Jewish question in Russian liberal publicists of the 1870-1890s

The article discusses the position of Russian liberals in the second half of the 19th century on one of the most acute and complex aspects of interethnic relations in the Russian Empire. The author focuses on the presence in the liberal movement, as in the whole of Russian society, of very different judgments regarding the Jewish question. With a fairly unanimous condemnation of anti-Semitism and Jewish discrimination, their causes and ways to overcome the inequality of Jews were seen as different. The author considers B. Chicherin, K. Kavelin, V. Solovyov to be principled and irreconcilable opponents of anti-Semitism. B. Chicherin seemed strange and illogical anti-Semitism of Russian society. He recalled that Judaism was the basis of many modern religions and Christianity, in the first place. Therefore, it was not clear to him how hatred of Jews could be based on Christian canons, if they were based on the creation of Jews. The scientist raised the question - can a true Christian, whom religion teaches love for his neighbor, hate a person for adhering to his faith. The article draws attention to the unusual to V. Soloviev journalistic concrete and politically tough character of works devoted to the fight against anti-Semitism. As a connoisseur of Jewish holy books, the philosopher tried to refute the arguments of the Judaeophobes and anti-Semites, who sought to find in those books evidence of the religious determinism of the hatred of Jews towards Christianity. The author points out a special position of the advocates of this movement that called for granting Jews equal rights with other peoples of Russia. They drew attention to the provisions of the Basic Law of the Russian Empire, which gave the right to all peoples to preserve their religion. In addition, in their opinion, the state should not have interfered in matters of faith. A somewhat different position was shown by the journalists of liberal publications, sharply condemning the Jewish pogroms, regularly repeated in the southern provinces of Russia in the 1870s - 1880s. The author comes to the conclusion that in terms of liberal publications, the national-religious nature of the pogroms was not completely denied, but the emphasis was on its socio-economic reasons, which led to the conviction of the need, first of all, for socio-economic measures to eliminate them. Without contesting the thesis that poverty pushed people to crimes, one should pay attention to the underestimation of the depth of interethnic contradictions inherent in many liberal authors. They did not see in the religious and national hostility a threat to Russian statehood and relied on the tolerance of the Russian people and their ability to rally other nationalities around them. Therefore, no measures were proposed to change religious and national policies in the aspect of interethnic relations.

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