and Russia as a nation suffered incredibly under Marxist rule. It just doesn't seem to have anything to do with dialectical materialism at all. Not when you understand like that labor, you know, basically man is reduced to pure labor. Well, you know, I have a book on a subject. I have a book on the Soviet experiment. and in the introduction I have a list of arguments I'm going to make and one of them is that this movement wherever it's taken power

never gives a damn about labor it does not concern labor labor was mercilessly exploited throughout the existence of the USSR it was certainly about power it's no accident that Karl Marx was a Jew although we talked about the Udayan Fragha, the Jewish question article, he understood, but that didn't change anything. That was very early in his career. You know, his early poetry, too, when he was a young man, was just apocalyptic.

The end of the world is coming, and we're going to be the agents of it. That he had some Luciferian bent, just like Bakunin did, actually. dialectical materialism you know I had I've written on it I had to read it in grad school until it was coming out my ears I understand it yeah and I say in this book

too I think you know why would the Soviets even bother you had working socialist institutions in Russia they just weren't materialists they were you know the peasant commune the Artels Brotherhood of the Holy Cross a bunch of other things

The very communal group of people, and they worked. These were the first things to be destroyed, and to be replaced by a mocking, almost a mocking counterfeit. So the mirror was replaced by a collective farm, which never worked. So they would go out of their way to destroy actual socialist institutions. Why attack the church at all? The only reason the church went after the communists is that they attacked the church in the first place. you know, that's the Jewish side of things. That's what made it, you know, alerted people.

There's something more going on here. They wasted all their, and they made a lot of enemies. Why would they do that? Unless there was just this deep hatred for Christ's Christianity. And specifically, Russia, which Karl Marx promoted even in his later lifetime. Storing books, how familiar is that prescription contained in the related law 58-10? Many brochures on anti-Semitism were published, and finally, February 19, 29, Providde devoted its lead article to the matter, quote, attention to the battle with anti-Semitism.

A 1929 revolution of C.K. of Communist Party of Bailorussia stated that, quote, counter-revolutionary nature of anti-Semitic incidents is often ignored, end quote, and that organs of justice should, quote, intensify the fight, prosecuting both perpetrators of the law and those who inspire them, end quote. Lord. The Secretary of the C.K. of K. of Komsomal said, quote, most dangerous in our condition are secret anti-Semites who hide their anti-Semitic attitudes, end quote. So you don't even anyone is an anti-Sat. Anyone can possibly be an answer. Oh, you're an anti-Semite? No, I'm not. Oh, you're just hiding it. that's like that's like subconscious racism yeah well you know um pinsker and lately

josh hammer said it's in the european dna which russians are i heard that which russians aren't europeans so um those who are familiar with soviet language understand it is necessary to cut off suspected ways of thinking this recalls gregory landau speaking of jewish opponents quote they suspect or accuse other groups around them of anti-semitism. Anyone who voices a negative opinion about Jews is accused of being an open anti-Semite, and others are called secret anti-Semites, end quote. Now, that is one hell of a statement. We should all put that to memory.

I mean, this is now getting down to negative opinions, glances. They can't even be fired, as we already saw. that's open anti-Semitism and people like Solomon would say that these are if not pogroms they're the the incitement of a pogromes that's how extreme they had to go they were searching for anti-Semites and they were all secret royalists and black hundred clergy or capitalists which you know those two don't go together but um and And it was just a matter of applying labels to people rather than actually knowing anything about people. In 1929, a certain I. Zilberman in daily Soviet jurisprudence, number four, writes that there were two few court trials relating to anti-Semitism in Moscow province. In the city of Moscow alone, for the year, there were only 34 cases.

That is, every 10 days, there was a trial for anti-Semitism somewhere in Moscow. The Journal of Narcomust was read as an instruction manual for bringing such cases. Well, oftentimes, as we know, that these cases didn't go to court that were dealt with on the spot, especially when you had plenty of peasant uprisings and things like that. Now, I haven't read, there have been a few, the peasant uprising is going on everywhere at this time, remember. And, you know, the party was always under siege. in different parts of the U.S.S.R. The peasantry was at war with them.

