Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Volume IV

501.BD Human Rights/12–247: Airgram

The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Durbrow) to the Secretary of State

restricted

Moscow, December 2, 1947.

A–1285. The Embassy quite regularly hears reports of anti-Semitic manifestations in Soviet society (see despatch No. 1575, August 26¹); but a particularly interesting story of this nature arrived recently through a reliable source who personally knows Messrs. S. Mikhoels and Pfeffer, respectively President and Vice-President of the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee,² who visited the United States some time ago in those capacities. Following is the account these men give of the current state of anti-Jewish feeling in the USSR.

It is now a definite semi-official policy of the Soviet Government to exclude Jews from positions connected with foreigners, military activities, or relations with the masses. This policy includes exclusion of Jews from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the Embassy’s own experience confirms that there has been a sharp drop in the number of Jews in prominent positions of the Ministry during the past 8 years, with Suritz³ now the only notable exception), from the diplomatic school, from the foreign language schools, from the military academies, with a few brilliant exceptions from work connected with atomic energy research, from the position of chairman of Party and Government committees, and from dramatic schools.

Mikhoels and Pfeffer succeeded in obtaining an interview with Molotov to protest against the above policy, and the latter promised that some action would eventually be taken when the Government considered circumstances more favorable for it. Soviet Jews believe that they have some additional hope of support from Politburo Member Lazar Kaganovich,⁴ himself a Jew, who has likewise promised that the Government will act at an appropriate time. They also feel that the death of A. S. Shcherbakov, Politburo alternate, in 1945,⁵ helped their cause, for he had the reputation of being the leader of the anti-Semitic bloc among the top Soviet leaders.

Soviet Jews have reacted to this anti-Semitic policy by becoming more conscious of their status and more actively patriotic to their racial group. They are tending to close ranks, and the membership of Jewish organizations, for example the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, are growing. There is also more interest among Jews in emigration to Birobijian [Birobidzhan],⁶ despite the reports of the hard conditions of life which emanate from there. Within the recent past a group of 2000 Jews has emigrated to Birobijian and another group of 4000 is preparing for departure. The latter includes many members of the Jewish intelligentsia, who for the first time are emigrating on a voluntary basis.

Although Mikhoels and Pfeffer did not mention it, the recent downfall of George F. Aleksandrov,⁷ former head of the Party’s Propaganda Administration may possibly benefit the Jewish cause. At least, Anna Louise Strong,⁸ who has relatively wide contacts among Soviet political circles, mentioned to an Embassy officer that she “had heard” that Aleksandrov was the leader of an anti-Semitic clique.

The Embassy believes that the above stories are essentially accurate and that anti-Semitism has been gradually emerging in the USSR for some time. These and other reports suggest that Soviet officials of other races feel that they cannot trust Jews to be fully devoted to the Communist cause, a belief perhaps linked with Trotsky’s⁹ opposition to the Stalinist line.

Durbrow

1. Not printed.
2. Solomon Mikhailovich Mikhoels was a celebrated Jewish actor and Director of the Yiddish State Theater in Moscow. He was supposed to have been murdered, or killed in a motor car accident, in or near Minsk about January 11 or 12, 1948, while returning from a visit at the home of the poet I. G. Pfeffer. An article in the Washington Post, August 1, 1965, p. M3, reported that in an installment of the memoirs of the writer Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg published in March it was stated that it was well known that Mikhoels had in fact been murdered by the secret police of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beriya, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers in charge of security.
3. Yakov Zakharovich Suritz, Ambassador of the Soviet Union in Brazil until the break of relations on October 20.
4. Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich, First Secretary of the Communist Party in the Ukraine early in 1947; renamed Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union in December.
5. Alexander Sergeyevich Shcherbakov died in Moscow on May 10, 1945. He had been a secretary of the Central and Moscow Central Committees of the Communist Party, and chief of the Main Political Administration of the Red Army.
6. Birobidzhan was founded in 1927 as a Jewish Republic, becoming the Jewish Autonomous oblast in the Khabarovsk kray (region) in 1934. It was established as a place for colonization by Jews, but failed to achieve its purpose because of the miserable conditions prevailing there.
7. Georgy Fedorovich Alexandrov had been chief of the Propaganda and Agitation Administration of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party. His downfall began in August when his History of Western European Philosophy was attacked for its serious ideological distortions. Despite a prompt, public confession of his sins, by September 21, his name did not appear as editor of Culture and Life, and he was replaced in his party position.
8. An American in the Soviet Union who in 1930 had organized and was editor of the English language Moscow Daily News, later becoming the Moscow News.
9. Lev (Leo) Davydovich Trotsky was a prominent Bolshevik leader and associate of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, defeated by Stalin and in foreign exile from 1929 until his murder in Mexico on August 20, 1940.