Historian Vasily Rasevich: In the USSR, synagogues were turned into warehouses, and Hebrew was pushed out of everyday life.

The Second World War marked a dark chapter in the history of humanity, while the Holocaust claimed the lives of millions of Jews. However, oppression against them continued even after the war in the USSR. How the Soviet Union suppressed the truth about the Holocaust, why Stalin took a hostile stance towards Israel, and how propaganda depicted Jews and Ukrainians – in an interview with historian Vasily Rasevich for RBC-Ukraine.

After World War II, especially following the proclamation of the State of Israel, anti-Semitism in the USSR reached a state level. Its various forms and manifestations persisted almost until the collapse of the Union. Jews faced discrimination, repression, and persecution. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was dismantled, and intellectuals and artists were targeted.

Even after Stalin's death, Jews were restricted in their access to positions, education, and science based on their nationality. They were not allowed to leave the Soviet Union.

In preparation for war and during the invasion, Russian propaganda aggressively spread false information about the Nazi nature of the modern Ukrainian state and the need for its "denazification." The memory of Holocaust victims was crudely instrumentalized to create a divide between Ukrainians and Jews.

How anti-Semitism manifested in the Soviet Union, how Jews were pushed out of various sectors, and how they were persecuted even in everyday life – RBC-Ukraine discusses with Ph.D. candidate in history Vasily Rasevich.

– How did Soviet policy towards Jews change from the 1920s to the 1980s? Were there periods when it became more or less repressive?

– The policy towards Jews and their status and social role within the Soviet system changed over different periods. Jews were not merely observers but also active participants in the politics of the Soviet Union throughout its existence. Despite all the limitations, the fight against Jews, synagogues, and Zionism as a whole, their social identity often overshadowed their national identity. Nevertheless, they frequently initiated significant changes and were often the primary implementers of those changes.

For many of these individuals, their ethnic background ceased to play a role during Soviet times. However, their Jewish origin remained a marker that set them apart from Ukrainians, Russians, and other Soviet citizens. No matter how much Jews sought to present themselves from an international perspective, they were still often categorized as representatives of the Jewish nation.

After the overthrow of Tsarism and the Bolshevik Revolution, Jewish origin no longer restricted the social mobility of Jews. Previously, Jews had been confined within the "Pale of Settlement," akin to a prison. They were not allowed to live in the core of the Russian Empire: the "Pale of Settlement" primarily encompassed the territory of Right-Bank Ukraine.

The "Pale of Settlement" existed from 1791 until 1915. All restrictions on Jews were finally lifted by the Provisional Government in 1917. The long duration of restrictions on Jews led to a significant number of revolutionaries among them.

At the same time, a very important institution of autocratic Russia – the Orthodox Church – was downgraded in its role. In Tsarist Russia, it effectively served as an ideological institution. After the October Revolution, all religions, including Judaism, were declared "retrograde remnants." National and religious identities were viewed as obstacles to building a "just society of universal equality." The primary criterion became proletarian origin.

Accordingly, in the early days, the percentage of Jews among revolutionaries and Bolsheviks was impressive. Those individuals considered their mission to build a just and equal society as grand.

This also applied to Ukrainian peasants. However, Jews and Ukrainian peasants, for their active participation in the revolution and the establishment of Soviet power, having been swayed by the slogans of the Bolsheviks, suffered greatly. We already know what times followed, including the anti-Jewish campaigns and the tragedies of collectivization and the Holodomor, which deprived Ukrainian peasants of the land they so desired.

It soon became clear during the establishment of Soviet power that such a mega-project of "universal justice and equality" could not be realized. At least not without significant human sacrifices and terror. The policies of the Bolshevik party changed, and internal repressions occurred, affecting Jews as well. Discontent with Jews grew at the grassroots level.

It is believed that the policy towards Jews in the USSR underwent several stages. There was state-level anti-Semitism and everyday Judeophobia. It is also important not to forget the instrumental use of the Jewish topic in the struggle for power within the Bolshevik party. Official anti-Semitism can be said to have emerged in 1939. Although it is commonly believed that it became prominent after World War II when Joseph Stalin's open anti-Jewish paranoia began.

Any manifestations of Jewish identity that transcended Soviet doctrine were ruthlessly suppressed. The reaction to Jewish issues became particularly acute after the establishment of the State of Israel, which Stalin had actually hoped for. The country chose a Western vector of development and refused to be a Soviet satellite.

It is worth remembering that the Soviet Union initially played a significant role in the formation of the State of Israel, facilitating its access to weapons from then-Czechoslovakia and German arms. After Israel turned towards the West, Stalin and the Soviet Union adopted an overtly hostile stance. The USSR began to support Arab countries in various wars against Israel and manipulated the existence of Palestinian autonomy.

Although initially, when voting in the UN, the USSR advocated the idea of the existence of two states – Arab and Jewish. Later, it began to assert that Israel "had become a stronghold of Zionism and American imperialism." That it needed to be either destroyed or significantly limited. Distrust towards Jews within the country grew exponentially. With the strengthening of the Zionist movement, Jews began to be suspected of disloyalty.

Support for Arab countries aimed at destroying the Jewish state became one of the main features of the USSR's policy in the Middle East, followed by the active use of the "Palestinian card" to destabilize the situation. All this was accompanied by an increase in discrimination against Jews in the Soviet Union.

– Why did such extremely negative sentiments towards Jews begin to spread precisely in 1939?

– In September 1939, World War II began. The Soviet Union entered it by invading the territory of sovereign Poland and occupying its eastern territories. This all happened under the pretext that the USSR was extending a "brotherly hand of assistance" to Western Ukrainians, Western Belarusians, and "liberating them from Polish oppression." This was the official version. In reality, we know about the secret addendum to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and we know that Stalin and Hitler divided spheres of influence on the eve of the war when they were allies.

There were even negotiations between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany about what to do with the Jews. Allegedly, the Soviet Union refused to accept a large number of Jews from Polish territory and resettle them in Siberia. However, the number of Jews fleeing the Nazi regime was simply astounding. For example, due to such migration, the population of Lviv in 1939 increased by almost a quarter.

In 1939, after the incorporation of Western Ukrainian lands into the USSR, the Soviet authorities implemented a repressive policy against all officials of the Polish state and all affluent individuals. This category included wealthy Jews. They were arrested, convicted, and deported to Siberia. This was one of the first manifestations of anti-Semitism in the Union.

Both prosperous Jews and Poles became some of the first victims of the Soviet regime and its repressive policies. By aligning its policies with Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union gradually eliminated Jews from the state apparatus.

– Why did Stalin openly persecute Jews in the post-war years? Moreover, the Soviet authorities did not highlight the Holocaust as a tragedy for Jews and even suppressed it.

– This is a very complex question. The main objective in the Soviet Union was to create a new historical community – the "Soviet people." This was to consist of declassed, denationalized individuals. They were to be Soviet patriots with a sense of Soviet superiority over everything national.

The Soviet Ukrainians and Soviet Jews who came to Western Ukraine in 1939 did not feel national solidarity with the local population unless it was class-related. They considered their social identity to be more progressive, viewing those who adhered to certain national traditions and values as individuals who needed enlightenment and re-education.

Initially, there was a Jewish faction "Bund" within the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party. This was liquidated over time, and purges of sorts were conducted. The campaign against the revolutionary leader of Jewish descent, Leon Trotsky, resulted in a decrease in the number of Jews in the party leadership. Despite the movement towards building a "bright future," the policy of creating a new historical community faltered.

As a result of this policy, Jews lost many elements that maintained their national identity. In particular, I have already mentioned the fight against Judaism, which was conducted in a very crude manner