a note on anti-semitism in soviet russia (post-stalin period)

A Note on Anti-Semitism in Soviet Russia (Post-Stalin Period)Author(s): Bernard D. WeinrybSource: Slavic Review, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Sep., 1966), pp. 523-527Published by:Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2492861 .

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A Note on Anti-Semitism in Soviet Russia (Post-Stalin Period)

BERNARD D. WEINRYB

MR. STEPHEN P. DUNN'S reflections on Soviet policy toward Jews and anti-Semitism (Slavic Review, December 1965, pages 703-5) call for some comment.

He is apparently dissatisfied with statements made by some Jewish authors who, belonging to a minority group, are at times oversensitive to anti-Jewish incidents (just as Negroes are at times oversensitive about anti-Negro incidents). He may also be reflecting his disapproval of the recent struggle by politicians and political-action organizations in this country against Soviet anti-Semitism. But this does not mean that one can simply argue the reverse and say, "There is no such thing," unless one can prove it. The fact that certain measures in connection with Jews were (according to Mr. Dunn) adopted "for historical, cultural, and political reasons" cannot be re- garded as a justification when they were harmful for the group. Similarly, such actions as the destruction of the Uniate and Roman Catholic churches in the Western Ukraine after World War II, also taken "for historical, cultural, and political reasons" (the presumed need to eliminate nationalistic or counterrevolutionary elements) does not justify their adoption. Nor can the many attempts (before and after World War II) to denationalize the nationality cultures and weed out the nationalist heresy (and heretics) from the cultural institutions and apparatus in the republics be justified because of the contradictions embodied in the Soviet nationality policy.

It seems that no. rational discussion on anti-Semitism in Soviet Russia can be conducted without first properly defining the expression. The concept "anti-Semi- tism," coined less than a century ago in Germany, has become so ambiguous and overlaid with so many emotional and political colorations that one should clarify what one understands by it.

The situation in Soviet Russia of the post-Stalin era differs in certain respects from what one is accustomed to associate with anti-Semitism. Lack of authoritative information affords the possibility of arguing both ways: there is or there is not legal and social discrimination-one of the attributes of anti-Semitism. Some indi- viduals in Soviet Russia maintain that they suffer from anti-Semitism. But the official statistics (for 1961) seem to indicate that the ratio of those occupied in the professions ("specialists") is three to four times higher among Jews than among other groups (Jews i8o per iooo population; Great Russians 50 per iooo; Ukrain- ians 51 per iooo).'

Two or three years ago this writer tried playing a "names game." From issues of Soviet research periodicals taken at random from the library (history, humanities, social sciences) he picked out the characteristically Russian-Jewish names. In most

'Computed by Jacob Kantor, in Bleter far Geshichte, XV (Warsaw, 1962-63), 150 if., on the basis of figures from Vysshee obrazovanie, 1961.



524 SLAVIC REVIEW

cases the ratio of such "Jewish" contributors (usually people connected with uni- versities and research institutes) was higher than the Jewish percentage in the population. Also, the announced names of the recipients of the Lenin Prize do not seem to indicate any discrimination.

But it seems more certain that another component of anti-Semitism, namely, denouncement of Jewish culture, traditions, and attitudes, is practiced both tacitly (by silencing) and by overt denunciation-both forms being aspects of a trend toward "denationalization." In Vilnius, for instance, there exists (or existed a few years ago) a Museum for Karaite Culture (the 1959 Karaite population in the USSR was 5,727) but no similar institution for Jews in the whole of Russia (about

2.5 million). A study of Jews in the Soviet Union (analysis of 1959 census and some other data) written by a Moscow author (Jacob Kantor) could be published in Poland in 1962-632 but not, apparently, in Soviet Russia (in the 1920S and 1930S

Kantor published some studies in Russia). Perhaps the best inside view of Soviet attitudes and policies concerning Jews is

afforded by the reprints from the Soviet press published in the volumes of Jews and the Jewish People: Collected Materials from the Soviet Press which have appeared in London in the last few years. These contain many hundreds of ex- cerpts from the Soviet press in the provinces as well as in the major cities. From this emerges the following general picture: Individual Jews are often treated sympa- thetically and their contribution to Soviet society-sometimes also their suffering during the Nazi invasion-is emphasized. Jewish group life, however (religion, connection with Israel), as well as "Jewish parasitic enrichment" and what is known as "economic crimes," is often maligned and attacked.

