Rootless cosmopolitan

**Rootless cosmopolitan** (Russian: безродный космополит, romanized: _bezrodnyi kosmopolit_) was a Soviet antisemitic slur accusing Jewish intellectuals of "lacking loyalty to the Soviet Union".

## Overview

The term **rootless cosmopolitan** was common in Soviet propaganda when the "anti-cosmopolitan campaign" took place between 1948 and 1953.

Antisemitic purges and executions were carried out across the USSR and her satellite states. These came at a time of tension between the newly founded State of Israel and the USSR, when Israel began allying with the United States (US).

## Origin

The word was created by Russian writer Vissarion Belinsky (1811 ‒ 1848) to refer to those seen by him as lacking Russian national character.

## Usage

As per historian Cathy S. Gelbin,

Literature professor Margarita Levantovskaya wrote:

#### Persecution of Jews

The persecution of Jews in the USSR intensified under Leonid Brezhnev's rule when Israel defeated the Soviet-armed Arab League in the 1967 Six-Day War. Antisemitic propaganda in the form of "anti-Zionist" broadcasting appeared, such as the film _Secret and Explicit_, which demonized Jews as a malign Zionist cabal based on themes from _The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_. Many of Brezhnev's close advisors, especially Mikhail Suslov, were radical antisemites.

Jewish emigration to Israel or the United States (US) was heavily restricted, often impossible without a special invitation from a relative overseas. Written permission from all close family members was also required, with a low application approval rate. Systemic racism against Jews was widespread.

Boris Kochubievsky, a Ukrainian-Jewish radio engineer, wrote Brezhnev a letter:

Shortly after, Kochubievsky was kidnapped by the KGB into a mental asylum. Almost all Soviet Jews were reportedly affected by the post-1967 wave of antisemitism, In 1969, Soviet propagandist Yuri Ivanov condemned Zionism as a "capitalist imperialist" idea:

#### Denialism

The Soviets denied that their "anti-Zionism" was antisemitic by alleging that many of their "anti-Zionist" officials were Jewish. In the _Great Soviet Encyclopedia_, the World Zionist Organization (WZO) was also accused of "controlling Western media" and "participating in colonialism" worldwide.

In his book _A History of the Jews in the Modern World_, American historian Howard Sachar stated that Soviet "anti-Zionism" was not much different from Nazism:

### 1980s

The persecution did not fade until the 1980s, when Brezhnev reportedly changed course in 1981 by indirectly disapproving of antisemitism at a Communist Party meeting. Despite Brezhnev's reported disapproval of antisemitism, antisemitic propaganda remained widespread in the USSR.

Sometimes, those antisemitic propaganda promoted the false claim of "active WWII Nazi‒Zionist collaboration".

_Pravda_, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, ran an "anti-Zionist" front-page article on April 1, 1983.

### Aftermath

It is estimated that about 2,750,000 Soviet Jews left the USSR between May 9, 1945 and December 26, 1991, with most departing after 1989 when exit control was relaxed.

#### Carol Apollonio

Carol Apollonio, Professor of the Practice of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at Duke University, and president of the North American Dostoevsky Society, commented on the word:

#### Eliot Borenstein

Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University, commented on the word: