V. I.

Lenin

In Put Pravdy No. 48 (for March 28), the Russian
Social-Democratic Labour group in the Duma published the text of its Bill
on national equality, or, to quote its official title, “Bill for the
Abolition of All Disabilities of the Jews and of All Restrictions on the
Grounds of Origin or
Nationality”. [1]

Amidst the alarms and turmoil of the struggle for existence, for a bare
livelihood, the Russian workers cannot and must not forget the yoke of
national oppression under which the tens and tens of millions of “subject
peoples” inhabiting Russia are groaning. The ruling nation—the Great
Russians—constitute about 45 per cent of the total population of the
Empire. Out of every 100 inhabitants, over 50 belong to “subject
peoples”.

And the conditions of life of this vast population are even harsher
than those of the Russians.

The policy of oppressing nationalities is one of dividing
nations. At the same time it is a policy of systematic corruption
of the people’s minds. The Black Hundreds’ plans are designed to foment
antagonism among the different nations, to poison the minds of the ignorant
and downtrodden masses. Pick up any Black-Hundred newspaper and you will
find that the persecution of non-Russians, the sowing of mutual distrust
between the Russian peasant, the Russian petty bourgeois and the Russian
artisan on the one hand, and the Jewish, Finnish, Polish, Georgian and
Ukrainian peasants, petty bourgeois and artisans on the other, is meat and
drink to the whole of this Black-Hundred gang.

But the working class needs unity, not division . It bas no
more bitter enemy than the savage prejudices and superstitions which its
enemies sow among the ignorant masses.

The oppression of “subject peoples” is a double-edged weapon. It cuts
both ways—against the “subject peoples” and against the Russian people.

That is why the working class must protest most strongly against
national oppression in any shape and form.

It must counter the agitation of the Black Hundreds, who try to divert
its attention to the baiting of non-Russians, by asserting its conviction
as to the need for complete equality, for the complete and final rejection
of all privileges for any one nation.

The Black Hundreds carry on a particularly venomous hate-campaign
against the Jews. The Purishkeviches try to make the Jewish people the
scapegoat for all their own sins.

And that is why the R.S.D.L. group in the Duma did right in putting
Jewish disabilities in the forefront of its Bill.

The schools, the press, the parliamentary rostrum—every thing is
being used to sow ignorant, savage, and vicious hatred of the Jews.

This dirty and despicable work is undertaken, not only by the scum of
the Black Hundreds, but also by reactionary professors, scholars,
journalists and members of the Duma. Millions and thousands of millions of
rubles are spent on poisoning the minds of the people.

It is a point of honour for the Russian workers to have this
Bill against national oppression backed by tens of thousands of proletarian
signatures and declarations.... This will be the best means of
consolidating complete unity, amalgamating all the workers of
Russia, irrespective of nationality.

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Notes:
[1]
See pp. 172–73 of this volume.— Ed .