And I've read so many of their manifestos. And sometimes they bring it up. Sometimes they don't. But, yeah, they put Jews in charge of our farming. And, of course, we're not allowed to farm anymore. You know, the beginning of collectivization was getting started. And they just couldn't carry it out necessarily, you know, with the war going on. well, low-level war going on, I should say.

But remember, it was constant. And I guarantee, now the claim made in this book so far is that Russian peasants far away from Ukraine, so, you know, south-central, even to the east of up to the Euro Mountains, didn't really know that many Jews. That might be true. But they knew a lot of Jews now. it was never a good, it was never a good mix. And it got infinitely worse when they were put in charge of collectivizing their agriculture, which led to even more starvation. I mean, it's hard to think of it even as just mismanagement that there was some purpose to this, especially when the West was feeding them anyway. They were getting food ate all over the place. They were getting investment

from all over the place. You know, this whole thing, this whole situation makes a mockery of Marxism. The capitalist powers are supposed to be violently opposed to the USSR, and they were anything but, as we all know. Could the most evil anti-Semite have thought up a better way to identify Jews with Soviet power and the opinion of the people? It went so far that in 1930, the Supreme Court of RSFSR ruled that Article 597, quote, should not be used by members of national minorities seeking redress in conflicts of a personal nature.

In other words, a judicial juggernaut had already been wound up and was running at full speed. If we look at life of, you got something? No, not anymore. I just, I've, I've, you know, I've said it all at this point. So let's keep going. If we look at the life of the regular, not commanding Jewish folk, we see desolation and despair in formerly vibrant and thriving Stettles. Jewish Tribune reproduced report by a special official who inspected towns and scheddles

in the southwest of Russia in 1923, indicating that as the most active inhabitants moved into cities, the remaining population of elders and families with many children lived to large extent by relying on humanitarian and financial aid from America. I think there's some truth to that. Remember, the Jewish population was continuously growing. And we talked about before in the previous Jewish system, the Kahal, there was always, you know, poor levels, poor Jews, poor Jewish families that were held together and kept loyal by the only of the mythology, that if you leave here, they're going to kill you because Gentiles are animals and all that stuff. But at this point, I think, well, 23 is early. I think a lot more of these people, the Shettles is a Jewish town or a town that's

mostly Jewish. But, yeah, the elders, too, you know, your most active being your middle-aged guys, younger guys, whether it be a military star. All of a sudden, they want to fight. you know, military service and everything in the bureaucracy, leaving everyone else behind. And the Jewish organization in which there were thousands in America, Great Britain elsewhere, were, you know, all aid was pouring in from all over the place. It was such a disaster economically.

It didn't have to be that way. But these revolutionaries had no idea how to run an economy. Indeed, by the end of the period of war communism, 1918, through 1920, when all trade or any buying or selling were prohibited under threat of property confiscation and fines, the Jews were helped by Jewish charities like Joint through the all-Russian public committee for assistance to victims of pogroms and destitute Jews. Several other charities protected the Jewish population later at different times, such as the SC, Society of Craftsman, which after the revolution moved abroad, E.K.O.P.O., the Jewish Committee for Assistance,

to victims of war and E.K.O., the Jewish colonizing society. What does that mean? I can't answer you. I haven't come across that unless that's a Zionist organization. In 1921 through 22, Soviet-based Jewish charities functioned in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Despite intervention and obstacles from YevSex, Jewish communist organizations, quote, joint provided Soviet Jews with extensive financial and other assistance, whereas SC, quote, was dedicated to establishment and development of Jewish industry and agriculture in the south of Ukraine during first half of 1920s. I'm not going to say that there weren't actual victims.

There were plenty of Jewish victims here. They were usually indirect. But, you know, this was also a period of time. where, yet you had, you know, allegedly a religious-based charity, there were no, you know, orthodox charity for being shut down all over the place. Not Jewish ones. The first Soviet census provides insight into Jewish life during the liberalized NEP period. 40% of Jews were classified as active, not dependence.

