Page:Michael Farbman - The Russian Revolution & The War (1917).djvu/47

 gaol and Siberia with their Russian fellow-revolutionaries. Yet they knew by experience that every effort of theirs would be, and was, answered by the autocracy in brutal massacre of the Jewish population at large. Had they been swayed even to the slightest degree by racial considerations they would have held their hand if only out of pity for their own race. But to them the ideal was above all, and to-day they may be proud of Russia's freedom, which they helped to achieve in co-operation with the best men and women of all Russia. The old régime fostered mutual hatred between the races. It turned Russians against Ukrainians, Poles against Jews, Tartars against Armenians; all against all. But the Tsardom has fallen, and this inter-racial hatred is dead in Russia. Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Jews and Armenians; they are all to-day, to use Kerensky's words, "a friendly family of fraternal peoples." They trust each other without cavil or distinction or arrière-pensée. Not the most virulent or insidious anti-Semite poison is capable of bringing