Bertrand Russell (1870 - 1972) the
hugely influential
British philosopher, historian and
social commentator
Published in 1968, Volume II of Bertrand
Russell's autobiography, contains a
letter to his mistress he wrote in Sweden in 1920, after visiting Bolshevik Russia:
letter to his mistress he wrote in Sweden in 1920, after visiting Bolshevik Russia:
To Ottoline Morrell
Hotel ContinentalStockholm25th June 1920Dearest OI have got thus far on my return, but boats are very full and it may be a week before I reach England. I left Allen in a nursing home in Reval, no longer in danger, tho' twice he had been given up by the Doctors. Partly owing to his illness, but more because I loathed the Bolsheviks, the time in Russia was infinitely painful to me, in spite of being one of the most interesting things I have ever done. Bolshevism is a close tyrannical bureaucracy, with a spy system more elaborate and terrible than the Tsar's, and an aristocracy as insolent and unfeeling, composed of Americanised Jews. No vestige of liberty remains, in though or speech or action. I was stiffled and oppressed by the weight of the machine as by a cope of lead. Yet I think it the right government for Russia at this moment. If you ask yourself how Dostoevsky's characters should be governed, you will understand. Yet it is terrible. They are a nation of artists, down the simplest peasant; the aim of the Bolsheviks is to make them industrial and as Yankee as possible. Imagine yourself governed in every detail by a mixture of Sidney Webb and Rufus Isaacs, and you will have a picture of modern Russia. I went hoping to find the promised land.All love - I hope I shall see you soon.
Your B.
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In the year he died, Bertrand Russell
wrote On Israel and
Bombing:
...The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was "given" by a foreign Power to another people for the creation of a new State. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict. No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their own country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? A permanent just settlement of the refugees in their homeland is an essential ingredient of any genuine settlement in the Middle East. We are frequently told, "We must sympathize with Israel because of the suffering of the Jews in Europe at the hands of the Nazis." What Israel is doing today cannot be condoned, and to invoke the horrors of the past to justify those of the present is gross hypocrisy. Not only does Israel condemn a vast number of refugees to misery; not only are many Arabs under occupation condemned to military rule; but also Israel condemns the Arab nations only recently emerging from colonial status, to continued impoverishment as military demands take precedence over national development.All who want to see an end to bloodshed in the Middle East must ensure that any settlement does not contain the seeds of future conflict. Justice requires that the first step towards a settlement must be an Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied in June, 1967. A new world campaign is needed to help bring justice to the long-suffering people of the Middle East. source
More antisemitism from Bertrand Russell
"In Eastern Europe now mass
deportations are being carried out
by
our allies on an
unprecedented scale, an an
apparently deliberate
attempt is being made to
exterminate millions of Germans
