The Helena independent., 1891-11-04
INFAMY OF ICNAT|EFF.
Chief Corruptionist Of Russia Who
Instigated the Persecution
Of the Jews.
How Venal Newspaper Man
Was Raised to q Bad
Eminence.
Tho May Laws and What Inspired Thorn
Sudden Retirement of Ignntief
From Office.

Sudden Retirement of IEnntief
From Oflce
NEW YonK, Nov. 2.-Ths Times of Oct. 2G
published the seventh Of series Of articles
on Russia, written by Harold Frederic, ita
London correspondent. in which he says:
The last thing which foreigners who study
the contemporary history Of country get
to understand is the part played in the
making of that history by powerful jour
nalists. No Engliahman for example, COM
prehends in the least the influence upon tho
American civil war exerted by editor-poli-
ticians like Horace Greeley and 1hurlow
Weed. In the same way 1t is very difficult
for any one outside OF England to realize
how largely the svonts Of the pnst decade
in these islands have been affected for the
most part mischievously w. r.. Stead.
Russian newspaper man, of whom very
few people in Russia itself, and practically
mono at all outside. have heard, entsrs our
story at this point. and from the moment Of
his debut becomes an important factor in
it's tragic development. | allude to M.
Suvorin, the owner and editor Of the Novoe
Vremya.
most characteristic anecdote is told of
the manner in which he Hrst became in
terestsd in the jewish question. He was a
needy man. with an obscure and unremu-
nerative paper. Excited by the rumors of
rich plunder at the seat Of war, he went
down to Bucharest in the summer of 1877,
in company with man even poorer than
himself. who had some novel sort of copper
kettle to sell. Suvorin conceived the plan
Of enriching himself BY getting this kettle
adopted for use in the camps of the Russian
army, and to effect this he sought an inter
view with Samuel Poliakoff, the great Jew
ish contractor, then in Bucharest. But
Poliakoff, hnrassed and worried by in
cessant conflict with the bigger Russian
robbers, perhaps already foreseeing the
ruin which was to overtake him and hia
colleagues. was in no mood to trifie with
this unknown and threadbare blackmailer.
He brusquely sent Suvorin about his
business.
Suvorin returned to st. Petersburg with
his kettles and began attacking Poliakoff
in his paper. His rage, however, was too
great to appease itself upon any one man,
even though that man were the millionaire
the Jews of Russia. At another time the
police would have made short work with
unauthorized journalism of that sort. But
it chanced just then to play into the hands
Of the most influential man in RuBsia-Gen.
Nicholas Paulovitch Ignatief.
The Jews in Russia always mention this
mans name under their breath and with
mentioned by name at all, but designated
with word which means 'ths Infamous"
/ have been told by others that the Jews
exaggerate Ignatieff's power for harm to
them, and that he has by no means SO fully
earned their hatred as they imagine. Upon
this, of course, cannot pretend to pass. I
know only that they universally ascribe to
his malice, greed and 1nhuman wickedness
and cruelty the sum of their miseries, and
that they trace the whole painful record of
references to the details Of his career.
have shown in the preceding letter the
motives Ignatisf had for orippling and de-
stroying the group of great Jewish con-
tractors. Apparently cognate motives now
led him to throw the protecting mantle of
port to the anti-Jewish crusade of the
Novoe Vrsmya. From that moment the
Novoe Vremy became an important paper.
After the suppression of the Golos, in 1882,
it took the position it has since held as the
most influential journal in st. Petersburg,
G2 Do rich man.
The rise of the Judenhetzo in Russia at
this particular time (1679) was of tremsnd-
ous assistance to lgnaticff and Suvorin. 1t
is the habit to assume that this agitation in
North Germany was the beginning of the
whole thing, and that the fever Of persecu-
tion only spread over the border into Russia
after it had become epidemic from Berlin
into POmerania. So admirable an author
ity as DR.. Wilhelm Miller takes this view.
But the facts are the other way. The Novoe
Vremya had been attacking the Jews for
months before tho first outbreak OF feeling
in Germany, and Ignatieff, now become
governor of Mini Novgorod, was openly
against the Jews.
The German riot did, however, point the
means to practical demonstration Of anti
Semitism in Russia. Up to this time such
unhappinsss as the Jew in Russia had suf-
fered had come from maladministration
from bad laws, rapacious and brutal Of
fcials, and the jealousy Of Christian guilds
of traders or artisans. He had got along
we'll enough with the Russian people thcm-
solves. do not pretend that he was be-
loved, but he had not been exposed to pop
ular insult and violence. Indeed, as has
been explained heretofore, he quite gener-
ally represented, in the minds Of the Rus
sian masses, cheap prices for goods and an
industrious distribution of the nsoessaries
of life. Therefore, no one had thought of
beating him or burning down his house.
But now, all ut once, anti-J ewish riots be-
gan in Russia. II was interesting to note
that they were all in southern Russia, a
section far remote from German influence.
In each case they were in towns containing
large population of Greek stevedores and
laborers. and these Greeks had practical
monopoly of the violence. This was in it.
self significant But then it was discov-
cred that band of young men from st.
Petersburg-youn students, clerks, and
ne'er-do-wells generally-was travelling
about the country, and invariably appeared
in town day or so before the outbreak Of
the riot. These agents provocateur did
their work too clunsily They grew inflated
by their success. and appeared on the
strests blowing whistles, maj ching in step,
and otherwise calling attention to their or
ganlzation.
The scandal became SO obvious that the
Christian merchants of Moscow signed
protest against ii. | have already men
TONED the fact that Nj. Alsxeiotf the pros
ent Jew-baiting mayor of Moscow, headed
the list OF signatures. This protest. being
Entrusted to Dr. Bunge, u fair and honor
able man, then minister of JUSTICE was
shown to the czar in person. along with