a-singular-canadian:

returnofthejudai:

mariusgaaazzh:

antisemitism in the Soviet Union: shit no one talks about

There is a tendency on tumblr to romanticize Communism. If you think Communism is the answer to the world’s problems, fine. But white-washing the evil done by Communist governments is not necessary for that process. Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, these men were responsible for the deaths of millions of people who lived in their respective countries. 

The USSR was brutally anti-semitic. Stalin had plans to ship all the Jews off to Siberia, but died before the plan could be implemented. He and his successors banned Jews from joining the Party, banned Jewish institutions both religious and secular, prevented Jews from holding positions of importance in academia for fear of Jewish influence, blamed Jews through euphemisms like “Rootless Cosmopolitans” and “Zionists” for any and all problems the Soviet Union had, routinely encouraged, allowed and ignored attacks on Jewish citizens, executed Jews for trying to preserve their culture or advocate for better treatment, and when Jews demanded to leave, they found that the doors were slammed in their faces. 

I’m tired of people trying to erase this history because it’s inconvenient for their political beliefs. If you are a communist, if you believe that communism is the solution to global economic and political strife, then learn from the people who did evil in its name and do better. Don’t live in denial. Refusing to learn from the actions of others is dooming yourself to repeat them. That’s basic history, folks. The Soviet Union treated Jews as “unpersons” at best. The campaign to rescue Soviet Jews was incredibly active in the 1980s. We are forgetting recent history. Do better.

Hey! University of Toronto actually teaches a course on Jews in the Soviet Union (primarily surrounding the holocaust but It did definitely cover afterwards too) and I took it last year as I primarily study Jewish populations in Eastern Europ.e

If anyone wants sources to read up on about this topic may I recommend:

A Century of Ambivalence by Zvi Y. Gitelman

Soviet and Kosher by Anna Shternshis

Stalin’s Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

by Joshua Rubenstein (Editor), Mr. Vladimir P. Naumov (Editor), Ms. Laura Esther Wolfson (Translator)

Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution by Richard Stites

Becoming Soviet Jews: The Bolshevik Experiment in Minsk

by Elissa Bemporad

Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics: The Jewish Sections of the CPSU, 1917-1930 by Zvi Y. Gitelman 

Doctors’ Plot of 1953 First edition by 

Yakov

Rapoport  

For other readings that are just critical on the Soviet Union/Communism in general, may I recommend:

The Gulag Archipelago

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (Author), Bruce Sterling (Foreword), Natasha Randall (Translator)

Cement 

by Fyodor Vasilievich Gladkov (Author), A. S. Arthur (Translator), C. Ashleigh (Translator)

As I always say when I talk about these things; It isn’t wrong to dream of a world where everyone is equal and we work towards common goals and provide for everyone. When you use the word communism and even socialism, however, it’s best to be aware of the history that they carry, the destruction they wrought, and the lives they continue to effect. This goes twice as much for minority groups living in these areas at these times.