Pravda Editorial on Anti-semitism Seen As Sign of USSR Sensitivity

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is showing greater sensitivity to foreign criticism of the USSR’s policy of denying full cultural and religious freedoms to Russia’s 3,000,000 Jews than it has in decades, American experts on the situation of Soviet Jewry declared here today. They based their opinion on a number of recent statements condemning anti-Semitism made by high authorities of the USSR. They cited especially a front-page editorial in Pravda, official organ of the Communist Party of the USSR, which became available in full translation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this weekend. The editorial specifically attributed to Lenin an outright denunciation of anti-Semitism.

Near the end of the long editorial, entitled “Leninist Friendship of Peoples,” devoted in general to the theme that close ties among the “more than 100 nationalities and peoples” in the USSR are necessary for achievement of “the goal of building a Communist society,” Pravda stated:

“V. I. Lenin, the great creator of the Communist Party, and founder of the Soviet State, bequeathed to our party the sacred observance of the friendship of the USSR peoples. He came down wrathfully upon any manifestation whatever of nationalism and, in particular, he demanded an untiring struggle against anti-Semitism, this disgusting blowing-up of the racial peculiarities and national hostility produced by the exploiter classes.”

EARLIER ADMISSION BY KOSYGIN NOTED; EDITORIAL SEEN AS COMMUNIST DIRECTIVE

Pravda’s editorial, which appeared a week ago, was not the first recent occasion upon which highest Soviet authorities admitted the existence of anti-Semitism — a fact always denied by the Kremlin — it was pointed out here today. It was noted that, less than two months ago, such a concession was made by Alexei N. Kosygin, chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers. In a speech in Riga, Mr. Kosygin had referred to “the remnants of anti-Semitism.” Reported fully in Pravda on July 19, the Kosygin address, including his reference to Soviet anti-Semitism as a current phenomenon, has been reprinted widely in many of the Communist Party’s regional and local newspapers around the USSR.

But even the Kosygin speech has not received the wide circulation inside the USSR given to the Pravda editorial. During the week that has passed since Pravda carried the editorial, the New York Times reported from Moscow yesterday, it was “being reprinted in provincial newspapers throughout the country.” “Such a wide distribution,” the Times stated, “presumably prompted by central directive, is ordinarily reserved for major pronouncements on ideological topics judged of particular importance by Soviet Leaders.”

The Pravda editorial, it was emphasized here today, not only admitted the existence of anti-Semitism in general, but touched obliquely on various specific phases of Soviet Jewish life that have been subjected to criticisms abroad. It referred to the need for “economic rapprochement” among the many ethnic groups in the Soviet Union, thus pointing to economic discriminations against Jewish and other minority groups in the USSR. It called for “mutual cultural ties among the peoples of the USSR,” contending that such links “are growing stronger.” The editorial was interpreted as referring to the situation of the Jewish minority among others in the Soviet Union by stating:

“The program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union demands that we “continue consistently applying the principles of internationalism in the field of national relations; strengthen the friendship of peoples as one of the most important gains of socialism; conduct an uncompromising struggle against manifestations and survivals of any kind of nationalism and chauvinism, against trends of national narrow-mindedness and exclusiveness.

“Any manifestations of national setting-apart are intolerable in the training and employment of personnel of various nationalities in the Soviet republics. Our Party, a Party of consistent internationalist, is guided unswervingly by the Leninist ideas of friendship of peoples. It is necessary to conduct the education of the working people even more energetically in the spirit of Socialist internationalism, equality and mutual respect. The Party organizations must demonstrate by concrete examples the great significance of the friendship of Soviet peoples and the development of their mutual aid.

“The task is to continue to follow a course of comprehensive development of the economy and culture of all Soviet nations, a course of their close cooperation under the banner of Leninist friendship of peoples,” the editorial concluded.

TIMING SEEN LINKED TO NEXT WEEK’S OPENING OF ‘ETERNAL LIGHT VIGIL’

The timing of the Pravda editorial, coming on top of the recent Kosygin admission that “remnants” of anti-Semitism still exist in the USSR, was a subject of careful analysis here. There was a belief that these manifestations of official Soviet sensitivity to the criticism abroad may be tied to the fact that, a week from today, the most impressive American Jewish reaction to Soviet anti-Semitism ever undertaken in this country will be broadcast to the world from Washington, where many thousands of Jews will inaugurate a week-long Eter nal Light Vigil on behalf of Soviet Jewry.

It was emphasized that the Voice of America has been broadcasting news about the forthcoming Vigil to listeners in the Soviet Union, leading to the belief that the USSR Communist Party was trying, through the Pravda editorial, to discount the Vigil’s effects in advance among Soviet peoples. The real test of the Kremlin’s intentions to reverse the course of Soviet anti-Semitism, however, must be judged by whatever concrete actions may follow in the near future regarding the situation of Soviet Jewry, experts here pointed out.