The Jew who brought the Russian Empire to its knees - twice.

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Although America's German Jews detested the unkempt Russian Jews, they were nevertheless infuriated by the barbarism of the czar's persecution. Among the Hofjuden who considered themselves the custodians of Jewish defense, Jacob Schiff stood out as a central figure. A major factor in international finance, Schiff's greatest weapon was money: giving it, denying it. After the notorious Kishinev pogrom of Passover 1903, Schiff decided to personally lead a crusade to force Czar Nicholas to abandon his anti-Semitic campaign.
Schiff used his influence with friends and family in Europe to commit major Jewish and even non-Jewish financial houses to a banking boycott of Russia.
And before long, Russia's loan requests were in fact systematically denied in most French, English, and U.S. money markets.
In 1904, after war broke out between Russia and Japan, Schiff lobbied tirelessly among commercial adversaries and cohorts alike to grant high-risk war loans to the Japanese.
About $100 million, suddenly infused, quickly armed the under-equipped Japanese, allowing them to score a series of humiliating victories.

Schiff's loans were officially recognized as the pivotal factor in Japan's victory, and the Jewish leader was commemorated in Japanese newspapers and history books as a new national hero.

The banking boycott and the financing of Japan's victory were onl] the first rounds.
In 1906, Schiff and other influential Hofjuden formed the American Jewish Committee. Their first major objective was abrogation of the Russo-American commercial treaty, the legal basis of all friendly relations with Russia. The Committee asserted that the czar's denial of Russian visas to Jewish American citizens was an affront not just to America's Jewish citizens but to the United States itself.
...
Calling upon all friends and resources, the Committee began a widespread public appeal to have Congress force the president to end commercial relations with Russia. Within weeks, House and Senate abrogation resolutions—each personally approved by the Committee—were prepared. On December 13, 1911, after the House voted 300 to1 to abrogate, Taft capitulated, and two days later issued instructions to terminate the treaty.
Despite abrogation, the czar would not yield. Massacres continued, and the Jewish death toll rose. So the banking boycott was tightened. Its effects became most destructive, however, during World War I, when the czar needed multimillion-dollar military loans.
Committee members were widely criticized for the stubborn continuation of their boycott even as it threatened the Allied war effort.
But the boycott remained in effect until the monarchy was toppled in 1917.
The Transfer Agreement by Edwin Black

[Gorque]

An interesting ort of history. Thanks for sharing.

[Art]

Cool story, I would say.
- the idea that Nikolay or his government directly organized Jewish pogroms is myth and I don't think that it is supported by many historians now
- pogroms mostly subsided after 1907
- formal reason for abrogation of the Russian-American treaty was an issue of visas to American Jewish citizens not anti-Jewish violence
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2012/08/the-i ... relations/
- Russia held the huge foreign debt by the start of WWI which became even larger in the process of the war, so she wasn't not much influenced by the American boycott.

[wm]

Russia held the huge foreign debt but it wasn't like France (the largest creditor) was going to demand it was repaid when the Germans were at the gates of Paris.
So the debt wasn't a problem, especially since you couldn't buy arms with debt. But with loans (especially the nice American ones) you could.

Mr. Black writes himself that it was under the pretext "the czar's denial of Russian visas to Jewish American citizens" and resulted in "abrogation of the Russo-American commercial treaty, the legal basis of all friendly relations with Russia."

[jerryasher]

I suggest that the moderator review this thread. The title alone is problematic, But the board is relative to the Soviet Union and not the previous administrations or policies.

[sarhang]

the board is relative to the Soviet Union and not the previous administrations or policies.

I gather chronology is no object when it comes to slinging mud at Russia, which the ultimate solace of the exquisite Polish soul.

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By waging war on Russia, Japan hoped to seize the tsar's vast, empty northeast region, Manchuria. ...

Almost immediately, she realized she had bitten off too much. Russia was an immense country with a huge army and virtually unlimited financial resources. By April, the vice-governor of the government-owned Bank of Japan, Baron Korekiyo Takahashi, was in London trying desperately to borrow money on the international market. But it was a miserable excursion. Even under the most humiliatingly restrictive terms, he could find no more than half the absolute minimum Japan needed to continue the war. With only a few days remaining before he was due to sail back to Japan, Baron Takahashi went to a formal dinner given by a fellow banker. Over dessert, Takahashi found himself explaining his sense of disappointment to a man who happened to be seated next to him.
Japan will surely be defeated, he said bitterly - Tsar Nicholas II will have another success under his imperial belt. Takahashi's dinner partner, a Mr. Jacob Schiff, seemed more interested than mere courtesy would call for.
Schiff too, Takahasi learned, also hated Tsar Nicholas II, holding him personally responsible for a recent pogrom against the Jews of the Russian town of Kishinev. The conversation between the two men continued until the party broke up for brandy and coffee. Then Schiff wandered off and Takahashi forgot about him.

