Overview

The anti-Semitic turn of the late Stalin years is one of the mysteries of 20th century history. How did a dictatorship with radically left-wing origins come to adopt an approach towards ethnic minorities which is commonly attributed to the extreme right? Matthias Vetter offers an explanation that uses Stalinist general terror against ""foreign nationalities"" and diaspora groups as a frame of reference. Within this logic, the peculiar Soviet variance of Judeophobia can be understood not only in its manifestations under Stalin's rule. The book introduces often overlooked aspects of Soviet minority policies, such as its anti-Gypsyism, initially combated in the same way as anti-Semitism, in order to interpret Stalinist crimes as a form of genocide and as happening within a larger ethnicization of communist xenophobia during the Cold War. What did this transformation mean and did Stalin plan a deportation of all Jews in 1953? This book argues that Jews in the Soviet sphere of influence were regarded and persecuted as quasi-natural agents of the West, especially of America--a form of anti-Semitism that was disguised as ""anti-Zionism,"" yet had little interest in real Zionism. More important than the USSR's stance towards Israel were Moscow's hostile relations with the West and its supposed supporters within the country. The peculiar Soviet variety of Russian ethnophobia continues to have, under changed circumstances, influence on the Kremlin's policies until today.

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9783838221496

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Matthias Vetter (Author) Dr. Matthias Vetter studied Medieval, Modern, and East European History as well as Slavic Languages at the University of Heidelberg. He worked at, among others, the East-West European Cultural and Study Center ""Palais Jalta"" in Frankfurt am Main, for an EU development project in St. Petersburg, and as a consultant for banks in Frankfurt am Main. Vetter is author of Antisemiten und Bolschewiki: Zum Verhältnis von Sowjetsystem und Judenfeindschaft 1917-1939 (1995), and ""Wir bringen den Tyrannen den Tod"" Die russische Exilorganisation NTS im Kampf mit der Sowjetunion (2023) as well as editor of Terroristische Diktaturen im Vergleich: Strukturelemente der nationalsozialistischen und stalinistischen Herrschaft (1996). His articles have appeared in, among others, Der Jugoslawien-Krieg (1999/2007), Handbuch des Antisemitismus (2008-2015), Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung, and Archiv für Sozialgeschichte. Irina Shcherbakova (Foreword by) Irina Shcherbakova is co-founder and board member of the Russian human rights organization ""Memorial"" which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

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