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, at p.865.

Literature professor Margarita Levantovskaya wrote:

Antisemitism in the Soviet Union

1960s

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,Joseph Dunner. Anti-Jewish discrimination since the end of World War II. Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: A World Survey. Vol. 1. Willem A. Veenhoven and Winifred Crum Ewing (Editors). Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. 1975. Hague. , ; pages 69-82 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:Caution: Zionism! Essays on the Ideology, Organisation and Practice of Zionism

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.Source:  Большая советская энциклопедия / Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. 1969–1978; translation.The third edition of the thirty-volume Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Большая Советская энциклопедия, БСЭ) claims the following:
 "The main posits of modern Zionism are militant chauvinism, racism, anti-Communism and anti-Sovietism"
 "The anti-human reactionary essence of Zionism" is "overt and covert fight against freedom movements and against the USSR"
 "International Zionist Organization owns major financial funds, partly through Jewish monopolists and partly collected by Jewish mandatory charities", it also "influences or controls significant part of media agencies and outlets in the West"
 "Serving as the front squad of colonialism and neo-colonialism, international Zionism actively participates in the fight against national liberation movements of the peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America"
 "A natural and objective assimilation process of Jews is growing around the world."

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:Howard Sachar, A History of the Jews in the Modern World (New York: Knopf, 2005) p.722

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. "The CPSU [Communist Party of the Soviet Union] has fought and will always fight resolutely against such phenomena [inter-ethnic tensions] which are alien to the nature of socialism as chauvinism or nationalism, against any nationalistic aberrations such as, let us say, anti-Semitism or Zionism. We are against tendencies aimed at artificial erosion of national characteristics [. ...] the sacred duty of the party [is] to educate the working people in the spirit of Soviet patriotism and socialist internationalism, of a proud feeling of belonging to a single great Soviet motherland."

  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.

Academic views

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:

References

Category:Slurs
Category:Cold War
Category:Communism
Category:Soviet Union
Category:Joseph Stalin
Category:Antisemitism in Europe