The next morning Baron Takahashi's aide awoke him with the news that a Mr. Schiff wanted to see him - to discuss a five million pound loan! Takahashi was dumbfounded. "Who is this Schiff?" he asked.
"A partner in the American investment bank of Kuhn-Loeb," the aide had learned, "a powerful force in the world money market, a major factor in international capital. Also, a Jew."

Intrigued, Takahashi met with Schiff immediately and began what would become a deep and life-long friendship with him. (Ultimately, the Japanese banker sent his daughter to New York to live with the Schiffs for three years.)

Over the next several months, Schiff arranged four further international loans, and cash in hand, Japan continued the war until she was in a position to sue for a victorious peace. In Japan, Jacob Schiff became a hero. National newspapers devoted page after page to his role in the victory. History books added whole chapters about him.

Emperor Meiji, in an absolutely unprecedented act, invited Schiff, a commoner, to luncheon in the Imperial Palace. Without SchifFs help, there would have been no victory over the Russians. With SchifFs help, Japan had earned for herself new territories, new resources and greatly improved status in the eyes of the world. No honor was too great for this man.

Jacob Schiff was an American, but it wasn't as an American that he had undertaken to help the Japanese.
And the nearly two hundred million dollars that he'd raised wasn't even predominantly American money. In this instance, Schiff had acted as a Jew. The fact was not lost on the Japanese. For the entire victorious populace of Japan, "Jew" became synonymous with access to, and control of, vast sums of money.
The Fugu Plan: The Untold Story of the Japanese and the Jews During World War II by Marvin Tokayer

Marvin Tokayer served as a United States Air Force chaplain in Japan. Later he spent eight years as the only rabbi there.

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Kuhn, Loeb & Co. was an American multinational investment bank founded in 1867 by Abraham Kuhn and his brother-in-law Solomon Loeb.
Under the leadership of Jacob H. Schiff, Loeb's son-in-law, it grew to be one of the most influential investment banks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, financing America's expanding railways and growth companies, including Western Union and Westinghouse, and thereby becoming the principal rival of J.P. Morgan & Co.
...
The firm lost its independence ... when it merged with Lehman Brothers, creating Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc.

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Without Schiff's help, there would have been no victory.

[James A Pratt III]

I would like to point out Schiff and the others mentioned in the book "Wall Street and the Russian Revolution 1905-1925" helped bring down the Russian Empire. Sadly, look what came after it Lenin then Stalin. The Russian Empire was no paradise but, I don't think anyone would prefer Stalin's USSR. I would also like to point out pre- 1913 Russia was booming economicly and was making progress socially ect. know doubt the country would have greatly prospered ect if WW I hadn't happened.

[NickA]

- the idea that Nikolay or his government directly organized Jewish pogroms is myth and I don't think that it is supported by many historians now

I'm puzzled by it - the Jews of Kishinev weren't well - or indeed atall - protected. Nevertheless, a judicial process was held to punish the perpetrators. Judging by the Wiki article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishinev_pogrom - the complaint is that the forces were sent days late and the punishments were insufficiently punitive.

- pogroms mostly subsided after 1907

Some reports suggest there had been nothing that could be described as a pogrom between 1881/82 and 1903. It would be odd if detailed and contemporaneous reports were not available to us.

[wm]

The question is protected by doing what?
Russian Police was tiny and Russian military garrisons sparse.
If the riot wasn't anticipated very little could have been done to stop it quickly especially if the local government was inept.
In Tsarist Russia "ineptness" was a way of life.

[James A Pratt III]

online Alexei Bayer, 1913-2013: How Russia Blotched an Entire Century: Could Russia have been as successful as the United States?" The Globalist (5 Sept 2015). http://www.theglobalist.com/1913-2013-r ... e-century/.

[wm]

Working link.

[NickA]

online Alexei Bayer, 1913-2013: How Russia Blotched an Entire Century: Could Russia have been as successful as the United States?" The Globalist (5 Sept 2015). http://www.theglobalist.com/1913-2013-r ... e-century/.

The link is here - https://www.theglobalist.com/1913-2013- ... e-century/

And its quite a sensational article, bigging up Czarist Russia impressively. I will have to re-adjust what I thought of the place.