Of those, 28% were public servants, 21% craftsmen, 19% industrial workers, including apprentices, 12% merchants, 9% peasants, 1% military men, and 10% were classified as others. Among public servants, Jews were well represented in trade-related occupations. For instance, in Moscow business organizations, 16% of the clerks were Jews in credit and trade organizations, 13%, 30% according to the Jewish Encyclopedia. In public organizations, 19% and fiscal organizations, 9%, and Sov Deps, 10%, with virtually no presence in police force. The percentages were correspondingly higher in the former pale of settlement areas, up to 62% in the state trade of Baila Ruscia, 44% in Ukraine, 77% in category of private

state servants. The flow of Jewish workers into industry was much slower than government wished. there were almost no Jews among railroad men and minors. They rather preferred the professions of Taylor, Tanner, Topographer, Woodworker, and food-related specialties and other fields of consumer industry. To recruit Jewish workers into industry, special professional schools were created with predominantly foreign funding from Jewish organizations abroad. Now, we've been through this already.

In the Zaris era, in the late Zaris era, in the late Zaris era, The Tsarist census, you know, had numbers somewhat like this. And you can't take them seriously because they were simply not telling the truth about what they did. They were smugglers, you know, they lived on passive income, so to speak. They would claim that they were these things to get various subsidies and stuff like that. Remember, a few months ago, we were talking about this at great length. and I don't know if this is out of habit or what but so always treat these numbers

with a little bit of a grain of salt yes this is true with the early Soviet government they didn't know if it was going to last or not it was heavily Jewish in composition but they're also very careful and of course as time went on it changed completely but early on you know and remember this is in this is a chaos this is a civil war was was barely over and you had low-level battles going on all the time Jews were very worried about

being exposed as as as rulers here we you know we talked about the Solzhenitsin talks about the fraud all these these Jews claiming to be carpenters and stuff like that and they weren't you know they were there were traders um and i don't know what this 10% others meant uh means but um you know uh i it might be these numbers might be useful but um you know i i i just have a little i'd be very critical in ever using these numbers like in a paper or something like that. It was the time of NEP, which improved economic conditions of Jewish population within a new Soviet framework. In 1924, Moscow, 75% of the perfume and pharmaceutical trade was in Jewish hands, as well as 55% of the manufactured goods trade, 49% of the jewelry trade,

39% of the small wear trade, and 36% of the wood depots. Starting business in a new place, a Jew usually run down prices in private sector to attract clientele. Sombart talks about that at length in his book. Precisely. Precisely, yep. The first and most prominent NEP men often were Jews. To a large extent, anger against them stemmed from the fact that they utilized the Soviet, as well as the market systems.

Their commerce was routinely facilitated by their links and poles in the Soviet apparatus. Sometimes such connections were exposed by authorities as in the case of the famous paraffin affair, 1992. During the 1920s, there were abundant opportunities to buy up belongings of oppressed and persecuted former people, especially high quality or rare furniture. S. Ettinger noted that the Jews made. a majority of NEP men and new riches, which was supported by impressive list of individuals who failed to pay state taxes and dues in Izvestia in 1929.

Yeah, even, yeah, I like this line about former people. We know exactly what they're talking about. This is, again, right just after the war and the Civil War I'm talking about. So many of these other guys have been killed, have been driven from the country, been driven from the area, and Jews had no problem. Their programs were severe and state run and moving into their homes in Moscow. And the fact that he says abundant opportunities to buy up belongings of oppressed and persecuted former people, people who were made outlaws outside the law. We talked about that already. That would include clergy, overt supporters of the white movement, certainly royalists, anyone like that, anti-Semites, you know, high-quality refer, whatever it is.

There was many more things than that. But the NEP was massively a Jewish affair. and even there, even in a government where they kind of saw themselves, well-represented, they still didn't pay tax. So it's old habits, you know. However, at the end of NEP, authorities launched an anti-capitalist assault against financiers, merchants and manufacturers, many of whom were Jewish. As a result, many Jews turned into Soviet trade servants and continued working in the same spheres

of finance, credit. You mean they weren't taken out and shot? They didn't have their money confiscated either. A steamroller of merchandise and property confiscations, outright state robbery and social ostracizing, outclassing people into disenfranchised Lishanets category, was advancing on private commerce. Quote, some Jewish merchants attempting to avoid discriminating and endlessly increasing taxation, declared themselves as having no occupation during the census.

