Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev

“ May I be pardoned that in an hour so momentous for the Jews I persist in speaking not of them and their sufferings, but of ourselves. I repeat, the Jewish question was never a question for me, and in order to justify the proposed measures I need not allege the heroism shown by the Jews in defending Russia, their love for Russia, tragic in its faithfulness. As for demonstrating again and again that a Jew, too, is a human being, to do so would mean not only to bow too low to absurdity, but also to insult those whom I respect and love. ”

“ Are we not ourselves the Jews of Europe, and is not our frontier—the same "Pale of Settlement"—something in the nature of a Russian Ghetto? And try as our Pushkin and Dostoyevsky and your Byalik may to prove that we, too, are human beings, people do not believe us, as they do not believe you: here is that equality whence we all can derive a bitter consolation; here is the punishment by means of which impartial life takes revenge on the Russians for the Jews' sufferings. ”

“ They began to speak now of those dreadful feelings and thoughts, which sometimes visit one during the night, when one cannot sleep, and when nothing disturbs the silence, neither rustling nor speech, and when this wild, dreadful nightmare called life presses down upon one.
“Can you imagine what infinity is like?” asked Tenaida, touching her forehead with her hand and rapidly twink ling her eyes.”
“No; infinity? No,” answered Niemoviecki, at the same time closing his eyes. ”

“ But we are young, we are only beginning, and for a people who abolished serfdom only half a century ago, we have done quite a good deal,—so that, at the worst, lack of culture is the only reproach which a European with a sense of justice will fling at us. But it is enough to put side by side the words "Russian" and "Jew,"—and I become at once a barbarian, a dark and terrible being, who chills and darkens resplendent Europe. At once in America people begin to hate me, in England and France to despise me ”

“ His head was heavy, as if filled with lead, he could not move it, and the whole of his body was sore, but especially his back. No bones were broken. Niemoviecki sat down, and for a long while looked upwards without either thinking or recollecting anything. High above him swung a berth with wide, black leaves, through which pierced the fading sun. Clouds were gliding through the sky, no rain fell, and therefore the air was dry and light, and above, in the middle of the sky, rose the moon with transparent rims. ”

“ Yes, we are still barbarians, the Poles still mistrust us, we are a dark terror for Europe, a baffling menace to her civilisation, but we do not want to be that any more, we long for purity and reason, our wretched rags burden us beyond all measure. The Jews' tragic love for Russia finds a counterpart in our love for Europe, as tragical in its faithfulness and completeness. ”

“ The clouds were continually rolling heavily, and slowly changing their shapes into monsters, and unwillingly moving forward, yielding to some terrible and invisible power.
Only one light, transparent, small cloud, feeble and frightened, having torn itself from the rest, was solitarily wandering in every direction.
II.
Tenaida became pale, her lips red, almost purple, the pupils of her eyes dilated perceptibly, darkening her eyes, and she began to whisper very softly:
“I am afraid of something. Here it is so quiet; have we not lost our way?” ”

“ An aged journalist, who, it seems, has lost all fervour and faith, has recently laughed in his sleeve at the word "miracle," which nowadays comes so often to our lips: according to him, miracles, generally speaking, do not exist. It is my opinion also that there are no miracles, if we understand by a miracle an arbitrary violation of the natural, logical, inevitable order of things. But to him who contemplates life proper, not the table of multiplication,—logic itself appears as the greatest of all miracles. Oh, if logic would really reign supreme in life ”

“ Niemoviceki had known such kind of women. However, Tenaida, who nearly touched them with her neat brown dress, experienced a something hateful and painful, and at the same time wicked, and this experience lived for a while in the dark recesses of her soul.
But after some minutes this impression wore off, like the shadow of a cloud running swiftly over green meadows. A couple now passed by them, a man wearing a hat and coat, but barefooted, and an ill-clad woman with him. ”

“ And if I persist in speaking of ourselves and our suffering, it is not for personal egoism, nor even class egoism, but the pardonable egoism of a nation, which has been too long playing a miserable part on Europe's stage and in its own conscience, and which now repudiates the suffering of yesterday and, at the dawn of new life, seeks the possibility—oh, only the possibility!—of respecting itself. ”

“ With the deepest tenderness and cautious prudence Niemoviecki endeavoured to put in order the torn pieces of her dress, and the conflicting impression, produced first by the cloth of her dress and then that excited by the exposure of her uncovered body, was for his mind sharp like a knife, incomprehensible as frenzy. Could he be both defender and assailant at the same time? He looked for help from the surrounding forest, but all was darkness. Neither forest nor atmosphere could offer him any help. ”

“ In the forest it was quite dark, but now and again as light rays of the moon pierced through and illuminated the white trunks of the trees, then the forest seemed to be full of motionless, silent people, nobody knew why. ”

“ And the fact that for me, as well as for many other Russian writers, all this was never even a problem, does not by any means diminish the extraordinary character of what is going to happen; for a plain brotherly kiss is almost a miracle and can move one to tears at the time when the rule of life and its highest wisdom is a fierce war of brother against brother. ”

“ We must all understand that the end of Jewish sufferings is the beginning of our self-respect, without which Russia cannot exist. The black days of war will pass, and the "German barbarians" of to-day will again become cultured Germans, to whose voice the world will once more hearken with deference. And we must never again allow this or any other voice to utter aloud: "The Russian barbarians." ”

“ The big red-bearded fellow having thrown Niemoviecki into the ditch waited with his companion for a while listening to what was going on down below.
As their faces were turned towards this spot they lost sight of Tenaida. All at once rose a loud, deafening shout of a woman, then as suddenly it was hushed and the big fellow cried out furiously—
“You wretch! You touch her only and you are a dead man!” ”

