Glasnost, Perestroika and Antisemitism

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Antisemitism in the Soviet Union is more visible and blatant today than at any time in the past forty years. It draws on both traditional Russian sources as well as sentiments evoked by the current radical changes in Soviet society. The glasnost, or openness, unleashed by President Mikhail Gorbachev has permitted suppressed antisemitic instincts to appear on the public agenda, and perestroika, or economic restructuring, has opened entrepreneurial opportunities that many Soviet citizens view with distrust and identify with Jews. Moreover perestroika has made possible the mobilization of ethnicity by encouraging the formation of grass-roots organizations, many of which are ethnically based. While such organizations in the Baltics, the Ukraine and Moldavia have explicitly condemned antisemitism, a few groups, especially in the Russian republic, have adopted harshly antisemitic platforms.

There are 1.45 million Jews in the Soviet Union. They enjoy more cultural and religious freedom than at any time since 1948, but they also perceive themselves as more vulnerable than at any time since the openly antisemitic campaigns launched by Stalin in that year.

Soviet Jews today see antisemitism emerging mainly from the grass roots, and they are afraid that the various governments in the Soviet domain are unable to curb antisemitic excesses, even if these governments were committed to doing so. Thus, Jews are increasingly choosing to leave the Soviet Union. The Communist Party newspaper, Pravda, pointed out on July 22, 1990, that "Judophobia has become popular among some intellectuals. This unprecedented 'respectability' of antisemitism is especially alarming [and] prompts Jews to emigrate. The fear of pogroms turns into a panic."

II

The existence and extent of antisemitic feelings among Soviet peoples throughout history is difficult to quantify, because only now is it becoming possible to survey freely and objectively Soviet attitudes toward ethnic groups. But historical evidence is clear in showing that antisemitism is deeply rooted in some segments of Soviet society.

The Russian Orthodox church long identified the Jews as the "enemies of Christ," indeed, his killer. Especially when the village priest was the only local resident who could read or write-the situation in much of the Russian countryside until 1918-the influence of the church and its doctrines was great.