Nevertheless, virtually the entire Jewish male population in towns and stettles passed through the torture chambers of GPU during the campaign of gold and jewelry extortion in the beginning of the 1930s. Such things would be regarded as an impossible nightmare in Tsar's Russia. Many Jewish families to avoid the stigma of being Lishinitz moved into large cities. In the end, only one-fifths of Soviet Jews lived in the traditional Jewish settlements by the 1930s. So he's making one very clear point here. Here we go again with the line to the census.

That was like a profession in and of itself in the Jewish world. So many wealthy Jews, again, we talked about the gold mine, we talked about the silver millionaires, that's silver, sugar millionaires in Ukraine, who were, Jewish, some of them. Well, they didn't, you know, they didn't go to camps. They were simply brought into the state apparatus, having roughly the same job. That didn't happen all the time. But, you know, they also were a bit worried.

There were, taxes were very, very high. They weren't going to pay it. I have the feeling a few of them got slaps on the wrists. A few of them got worse than that. but they simply went from a private trader to a state trader or something in ill bureaucracy having to do with credit and trade or anything else at a fairly low level because we've already talked about the leaders of those bureaucracies coming doing anything you know going from one place to another you know these people these people did not do all that badly Um, and but again, remember, we're at a period of time where no one was sure if this government was going to last. Uh, it was very, it seemed very fragile at the time and it was with uprisings all over the place. Um, although trade was, you know, back and forth with with the West. Even this didn't, didn't affect anything. Um, you know, Putin's had had, uh,

restrictions on him practically since he was born and and these people they could slaughter whoever they want and it and it doesn't bother anybody but they simply traded their their private sector stuff for something along the lines of a public sector version I don't know if they made the same amount of money or more money they could charge rents I don't know. I don't know to that great detail at this point, but that's the point he's making here. Socioeconomic experiments by the Soviet authorities, including all kinds of nationalization and socialization, and not only devastated the middle classes, but also hit badly the small merchants and craftsmen. Due to general lack of merchandise and solvent customers, as well as low liquidity and exorbitant taxes,

many settled merchants had no other choice but to close down their shops. And while the most active left for cities, the remaining populace had nothing else to do, but aimlessly roamed decrepit streets, loudly complaining about their fate, people, and God. That reminds me of Schmooley, that caricature saying that as on Yom Kippur, as we repent of our sins against God, will God repent of his sins against us? Right. Right. Well, we know what the Talmud says that God reads the Talmud standing.

In other words, it is superior to him. How are they defined God anymore? It is apparent that Jewish masses have completely lost their economic foundations. It was really like that in many shuttles at that time. To address the problem, even special resolution of Sovarnarkum was issued in 1929. what you got to keep in mind here this was a time of severe upheaval everybody was like this there was no group within the boundaries of the USSR that wasn't feeling this they had gone from you know a very strict war communism to NEP and back to the Soviet system again

with this great rapidity what are they going to do next? You know, and and this was while they're continuing to fight blaming, you know, fate people in God for the peasant uprisings, many of whom blame the Jews

for their situation that were right in many cases. Food was very expensive for this reason. Something tells me that party members weren't paying a whole lot, but many other people. were um so this is a time it's going to stabilize but this is a time of upheaval for everybody and of course all the jews can think about is themselves why don't we uh why don't we stop there

yeah i was going to say he's going to get into talk like some outside um people looking at it from the outside and saying what they're uh giving their giving their opinion so this is a good place to stop yeah uh this is this has been great i I need to look up. I forgot all about the paraffin affair. I'm embarrassed to say, I don't know what that is. I'm going to find out. We're going to talk about it a little bit next time.

I look forward to that. Yeah, I was wondering about that too, because I've never heard of that either. So, all right. Go over to Dr. Johnson's, go over to the show notes, go over to the description. Please donate to Dr. Johnson. I was actually at an event this weekend, and there were a couple people who said that they felt really bad, that they hadn't donated to you yet because they're getting so much out of this, but to expect those donations forthcoming. So people are seeing the value in this.

Yeah, yeah, people are seeing the value in this and, you know, they will show their thanks and we appreciate them. I most certainly do. All right. Talk to you in a couple days. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. All right, my friend. Bye-bye. You know, I'm going to be. Thank you.