Moscow Says Zionism Means Espionage for United States

In a report from Moscow today, passed by the Soviet censor, the New York Times reveals the Communist Party has issued instructions to its political workers and propagandists to define Zionism as “a reactionary nationalist trend of the Jewish bourgeoisie” that acts as “a faithful agency of American imperialism” and engages in “carrying out espionage and subversive activities for the benefit of United States imperialists.”

The definition was published in Agitators Notebook, a bi-weekly pamphlet of the Communist Party, that is issued primarily for political workers and contains authoritative statements of the party position on questions of the day. The statements serve as a text for some 45,000 Communist party political workers active in the Moscow region, according to figures presented recently at a plenary meeting of the Moscow city party organization, the N. Y. Times emphasizes.

The comment on Zionism was inspired by the treason trial in Prague of Rudolf Slansky and thirteen others, reports of which were carried in considerable detail in the Soviet press. The significance of the comment on Zionism lay not in its criticism of the Zionist movement, since the Communist party has always been strongly opposed to Zionism, but in its firm identification of Zionism with United States “imperialism” and “subversion,” the Moscow correspondent points out.

Agitators Notebook declared that “after the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionists who seized power there were transforming the country into an American military base, a stronghold of reaction in the Near East.” It added that Soviet policy firmly discourages manifestations of anti-Semitism on the part of the Soviet populace. At the same time, it is equally opposed to any manifestations of “Jewish nationalism.” The Soviet’s position is that its aim is a multinational state in which Jews, like any other group, have a proper and correct place, the Notebook said.