Was Stalin an Anti-Semite?

[Comrade Ceausescu]

True?Lies?etc etc

[Ian]

Not sure, but I've heard a number of things that would suggest otherwise.


Just a few I can find on the net at the moment
-Stalin was married to a jewish woman (whether it was his 1st or 2nd marriage I don't know)
-One of the first orders Stalin gave to the Red Army was that Jews who wanted to should be evacuated East into the safety of the Soviet rear, out of the reach of the advancing Nazi army. A considerable portion of the Soviet railroad capacity, which otherwise would have been used to transport troops and material to the front, was allocated for this purpose.
-"Anti-Semitism is dangerous for the toilers, for it is a false track which diverts them from the proper road and leads them into the jungle. Hence, Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable and bitter enemies of anti-Semitism. In the U.S.S.R., anti-Semitism is strictly prosecuted as a phenomenon hostile to the Soviet system. According to the laws of the U.S.S.R. active anti-Semites are punished with death.

Stalin, January 12, 1931, to an inquiry made by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency of America"
(thank you to DyerMaker for providing this quote in another thread)

[Organic Revolution]

but he also had a plot to kill the jews before he died

[Ian]

I doubt it... I've never heard any sources except for one book which I'm told is quite unsubstantiated.

[Xvall]

"National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of
the period of cannibalism. Anti-semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the
most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.

Anti-semitism is of advantage to the exploiters as a lightning conductor that deflects the
blows aimed by the working people at capitalism. Anti-semitism is dangerous for the
working people as being a false path that leads them off the right road and lands them in
the jungle. Hence Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be
irreconcilable, sworn enemies of anti-semitism.

In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a
phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites
are liable to the death penalty."

J. Stalin
January 12, 1931

[Cassius Clay]

Good to see that people no longer buy that particular lie against Stalin.

And he had no plan to 'Kill the Jews' before he died. If Uncle Joe were to turn up all of sudden today he'd be a rich man with all the money he could get from taking every media outlet out there to the cleaners.

[The Children of the Revolution]

Maybe not specifically anti-semitic; but Stalin was certainly anti-religion. Russian Orthadoxy was used by Stalin to promote the "Great Patriotic War" (WW2), but was then attacked quite ruthlessly. Minority religions were also attacked, in the border states such as Kazakhstan.

And I think one must take Stalin&#39;s writings with more than a pinch of salt&#33;&#33;&#33; He was, after all, the initiator of the mass purges of the 1930&#39;s... I wouldn&#39;t put anything past the rotter&#33;&#33;&#33; <_<

[Cassius Clay]

Yeah that Stalin what a rotter, fighting against religion which has we all know kept the masses so enformed, enlightened and in all and all a life of prosperity for the last thousand years. Hurry up the local Taliban are sending over a group to go and fight against that tyrant Stalin and those godless Bolsheviks who want a stupid thing like women&#39;s rights through education and the ending of patriachy.

And I&#39;m sure Stalin just said it because he was lying right? It&#39;s not like Stalin fought against anti-semitism in numerous examples is it? And there wasn;t a Jewish Autonomous Republic set up where Jewish culture and history was after centuries of Tsarist tyranny aloud and promoted for the first time?

[synthesis]

I think one of the main reasons that the myth of an anti-Semitic Stalin arose is because many non-Stalinist Leftists seek to discredit the claim of the Racialist Right that Stalin was a Jewish creation. Although he was not, it is helpful for Fascists and Nazis to claim that his purpose was to further the prosperity of the Jewish "race."

I used to claim that Stalin was an anti-Semite. This is ridiculous, and although I am not a Stalinist, I will now step up to defend his legacy from the ridiculous Fascist lies still circulating about him rather than retreating from the accusation that I had something personally to do with Stalin&#39;s actions.

[Xvall]

I don&#39;t even particularly like Stalin, but he was no more anti-religious than I am. If Stalin wanted to kill the Jews, he would have. I&#39;m pretty sure it would be more apparent if he was actually anti-semetic, in that he particularly hated jews. Most people that claim Stalin was anti-semetic are Nazis. Stragely enough, these are the same people that claim that Stalin was a tool of the jews. Am I the only person who notices this? That Nazis tend to claim that jews are both greedy, money-mongering devils and communists? Illogical. Like I said; I don&#39;t care for Stalin. But a lot of these claims are just rediculous.

[Abiyot]

Hello everybody&#33;&#33;&#33; Was reading your posts. Interesting points. Most of the posts seem to agree that Stalin was not an anti-semite. Anti-semitism is racist discourse and set of practices. No Marxist can ba an anti-semite and a Marxist at the same. This would be a contradiction. An oxymoron?

Marxism, as science, as practice is inherently emancipatory and stands against all forms of oppression and prejudice. Was it, Bebel, who termed a particular strand of antisemitism, "the socialism of fools" :) . Historically in Europe, it is Right wing :angry: political philosophies and movements that have combined a vacuous kind of populistic political program and policies with anti semitism. Marxism and movements informed by a Marxian world view have never been and can never be, racist and/or anti-semitic.

Again, these accusations against Stalin, are part and parcel of the campaign to defame him and his record and in the process ultimately defame, destroy the whole project of "socialism". This project has been in existence for a long time and it will continue I guess.

By the way, how many of you have read or heard of Slavoj Zizek? I heard about him a year or so ago, and right now I am reading a collection of his essays, entitled, "DID SOMEBODY SAY TOTALITARIANSIM?". Zizek is difficult to read and comprehend but reading him is a must. In so far we are on Stalin&#39;s legacy, he writes here, ",,, task is to confront the radical ambiguity of Stalinist ideology which even at its most &#39;totalitarian&#39; still exudes an emancipatory potential." (Zizek, 2001:131). The book also discusses the post-45 interpretations of anti-semitism and their consequences, at the level of thought and practice.