Thousands of Anti-Zionists Stage May Day Marches in Soviet Union

Thousands of demonstrators holding aloft anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist signs were highly visible participants in May Day marches Wednesday, both in Leningrad and Moscow.

The marchers accused Soviet leaders of favoring Jews over Russians.

Demonstrators also claimed that Zionists killed Pamyat leader Konstantin Smirnov-Ostashvili, who reportedly committed suicide last week while serving a two-year sentence in a labor camp for his role in the anti-Semitic attack on a Moscow writers club in January 1990.

Pamyat was the main sponsor of the protests, which in Leningrad lasted several hours. The ultranationalist group was assisted in organizing the marches by Yedinstvo and the United Workers Front, similar nationalist groups.

Among the posters held aloft in Leningrad was one that read "Soviet Army, save us from Judeo-Bolshevik butchers." In that parade, such posters were seen from the beginning of the march.

In Moscow, where one sign called for no ties with "fascist, racist Israel," nationalists began demonstrating toward the end of the parade.

Such manifestations "do not surprise us," said Myrna Shinbaum, director of the Soviet Jewry desk of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. Still, they "highly concern us," she said.

Martin Wenick, executive director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, said that both the Moscow and Leningrad incidents are "reflective of the fact that these (anti-Semitic) groups are still active. While not necessarily large in numbers, they are troubling and create an environment which is threatening to the Jewish community."

LENINGRAD AN ANTI-ZIONIST ‘HOTBED’

Shinbaum remarked that "Leningrad particularly has become a hotbed of anti-Zionist activities, especially during the Gulf War."

She noted that these demonstrations illustrate the "latent anti-Semitic sentiment that has existed in the Soviet Union for decades and which is becoming more prevalent today."

"Nationalist groups see Zionism and Jews as the greatest evil to ever befall the Russian Republic," she said.

The rallies show a strange alignment between ultranationalist groups, which are generally anti-Communist, and Communist conservatives, who often profess a similar anti-Jewish sentiment.

Anti-Semitic marchers carried pictures of Joseph Stalin, who was responsible for wholesale purges against Jews.

"It’s disturbing that these demonstrations continue to take place," Shinbaum said. "But it’s equally disturbing that people don’t speak out and deplore them."

Shinbaum pointed out as "the main problem" the fact that "there’s been no counteraction in the Soviet Union."

Neither the mayor of Leningrad, Anatoly Sobchak, nor his Moscow counterpart, Gavril Popov, publicly denounced the demonstrations, she remarked.

Popov, who had been scheduled to appear at the march, reportedly decided not to attend at the urging of Democratic Russia, the pro-democracy movement of which he is a leader.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and others in the Communist Party’s upper echelons left the Moscow reviewing stand when confronted by marchers who waved Lithuanian flags, a crucifix and placards calling for overthrow of the Communists.