Soviet Anti-Zionism was a doctrine promulgated in the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
during the course of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, and intensified after the 1967 Six Day War. It was officially sponsored by the Department of propaganda of the
Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling and only legal political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the...
and by the
KGBThe KGB was the national security agency of the USSR. From 1954 until 1991, the Committee for State Security was the Communist state's premier secret police, internal security, and espionage organization, whose coat of arms—the Shield and the Sword—illustrate a national military hierarchy...
. It alleged that
ZionismZionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine. The area was the Jewish Biblical homeland, called the Land of Israel...
was a form of
racismRacism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment...
and sometimes argued that Zionists were similar to
NazisNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
. The Soviet Union was officially opposed to racism of any kind, and therefore Zionologists stated that they were not
anti-SemiticAntisemitism is prejudice against or hostility towards Jews, often rooted in hatred of their ethnic background, culture, or religion....
or racist themselves.
Background
Zionology was presented as a socio-political science, but there is little if any evidence that the Zionologists ever complied with the
scientific methodScientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific...
. In line with the official Soviet anti-
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
and anti-
WesternThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
policies (which were the result of the Cold War), they frequently recycled older anti-Semitic libels while attempting to place them in a
Marxist-LeninistMarxism-Leninism is a communist ideological stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency among the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted as the ideological foundation of the Communist International during Stalin's era....
context.
ZionismZionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine. The area was the Jewish Biblical homeland, called the Land of Israel...
, the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to
ZionZion is a term that most often designates the Land of Israel and its capital, Jerusalem. The word is found in texts dating back almost three millennia...
and their
self-determinationSelf-determination is defined as free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion; and especially as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status. In other words, it is the right of the people of a nation to decide how they want to be governed...
there, was misrepresented by Zionologists because Israel had allied itself with the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the Cold War. In his 1969 book
Beware! Zionism, leading Zionologist
Yuri IvanovYuri Ivanov is a Bulgarian footballer who plays right defender for Spartak Varna as a defender.He had previously played for Vihren Sandanski and Lokomotiv Mezdra....
defined it as the "ideology of loosely linked organizations and political practice of Jewish
bourgeoisieHistorically, the bourgeoisie were a social class of people, characterized by their ownership of capital and the related culture. They were a part of the middle or merchant classes of European feudalism, where their power came from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from those...
, fused with monopolistic spheres in the USA. Zionism sets off militant
chauvinismChauvinism, , in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a blind belief in national superiority and glory. By extension it has come to include an extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of any group to which one belongs, especially when the...
and
anti-CommunismAnti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism, especially Marxism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the growing popularity of the communist movement, and took on many forms during the 20th century....
."
Because the Soviet Union followed communist ideology - which proclaims the universal equality of all human beings - Soviet authorities were officially opposed to all forms of racism and anti-Semitism. Anti-Zionism and Zionology were non-racist oppositions to a Jewish state in Israel. Zionologist arguments were often tied to the Nazi State, who had attempted to build their Aryan race state originally through the exclusion of others.
Soviet leaders insisted that Zionology was not anti-Semitic. As proof, they pointed to the fact that several notable Zionologists were ethnic
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s who were supposed to represent an expert opinion. Many - including some within the Soviet Union itself - argued that Zionology exhibited anti-Semitic themes. In November 1975, the leading Soviet historian and academic M. Korostovtsev wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Central Committee,
Mikhail SuslovMikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman, Marxist-Leninist political theorist and ideologist, and a member of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...
, regarding the book
The Encroaching Counter Revolution by
Vladimir BegunVladimir Begun was one of the leading Zionologists in the Soviet Union.One of his controversial books, The Encroaching Counter Revolution, caused protests worldwide. In November 1975, the leading Soviet historian, academic M...
: "...it perceptibly stirs up
anti-SemitismAntisemitism is prejudice against or hostility towards Jews, often rooted in hatred of their ethnic background, culture, or religion....
under the flag of
anti-ZionismAnti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism, and a term which has been used to describe several very different religious and political points of view, both historically and in current debates. All these points of view have in common some form of opposition to Zionism, but their diversity of motivation...
."
Some Zionology books, "exposing"
ZionismZionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine. The area was the Jewish Biblical homeland, called the Land of Israel...
and
JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
, were included in the mandatory reading list for military and police personnel, students, teachers and Communist Party members and were mass published.
The third edition of the thirty-volume
Great Soviet EncyclopediaThe Great Soviet Encyclopedia is one of the largest and most comprehensive encyclopedias in Russian, issued by the Soviet state from 1926 to 1990.-Editions:There were three editions...
