Kishinev Pogrom - Official Russian Version of Events

Official Russian Version of Events

The Russian ambassador in the United States Count Cassini (maternal grandfather of fashion designer Oleg Cassini and journalist Igor Cassini) claimed in an interview on May 18, 1903:

"There is in Russia, as in Germany and Austria, a feeling against certain of the Jews. The reason for this unfriendly attitude is found in the fact that the Jews will not work in the field or engage in agriculture. They prefer to be money lenders. ... The situation in Russia, so far as the Jews are concerned is just this: It is the peasant against the money lender, and not the Russians against the Jews. There is no feeling against the Jew in Russia because of religion. It is as I have said—the Jew ruins the peasants, with the result that conflicts occur when the latter have lost all their worldly possessions and have nothing to live upon. There are many good Jews in Russia, and they are respected. Jewish genius is appreciated in Russia, and the Jewish artist honored. Jews also appear in the financial world in Russia. The Russian Government affords the same protection to the Jews that it does to any other of its citizens, and when a riot occurs and Jews are attacked the officials immediately take steps to apprehend those who began the riot, and visit severe punishement upon them."

Read more about this topic:  Kishinev Pogrom

Famous quotes containing the words official, russian, version and/or events:

    All official institutions of language are repeating machines: school, sports, advertising, popular songs, news, all continually repeat the same structure, the same meaning, often the same words: the stereotype is a political fact, the major figure of ideology.
    Roland Barthes (1915–1980)

    ...I never drink wine ... I keep my hands soft and supple ... I sleep in a soft bed and never over-tire my body. It is because when my hour strikes I must be a perfect instrument. My eyes must be steady, my brain clear, my nerves calm, my aim true. I must be prepared to do my work, successfully if God wills. But if I perish, I perish.
    Lisa, Russian terrorist (anonymous)

    It is never the thing but the version of the thing:
    The fragrance of the woman not her self,
    Her self in her manner not the solid block,
    The day in its color not perpending time,
    Time in its weather, our most sovereign lord,
    The weather in words and words in sounds of sound.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    On the most profitable lie, the course of events presently lays a destructive tax; whilst frankness invites frankness, puts the parties on a convenient footing, and makes their business a friendship.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)