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Protest of Liberal Russia
All of the liberal elements of Russia protested against this campaign of extermination, but were powerless in the face of the military Government. Hundreds of municipal bodies, trade and professional organizations, writers, publicists and priests, petitioned the civil government to admit the Jews to human equality or at least to suspend its policy of persecution. These memorials, together with the speeches delivered in the Duma, constitute a body of evidence from non-Jewish sources, which must condemn the Russian Government in the eyes of the world. (See pages ssss1–83; 117–120.)
GALICIA
During the ten months of the Russian occupation of Galicia the Jews of that section suffered even more severely than did the Jews who dwelt in the Russian Pale. For here the Jews were the subjects of the enemy and no pretext was needed for their maltreatment. The Ruthenians and Poles who occupied the land were friendly to Russia, which promised them independence and power. But Russia could expect nothing from the Jews of Galicia, for they were already in the possession of rights and liberties not enjoyed by the Jews of Russia, and the weight of the Russian invasion fell upon them mercilessly. Here thousands of Russian Jewish soldiers were forced to give up their lives in an attempt to impose upon the free Jews of Galicia the servitude from which they themselves so ardently longed to escape in Russia. They were forced to witness the desecration by their Russian companions-in-arms of synagogues, the outrage of Jewish women and the massacre of innocent and helpless civilians of their own faith.