Page 291 - Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors, Vol. 1

Nicolai Levashov. Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors. Vol. 1

ury is empty is not a problem. “Good” Israelites are ready to lend money for war and
the brave monarch will pay it off with the trophies. And the “brave” monarch had
nothing to do but to begin a war with one of his neighbours, the cause for which was
not difficult to find, as a last resort, he could invent it. In case a “brave” monarch
does not wish to do “good” Israelites this insignificant favour, they will be “forced”
to ask him to pay off their debentures, because they already had nothing with which
to “feed” their children.

Thus, a “poor” monarch found himself completely dependent on “good” Israel-
ites, who, blackmailing him like this, got what they aimed for — the beginning of a
military campaign. Any war means super-income for merchants, which comes from
military supplies as a source of possible financial machinations, as well as from the
monopoly for buying up the trophies, including captured peaceful inhabitants and
prisoners of war. The Israelites always controlled the slave-trade, which was one of
the important sources of super-profits, but not the only one. It is enough to remember
the fact that usually after the capture of a city; soldiers of the victorious army were
given the right to rob it over the course of three days. Here “good” Israelite-buyers
appeared and suggested relieving the soldiers of their military booty, giving cash for
it.

Usually the city’s inhabitants hid their gold and silver which was not so easy to
find. Certainly, soldiers did not stand on ceremony with the beaten and if they found
people who wore luxurious clothes or those who lived in rich houses, they had no
scruples about using torture to loosen the tongue. Although they were sometimes
lucky, more often their booty was not gold or silver things, but women’s jewelry and
valuable things from homes they robbed. Therefore their “legal” booty amassed by
robbery in most cases was pretty bulky and difficult to carry and the only way to
solve the inconvenience quickly was to get rid of this booty, as soon as possible, be-
fore the beginning of the next offensive. And “good” Israelites appeared right there
and bought this booty, giving hard cash to the winners. However, there was a distinct
feature in the Judaic “kindness”: they gave very little cash in comparison with the re-
al cost and there were several reasons for it.

Firstly, the soldiers very often did not know the real cost of the military booty
and they were simply cheated. The Israelites robbed the soldiers who previously had
robbed the peaceful inhabitants.

Secondly, very often the soldiers did not have a choice, because the Israelites
had been given the monopoly on buying war booty, from monarchs.

Certainly, crowds of Israelite-dealers followed the army, but they agreed on the
purchase prices and a soldier had little or no option — either, give up the booty,
which they did not want to do, or to give it to Israelite-dealers at the prices offered.
The choice, apparently, was not very big and soldiers had nothing else to do but to
sell the booty with huge losses for them. The logic is simple in this case: it is better to
have something than nothing at all.
Not only simple soldiers, but also monarchs and their military leaders appeared
in similar situations. During military operations, while the war was not yet over, the

Back to contents 291