Stalin's Anti-Semitism

Paper Summary:

The paper explores why Stalin hated the Jews during his rule and shows how his anti-semitism was a reflection of his overall scheme to remake a homogenous Russia. The paper discusses how there were extreme shifts in Stalin's policy with regard to anti-Semitism, but his overall actions were based upon political and ideological needs specific to the context. The paper explains that his particular fear of Jews was as a result of their success in the world, just as it was feared by most of the Western world and played out in many examples of anti-Semitic policy.

From the Paper:

"The era of Stalin's dominance in Russia is often marked with covert actions, as many of his actions were guised in secrecy, yet many years of open regard for the history of his bloody reign have offered many ideas about the nature of his political thought as it played out upon the population of Russia and in particular Russian nationalism. One issue that has been regarded as particularly interesting is the depletion of Russian Jews and their organizations, which in retrospect demonstrates a similar character to that of the Nazi genocide of the Jews during WWII."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Barbusse, Henri. Stalin: A New World Seen through One Man. Translated by Holland, Vyvyan. New York: Macmillan, 1935.
• Brustein, William I. Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe before the Holocaust. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Byrnes, Robert F. "The Climax of Stalinism, 1950-1953" Annals of the American Acedemy of Political and Social Science, 313 (May 1958), 8-11.
• Kostyrchenko, Gennadi. Out of the Red Shadows: Anti-Semitism in Stalin's Russia. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995.
• Lumer, Hyman. "3 Excerpts -- Lenin on the Jewish Question, 1974, International Publishers, New York," In Anti-Semitism and Zionism: Selected Marxist Writings. Edited by Rubin, Daniel, 19-81. New York: International Publishers, 1987.

More papers on Stalin's Anti-Semitism:

• Research Paper # 49746 : "Anti-Semitism"
• Analytical Essay # 47582 : "Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism"
• Essay # 66185 : "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"

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