The great and really wonderful achievements of the German
are visible and material, while ours are things of the spirit--invisible,
modest, resigned. The representative spirit of Germany's materialism
and heartless aggressiveness is that of the megalomaniac Nietzsche and
his followers, Treitschke and von Bernhardi. The spokesmen of what is
more truly Russian today are Tolstoy and Dostoievski, who have recorded
forever the spirit of self-sacrifice, humility and piety in the Russian
soul.
Yes, it is true that those who have learned to know us in Russia are
aware that the epithets of "Hun" and "barbarian" used against us are
stark lies promulgated by bitter enemies who take ignoble advantage of
the tradition in America fostered by the melodramatic exploitation of
the Jewish problem and the occasional brutalities by our drunken soldier
to make you believe that a Russian is a sort of treacherous bandit with
a knife in his teeth ready to betray and slay. We regret exceedingly
that that tradition has taken root in the United States. We admire and
emulate Americans because they have mellowed and complemented their
industrial and political achievements with national charity and
religious ideals.
In Russia the Jewish question, as such, has not arisen since the opening
of the war.
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