In my copy of Kaganovich's Memoirs, there is a photograph of his Party membership document dating from I think 1919, and it clearly lists his nationality (translation by me):
Lazar Moiseevich Kaganovich Year of Birth: 1893 Nationality: Jewish ("Evrei") First Language: Russian Other Languages: Ukrainian Social Position: Worker Profession: Cobbler Education: ---------- General Education: Home-Schooled Military Education in the Old Army: None Military Education in the Red Army: None Civilian Education: None Party Education: None ---------- Party Membership and Date of Joining: Bolsheviks, 1911 Membership in Other Parties: None
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This is interesting, Jewish as a nationality. I've got a Facebook friend who self-identifies as Jewish, who has a husband who is Jewish. It so happens that her husband's family emigrated to the USA from Lithuania before the Bolshevik Revolution. Recently, they tried to claim a kind of right of return to post-Soviet Lithuania, granted to former Lithuanians by the new regime, a right which includes citizenship. However, they were turned down because they are Jewish and not, apparently, of Lithuanian extraction. Her husband's family had a long Lithuanian history going back centuries.
I wonder whether this kind of anti-Jewish (Jews as a nationality excuse for exclusion) is common in Russia and the other post-Soviet States e.g. Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine?
Mike B)
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