(Большая Советская энциклопедия, БСЭ), published in 1969-1978, qualifies Zionism as racism and makes the following assertions:
- "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,
Howard SacharHoward Morley Sachar is an American historian and an author. His writings have been published in six languages.Born in St. Louis, Missouri, and reared in Champaign, Illinois, Howard Sachar received his undergraduate education at Swarthmore College and took his M.A. and Ph.D...
describes the atmosphere of the Soviet "anti-Zionist" campaign in the wake of the
Six-Day WarThe Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 was a war between the Israel army and the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the...
:
"In late July 1967, Moscow launched an unprecedented propaganda campaign against Zionism as a "world threat." Defeat was attributed not to tiny Israel alone, but to an "all-powerful international force." ... In its flagrant vulgarity, the new propaganda assault soon achieved Nazi-era characteristics. The Soviet public was saturated with racist canards. Extracts from Trofim Kichko's notorious 1963 volume, Judaism Without Embellishment, were extensively republished in the Soviet media. Yuri Ivanov's Beware: Zionism, a book essentially replicated The Protocols of the Elders of ZionThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an anti-Semitic literary forgery, a political hoax and a piece of plagiarism, with a complex publication history....
, was given nationwide coverage."
Paul Johnson and other historians argue that November 10, 1975 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 that labelled "Zionism" as "
racismRacism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment...
" was orchestrated by the USSR. It was rescinded by the Resolution 4686 in December 1991, which coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Another recurring Zionology theme was the allegation of secret ties between the Nazis and the Zionist leadership. The thesis of 1982 doctoral dissertation of
Mahmoud AbbasMahmoud Abbas , also known by the kunya Abu Mazen , has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah ticket.Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally...
, a co-founder of
FatahNot to be confused with Fatah Revolutionary Council also known as Abu Nidal OrganizationFataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the center-left of the spectrum...
and one of the leaders of the
Palestine Liberation OrganizationThe Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization founded in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," by over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed observer status at the United...
who earned his Ph.D. in history at the Oriental College in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
, was "The Secret Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement".
http://www.wymaninstitute.org/articles/2003-06-contradictions.php,
http://hnn.us/articles/1414.html
Sources
- http://www.ukar.org/kichko01.htm Judaism Without Embellishments by Trofim K. Kichko, published by the Ukrainian
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
Academy of Sciences, 1963
- Quote: "It is in the teachings of Judaism, in the Old Testament, and in the Talmud, that the Israeli militarists find inspiration for their inhuman deeds, racist theories, and expansionist designs..."
- A worldwide outcry forced the Communist Party's Ideological Commission to acknowledge in April 1964 that the book "might be interpreted in the spirit of antisemitism." But on January 20, 1968, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) Pravda Ukrainy gave notice that the Supreme Council of the CPU has awarded Kichko with a diploma of honor. His other book, Judaism and Zionism (1968), spoke of "chauvinistic idea of God chosenness of the Jewish people... and the idea of ruling over other people of the world"
- The Encroaching Counter Revolution by Vladimir Begun, Minsk
Minsk is the capital and largest city in Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Niamiha rivers. Minsk is also a headquarters of the Commonwealth of Independent States . As the national capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is also the administrative centre of Minsk...
, 1974
- Alleges that the Torah is an "unsurpassed textbook of bloodthirstiness and hypocrisy, treachery, perfidy and vile licentiousness"
- Zionism in the service of Anti-Communism by V.V. Bolshakov
- Contains accusations of Zionists of having "served Hitler’s Fifth Column in order to establish Nazi German domination of the world."
- Beware! Zionism, by Yury Ivanov, Evgeniy Evseev, 1969.
- The text in Russian on a Russian ultra-nationalist website.
See also
- Anti-Zionist committee of the Soviet public
On March 29, 1983, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has approved the resolution 101/62ГС to "Support the proposition of the Department of Propaganda of the Central Committee and the KGB USSR about the creation of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the...
- History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union
- Jackson-Vanik amendment
The Jackson-Vanik amendment is contained in Title IV of the 1974 Trade Act and is named after its major co-sponsors, Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson and Rep. Charles Vanik...
- Rootless cosmopolitan
Rootless cosmopolitan was a Soviet euphemism widely used during Joseph Stalin's antisemitic campaign of 1949–1953, which culminated in the "exposure" of the alleged Doctors' plot...
- Doctors' plot
The Doctors' plot was an alleged conspiracy to eliminate the leadership of the Soviet Union by means of a number of identified doctors poisoning top leadership...
External links