Behind the Headlines: Hate Tracts Sold Openly in Russia with No Legal Means to Prevent It

On cold days in Moscow, passersby ducking the icy wind can choose from a wide variety of anti-Semitic material on sale in the pedestrian underpass below Pushkin Square.

With names like Russky Vestnik (Russian Courier), Russkoye Vozrozhdeniya (Russian Revival) and Dyen (Day), the crudely printed broadsheets, costing about a penny each, are laid out on the pavement by their vendors.

In St. Petersburg, too, the purveyors of anti-Semitic hate sheets operate openly right in the middle of town, on the sidewalks of Nevski Prospekt, the main thoroughfare of Russia’s second largest city.

The open sale of anti-Semitic material in Russia’s largest cities is a blemish on the country’s embryonic democracy that progressive forces are trying to erase. But they face practical and legal obstacles.

“In the present chaotic environment, anything can be printed,” said Valery Fadeev, a Moscow city councilman and chairman of the council’s Human Rights Committee.

Fadeev has been working to combat anti-Semitic agitation on the national level with legislators in the Congress of People’s Deputies, among them Sergei Kovalyov, head of the parliament’s Human Rights Commission.

“The existing law is defective,” Fadeev, an ethnic Russian, said in an interview. He was referring to the Soviet-era law that still governs, Article 74 of the Russian Criminal Code. “In general, it’s written too narrowly, and it requires proof of intent, which is difficult to do,” he explained.

“For example, you have a hate sheet which talks about the role of Jews and Freemasons in Russian history. On the surface, it’s a historical discussion, not an incitement,” said Fadeev.

“On the other hand, it could be seen as an `insult to national self-respect,’ which is also prohibited under the current law. But even here, what’s an insult? It’s too subjective,” he said.

Fadeev’s example is far from theoretical. A recent article in the far-right Sovietskaya Rossiya by a leading Russian clergyman attacked the murderers of Jesus as forerunners of 20th century Bolsheviks. Nowhere in the article was the word “Jew” mentioned, but from the context the author was clearly referring to Jews.

“The authors of these tracts know the letter of the law, and the smart ones stay inside it,” said Fadeev.

A draft law that Fadeev’s committee has submitted to the national parliament would improve the chances for successful prosecution.

The proposed law, which is backed by the Russian Interior Ministry, public prosecutor and the Ministry of Press and Mass Media, would prohibit “hurting an ethnic group’s sense of dignity.”

That phrase would cover “dissemination of information about a national group which causes a negative impression,” wrote Georgi Ponomarev, a Moscow city prosecutor who helped draft the law.

Fadeev hopes the bill will be considered by the Russian parliament next spring.

But other administrative changes are also needed to combat the hate tracts, he said. “Most of these sheets are produced by groups that have no official status, and the papers themselves aren’t registered” with the press ministry, as required.

“It’s much harder to fight because the papers have no masthead identifying their publishers — that’s deliberate — and the vendors can say they’re just peddling them for profit — they don’t know who printed them,” said Fadeev.

His committee has proposed changes to the ministry’s rules that would expressly forbid distribution of unregistered periodicals.

Fadeev is keenly aware of the dangers to free speech posed by the changes he and others are seeking. “The issue is how to determine what to suppress without limiting free expression, and we have no clear answer,” he said.

Even if successful in changing the law, implementation will be a major challenge.

“Our prosecutors really don’t pay attention to this problem, because they think it just isn’t important, and the cop on the beat doesn’t care either,” Fadeev complained.

There are also bureaucratic and financial impediments.

“The press ministry says it doesn’t have a budget for tracking down hate sheet printers. The Interior Ministry has a budget, but jurisdiction is with the ex- KGB,” now called the Ministry for State Security, said Fadeev.

The councilman does not think that the hate vendors will be closed down any time soon. “It’s too bad because opinion polls show that show that only a small percentage of Russians have strong anti-Jewish views,” he said.

“Most negative feelings are directed against Gypsies and people from the Caucasus, such as Azerbaijanis and Armenians,” he said, assertions born out by polls conducted here in 1990 and 1992 for the American Jewish Committee.

“Yet the number of publications directed against Jews is much higher than against those groups. It’s more organized,” he sighed, “and very difficult to stop.”