Political Anti-Semitism in Post-Soviet Russia

Anti-Semitism was a major feature of both late Tsarist and Stalinist as well as neo-Stalinist Russian politics. What does this legacy entail for the emergence of post-Soviet politics? What are the sources, ideologies, permutations, and expressions of anti-Semitism in recent Russian political life? Who are the main protagonists and what is their impact on society?This book shows that anti-Semitism is alive and well in contemporary Russia, in general, and in her political life, in particular. The study focuses on anti-Semitism in political groups, mass media and religious organizations from the break-up of the Soviet Union until shortly before the elections to the fourth post-Soviet State Duma which saw the entry of a major new nationalist grouping, Rodina (Motherland), into the Russian parliament. The author analyzes various justifications for anti-Semitism, its manifestations and its ups and downs during this period. The book chronicles Russian federal and regional elections, which served as a reality check for the ultra-nationalists. Several sections are devoted to the role of anti-Semitism in political associations, including marginal neo-Nazi groups, mainstream nationalist parties, and the successor organizations of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. A special section covers the financial sources for post-Soviet anti-Semitic publications. The author considers anti-Semitism within a wider context of religious and ethnic intolerance in Russian society. Likhachev, as a result, compiles a Who is Who of Russian political anti-Semitism. His book will serve as a reliable compendium and obligatory starting point for future research on post-Soviet xenophobia and ultra-nationalist politics.

Autorentext

The author: Vyacheslav Likhachev holds a Master's degree from the Jewish University in Moscow. He taught Jewish studies at Moscow State University and the Kyiv Mohyla Academy, and worked as a researcher for the Panorama Centre, Anti-Defamation League, and Moscow Bureau for Human Rights. Likhachev is the author of numerous scholarly papers and newspaper articles on the Russian extreme right as well of Natsizm v Rossii (Nazism in Russia, 2002). He has been editor for the bulletin Antisemitizm i ksenofobiya v Rossiyskoy Federatsii (Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia in the Russian Federation) and journal Evrei Evrazii (Jews of Eurasia), as well as of a two-volume study of Russkoe Natsional'noe Edinstvo (Russian National Unity, 2005). He currently serves as editor for the Evroaziatskiy evreiskiy ezhegodnik (Euro-Asian Jewish Yearbook) and a history program on the Ukrainian Inter TV Channel.The translator and editor: Eugene Veklerov, PhD, is a mathematician born in Russia. He has been with the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1977.