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The Origins and Development of Soviet Anti-Semitism: An Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

William Korey
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Extract

Classical Marxism, in contrast to various forms of Utopian socialism, anarchism, and syndicalism, treated anti-Semitism with utter contempt. The German Social Democratic leader August Bebel summed up the prevailing attitude of classical Marxism when he dubbed anti-Semitism the “socialism of fools.” Lenin was even sharper in his denunciation: “Shame on those who foment hatred towards the Jews,” he cried in March 1919. Yet fifty-five years after the Bolshevik Revolution the Soviet Union has become the principal exemplar of the “socialism of fools,” with anti-Jewish discrimination practiced in various areas of politics and employment and in the ethnic-cultural field. Especially disquieting is the massive anti-Zionist propaganda campaign which incorporates the traditional negative stereotypes of Jews.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , March 1972 , pp. 111 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1972

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References

1. See George Lichtheim, “Socialism and the Jews,” Dissent, July-August 1968, pp. 314-42. Marx, in his Zur Judenfrage (1844), did, however, use certain stereotypes about Jews and capitalism that were to become part of the lexicon of such Soviet bigots as Trofim K. Kichko.

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19. Information provided me in an oral interview.

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37. Ibid., pp. 336-38.

38. See the transcript of the interview in Réaltiés, no. 136 (May 1957), p. 104.

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52. Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2nd ed. (New York, 1962), pp. 423–24 Google Scholar. See also Lendvai, Paul, Anti-Semitism Without Jews (New York, 1971), pp. 3–20 Google Scholar.

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57. The article appeared in Pravda, Sept. 21, 1948. That the “request” was made by the Pravda editor is disclosed in Ehrenburg, Post-War Years, p. 125.

58. Ibid, p. 132.

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60. Pravda, Jan. 13, 1953. Earlier, in November 1952, the Soviet press highlighted the Slánský trial in Czechoslovakia, stressing the presumed “American-Zionist” character of the plot.

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62. Pravda, Apr. 6, 1953, described the hoax, but never mentioned anti-Semitism. Nor did Khrushchev in his secret speech to the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956. Instead, he wrote to Bertrand Russell, seven years later, saying that “there never has been … any policy of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union… .” See Pravda, Feb. 28, 1963.

63. For a detailed exposition of the subject see “Economic Crimes in the Soviet Union,” Journal of the International Commission of Jurists, Summer 1964, pp. 3-47.

64. Pravda, Apr. 4, 1964. For details see Korey, “The Legal Position,” p. 341.

65. The episode is related in William Korey, “Babi Yar Remembered,” Midstream, March 1969, p. 34.

66. The anti-Zionist elements in the propaganda campaign against the Dubček regime echoed themes of the Slánský trial of November 1952. See London, Artur, The Confession (New York, 1971), pp. 231-52Google Scholar, and Lendvai, Anti-Semitism Without Jews, pp. 243-59. The Slánský trial was fabricated in Moscow, and Soviet security officials played a key role in extracting the required confessions from its victims.

67. In 1970 the USSR published a revised and augmented edition of Ivanov’s Ostorozhno: Sionism ! which charged that the “Jews Rothschilds” are “parasites in the economy of many countries” and were engaged in financing the Czech “counterrevolution.” The new edition contends that Zionists have also penetrated the inner circles of the Vatican. The shrill vituperations of the Soviet press against Zionism continued throughout 1970 and into 1971.