The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 28, 1925, Page 9

oe By M. A. SKROMNY. (Reminiscences of the Revolutionary Days of 1905, By an Old Rebel). * * * Editor’s Note. —- In connection with the 20th anniversary of the revolution of 1905 we will publish a series of word pictures of the revolution as told by a. comrade who participated in the events of that time. We know they will prove interesting to our reades. This is the second story. s s s II. The Slaughter of the Innocents. FTER the first successful street demonstration the revolutionary organization rapidly began to z2rowe The downtrodden, exploited and dis- Satisfied workers of the city began to flock to the organization. The twelve, and;.fourteen-hour day, the endless. fines, the beatings from the foreman and the bosses, the inability to organize legally in any way or man- ner drove the workers into the ranks of the underground revolutionary party, In the spring of 1903 the or- ganization had grown to such an ex- tent that it was decided to arrange another and bigger demonstration. Preparations for this demonstration | were under way when suddenly stran- ge and wild rumors began to spread all over the city. At first we laughed at these rumors. What sane man could believe that the Jews are using christian blood in baking ‘matzos” (the Passover bread used by religious Jews on Easter)? It seemed so ridi- culous that any sane man would just laugh at it. But thousands of circul- ars appeared and were spread on the market places, tea rooms, saloons etc., warning the christian population to watch its children, for “in connection with the approaching Jewish Easter they will need christian blood for matzos.“ The local subsidized anti- semite newspaper at the same time began a ‘violent campaign along the game ‘lines.::.- And then a christian child suddenly disappeared. The alarm quickly spread all over the city. The backward elements of the christian population, mostly illiter- ate, “the dark people” as they called themselves, began to repeat the stories of the “christian blood in the Jewish matzos.” The anti-semite newspaper carried warnings in big type: “Christians! Watch your chil- dren!” HE Jewish population, the shop keepers, the poor market peddlers began to tremble with fear, The class conscious Jewish and christian work- ers were indignant and did what they could to stop these wild rumors. The shopkeepers had recourse to their old and tried means of dealing with the government officials: a rich collection was taken up and sent with a delega- tion to the chief of police and the gov- ernor. Both promised to keep. “law and order,” but at the same time warned them to keep an eyes on the workers. The shopkeepers and land- lords willingly and gladly promised to do so. Two days before Easter the child was found living with some relatives in the suburb of the city. The anti- semite newspaper forgot to mention the fact. The Jewish shopkeepers were happy and doing business as usual. “You see, it worked,”—they told those who participated in making up the collection for the chief of police,— “he found the child.” The revolutionary organizations de- cided to postpone the demonstration to a more opportune time. 7. * . ERRILY clanged the spurs of the dragoons who were dancing with their girls to the tunes of the mechan- ical organ of the merry-go-round on Easter. The big square of the new market was crowded to capacity with drunken soldiers, peasants from the nearby villages, and pleasure seekers in general, The square was not pavéd and the clouds of dust raised from the ‘sand by the dancers and the enormous crowd, floated over the square cover- ing them, the pleasure devices and everything in sight finally disappear. ing way above in the clear blue sky. Here and there could be seen a half drunken policeman, and. occasionally a military patrol of three or five sol- diers would pass by. On every holiday military patrols were sent out over the city to help keep order, because on those days there were more drunk- ards, fights and debauches than usual. The police was incapable of keeping order on such days. Altho there were was smashed up regularly on every military patrols, the red light district holiday, once by the soldiers of the in- fantry when the dragoons were on patrol, and the next time by the dra- goons, when the infantry was on pa- trol. A Memory of the Pogrom CMENT EL. MSH EBPERCKAIO® AOTP OMA The father of the sculptor was blinded in the pogrom and he made this sad “To My Father, Blinded in the October reminder of the dark days, signing it: Days of 1905.—B. Patlajan.” At this time the infantry was on|by a captain of the police and a squad patrol duty. Suddenly a cry: arouse on the square |{Tom across the street. When a store near the merry-go-round, : A woman; probabiy drunk, attempt; ed to ‘climb up into the merry-go- round while it began to move. The owner pushed her aside. She slipped, fell and raised a cry. Someone near- by began to fight with the owner, An- other raised the cry: “Site is killed!” Still. another informed those in back of him who tried to find out what had happened, that “A Jew killed a christ- ian woman.” The rumor spread like wild fire. The local fight near the merry-go-round grew into a general riot. “Kill the Jews!”