"Touch the Great Principle"

In the summer of 1905, the chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia, Sergei Witte, was in the United States at the head of the delegation at peace negotiations with Japan. Before his departure, President Theodor Roosevelt handed him a message addressed to Nicholas II, having previously read it out loud. The president asked the emperor to pay attention to Article I of the Russian-American Treaty of 1832 on trade and navigation-the main trade agreement between the two countries.

Sergei Witte writes in his memoirs:

"The letter said that the Americans are never able to learn and reconcile with the thought that it is possible to distinguish between people in relation to their trustworthiness, or in their decency in belonging to one or another religion. And therefore, in order to establish friendly relations between America and Russia, those relations that began, thanks to my stay in America, he really asks the sovereign to cancel this interpretation, which was established Practice, especially the last decade. "

Article I of the Agreement read:

"Residents of one and another state will be mutually provided to all harbors, places and rivers, each of these states belonging, where foreign trade is allowed. They will not be forbidden to stop there and live everywhere in the mentioned possessions, where they will need them; and because of this, they will be fenced out by the same safety and patronage, which are used by residents of the land where they will be used Stay, with the fact that they will be subordinated to existing laws and institutions, especially in force of trade decisions. "

This is an American question in which the great principle will be affected

However, the freedom of movement of US citizens of Jewish religion in Russia was limited. If for Washington this was a clear discrimination, then the Russian government indicated the need to subordinate to Russian legislation, including regarding the settings of the settledness.

In 1910, the prominent US politician, the former Minister of Trade and Labor Oscar Solomon Strauss, was appointed ambassador to Turkey. He intended to drive through Russia to the service station. But it turned out that his diplomatic passport on the territory of the empire does not work: as a "person of the Jewish religion" he must obtain permission to enter on a common basis. Strauss indignantly refused such an opportunity.

The “passport problem”, coupled with the constantly increasing stream of Jewish immigration from Russia to the United States, has become the strongest stimulus in bilateral relations. The topic has grown out the framework of a purely diplomatic conflict and turned into a wide public movement in defense of Russian Jews from state anti -Semitism.

The Russian government remained deaf to both diplomatic demarches and to the public opinion of America. Finally, the chairman of the Lower Chamber of International Affairs, William Sulzer, held a public hearing on the Passport issue and in December 1911 introduced a bill on the denunciation of a trade agreement with Russia. In his speech, he said:

"Our government showed exceptional patience and remarkable ingenuity, and yet there are no signs that the methods that were used so far are able to lead to at least some result. Russia does not perceive our government seriously. It believes that its actions are ceremonial, not practical in nature. The time has come for more decisive steps ... This is not a Jewish question. This is an American issue, which will be affected by the Great The principle applies to all American citizens. "

The House of Representatives took Bill Sulzer 301 in a voice against one, the Senate unanimously after the debate, lasting only 40 minutes. President William Howard Taft signed the law for the next day, while saying that this was his gift to Jews to Hanouks.

We hope that the long -standing friendships of the Russian and American peoples do not overshadow due

Russia could still trade with America, but now she has lost the status of a normal trading partner. In Russia, the denunciation of the contract caused a surge of anti -American sentiments mixed with notorious anti -Semitism. The leader of the Oktyabrists Alexander Guchkov was also subject to this poet. Together with another prominent member of the faction, German Lershe, he introduced a bill to the State Duma, doubleting customs tariffs for American goods. The leaders of the nationalists Pyotr Balashov, Alexander Gizhitsky and Alexander Pototsky went even further: they suggested that the American Jews take the entrance to Russia and impose an actually prohibitive duty of one of the main articles of American imports - agricultural vehicles. At the same time, they called on the government to organize import substitution - to establish the production of their own agricultural machinery.

Alexander Gizhitsky

On April 13, 1912, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Sazonov made a report on the budgetary application of his department. Among other things, he also touched the denunciation of Washington of a trade agreement with Russia. His speech seemed to come out of the pen of the current Kremlin speaker:

"Russia has always sacredly fulfilled the contractual obligations, and in this case, all the statements of the nasty did not stand criticism ... imbued with the consciousness of national dignity and being in this respect in close unity with all layers of the Russian people, the government firmly intends to prevent any encroachment on the inalienable state law of Russia, as any sovereign state, determine its internal legislation exclusively depending on the needs of and the special conditions of our own life.

The statement of the minister was commented by the leader of the cadets Pavel Milyukov :

This is the border that separates civilized humanity from unacculated

“Of course, we are sure that the sovereignty of Russia remains untouched, that regarding Russia there can be no question of any extraterritoriality or consular jurisdiction for foreigners. But is it flattering, gentlemen, to be on the border where such issues can be raised? After all, this is the border that separates civilized humanity from unwound ... I am embarrassed as Russian (noise on the right; a challenge) when Europe and New Light and New Light and New Light are a new light. They get the right to classify us as Asians, while Asia itself begins to recognize the main principles of world culture.

Passions were boiling outside the walls of the Duma. The correspondent of New York Times (The New York Times) described the rally of the All-Russian National Union in the Petersburg noble meeting in the room of February 23, 1912:

"The speakers condemned Jewish influence in the United States, which, in their opinion, caused attempts to intervene in the internal affairs of Russia ... Booklets with clippings and caricatures from the American press were distributed, a large map showed that irrigated and suitable for irrigation of the land of Turkestan was able to replace American cotton ... Count Vladimir Bobrinsky, the head of the party of moderately right and one From the most noticeable deputies of the State Duma, he said on this subject: "We must bless the day when the president of Taft canceled the contract."

Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Empire

According to historian Fedor Seleznev , the discussion around the denunciation of the contract had an obvious economic dimension. Supporters of counter -sanctions belonged to the classroom of landowners interested in displacing American agricultural products from the Russian domestic market, primarily cotton. In the patriotic press, a campaign unfolded for replacing cotton linen. In particular, the nationalist publicist Mikhail Menshikov published the article "Len-Kormyts", in which he argued that linen tissue was both more hygienic and more economical than cotton. The Kherson Zemstvo Assembly, in which the mentioned chamberlain Alexander Gizhitsky enjoyed special authority, announced the boycott of American goods.

The reaction of textile manufacturers was radically different: almost half of the total volume of raw materials processed at their enterprises was of American origin. One of the most dissatisfied was one of the richest people in Russia Andrei button, the head of the Ludwig Knope family company, a member of the Central Committee and a sponsor of the October Party. His company was the largest importer of American raw cotton in Russia and had representative offices in New York, New Orleans, Charlestone and Savannah. The button was outraged that Guchkov and Lerhe made their legislative initiative without consulting him. The attack on anti -American propaganda was led by the newspaper Morning of Russia, which belonged to the Ryabushinsky family. On the day after day, headlines appeared in it like "not asking for a ford", "shooting in their own."

This discussion has become one of the factors in the fall in the popularity of the Oktyabrists. Guchkov was not elected to the Duma of the next, fourth convocation. And the textile manufacturers Pavel Ryabushinsky and Alexander Konovalov founded in November 1912 a liberal progressive party, represented in the IV Duma by 48 deputies.