Even the publicists of the radical type, who were principally grouped around the periodical _Otyechestvennyia Zapiski_ ("Records of the Fatherland"), looked upon the pogroms merely as the brutal manifestation of an economic struggle, and viewed the whole complicated Jewish problem, with all its century-long tragic implications, in the light of a subordinate social-economic question.
The only one whose soul was deeply stirred by the sight of the new sufferings of an ancient people was the Russian satirist, Shchedrin-Saltykov, and he poured forth his, sentiments in the summer of 1882, after the completion of the first cycle of pogroms, in an article marked by a lyric strain, so different from his usual style.

[1] But Shchedrin was the only Russian writer of prominence who responded to the Jewish sorrow.

Turgenyev and Tolstoi held their peace, whereas the literary celebrities of Western Europe, Victor Hugo, Renau, and many others, came forward with passionate protests.

The Russian _intelligenzia_ remained cold in the face of the burning tortures of Jewry.

The educated classes of Russian Jewry were hurt to the quick by this chilly attitude, and their former enthusiasm gave way to disillusionment.
[Footnote 1: The article appeared in the _Otyechestvennyia Zapiski_ in August, 1882.