Maxim Gorky speaks on ‘the Jewish question’ in New York City to 5000 people under the auspices of the Russian Social Democrat and Labor Party club at Grand Central Plaza.

‘Gorky on the Jewish Question’ from The Worker (New York). Vol. 16 No. 5. May 6, 1906.

Jews Are Hated Because They Are Revolutionists.–Great Russian Writer Discusses Antisemitism at Meeting in Grand Central Palace–Says Tsar’s Government Regards Every Jew as a Menace to its Tyranny.

“The Jewish Question” was the subject upon which Maxim Gorky addressed a meeting of 5,000 persons, under the auspices of the Russian Social Democrats of New York City, in Grand Central Palace, on Wednesday of last week. He was received with the same enthusiasm which characterized his appearance in Grand Central Palace two weeks ago.

He said, in opening his address, which was delivered in Russian, that the Jewish question embodied one of the saddest and most shameful manifestations in the world of the baneful effects of an unjust social system.

“The Jewish Question,” he said, “so thickly bespattered with the many calumnies and lies of people who created it is, to my mind, essentially plain and simple. It has its origin in the coarse psychology of that man whose relations to the world are determined according to this formula: ‘The world exists that I may live in it calmly and comfortably.’

“To people whose eyes are turned only upon their own sweet selves, who see nothing, desire nothing on this earth but the satisfaction of their sordid needs, to such people the Jew must ever remain hateful. They must hate the Jew because he is an idealist, and it would seem as if in the whole world there exists no power capable of destroying his truly restless, inquiring, and rebellious spirit.

“I will explain myself so that there may be no mistake as to the sense in which I use the words ‘idealism’ and ‘materialism.’ I speak of idealism not as a philosophic conception of the world, but as a heroic disposition of the soul, which gives a man the power to look upon himself as a Hercules summoned to cleanse the Augean stables of life. This idealism of the spirit does not contradict the materialistic conception of history, for it is this very idealism which has given rise to the materialistic view of the universe.

“Thruout the difficult path of human progress toward light the Jew appeared as the rebellious protestant. He was always the man in whose hand raised aloft over the universe, blazed the inextinguishable torch of vehement protest against the base and vile forms of life, against rude violence to man, reeking corruption, and spiritual darkness.

“This idealism, indomitably striving for the reorganization of the world in the spirit of truth and justice, is the chief cause for the hatred of the Jews. They brought disquiet to the satiated and contented; they threw light upon the dark side of life. Energetic and ardent, they always brought ferment into existence, a restless searching for the truth; they roused the people, giving them no respite. And finally–and this is the main thing–out of this idealism of the Semites arose a terrible monster for the masters of life, a monster for the masters, but a religion for the workers–Socialism!

“I think that my thesis is clear: The Jews were always disliked for the reason that at all times they showed themselves to be the most energetic revolutionists in the world.

“In making this statement I do not, of course, have in mind the Jewish bankers. These parasitic fungi have no nationality.

“I do not believe in the antagonisms of races and nations. I recognize only the antagonism of classes. I cannot admit that there is a special psychology which inspires in a man of the white race an organic aversion for a man of the black race or provokes in the Slay a hatred of the Anglo-Saxon, in the Russian a contempt of the Jew.

“On account of the peculiar conditions subsisting in Russian life, everything in it, both the good and the bad, finds a keener and more intense expression than elsewhere. For this reason the Jewish question also had to assume in Russia that terrible character which makes the whole world shudder.

“In Russia the Jewish question is pre-eminently a political one. The chief enemy of the Russian Jews is Russian officialdom, which holds every Jew to be a revolutionist. This view has its irrefutable evidence in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement. The proportion of so-called political criminals among the Jews in the Russian movement of emancipation is very great.

“In Russia the Jews are revolutionists to a greater extent than anywhere else. Everything is done to stifle them, to kill their bodies and their souls; but the wonderful vitality at that race does not yield to the pressure of evil powers, and its ineffectual alertness, Its quick, warm impressiveness only adapts Itself to the conditions.

“It is impossible enumerate all of the means the officials used in their efforts to suppress the Jews, but the results are the exact opposite of what they aimed at. The Jews stand in the front rank of the intellectual opposition, and from the very beginning of the open fight with the Russian government, the Jews perished by hundreds in the prisons in Siberia and in the Russian fortresses.

“Everything at concerns the Jewish question in Russia can be formulated thus: The Russian government persecutes the Jews so furiously, because it regards them as its most active opponents. This was not long ago confirmed by Sergius Witte, who in his address to the Jewish deputation literally said:

“If Jews should happen to get into the Dums, they must not discuss there the general politics of the empire, but only their own affairs.”

“But in Russia the foolhardiness of Sergius Witte as well as his insolence is well known to everybody. It is an old story.

“Having its root in the politics of the government, anti-Semitism has not penetrated into Russian society because these two forces are irreconcilably hostile to each other, and that which the one sanctions the other rejects. The intelligent elements of Russia are at present not infected with the poison of anti-Semitism: they know very well the role which the Jews play in the Russian revolution. But here I must remark, to my great sorrow, that the Russian intelligent public never conducted itself in relation to the Jews as in justice it should have done.”

The Worker, and its predecessor The People, emerged from the 1899 split in the Socialist Labor Party of America led by Henry Slobodin and Morris Hillquit, who published their own edition of the SLP’s paper in Springfield, Massachusetts. Their ‘The People’ had the same banner, format, and numbering as their rival De Leon’s. The new group emerged as the Social Democratic Party and with a Chicago group of the same name these two Social Democratic Parties would become the Socialist Party of America at a 1901 conference. That same year the paper’s name was changed from The People to The Worker with publishing moved to New York City. The Worker continued as a weekly until December 1908 when it was folded into the socialist daily, The New York Call.

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