Suchergebnisse

"Russia and the Jewish Question explores how perceptions of Jews in late Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union shaped the regimes' policies toward them. It traces the evolving and changing nature of popular and official beliefs about the purported nature of Jews from the late 18th century to the end of the 20th century. Robert Weinberg's examination of the 'Jewish Question' (and by extension anti-Semitism) provides a fruitful way to investigate why and how social, economic, political, and cultural developments in Russia from the time of Catherine the Great led to prejudices and the discriminatory treatment of Russian and Soviet Jews. Weinberg reveals that the 'Jewish Question' -- and by that we mean the sum total of attitudes and perceptions of Jews that reflects the belief that Jews posed a challenge, if not a direct, existential threat, to the well-being of Russians -- emerged at the end of the 18th century when the partitions of Poland made hundreds of thousands of Jews subjects of the Russian crown. Tsarina Elizabeth had expelled Jews from the empire in the 1740s, and tsars and statesmen from the time of Catherine the Great found themselves developing policies to address the presence of Jews, whose numbers grew to almost five million by the turn of the 20th century. The author argues that the phrase itself implies the singular nature of Jews as a group of people whose religion, culture, and occupational make-up prevent them from fitting into the Christian societies in which they lived. He goes on to explain that while the 'Jewish Question' is rooted in the fact that Jews adhered to a religion deemed corrupt and dangerous, it acquired other characteristics as European societies underwent intellectual, political, social, and economic changes from the late 17th century onward. In particular, debates about rights of citizenship, the impact of industrialization, the emergence of the nation-state, and the proliferation of new political ideologies and movements have contributed to the changing nature of the 'Jewish Question'. Its content may have not remained static, but its purpose consistently questions whether or not Jews pose a threat to the stability and well-being of the Christian societies in which they live and this, in a specifically Russian context, is what Robert Weinberg examines here so expertly."--

Prelude to revolution -- A land of contrasts -- Revolutionary politics -- The Revolution of 1905 -- The eve of war and revolution -- 1917 : the year of revolution -- The radicalization of society -- The Bolshevik rise to power -- Views of the Revolution -- The consolidation of Bolshevik rule, 1918-1921 -- The fate of the royal family -- Opposition and criticism -- The embrace of dictatorship -- Peasant resistance and the crisis of Kronstadt -- The road to socialism -- The transformation of culture and society -- Celebrating revolution -- The debate about NEP -- Stalin's revolution from above, 1928-1932 -- Beating Russia into the 20th century -- The war against the peasantry and church -- The world of five-year plans -- Picture essay: Women's liberation in the Soviet Union -- Soviet society and culture in the 1930s -- The cult of Stalin -- The Stalinist revolution -- The Great Terror -- The Gulag -- Three views of the purges -- The trial of Bukharin -- Literature and the purges -- Epilogue -- Assessments of Stalinism -- Reflection on the Soviet experience -- Timeline

In this article, Robert Weinberg explores the visual representation of Judaism and observant Jews in the Soviet journalBezbozhnik u stanka(The atheist at the workbench), which appeared in the 1920s. In their efforts to promote atheism and undermine organized religion, the artists responsible for the images in this journal singled out the Jewish god to be depicted with inhuman, bestial, and bizarre features such as a single eye and a nose made out of a fist. This portrayal of Judaism and religious Jews drew upon the pervasive antisemitic tropes and motifs in Russian culture and society and served to demonize Judaism and its adherents.