Formation of a negative stereotype of the Jewish people

In early February 2010, a report of the so-called Russian Informational Centerl, headed by former State Duma deputy Savelyev. “Russophobia in Russia, 2009.” The report states that the Orthodox man is being “led to an Abyss” by Judaism – not only “to a state of demise,” but to the destruction of all that is holy in man, to the death of the soul.

A number of myths created as part of the White movement and in the Russian immigration, including openly anti-Semitic myths, were published in the infamous two-volume book “A History of Russia. XXth Century,” edited by MGIMO professor Zubov. Thus, the article on the fate of the Jews during the Civil War states that “the Jews made up a great number of the commissars and KGB men, who conducted the Red Terror,” and the KGB Jews “tried to spare their compatriots.” The new edition repeated the old anti-Semitic legend about Jews closing Orthodox churches: “Jews were placed even in positions of control over the Church – in Kyiv, there were the commissars Cohen and Rutgaiser, without whose permission it was prohibited to christen, wed, or bury by the Christian observance,” At the same time, the authors of this two-volume textbook, which is used in a number of Russian Orthodox seminaries, tried to give the number of victims of the Civil War pogroms as at least four times less than it really was, and attempted to diminish the degree of participation in these pogroms of the soldiers and officers of the White Army.
In the blog created by the collective of authors of this book, Zubov renounced criticism of his work, and attempted to diminish the atrocities done by the corpus of General Mamontov during his raid on the Soviet support area in 1919. In his textbook, he also reproduced the anti-Semitic myth that “some Deputy Councils (sovdeps), groups of punitive forces, and counter-terrorism and sabotage committees were up to 3/4 – 4/5 Jewish.” But even he admitted that the majority of Russian Jews did not supprot the Bolsheviks.

The March 2010 elections of the mayor of Moscow-area village gave us an interesting example of the negative use of the image of the Jew. This technology was used here by the opponents of the famous nationalist Alksnis, who ran for the post. At the same time, however, he was also called a Latvian Fascist and Latvian gauleiter, and wrote that the Latvians are genetically bred to hate Russians. One of the most widespread posters read “Stand up for Tuchkovo against foreigners and those of other faiths.” Nonetheless, this propaganda did not stop Alksnis from winning the elections.

State Duma Deputy of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), Alexei Bagaryakov, placed an article on the “Jewish question” on the official CPRF website, where he noted that “the Jews is by nature smart an inventive. However, this is not the only reason they achieve great results in business and the civil service – a great role is played here on the support of their own that it so characteristic of the Jews.” Then the parliamentary lamented that “the Jews are only 2% of the population of the Russian federation, yet they have attained key posts in the state administration, in business, and in the arts.” Bagayakov stated that “the other part of the population, the greater part, first and foremost made up of the indigenous people of Russia – the Russians – are naturally alarmed by this tendency.” But after a scandal in the media began, the article was removed from the website.

A manifest approved at a nationalist meeting in Moscow on April 25th reads that Koptsev, who began slaughter in the synagogue on Bolshaya Bronnaya in 2006. was not planning to kill anyone. He just “allegedly scratched two Jews in the synagogue under very strange circumstances.” Anti-Semitic slogans were also recorded at the rally. The nationalist Kralin even noted in his blog that “those present at the rally were fixated on a speculative 'Judeo-Mason-Zionist' as a Constitutive Other.”

In March-September, the website of the “Orthodox” activist Nazarov, rusidea.org, published his discussion with the moderate Orthodox nationalist Anzimirov. Nazarov repeated the following ideas multiple times: “the anti-Christian character of Judaism,” the preparation of “the kingdom of the Antichrist by the Jews,” the Jews being “people chosen by Satan,” who live by the “man-hateful” book “Shulhan Aruch,” of the ritual crimes allegedly committed by Chasidim. He also stated that the word “anti-Semitism” was allegedly invented by the Jews “to camouflage the true reason for the dislike towards them among all peoples (which is rooted in the hateful religion of Talmudic Judaism and the according behavior of the Jews).” Once again, he stated his thesis that Jews consider themselves to be the only real humans, and that they believe representatives of all other peoples to be mere cattle.

In St.Petersburg, there were openly anti-Semitic slogans on the “Russian March” of November 4, including: “Tolerance is a weapon of global Zionism,” and “Say No to New Khazaria.”