—cried a stout red faced fellow jumping up on a stand where lemonade was sold. He was later recognized as a local gendarme. The cry was picked up by the drunken crowd: “Kill the Jews! Kill the Jews!” UDDENLY a gang of about twenty- five boys appeared armed with short clubs and began to smash win- dows and break up shanties and stands in which goods was sold in the market. On account of the holidays all the stores and the market were closed. The crowd from the square at once joined in the robbing and nu- merous new gangs formed on the spot armed with clubs hatchets, legs from smashed tables, etc. The windows of the richer stores were protected with metal shutters and plain wooden clubs could not smash them. Then axes appeared. The clang of the axes in the metal Victims of a Pogrom Driven from Their Homes. In the Flames of Revolt Twenty Years Ago shutters, the ringing of the broken|}into a nightmare. No lights could be windows, the knocking of the wooden |seen anywhere, the street lamps being stands that were being broken up,|smashed and the inhabitants afraid to the rattling of the furniture and goods |show any signs of‘life in the houses, that had beet thrown out thru the|for it meant the invitation of burglars broken doors and windows, the howl|and rioters. From afar could be heard of the drunken robbers, all blended|the raise. of gangs the mad barking into a terrific roar that spread terror | of dogs, and occasional shot, a scream, all over the city. a volley, and dead silence again for The terrible word “pogrom” struck |awhile. And then a squadron of dra- the city, and covered it with a blanket | goons would madly rush by, the hoofs of death. of the horses clattering on the cobble- From the market place the pogrom | stones. spread in all directions : As the gang of rioters would move The police and. military patrols?|nearer the noise turned into a roar. Yes, they were there on the spot./By this time they were all drunk and Every group of rioters was followed/mad. Many saloons were broken into and the content8 freely passed around during the day. They were informed (as it was later proven at the trial) that there will be no objection to rob- bery. But the “damnable Jews” ob- jected to being robbed, the Jews who killed the christian child, the Jews who were using christian blood for matzos! OME of the gangs already saw blood, and like the wild blood- thirsty animals they longed for more. In fact the gangs of rioters were a horde of ferocious beasts under the skillful leadership of the organized power of the state. The police and sol- diers were also tired and mad. If any resistence was shown they would fire volleys into the building pfepairing the attack and then the rioters would | tush in. Anyone found alive in such a building was killed on the spot. Women and children were attacked and in many instances horribly tor- tured before being killed. In one case, a blacksmith was cruci- fied and his eyes gouged from his head, in another, a pregnant woman was outraged and after the abdomen “|was cut open the baby was thrown into the mire and the belly filled with feathers. In one building a baby was thown out of a third floor window and ‘then picked up by the frenzied crowd and torn in two. There were many other bestial atrocities, : In some of the raided buildings fires were started before the rioters left the place. In the streets huge bon- fires were made of the- furniture strewn all over the streets and squares, The glare of the bigger fires lit up the darkened-sky throwing more terror into the hearts of the already terrorized population. The firemen were not allowed to extinguish the fires, and even if given a chance they would not be able to do it. There were many fires and only one fire fighting squad. Most of the streets were closed. When dawn came the first rays of the sun looked down upon a miserable world. The city presented a view like in mid-winter: everything was cover- ed white with feathers from the rip- ped bedding as if with snow. The buildings, the trees, the fences, the of soldiers. I watched many of them or building was sufficiently smashed | cand: ainda: the captain would Orders? “rer ’ “Now, boys, move on.” They willingly obeyed and moved on to the next building or store to start all over again. Usually they met with no resistence as most of the Jews had hidden away in the cellars or garrets, or fled to the houses of friendly christians. Holy pictures of saints (ikons) be- gan to appear in the windows to de- signate the homes of the christians, and thereby protect them from the rioters. Many a christian loaned some of his ikons to a friend—a Jew, to protect his home. N some instances the rioters met with resistance, with revolver shots. In such cases the police and soldiers would reply with their rifles and guns, as the rioters did not carry any guns the first day, except the mud, everything was white. Feathers leaders who in most casés turned out| Were floating in the air. The streets to be gendarmes. But where the pol-| Were littered with broken furniture, ice and soldiers were absent, two men household goods, utensiles, torn cloth- with revolvers would drive off a crowd |i2s. The yawning gaps of the burned of a hundred rioters, or more, The|uildings sadly looked upon the hun- rioters did not venture into unknown|8'Y dogs that were fighting over the streets without the escort of police|°°'Pses strewn in the mud here and or soldiers. there. There weren't many casualties the HE calm that came just before first day. Only a few were shot by dawn was broken by the arrival the police and soldiers, a few stabbed|of the peasantg from the nearby vil- with soldiers bayonets, and manyjlages. They were informed that the beaten up by the rioters. stores in the city are wide open and When darkness fell upon the doom-| that everybody can help himself to ed city the terror of the day turned anything he wants. They were not robbers, nor murderers, just plain poor, dark peasants. They were bad- ly in need, and when told that they can take anything they want free of charge, they did. They did not see anything wrong about it. After all, they were taking things from the Jews, those people who were using christian blood for matzos. They knew about it, because they were told about it by good people, by christian people. They came in wagon loads and help- ed themselves. Nobody interfered. The bands of rioters appedred again and the attacks renewed with more savagery, Now they were out not only to rob, but also to kill. Vodka again appeared and was passed around free- ly, also to the peasants, A house was attacked in the neigh- (Continued on page 7)