Communism -- Soviet Union; Goldman, Emma, 1869-1940; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921 -- Personal narratives, American
Some of the younger set held a different view. The Bolshevik régime
had resulted in increased hatred toward the Jews, they said, for the
masses were under the impression that most of the Communists were Jews.
Communism stood for forcible tax-collection, punitive expeditions, and
the Tcheka. Popular opposition to the Communists therefore expressed
itself in the hatred of the whole Jewish race. Thus Bolshevik tyranny
had added fuel to the latent anti-Semitism of the Ukraina. Moreover,
to prove that they were not discriminating in favour of the Jews, the
Bolsheviki had gone to the other extreme and frequently arrested and
punished Jews for things that the Gentiles could do with impunity. The
Bolsheviki also fostered and endowed cultural work in the south in
the Ukrainian language, while at the same time they discouraged such
efforts in the Jewish language. It was true that the _Kulturliga_ was
still permitted to exist, but its work was hampered at every step.
In short, the Bolsheviki permitted the Jews to live, but only in a
physical sense. Culturally, they were condemned to death. The _Yevkom_
(Jewish Communist Section) was receiving, of course, every advantage
and support from the Government, but then its mission was to carry the
gospel of the proletarian dictatorship to the Jews of the Ukraina.
It was significant that the _Yevkom_ was more anti-Semitic than the
Ukrainians themselves. If it had the power it would pogrom every
non-Communist Jewish organization and destroy all Jewish educational
efforts. This young element emphasized that they did not favour the
overthrow of the Bolshevik Government; but they could not support it,
either.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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