Also, if we agree that attempts to "denationalize" the Jewish group should be designated as anti-Semitism, we cannot avoid encountering a number of theoretical problems and ambiguities. Jewish ethnic culture (or subculture) throughout the world today is generally viewed as consisting mainly of four elements: (r) literature and education (Jewishness in these fields means either the language written or used in teaching, or its Jewish content), (2) religion and tradition, (3) bonds between different sectors of the Jewish people in various countries, and (4) connection with the Holy Land (or Israel). As things are now in Russia all these four elements are being challenged.

Jewish education and literature, from the viewpoint both of language (or lan- guages) and of content, have been steadily disappearing from Soviet Russia since the end of the 193os. Hebrew has been banned since the 1920S, in part through the initiative of leading Jewish Communists. Jewish education and literature in Yid- dish, based on the general policy for "minority" cultures in Soviet Russia as for- mulated by Stalin in 1925-"socialist in content and national in form (language)" -prospered during the 192os, reached its zenith by the middle of the 193os, and began to decline in the second half of that decade.

The nationality policy of the Soviet leaders, which promised freedom of develop- ment for national cultures, brought a certain nationalist renaissance which in turn bred anticentralist tendencies. In the eyes of the ruling group in Soviet Russia, the elite of the various nationalities and their cultures became a menace to the unity of Party and state. Many attempts followed to "denationalize" these cultures and to weed out the nationalist "heresy."

2See note i above. Bleter far Geshichte is issued by Zydowski Instytut Historyczny in Warsaw.



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During this process and in the course of the purges, most of the Jewish Com- munist cultural institutions were closed, and many of the leaders disappeared. There was some revival with the occupation of eastern Poland, parts of Rumania, and the Baltic states at the beginning of World War II, and again after the Nazi attack on Russia in June 1941. Jewish cultural institutions were opened up in the newly acquired areas in 1939-41, or older ones were transformed into Communist Jewish organizations. Again, when the Nazi invader was hammering at the doors of Leningrad and Moscow, Soviet authorities began to encourage nationalist and religious feeling among the non-Great Russian ethnic groups as a means of pro- moting unity and bolstering resistance to the enemy. A Jewish Anti-Fascist Com- mittee was organized in April 1942 to cultivate pro-Russian sentiments among Jews at home and abroad. The committee published a Yiddish periodical, Einikeit (Unity), and Jewish writers soon began to use Jewish images and themes in their writings. Contact with Jews all over the world was encouraged, and trips to the United States and other countries were arranged for the leaders of the Committee. Although the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was principally a tool for Soviet propaganda, it served to a certain extent as a rallying point for Jewish intellectuals and for contacts with Jews abroad. This continued in the first postwar years, during which time Soviet Russia's attitude toward Zionism also changed, first from hostility to neutrality and later to support of the Jewish demands in the United Nations for partition of Palestine (1947) and official recognition of Israel after its founding on May 14, 1948. During these years a few Yiddish schools were also opened in the western regions acquired by the USSR. But in 1948, with the looming cold war, sharpening division between East and West, the Tito "heresy," and the Zhdanov- shchina, all this changed.

The change was heralded in an article by Ilya Ehrenburg published in Pravda and Einikeit on September 21 and 23, 1948. The article denied the existence of a Jewish "people," condemned Jewish "nationalism," dubbed Israel a bourgeois state and a tool of Anglo-American capitalism ineffectual in solving the Jewish problem (which could be done only within the Communist order of the Soviet Union). Soon after that the anti-Fascist Committee was dissolved, Einikeit was closed, Yiddish schools were liquidated, and Jewish writers and intellectuals were arrested and deported. From then until Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, a number of anti-Jewish acts were perpetrated-a purge in Birobidzhan, execution of top Yiddish writers, discrimination against Jews, anti-Semitic overtones in the campaign against "cosmopolitans," and, finally, the "doctors' plot," which miscarried because of Stalin's death.

During the Khrushchev years the arrested Yiddish writers (and those who had died or been executed in the labor camps) were rehabilitated without, at first, being given a chance to publish their works.

