The Opportunistic Nature of Soviet Jewish Policy

The Jewish policy of the Soviet leadership was inconsistent, cautious, ambivalent, and it was based primarily on practical considerations and specific circumstances. Suspicious, distrustful or wary attitudes towards Jews on the part of non-Jews were widespread throughout the entire Soviet period. However, as a rule, this was not the result of official antisemitism, Russophobia or any ethnophobia in its pure form. Jews were discriminated against in the pre-war period, primarily due to the fierce struggle for political power at the top, and in the post-war period - due to the transition of a significant part of the Jewish diaspora into opposition to the Soviet regime and a continued desire to emigrate. Everyday anti-Semitism came into conflict with the philo-Semitic policies of the leadership; there was no consistency between the intensity of political repression and the extent of Jews’ participation in government. In 1926-1935 (during the all-Union party-state campaign against anti-Semitism, aimed at protecting Jews), Jews were subjected to more repression than in 1948-1953 (during the all-Union party-state campaigns against cosmopolitans and nationalists, directed largely against Jews). At the same time, with the representation of Jews in power structures in 1920-1945 grew, and in 1948-1953 (the “dark years” of Soviet Jews), they remained statistically overrepresented in management and the elite. The author concludes that anti-Semitism was not a principle of Soviet national policy which was not fundamentally anti-Jewish but was fundamentally opportunistic; this policy did not exclude Jews from public life, or from the elite and management of society, but, on the contrary, it had the goal of effectively using the fruits of their human capital in the interests of the state.