Khrushchev Blamed by Diplomats in Moscow for Anti-semitism in Russia

Blame for the anti-Semitic atmosphere now prevailing openly in the Soviet Union is being laid by most foreign diplomats directly to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, according to a report on the situation of the Jews in Russia published in the New York Times today; The report is written by Harrison Salisbury, former Moscow correspondent of the newspaper who Just returned from the Soviet Union where he made an extensive study on the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the country.

Emphasizing that “anti-Semitism is again showing its ugly face” in Russia, especially in the rural areas of the Ukraine and in some parts of Byelorussia and the Moldavian Republic, Mr, Salisbury says:

“Most diplomats (in Moscow) believe a prime factor in the creation of an atmosphere of permissive anti-Semitism is insensitivity on the Jewish question by Premier Khrush-chev. The Soviet leader has frequently discussed Jewish questions and almost invariably has displayed traces, at least, of anti-Semitic prejudices common to the borderland of the Ukraine where he grew up.”

Describing the fear prevailing among Soviet Jews as anti-Semitic actions increase, the New York Times correspondent says that there are no pogroms today in Russia as in the times of the Czar, although the old Czarist slogan “Beat the Jews and save Russia” may be muttered by some hooligans, “Nor are Jews being executed or shipped off to Siberia as in Stalin’s days, ” the correspondent reports.

Nevertheless, the correspondent emphasizes, Jewish fear and suspicion in the Soviet Union are now on the increase because of the revival of anti-Semitism which has been stimulated “by aggressive official propaganda against the Jewish religion, often couched in terms that blur the boundary between anti-religion and anti-Semitism.”

YOUNG COMMUNISTS MOBILIZED TO INTIMIDATE JEWISH COMMUNITIES

Mr. Salisbury reports that neo-Stalinist Young Communist League gangs “have been mobilized to intimidate and browbeat Jewish communities. ” Jews in many places in the Soviet Union are reluctant to have contacts with foreigners or co-religionists because of the reprisals that may be visited upon them by the Government, he established.

Foreign diplomats, the correspondent asserts, believe that the chief motive in the new campaign against Russian Jews is not anti-religiousness but gross nationalism and fear of foreigners. The Soviet regime fears its Jews, partly on the basis of the standard Communist phobia against my non-Communist social group and partly on the fact that Jews have ties with other Jews abroad and have frequently shown “sympathy for and interest in”Israel.

The Soviet regime is considered by foreign diplomats hypersensitive on the Zionist question and is believed to suffer from security qualms because of the sympathy of many of the 3,000,000 Soviet Jews for Jews in other countries. Such feelings were sharpened as a result of the sympathy with Israel displayed by Jews openly in Leningrad and other Soviet cities.

The diplomats point to the fact that the most prominent Jewish victims of recent months have been persons who have had social and cultural contacts with Israeli diplomats; The correspondent emphasized that none of the Israeli activities in such contacts would have caused any reaction in any other country. In Russia, the contacts spurred the Soviet security apparatus to furious activity.

In addition to the arrests, trials and sentences of Jewish religious leaders in Moscow and Leningrad, the correspondent writes, known and respected Jewish leaders in Riga, Kiev, Vilna and Tashkent, among other cities with substantial Jewish communities, have been forced to resign to be replaced by men more pliable to Soviet wishes. The drive to smear Russian Jews by “exposing” them as speculators and absconders was the same as the method used by police and young Communist agents to attack non-conformist youths and liberal writers, Mr; Salisbury stresses.

SOVIET INTELLECTUALS SEEK TO COMBAT ANTI-SEMITIC ELEMENTS

In recent months, the correspondent reports, the embattled Soviet Jews have attracted strong and articulate allies in the Soviet intellectual community. Such persons, he wrote, were actively trying to arouse Russians generally to a feeling of shame and rage at the anti-Semitic stain on the national conscience. He cited the young poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, whom he described as the idol of Soviet youth, as an outstanding example. Also the poet Vladimir Nekrasov, who took a stand similar to Yevtushcnko considerably earlier.

On the plus side, the correspondent reported that dismissal of Jews from posts to exile or execution was no longer occurring as it did during the Stalin era. Moreover. Jewish students, at least in Moscow and Leningrad, seem to have less trouble than before in getting into higher educational institutions; The leading role of Jewish scientists 111 Russia’s spectacular space achievements has won “grudging” recognition in high Government circles.

For all that, the correspondent concluded, “anti-Semitism is still a blot on the Soviet scene.” He cited among other facts the story of Kiev and the nearby gully, called Babi Yar,

where the Nazis marched 75,000 Jewish men, women and children and slaughtered them. He reported that Soviet officials avoid any attention to Babi Yar and that when the Jewish massacres are mentioned, the officials are quick to declare that the Jews were not the only Russians murdered by the Nazis.