In Soviet Russia today a Yiddish monthly (Sovetish Heimland) is in existence; a few books in Yiddish, mostly of the older classics, are being published; and the works of some Yiddish writers are appearing in Russian translation. An occasional concert by a Yiddish singer (mostly Yiddish folksongs) is arranged. But these affairs lack any semblance of permanency. Since 1948 scarcely any Jew writing in Russian has published anything with a Jewish theme (only Yevtushenko, a non-Jew, uses some Jewish themes occasionally). In Birobidzhan a two- to four-page Yiddish biweekly containing translations from items of the general press is published, but the few Yiddish schools which still existed have apparently been closed down



526 SLAVIC REVIEW

recently. Jews outside the Soviet Union maintain that this is planned cultural destruction, while Soviet officials assert that Soviet Jews no longer want Jewish or Yiddish culture.

It is well known that the USSR is an atheistic state. Religious training of the youth is discouraged, church attendance is not encouraged, to put it mildly, and religious institutions have a hard struggle for existence. This is particularly true of the Jewish religion and religious institutions. The synagogues, like churches of other denominations, including the Greek Orthodox (the synagogues apparently more than the others), are under unremitting pressure from the atheist organizations and propaganda and are in decline. Special attacks are at times launched against them in the press.

As mentioned above, the end of 1948 brought an end to the apparently pro- Israel policy and, especially, to toleration of Soviet Jews' contacts with Israel and with Jews from other countries, particularly the West. This negative, policy is still being followed. Soviet Jews are discouraged from having any contact with Western Jews (in the Moscow synagogue a special section is arranged for Jewish tourists in order to avoid personal contact between them and Soviet Jewish worshipers). Israel is generally criticized as being a tool of the West, and Soviet Jews are warned not to believe in its sincerity. These negative attitudes of the Soviet authorities have, moreover, been nurtured by new and different issues in the intervening years. Beginning with the arms deal with Nasser and the Israeli Sinai campaign in 1956, Soviet policy became to a great extent pro-Arab and correspondingly anti-Israel.

Our difficulty in seeking a definition for Soviet anti-Semitism is compounded by the fact that each of the main elements of Jewish minority culture is bound up with other, not necessarily Jewish, issues, such as Soviet policy in the Middle East, Soviet relations with the West, the general discouragement or restriction of contacts with Westerners or foreigners, and the negative attitude toward religion in general. On the other hand, the sum total of these Soviet policies and attitudes in the four areas mentioned is believed to be leading purposefully to the extinction of a minority (Jewish) culture. May this not be given the name of anti-Semitism?

Mr. Dunn is quite right in stating that "accidents" happen in Soviet Russia and that "individual human beings [with their] opinions, feelings, and prejudices" who administer the policy exercise some influence. By implication this would mean that some anti-Jewish policies and attitudes are an outgrowth of local and individual antipathies-which is certainly true. There is, however, the further question of the degree of leeway permitted an individual local administrator in the Soviet context. Wouldn't he be likely to seek official acceptance of his policies by means of a frame- up or false accusations in order to avoid an eventual accusation of "heresy"? De- portees from eastern Poland in the years 1939-41 and the last years. of the Stalin regime tell of such incidents.

What does this add up to? (1) Schwarz' study, dealing mainly with the Stalin period, may exaggerate some-

what in the interpretation that silence about Jewish Nazi victims was a result of anti-Semitism. But there is no question that during the last decade of Stalin's life, or at least after 1948, the policy became expressly anti-Jewish and led to such actions as closing down the last vestiges of Jewish cultural institutions, "unmasking" Jewish writers as "homeless cosmopolitans," constructing a plot against Yiddish writers and intellectuals which led to the arrest and deportation of many and the



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subsequent execution of some, and the "doctors' plot," which was "interrupted" by Stalin's death.

(2) The problem of "anti-Semitism" during the post-Stalin years looks a little different. The situation (and the information concerning it) is not consistent or clear-cut. Because of a lack of authoritative information-and this lack is not ac- cidental but rather the result of a definite policy-we have to report guesses and suppositions. A difference generally seems to appear between policy toward the individual Jew and policy toward the Jewish group. Without a precise definition of the term "anti-Semitism," any argument in this connection would be fruitless. But anti-Semitism or not, Jews in Russia are under pressure from a policy of "denationalization," and at least some Jews feel that this infringes upon their rights or creates an anti-Jewish climate, which in turn opens possibilities for the individual administrator to introduce "innovations" which may often later become included in the "tradition."



a note on anti-semitism in soviet russia (post-stalin period)

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