Russian anti-Semitism

[Justin Schwartz]

Russian antisemitism is very real--it's why I'm here! (In the US). It's 
probably less than in Stalin's day. Some of it is unconsciosu and not 
ill-intended. I have a friend who is an editor of Znamya, one od the Russian 
literary journals (and incidentally the daughter in law of the late novelist 
Anatoly Ryabykov), very liberal/progressive though not left. One time we 
were talking about an uproar in the House of Writers during perestroika, 
where some neoStalinsits accused the perestroika supporters of being, among 
other things, Zhidy (Yids, kikes, sheenys). She told me that she got out her 
passport marked with her nationality (Russian) and waved it about, saying, I 
am pure _Russian_! Well, naturally we didn't feel at home even even the 
progressive Russians don't thinkw e're Russian.

You will NEVER hear an Ashkanazi Jew of Russian descent say, I'm Russian, 
the way some Americans say, "I'm Polish" or "I'm Irish." Matter of fact, we 
weren't, we aren't.

jks


>From: "ChrisD(RJ)" <chrisd at russiajournal.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: "'lbo-talk at lists.panix.com'" <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Subject: RE: Russian anti-Semitism
>Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 14:48:18 +0400
>
>From: James Heartfield <Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk>
>Subject: Russian anti-Semitism
>
>Chris Doss's post was very interesting on the topic.
>
>I am prepared to accept that there was a lot of Cold War propaganda
>about anti-Semitism.
>
>But surely under Stalin the Doctor's Plot was an anti-Semitic campaign,
>as alleged. Shouldn't one expect anti-Semitism to flourish where
>nationalism is amplified. Would Chris's informant say that anti-Semitism
>declined in time, or that it was not so bad in the fifties either?
>
>CD: I haven't asked him yet. Keep in mind that the Stalin era got ellided
>over in Soviet history books. I have a Brezhnev-era children's history of
>the CPSU (which reads like an American university textbook, by the way),
>about 700 pages in length, which manages to mention Uncle Joe a whopping
>FOUR times, and treats the collectivization of the 30s as if it just kind 
>of
>spontaneously happened. (Trotsky isn't mentioned at all.)
>
>JH: I'm a little sceptical about claims that Jews would make up fifty per
>cent of the intelligentsia, too. Doesn't this have a ring of
>anti-Semitism about it? I know in the UK for example, the people who
>regularly over-estimate the numbers of immigrants are those who dislike
>them.
>
>CD: Rest assured, the guy who wrote it isn't an anti-Semite. :)
>
>I don't know the figures for the Soviet elite, but Jews are hugely
>over-represented in the contemporary Russian oligarchy.
>
>As I've mentioned before, in the two years I've been in Russia I've
>encountered very little anti-Semitism (though a great deal of hostility
>toward Caucasians and some level of bias toward Ukrainians and Moldovans).
>Of course, most of the people I know are educated middle-class Russians in
>Moscow, by far the richest city in Russia. There's probably a lot more in
>the provinces -- I know Stavropol, which is impoverished, is a big center
>for nationalist radicalism.
>
>JH: And while we're at it, Chris's comment on Chechenya:
>
>'Sometimes I think Russia just should just build a giant wall around the
>place,'  sounds curiously familiar...
>- --
>
>CD: I was thinking of the Great Wall of China.
>
>Chris Doss
>The Russia Journal
>

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