Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev has invited Lord Bertrand Russell, the famous British philosopher, to come to the Kremlin to discuss the situation of the Jews in the USSR, according to reports in the Yiddish press here today.
For the last year, there has been an exchange of letters between Russell and Khrushchev, stemming from the British scholar’s concern about frequently published accusations charging the Soviet Government with condoning persecutions against the 8,000,000 Jews in the USSR. In his replies, Khrushev had denied that there is any anti-Semitism in his country.
In one of Russell’s latest letters, he expressed particular criticism against the fact that a high percentage of so-called “economic criminals” convicted in Soviet courts, and given the death sentence, were Jews. Russell had also noted in his letters that the Soviet press, which is strictly controlled by the Communist Party, has consistently highlighted the names of Jews convicted, thereby fanning anti-Semitism.
(At the United Nations, circles close to the problem surrounding anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union expressed doubt today whether such an invitation had, indeed, been sent by Mr. Khrushchev. Last week, in reply to charges of Soviet anti-Semitism voiced in the UN Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the Soviet representative on that subcommission, Boris S. Ivanov, read one of the Khrushchev letters to Russell, denying the existence of anti-Semitism in the USSR.)
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