“Russian March” in St. Petersburg, 2009. Photo: ITAR-TASS / Vadim Zhernov.
Russian nationalism made itself known during the perestroika years, and antisemitism immediately became one of its significant characteristics. It was almost impossible to find a Russian nationalist who was not antisemitic. Therefore, in the books of the “Panorama” center about the formation, ideology, and internal dynamics of Russian nationalism, little attention was paid to antisemitism: there was no point in stating the obvious. The publication was prepared by the media project “Country and the World – Sakharov Review” (telegram of the project – “Country and the World”). This article continues the series of publications on Russian nationalism, started here, here, and here.
Late USSR
Ideological constructs of post-Soviet antisemitism and its main trends began to take shape even during perestroika and even earlier. By the 1990s, they had largely solidified, and since then, there have been few changes. For example, by then all major texts of Holocaust deniers had been translated, published, and retold numerous times. There was not much new to invent. A lot has been written about the ideological constructs of Russian antisemites (mostly by Viktor Shnirelman). “Soviet antisemitism tried not to contradict the prevailing internationalist ideology of that time. Therefore, nationalists wrote not about ‘Jews,’ but about ‘Zionists.’ This substitution held for quite some time, and now we can observe it not only in Russia. It allowed smoothing disagreements with internationalism and emphasizing the place of ‘Zionism’ as an agent of ‘imperialism’ (both words in quotes were used in a specific Soviet sense). Some nationalists viewed the connection of these concepts differently: perhaps, on the contrary, ‘imperialism,’ that is, liberal-capitalist West, is an agent of ‘Zionism’? Then we have the long-known scheme of the world Jewish conspiracy. In Soviet times, it was underground, and in the post-Soviet era, it became popular in Russian nationalism and beyond.”
The emergence of “Memory” on the political scene slightly preceded the winding down of Soviet state antisemitism. Changing attitudes towards Jews became one of the early perestroika reforms, albeit not declared. Since then, the Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin authorities could be considered more philosemitic. Of course, in all these periods, there were rare occurrences of antisemitism at the official level. This sharp change in the policy of the central government turned any antisemitic views into oppositional. Therefore, nationalists loyal to the authorities started (and still do) to avoid antisemitism. On the contrary, oppositional nationalists may find antisemitism attractive as it mobilizes supporters. In the first post-Soviet decades, Russian nationalism was predominantly oppositional, and there was no motive to avoid antisemitism.
Antisemitic Nineties
One variation of the theory of the world Jewish conspiracy is traditional Orthodox speculation dating back to “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” In the 1990s, it was developed in detailed books by several authors – Metropolitan Ioann of St. Petersburg in co-authorship with his assistant Konstantin Dushenov (the latter possibly being the main author), Oleg Platonov, Mikhail Nazarov, Yuri Vorobyevsky, and others. At the same time, neo-pagan antisemitism was developing, where Orthodoxy was seen as a Jewish corruption of the Slavic soul. Here, there were various viewpoints, from relying solely on “authentic” Slavic sources like the “Book of Veles” to inheriting Nazi mysticism with different hybrid variations. Not in the least religious late Soviet society and the post-Soviet one emerging from it saw secular antisemitism, limited to ideas of Jewish secret and obvious powers behind the West, its mythologized secret structures (such as the Roman Club), and very real global institutions like the IMF and the World Bank. They were deliberately harming and have harmed Russia. Sinister plans of enemies like the famous “Dulles Plan” were linked to Jews.
This secular antisemitism was largely a conceptualization of protest against the emergence of capitalism in Russia, influenced by the West, a visible percentage of Jews among the first generation of major bankers served as clear evidence to many of the direct connection between Jewish influence and capitalism with the socio-economic problems and difficulties brought about by the transitional period. One of the main antisemites of the 1990s, General-Communist Albert Makashov, insisted that he called “zhids” not Jews but simply bad people. However, by calling all major capitalists “zhid-bloodsuckers,” he added that “four-fifths are Jews by nationality.” Religious antisemitism views events in Russia and the world as a significantly mystical process, where Jews play a key negative role. Secular antisemitism tried to build a kind of social theory that also attributes a negative role to Jews – if not the main one, then at least a significant one. Such a theory was devised as early as the early 1980s by mathematician-dissident Igor Shafarevich. He reinterpreted the idea of the “small nation,” a small community whose goals and way of life contradict the goals and way of life of the nation as a whole, which emerged after the French Revolution, in his own way.
“The ‘small nation’ of Russia,” according to Shafarevich, whose book on the subject only gained wide recognition in the early 1990s, is the liberal intelligentsia. And Jews are a community nourishing the malevolent ‘small nation’ and intersecting significantly with it in composition. Essentially, Makashov understood antisemitism in a very similar way. Only in his case, the “small nation” consisted of capitalists and the collapse of the USSR.与此同时，新异教徒主义反犹太主义也在发展，将东正教视为犹太对斯拉夫灵魂的腐化。在这里有各种观点，从仅依靠“真正的”斯拉夫文献来源，如“维莱斯之书”，到继承纳粹神秘主义，具有不同的混合形式。 这种世俗反犹太主义在很大程度上是对俄罗斯资本主义的兴起的的一种概念化抗议，它受到了西方的影响，第一代主要银行家中有相当比例的犹太人成为许多人认为犹太影响和资本主义之间直接联系的明显证据，有关抗议活动的犹太秘密和明显权力的想法。它牵强地与俄罗斯有害和会伤害的全球性机构如国际货币基金组织和世界银行联系在一起。当然，他们故意有害和对俄罗斯有害。他们将犹太人与许多对俄罗斯造成的社会经济问题和困难联系在一起。过渡时期。 二十世纪九十 – 犹太人被指控成为资本主义的因涌长，由此而来的众多关于敌人如著名的“达勒斯计划”的谋杀计划。 这种世俗反犹太主义在很大程度上是对俄罗斯资本主义的兴起的的一种概念化抗议，它受到了西方的影响，第一代主要银行家中有相当比例的犹太人成为许多人认为犹太影响和资本主义之间直接联系的明显证据，有关抗议活动的犹太秘密和明显权力的想法。它牵强地与俄罗斯有害和会伤害的全球性机构如国际货币基金组织和世界银行联系在一起。当然，他们故意有害和对俄罗斯有害。他们将犹太人与许多对俄罗斯造成的社会经济问题和困难联系在一起。过渡时期。
其中，1990年代是世俗主义反犹太主义的兴起：
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