The Soviet Defense Ministry is openly supporting the most extreme journals of conservative opinion in the Soviet Union, which are notorious conduits of anti-Semitic propaganda.
The ministry has issued instructions that thousands of copies of extremist journals be stocked in military establishments, according to the London-based Institute of Jewish Affairs, a joint project of the World Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
The resulting mass subscriptions provide a lease on life for many of these periodicals, which otherwise might pass out of existence.
Under new Soviet law, publications must be self-supporting, which means the subscriptions “become decisive for their survival,” the institute’s report said.
It disclosed that the Soviet army command has ordered 100,000 copies of the literary monthly “Nash Sovremennik.” Another magazine, “Molodaya Gvardiya,” also has been made obligatory.
Both journals espouse the views of conservative nationalists and neo-Stalinists and are outlets for anti-Semitic propaganda.
The report concluded that “conservative Russian nationalist publications are a principal source of anti-Semitism and are being strengthened by the decision of the Soviet Ministry of Defense to support them, a move which must be seen as part of the general conservative backlash in the USSR.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
