surprised, that “this fact” was “another proof of the exceptional ability of the Semitic tribe,” and that Lenin had always contrasted “what he called its ‘tenacity’ in struggle with the more sluggish and lackadaisical Russian character.” Maxim Gorky, too, claimed that Lenin had a soft spot for “smart people” and that he had once said, “A smart Russian is almost always a Jew or somebody with an admixture of Jewish blood.” 87 We do not know whether Lenin actually said this, but we know that Gorky did, on numerous occasions. In the 1910s, Gorky was Russia’s most celebrated writer, most revered prophetic voice, and most articulate and passionate Judeophile. He was not a member of the Bolshevik party, but he was close to the Bolsheviks where it counted: in his love of the mobile proletarian and his loathing for the Russian and Ukrainian peasant—“savage, somnolent, and glued to his pile of manure” (as Lenin put it elsewhere). Gorky was even more of a Nietzschean than most Bolsheviks: all tradition and religion stood for slavery and mediocrity, and the only proletarian worthy of the name was the etymologically correct proletarian, who embodied absolute freedom because he produced nothing but children ( proles ). The only force capable of releasing the Promethean proletarian from the fetters of “leaden” philistinism was revolution, and the greatest revolutionaries in history had been the Jews. 88 “The old, thick yeast of humanity, the Jews have always forced the spirit to rise by stirring up restless, noble ideas and inspiring people to seek a better life.” Endowed with a “heroic” idealism, “all-probing and all-scrutinizing,” the Jews have saved the world from submissiveness and self-satisfaction. This idealism, which expresses itself in their tireless striving to remake the world according to the new principles of equality and justice, is the main, and possibly the only, reason for the hostility toward Jews. They disturb the peace of the satiated and self-satisfied and shed a ray of light on the dark sides of life. With their energy and enthusiasm, they have given people the gift of fire and the tireless pursuit of truth. They have been rousing nations, not letting them rest, and finally—and this is the main thing!—this idealism has given birth to the scourge of the powerful; the religion of the masses, socialism. Nowhere, according to Gorky, were the Jews needed as desperately and, for that very reason, treated as badly as in Russia, where somnolence (Oblomovism) was a treasured national trait, and the transition “from the swamp of oriental stagnation to the broad avenues of Western European culture” a particularly