And to bully a knowingly sick, imperfect person[7], to push him to impulsive reactions is both a bad and dangerous thing. Even a saint and a recluse can not stand it – and say in his heart: "Today everyone is for the Jews. The Moscow bishop blurted out a sermon. It was so unpleasant to read it. The Jews in those areas where they were beaten suck blood from the people without any pity. Seeing that the government did not stand up for them, they decided to settle accounts with the offenders themselves. They say that the people have done wrong; And they will not pay attention to the fact that the people were offended. Here they found the guilty - and the Jews are holy. These should have been punished, that is, the peasants, and the Jews should have been subjected to strict surveillance, and hanged for any trick. Then, perhaps, they would have become more subdued."[8]

The problems posed by this book should not be blocked by a pre-prepared curse: "anti-Semitism." Anti-Semitic texts are addressed to "like-minded people", they are designed to charge readers with their anger and help them see enemies where the designer of the anti-Semitic text sees them. I am not addressing the Cossacks. In the course of my arguments, I first of all turn to the Jews themselves. And I just ask them to understand the pain that some of their statements cause me and many people I know. I am not calling for pogroms or restrictions on the rights of Jews. More precisely, I am calling for the Jews themselves to limit themselves in one thing: that they deny themselves the right to publicly express opinions that are offensive to other peoples and cultures.

This is all the more appropriate since over the past hundred years, the roles have changed decisively – and what was excusable for the persecuted is not forgivable for those in power.

In response to the first edition of this book of mine, Alexander Nezhny tried to read my thoughts: "It is clear where the honorable father deacon chose a place for his trench. He would have considered his work to have failed if the reader, turning its last page, had not been filled with hatred for the Jews who destroyed Russia. In comparison with him, a professor and twice a candidate, the foul-mouthed general Makashov seems to be just an ordinary hooligan. His love of God is much more terrible for the public consciousness"[9].

I have to disappoint the heart scientist and telepath: you counted the mental wave from the wrong brain, Alexander Iosifovich. I'm not going to the trenches. If we are to speak of trench seats, I must note that a negative review of the book "How to Make an Anti-Semite" was also heard from the "anti-ecumenical" camp[10].

I would "consider my work to have achieved its goal" not at all in the event of the outbreak of pogroms.

My wish, which was not read or understood by Nezhny, was that a calm conversation should begin. And for this, it is necessary that the topic of Russian-Jewish relations is not listed among the topics forbidden to Russian journalists and allowed only to Jews. I, like him, do not want there to be pogroms in Russia. But I have my own reasons for this reluctance. One of them (in addition to the usual humanistic ones): I do not want Russia and the Russian Church to be disgraced by such a terrible, uncontrollable outburst of destructive and evil energy.

I would also like journalists like Alexander Nezhny to besiege their excessively nihilistic colleagues themselves, without waiting for the chamo-Semites to make those around them anti-Semites.

I would like the Jews to hear the lines from the poem of the Jewish poet Naum Korzhavin about the Jewish revolutionary "Abram Springer":

There is no simple way out here, Only difficult is to be human. To feel someone else's torment, Know about your own guilt.

Finally, I would like the pain of my people to be taken into account, as well as the pain of the Jewish people.

I share my observations not to cause some kind of pogrom reflex. I hope to be heard, first of all, by the Jewish publicists themselves: well, don't be rude to the country in which you live! Do not trample on its shrines! I don't want Jewish blood to be shed again in Russia – and in response I hear accusations of "racism". I call for the observance of the elementary rules of politeness (not to blaspheme the shrines of the people among whom you live), and I am called an anti-Semite.

I simply ask the gentlemen from the demi-publications: do not make me an anti-Semite. I don't want to become one. As long as I am not an anti-Semite. And just anti-rude.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM