From Ethnophobia to Anti-Semitism

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.