“ It is ridiculous and utterly odd to think that our far-famed "barbarism" of which our enemies accuse us and which puts our friends out of countenance, is based wholly and exclusively on our Jewish question and its bloody excesses. Take away from Russia these excesses, leave, if you wish, the anti-Semitism, but in that externally decorous form in which it still exists in the backward portions of Europe,—and we shall become at once decent Europeans, and not Asiatics and barbarians, whose proper place is beyond the Ural. ”

“ The last objects he saw were a piece of a red beard, which almost came in his mouth, and then the darkness of the the forest... and finally the skirts of a running girl. She ran silently and as swiftly as if acting in the play of “The Cat and Mouse,” and in order to overtake her the clean-shaved man continued to run. Niemoviecki now experienced nothing but a blank; he fell heavily on the ground, losing his presence of mind. ”

“ As barbarians we are only an excellent and indispensable market for the Germans' merchandise, a two-hundred-million flock of sheep ready for the shears. As a cultured nation we are a power dangerous to the Teuton's dream of world dominion. And the Jewish question, with its excesses and nails driven into heads, is that trump which our honest German neighbour has always kept hidden in his cuff and which he throws out on the green table at the necessary moment. ”

“ And then we noticed that his eyes, for the first time, were dry; but we all, without exception, were weeping, and our burning tears were like the fire, from which wild beasts run away.
He died—and we sang over him the—“Marseillaise.” With our young strong voices we sang the great song of liberty, and the ocean accompanied in a severe key, and over the ridges of its waves carried to our dear Fatherland pale terror and bloody hope! And for ever this soul became to us a symbol.
He—this miserable creature with the hare’s body and the stupidity of the ploughing ox—with the elevated soul of man. ”

“ Taking a logical point of departure, that is what I thought, but this same logic dictated to me an absolutely negative answer to all these questions: no one needs it, it brings good to no one: all these discriminations not only do not increase the sum of joy on this earth, but engender a multitude of wholly unnecessary, aimless sufferings; some they oppress, and others they badly corrupt. ”

“ He pressed her soft unresisting body to his bosom. Its very inertness awoke in him a wild passion, he was wringing his hands, whispering low, and showing nothing of the man, except a capacity for lying.
“I love you. We will not tell anybody. Nobody will know it. I will marry you to-morrow if you like. I love you so much that I cannot resist the temptation to possess you as mine. I will kiss you till you answer me. Well, Tenaida? ”

“ Losing our self-respect, having no faith in our power, growing corrupted by an unnatural existence, cutting down by means of the celebrated "norm" the number of our educated and cultured men—a devilish joke!—our entire nation was diligently performing the "Fools' Dance," which, under the name of a drama from Russian life, has recently met with such a success in the Berlin playhouses. ”

“ The prominent eyes became more and more piercing. When Niemoviecki eluded their gaze the big fellow lagged behind, and from beneath struck him a blow on the chin with his fists. The student became dizzy, his teeth chattered, his cap slipped over his forehead and he fell back unconscious. Tenaida looked behind and then took flight with all the speed she could use. ”

“ And those with whom I shared the news, although excited no less than I, accepted them also with some degree of diffidence, which is only natural in Russians: life indulges us so rarely and so reluctantly. ”

“ Although proud at the victories of our arms, we scrupulously hide this pride, we treasure it in our hearts as our most precious possession, and we hate all swaggering and self-adulation. Not with the haughtiness of a righteous pharisee do we approach the altar, but with a prayer of penitence: "like a murderer I profess Thee." ”

“ It must not be forgotten that the ardent Polish anti-Semitism, which frightens us so much and which seriously hinders the upbuilding of a new life, as well as the cold Finnish anti-Semitism, the power of which is still unknown to us,—that these two phenomena are nothing but the logical development of the fundamental absurdity, its natural and poisonous fruits. ”

“ Would everyone could have such a woman....”
And somewhat hoarsely they all began to laugh.
“Sir, wait a little, I wish to say something to you!” roared one of the three with a bass voice, when, at a glance from him, his companions rolled to their feet.
Niemoviecki, without looking behind, went farther on.
“You ought to stop if they ask you,” said the red-bearded man, “because you might get a good drubbing.”
“They are calling you!” shouted the big fellow, and in two strides he overtook the young couple. His massive hand fell on Niemoviecki’s neck and seized him. ”

“ Of course culturally we are far behind the world, our economic life is undeveloped, our civic life is at a low level, and all the aspects of our life show clearly that we have not as yet broken the shell of the egg. ”

“ Now, although these distorted spectres were sad, yet, in spite of their grief, brighter and purer appeared love. Great as the world, light like the sun, and as exquisitely beautiful, it fixed itself before their eyes, for nothing can be more fascinating or powerful than love!
“Could you die for one whom you love?” asked Tenaida, looking at her childlike hand.
“Yes, I could,” decidedly answered Niemoviceki, looking at her openly and fondly. “And you?” ”

“ From the very beginning he was pushed out of his right place and ordered to write the court reports to the newspaper Kurjer. He had no clients for lack of time. Scarcely had he led one civil lawsuit, without losing in all respects.
In 1898 he had written one novel, but acting on the advice of the secretary of the newspaper Kurjer, from that time he worked at many kinds of literature, relating just what occurred in court reports, writing feuilletons, novels, and so on. Maxim Gorky helped his fellow author very greatly with his advice. ”

“ Petersburg he often starved, but not so much out of real poverty as from lack of experience. Sometimes he went without food for two days. At that period he wrote his first narration about a hungry student. He was affected to tears while writing it, and when the editor returned him his MS. his colleagues laughed at the author.
He finished his education at the University of Moscow, where he became more successful. His companions commenced helping him; also “the Committee of Help” rendered him some assistance. But Andreyeff says that he recollects with more pleasure his career at St. ”