Anti-semitism in Russia Leads to Increased Racial Consciousness Among Soviet Jews

Increased anti-Jewish feeling in the Soviet Union ##s resulting in “the revival of militant race consciousness “on the part of the Jews ##ere, it is reported today in the New York Times by Drew Middleton, former Moscow correspondent of the paper, who left Moscow last May.

Ignoring the fact that the German Army, during its occupation of the Ukraine and other parts of the Soviet Union, carried out an intensive anti-Semitic propaganda campaign among the population, the effects of which may be difficult to eradicate for some time, the N.Y. Times correspondent says that “Jews trace the start of the present ###tagonism to the treason trials twelve years ago and point out that Leon Trotsky was Jew and so were many of his followers.”Anti-Semitism, the correspondent states, is met in the streets and is evident in government departments. It flourishes in Moscow but also in Odessa and Kiev. Reports on minor court cases reveal evidence of flourishing anti-Semitism in the poorer ###uarters of the capital. “The Jews” are blamed for shortages of bread or potatoes. ## Kiev widespread discontent over the inadequacy of rations assumed an anti-Semitic suspect. One Russian never passes the pictures of members of the Political Bureau, which are displayed on national holidays, without muttering: “Dirty Jew dogs, you killed my father,” Middleton reports.The report cites a case of two Jewish infantry colonels. “Before the war,” the correspondent relates, “they lived in the same town and worked in the same factory. When they were demobilized and returned to their jobs they learned they were to be transferred to inferior positions in distant parts of the Soviet Union. Wearing the ###edals they had won fighting against the Germans, the two men journeyed to Moscow. After their protest bad been heard, they received Jobs similar to their old ones in towns not far distant from their old homes. But the two friends were no longer to work in the same factory.“Still mystified, they invited their former factory manager out for a drink on their return home. In his cups he said: ‘So you’re moving. A good thing too. You’re good workmen, but we decided on the committee (the local Soviet) there were too many of you Jews in this town and in the factory. So we made a routine complaint.”

Declaring that anti-Semitism is not an announced policy of the Soviet Government,” the correspondent adds that it is, nevertheless, difficult to believe that “such widespread anti-Semitism could exist in so closely controlled a police state if the government did not give its tacit approval.

“Announced or not, it appears to be government policy to reduce the member of Jews in positions of influence in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Moreover, Jews are barred from joining the Ministry even in the most subsidiary positions. Jews cannot now enter the Principal military academies in Moscow. Their number is restricted in the medical and law schools in the university at Kiev and in Moscow University,” the report asserts.