Russian Intellectual Antisemitism in the Post Communist Era

by Rossman, Vadim; Monas, Sidney

• ISBN13: 9780803239487
• ISBN10: 0803239483
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

Antisemitism has had a long and complex history in Russian intellectual life and has revived in the post-Communist era. In their concept of the identity of the Jewish people, many academics and other thinkers in Russia continue to cast Jews in a negative or ambivalent role. An inherent rivalry exists between "Russia" and "the Jews" because Russians have often viewed themselves-whether through the lens of atheistic communism or that of the most conservative elements of the Orthodox Church-as a chosen people whose destiny is to lead the way to world salvation. In this book, Vadim Rossman presents the foundations and present influence of intellectual antisemitism in Russia. He examines the antisemitic roots of some major trends in Russian intellectual thought that emerged in earlier decades of the twentieth century and are still significant in the post-Communist era: neo-Eurasianism, Eurasian historiography, National Bolshevism, neo-Slavophilism, National Orthodoxy, and various forms of racism. Such extreme right-wing ideology continues to appeal to a certain segment of the Russian population and seems unlikely to disappear soon. Rossman confronts and challenges a range of disturbing, sometimes contradictory, but often quite sophisticated antisemitic ideas posed by Russian sociologists, historians, philosophers, theologians, political analysts, anthropologists, and literary critics.

Author Biography

Vadim Rossman is an independent scholar who lives in Austin, Texas. Sidney Monas is a professor emeritus of Slavic languages and history at the University of Texas at Austin.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Preface	x
Introduction	1	(3)
Russian Antisemitism in a Changing Political Context (1987-1997)	4	(5)
The Varieties of Antisemitic Ideologies	9	(5)
Sources of Contemporary Russian Antisemitism: Political, Economic, and Cultural	14	(9)
Neo-Eurasianism: Leviathan, Behemoth, and the Jews	23	(49)
The ``Jewish Question'' in Classical Eurasianism	26	(12)
The Jews in Neo-Eurasianism	38	(34)
Antisemitism in Eurasian Historiography: The Case of Lev Gumilev	72	(29)
The Jews in Ethnic History	72	(6)
Judeo-Khazaria: ``A Disaster for the Aboriginals of Eastern Europe''	78	(11)
The Reception of Gumilev's Theory by Russian Nationalists	89	(12)
National Bolshevism: The Secret Nature of Capitalism and the Economic Reforms	101	(42)
``Holders of the Controlling Share of World Stocks''	104	(5)
International Jewish Financial Sharks in the Troubled Waters of Perestroika	109	(5)
The ``New Russians'' = Jews	114	(10)
Rewriting the History of the CPSU: Jews and the Communist Idea	124	(5)
``Zionism and Nazism are Twins''	129	(2)
Conclusion	131	(12)
Neo-Slavophiles: Trotsky, Rothschild, and the Soul of Russia	143	(52)
The Jewish Commissars: The Myth of the Judeo-Bolshevik Conspiracy Revised	145	(8)
The Commissars and the Bankers: The Trotsky-Rothschild Alliance	153	(5)
Totalitarian Brotherhood of Capitalism and Socialism and their Jewish Roots	158	(8)
Russophobia, the ``Little People'' and the Russian-Jewish Intelligentsia	166	(6)
The Jewish-Masonic Conspiracy Rediscovered	172	(2)
Russian Writers and Russian-speaking Writers: Linguistic Mysticism	174	(4)
Georgii Gachev: The Anatomy of the Jewish Soul	178	(4)
Conclusion	182	(13)
National Orthodoxy: ``Two Millennia of Religious War''	195	(61)
The Russian Orthodox Church and the Jews	196	(6)
The Russian Religio-Philosophical Renaissance	202	(18)
Contemporary Orthodox Hardliners: ``The Mystery of Iniquity in Action''	220	(19)
Conclusion	239	(17)
Community of Blood: The Aryan Myth Modernized	256	(25)
In Search of Forgotten Ancestors: Hyperborea versus Atlantis	260	(2)
Biopolitics of Race: Jewish Intrigues against the Russian Genetic Pool	262	(3)
Aryan Science and Semitic Science	265	(1)
Christian, All Too Christian: Jewish Christianity versus Russian Paganism	266	(5)
Jews at the Root of Social Problems	271	(3)
Conclusion	274	(7)
Conclusion: The Invisible Hand and the Secret Hand	281	(9)
Assumptions in Political Philosophy	282	(3)
Assumptions about History	285	(1)
Assumptions in Moral Philosophy	286	(4)
Bibliography	290	(11)
Index	301