On the 7th of November, an entire group of anti-Semitic slogans was recorded at a rally of the Russian Airborne Troops veterans, aimed against Minister of Defence Serdyukov. The slogans included: “The Khazaria Khaganate shall not pass!” and “Jewish Fascism! There is nothing more frightening today!”

On December 24, the nationalist Krylov published in his Internet media project “Agency of Political News” an article titled “The Talented and Capable.” The article presented an image of an “overabundance” of Jews in culture, who use Russians as “beasts of burden,” those Russians who are always ready for “treason, ready to betray their own.”
One can say about several attempts to create an image of the “Jew-thief,” who steals all he can from Russia. The Chelyabin Internet media portal UralDaily.ru published several articles by chief editor of the website, Koretsky, which were aimed against the Vice Speaker of the Oblast Legislative Assembly, S. Mitelman. These articles stressed especially the nationality of the deputy, who was accused pf numerous transgressions. An article published on the 10th of May ascribed the “ability to make a profit out of everything, abhorring nothing, not being afraid to insult the deepest feelings of the 'goim'” to all Jews. In full adherence to anti-Semitic “logic,” Governor Yurevich, whom Koretsky simply does not like, was also declared a Jew. When Mitelman stated that Koretsky's criticism “stinks of anti-Semitism,”Koretsky proposed a discussion to Mitelman in July 2010, on the “Jews being guilty of the appearance of anti-Semitism.” Koretsky gave the following argument for his point of view (first in Mitelman's blog, then their correspondence was published by several websites): “Jews are dislicted because they always tended to such unsavory businesses as usury. The Jews were always bankers, usurers. Money-changers – they always held comprador businesses, freeloading on people's grief and distress. The Jews always interfered with the economy of the state in which they lived, and dissolved it from the inside.” He also explains the persecution of the Jews by the “deep contempt of the Jews for Christ's teachings.” He also argued an alleged “unbegotten” hate of the Jews towards Russia: “It is with the money from Jewish capital that all revolutions took place in Russia: the revolution of 1905, of February and October of 1917. The greatest Jewish oligarchic families, such as the Rothschilds, always financed both the external and internal enemies of Russia.” Mitelman, however, chose to avoid such a dubious honor, and refused to participate in this discussion.

In polemic with the readers after his last article was published, Koretsky accused the Jews of being ingrates, because they allegedly did not thank the Russians for saving them from Fascism. “37 million Russian lives is mere water to you. It is not Jewish blood, is it? Jews do not value the blood of others,” he wrote on July 11th.

When speaking on the 19th of May at the online press conference in the “Star” magazine, dedicated to the victims of the “Raspadskaya” mine explosion in Kemerovskaya Oblast, the oppositional politician and economis Mihail Delyagin tried to create the impression that the only one of the joint owners was responsible for the death of the miners – the businessman Roman Abramovich. Only after a direct question of one of the participants of the press-conference of the reasons for such an exclusive placement of the blame, Delyagin reluctantly admitted that Abramovich holds only 20% of the stocksm and the other owners of the “Raspadskaya” mine are also responsible.

Sociological polls allow to give more concrete data of those who hold anti-Jewish ethnic stereotypes. According to the VCIOM survey held on May 1-2, 3% said that they have an animosity towards the Jews. This improbably small number shows us only one thing – to openly call oneself an anti-Semite in Russia is the lot of outcasts. To compare, 29% of those surveyed openly admitted that they hold animosity towards natives of the Caucasus.

However, the true percentage of carriers of anti-Semitic phobias can be detected through indirect questions. According to the results of a survey held by the “Bashkirova and Partners” agency, which was published on May 13th, 25% of Russians do not agree to live next to the Jews. This is not the first, but a noticeable place among unwanted neighbors (the first three were held by homosexuals (66%), gypsies (60%), and working migrants (40%)).
According to the VCIOM poll, the results of which were published on August 27th, the question on inter-ethnic marriage gave the following results: 46% of Russians dislike the idea of their relatives marrying Jews. Even though the Jews were behind the Chechens (65%), Arabs (63%), natives of Central Asia (60%), natives of the Caucasus (54%), this number shows a wide dissemination of anti-Semitic phobias in society. Thus, the total number of anti-Semitic phobias can be present in 25-46% of the population. 25% of the populace can be tentatively classified as more “hard” anti-Semites, and another 21% can be classified as “soft” anti-Semites.