>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] lynching [was: Saddam captured]
>Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 09:32:43 -0500
>
>
>I think that this account of eastern European anti-semitism
>conspicuously misses the class dimension - Russia was a backward feudal
>empire that kept its peasant population in line by crude force and
>periodical pogroms were orchestrated by the authorities to vent
>frustration of the masses.
Yes. This is why I get so annoyed at the "Russian anti-Semitism is a great threat" trope. There is no social basis for anti-Semitism in Russia today. Jews are very low-profile. If scapegoating goes on, its at the expense of Caucasians. But since there is no Caucasian lobby in the West, unless you count Zakayev, this is not widely known. In my opinion most Westerners think of Russia using a weird jumble of steretypes gained from Cold War propaganda and 19th-century novels.
Of course forced
>eastward migration continued in Russia to the 20th century.
Yes. It was one of the main, and little-cited, reasons for the GULAG -- moving laborers to remote areas to develop them.
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