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Certain ultra-nationalist groups, benefiting from the blind eye which the
legal authorities turn toward them, have managed to achieve significant goals,
especially in the dissemination of their ideas to the public and in maintaining a
quasi-public structure. With the growth of a wealthy class of Jews, an
anti-Semitic atmosphere has begun to invade the new Russian political and economic
élites. The extent of anti-Semitic activity was somewhat moderated in 1997
compared to the years 1993-96. Nevertheless, in the course of the year, clear
expressions of nationalist and anti-Semitism on the part of opposition, especially
communist, leaders multiplied. Russia's law enforcement agencies did little in
practice to deal with racist and anti-Semitic manifestations, revealing a lack of
determination to deal with the problem.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
As of the beginning of 1998, the Jewish population of the Russian Federation
numbered 470,000, largely concentrated in Moscow (170,000) and St. Petersburg
(80,000). In other large cities in Russia -- Samara, Nizhny-Novgorod, Novosibirsk,
Yekaterinburg -- there were about 55,000 Jews, and in the rest of Russia about
156,000, including six thousand in the Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan.
The Jewish population of Russia is decreasing at the rate of about 40,000 per
year, with some 16,000 going to Israel, 11,000 to Western countries and 12,000 in
negative population growth. Since mass emigration began in 1989, the Jewish
population in Russia has diminished by about 425,000, of whom 232,000 went to
Israel.
Organized Jewish activity in Russia is undergoing an extended process of change
due to the reduction in numbers; demographic changes within the Jewish population
(increased assimilation, aging) which impinge upon the methods and the content of
these activities; and the poverty of Jews in provincial towns, which prevents this
population from enjoying organized Jewish activities, except those concerned with
charity.
There are 196 Jewish organizations, institutions and religious communities in
Russia, including 109 educational foundations and Jewish schools serving 6,800
youngsters. Forty-six of these institutions are in Moscow, 25 in St. Petersburg,
and another 75 are scattered throughout the Russian Federation. Russian Jewish
organizations publish 18 newspapers and journals, the main ones being the
International Jewish Gazette (Moscow) and My People (St. Petersburg). The majority
of Jewish communities and organizations belong to a number of umbrella
organizations, such as the Russian Jewish Congress (REK) and the Federation of
Jewish Organizations and Communities (Va'ad).
EXTREME NATIONALIST ORGANIZATIONS AND GROUPS
In 1997, as in the previous years, ultra-nationalist political organizations, most
of whose ideologies include anti-Semitism as a central element, continued their
extensive and aggressive activities. In parallel, following the creation of a
wealthy class of Jews, integrated into the political, economic and media élite, an
anti-Semitic atmosphere, whether ideological or as a cover for political and
economic struggles, began to invade the new Russian élites, who claimed that it
was necessary to oppose foreign influence in areas vital to the future of the
state. Thus, in the course of 1997, clear expressions of nationalism and
anti-Semitism by opposition, especially communist, leaders multiplied, and were
echoed by the heads of the Russian security and information services. Connections
were strengthened between the leaders of economic and political élites and the
heads of extremist nationalist political organizations. These organizations are
funded by Russian economic and financial institutions, which vie with their Jewish
counterparts for a larger slice of the public economic pie.
It should be stressed that the few democratic political forces still to be found
in Russia, as well as the liberal press, have chosen not to discuss these
developments, In fact, within the last year they have undergone a change, with the
adoption of a nationalistic, and sometimes even anti-Semitic, ideology, although
one that is muted and concealed.
The Russian national political camp numbered, as of early 1998, 82 parties and
political organizations, most of them small. The larger of them are to be found
in the cities of central Russia, in the Urals, Siberia, southern Russia, and
close to the northern Caucasus. Thirteen of these organizations have openly
adopted fascist symbols, gestures and ideology: the swastika as part of their
logo, black uniforms, marking dates of importance in the Third Reich and
incorporating the fundamental racial principles of the Nazis.
