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THE WORKERS' UNION AND THE JEWS 199lished a translation 26 of an article on the union that had appeared in aFrench periodical in 1882. 2? Written by the journalist E. Molinari, thearticle contained excerpts from the union's original documents. TheRussian translation of the article, as well as the retranslation of theexcerpts from the documents, was prefaced by an editorial note and aconcise reminiscence 28 about the union by Koval'skaia.The handwritten program of the union cited by Molinari was writtenin a populist spirit. It maintained that political rights would have noimportance unless the economic system was altered, for a constitutionalgovernment alone would probably work to the advantage of thebourgeoisie rather than the common people. The authors' frame ofmind was reflected in their recommendations for achieving the ultimategoal — social revolution — as well as the more immediate demandsof the workers and peasants. These were: (1) agrarian terror bythe peasants — seizure of lands, arson, assassination of wealthy landowners;(2) factory terror by the workers — setting on fire factoriesand workshops, killing of directors and owners; (3) military terror —instigating soldiers against officers, killing harsh commanders, fomentingsedition in the army; (4) political terror — disorganization of thegovernment by any means, in order to compromise its authority withthe people and incite them against its officials and the police.A comparison of Molinari's French original and the article's translationin Byloe reveals that the last paragraph of the original was cutfrom the Russian version. In Molinari's text the fourth demand, onpolitical terror, concludes: "to exploit the hatred of the populationagainst the Jews and the Poles in order to inflame quarrels which willbring about disorders, and, finally, to foster revolutionary outbursts."This omission is, of course, of interest to us here. The passage musthave been deleted intentionally by Byloe's editor, Burtsev.At the time, no faction in the already widespread and differentiated26"Iuzhno-russkii rabochii soiuz ν 1880-1881 gg.," in Byloe (London), no. 2(1903-1904), pp. 150-161 (reprinted Rostov, 1906).27Edmond de Molinari, "Le movement anarchist en France et l'Union OuvrièreNihilist du Midi de la Russie," Journal des Economistes, 1882, no. 11, pp. 176-188. The editor of Byloe assumed that Molinari had obtained the documents from"some knowledgeable people." Koval'skaia afterwards remarked (1926, p. 197)that he must have received them from someone who, although in contact withmembers of the union, was not well informed; see below, fns. 29 and 31.28Koval'skaia referred to conversations she remembered having with members ofthe union, notably with Pavlo Ivaniv, whom she met in prison and in exile shortlyafter the destruction of the union.