Antisemitism in the Soviet Union

In 1922, the Bolsheviks won the Russian Civil War and set up the Soviet Union (USSR). The USSR succeeded the Russian Empire, which had a centuries-old history of antisemitism, including repeated pogroms. Antisemitism persisted in the USSR, fluctuating throughout the Cold War. The persecution of Jews in the USSR lasted until the union ceased to exist on December 26, 1991.

## Under Joseph Stalin (1922–1953)

Between 1922 and 1953, Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) was the leader of the USSR. Stalin launched state campaigns to persecute Soviet Jews. Soviet Jews of professional backgrounds, especially writers, were accused of having "bourgeois Western influences" from 1946 onwards.

### Anti-cosmopolitan campaign

Soviet state propaganda emphasized the imagined harm posed by the so-called rootless cosmopolitans (Russian: безродный космополит, romanized: _bezrodnyi kosmopolit_) with whom Soviet Jews were accused of being associated. The propaganda backed up the "anti-cosmopolitan campaign" between 1948 and 1953, which involved antisemitic purges and executions across the USSR and her satellite states.

The persecution peaked in the Doctors' Plot when Stalin falsely accused Jewish doctors of planning to poison the Soviet leaders based on a medieval antisemitic trope. 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).

Historian Cathy S. Gelbin wrote:

Literature professor Margarita Levantovskaya wrote:

### Soviet occupation zone in Germany

Such antisemitic policies extended to the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, which later formed the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (German: _Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR)_), commonly known as the East Germany. American historian Norman Naimark noted that Soviet governors showed a "growing obsession" with the presence of Jews in the military government.

East German Jews who opposed Soviet communism were classed as having "non-Aryan background lined up with the bourgeois parties". The policies continued under Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971), who ruled the USSR between 1953 and 1964.

## Under Leonid Brezhnev (1964–1982)

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 stereotypes 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" construct:

In the _Great Soviet Encyclopedia_, the World Zionist Organization (WZO) was 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:

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".

## Late Cold War

_Pravda_ (CPSU's official newspaper) 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.

## Related pages

- Khazar myth
- Soviet persecution of Poles during World War II