The Jews are defenceless, and this is especially dangerous for them in the conditions of Russian life. Dostoyevsky, who knew the Russian soul so well, pointed out repeatedly that defencelessness arouses in it a sensuous inclination to cruelty and crime. In late years there have appeared in Russia quite a few people who have been taught to think that they are the finest of the wheat, and that their enemy is the stranger, above all--the Jew. For a long time these people were being persuaded that all the Jews are restless people, strikers and rioters. They were next informed that the Jews like to drink the blood of thievish boys. In our days they are being taught that the Polish Jews are spies and traitors. If this preaching of hatred will not bring bloody and shameful fruits, it will be only because it will clash with our Russian indifference to life and will disappear in it; it will split against the Chinese wall, behind which our still inexplicable nation is hidden. But if this indifference be stirred up by the efforts of the hatred preachers,--the Jews will loom up before the Russian nation as a race accused of all crimes. And it is not for the first time that all the troubles of Russian life will be blamed on the Jew; time and again was he the scapegoat for our sins. Only recently he paid with his life and goods for the help he rendered us in our feverish struggle for freedom. I think no one has forgotten the fact that our "emancipatory movements" strangely wound up with anti-Jewish riots. * * * * * When the many-raced populace of Jerusalem demanded the death of the defenceless Jew, Christ, Pilate, believing Christ innocent, washed his hands, but allowed him to be put to death. How then will honest Russian men and women act in Pilate's place? Their judgment is awaited. FOOTNOTES: [1] "If I am not for myself who is for me? And being for my own self, what am I?" "Pirqe Aboth," I, 14.--Translator's Note. * * * * * THE FIRST STEP _Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev, the author of impressive tales and remarkable dramas, is well known both in America and in England. Since the beginning of the Great War he has devoted himself to the artistic portrayal of the war's effect on his country, and also to purely publicistic tasks. He was born in 1871._ THE FIRST STEP BY LEONID ANDREYEV "O heavens, if within your blue, Old God is still alive and mighty, Unseen by me alone, ye pray For me and for my doom e'er bleeding! My lips no more are fraught with hymns, No brawn in arm, no hope in heart.... How long, how long, how long?" --H. BYALIK.