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Bureya Region Unfit for Colonization, Miliukov Says in N. Y. Interview

May 28, 1928
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The Bureya region, now boomed in Russia as a district for extensive Jewish colonization, sponsored by the Comzet the government department, is unfit for such a project, Pavel N. Miliukov, Russian liberal leader, former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government and Soviet foe, declared in an interview with the representative of the Jewish Daily Bulletin.

Professor Miliukov, the outstanding leader of the Russian Constitutional Democratic Party (Ka-Dets), who is now on a lecture tour in this country, is a resident of Paris where he publishes the Russian emigres paper, “Poslednia Novosti”.

“The Bureya district is unsuited for settlement on a large scale because of the region’s topographic characteristics. During the Czarist regime, when I was a member of the Duma, the Bureya district was considered as a possible region for new settlement. Experts sent to investigate the territory discovered, however, that the area available is a strip of land under the surface of which there is a heavy layer of ice which never melts and which prevents plantations from taking proper root,” he stated.

Discussing present condition in Russia, particularly the recent decision of the Soviet government to inaugurate a vigorous campaign against anti-Semitism, Professor Miliukov, interviewed at the Park Avenue apartment of Mr. Charles Crane, attributed the present spread of anti-Semitism in Russia directly to the Soviets “policy of nationalism” and charged that Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator, is an anti-Semite.

The Jew, he says, has nothing for which to thank the Soviet. The only contribution the Soviet Government has made to the Jews is a gift of economic distress and social hatred. “Juridical and political equality were gifts bestowed upon the Jew by the Provisional Government and simply carried over by the Soviet as a heritage.”

While economically, the Jews have no problem which can be separated from the general Russian problem, socially their position is aggravated by anti-Semitism, says Miliukov.

The anti-Semitism of Soviet Russia differs radically from the anti-Semitism in the days of the Czar, he points out. In those days. anti-Semitism was a slogan, fostered by the Czar, but fought by the intellectual classes. Today anti-Semitism has infected the intellectual classes and is fostered even by Soviet officials themselves. “My personal impression is that Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party and virtual Dictator of Russia, is an anti-Semite. The virus of anti-Semitism is seeping through the working dasses as well as members of the Communist party.”

Hatred of the Jews is further propagated by the Soviet’s policy of nationalism. Hatred of everything not Russian is the crux of the Soviet’s so-called “international” philosophy. The Jews are the first victims of this philosophy, he said. The Soviet Government’s strong armed methods of suppressing anti-Semitism, in his opinion, cannot succeed so long as it negates the fight itself by its philosophy of hatreds and its complete lack of tree ###

Fernand A Abrank for more than fifty years in commanding figure in the needle trade union of the country, and the intimate the ## of the late Samuel Congress, was baried Sunday. Rabbi David Poster offered and interment was at Salem Field Country.

Mr. Abrams Workers, the parent body of the needle wodes ## of the country.

He was a ## delegate to conventions of the American Federation of Labor, and the Stated Federation of Labor and as a member of the ## of his organization ? the United States, Canada and Mexico. He also took an active part in the organization of the International ladies Garment Workers’ Union.

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