Some of these organizations have trained and armed "self-defense" units -- the
Black Shirts of Pamyat, the Russian National Legion of the Russian National
Republican Party (RNPR), the Russian Guard of the Russian Party (RP), and the
units of Russian National Unity (RNE), a Nazi group which took part in the attempt
to overthrow the government on October 3-4, 1993, in Moscow, together with other
anti-government forces. These units disguise their operations behind the facade of
security and guard services, and sports and youth clubs, a fact known to the
government, which turns a blind eye and even cooperates with them in many areas.
These groups openly publish and distribute about 169 regular publications, with a
circulation of approximately 930,000 copies. They also publish books, pamphlets
and leaflets, often with Nazi content: Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion, translations of German Nazi material and current Western neo-Nazi
publications. The latter appear in hundreds of thousands of copies throughout
Russia and in the Russian-speaking areas of the FSU.
ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES
The extent of anti-Semitic activity, both against persons and property, was
somewhat moderated in 1997 in comparison to the years 1993-96. A number of Jewish
figures were physically assaulted, including Valentin Osotski, the literary critic
and researcher of anti-Semitic movements, in July, and three Moscow yeshiva
students in May. These attacks were of a clearly anti-Semitic nature.
In addition, bombs exploded near synagogues in Buinaksk (Dagestan), in February,
and Perm in July, and a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Jewish school in Nalchik,
in January 1998. Swastikas and insults were also scrawled on Jewish graves in
several cemeteries: Ribinsk, in March, Smolensk, in April, Arkhangelsk, in August;
and Kurgan and Malakhovka in September.
Demonstrations and marches by members of nationalist organizations, waving banners
with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slogans, occurred throughout Russia, including
the placing of a Nazi flag on the roof of the opera house in Novosibirsk in
November.
In most of these cases, the authorities failed to identify the perpetrators, often
trying to describe the attack as hooliganism, not anti-Semitism, and even accusing
the Jews themselves, with the claim that the attack stemmed from internal
commercial rivalry.
In about 40 suits against dissemination of anti-Semitic propaganda, generally of
material which appeared in the mass media belonging to nationalist organizations,
the courts ruled in favor of the defendants, or suspended the trial indefinitely.
RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM
The government has ample resources to enforce the laws on racism and
anti-Semitism, including specific laws against the establishment of an
organization and against racial incitement. Moreover, in the past three years,
laws and provisions explicitly against fascism and neo-Nazism have been adopted.
(see ASW 1996/7).
In spite of the fact that Russian law enforcement agencies have available
sufficient laws, regulations and decrees empowering them to fight racist and
anti-Semitic propaganda, paramilitary Nazi-like units and vandalism of Jewish
sites, they did very little in practice in the course of 1997, revealing a lack
of determination to deal with the problem.
The Department of Justice began to centralize the activities of the sub-committee
dealing with the struggle against political extremism established by presidential
decree on October 27, 1997, and headed by the minister of justice, with the head
of the Federal Security Services, the interior minister, and others. Under
pressure from this committee, the Department of Justice denied official
recognition of the RNE, the leading neo-Nazi movement in Russia, in its attempt to
be registered as a federal organization. It also revoked the registration of
branches in several Russian cities (Yekaterinbug, Sakhalin).
On the other hand, the Ministry of the Interior cooperated with RNE branches in
many Russian cities (Moscow, Vladiimir, Kuban, Kostroma, Ivanovo), as members
of this group had infiltrated the municipal apparatus for maintaining law and
order. Moreover, provincial governors, who constitute the highest governmental
authority in their provinces (the Far East, Volgorgrad, Kuban), officially
recognized the activities of nationalistic and anti-Semitic organizations and, on
occasion themselves used xenophobic and anti-Semitic expressions.
For the third time in the last two years, a law against manifestations of fascism
identical in content to the presidential decree of March 23, 1995, which is
without legal force, was rejected by a majority -- mainly, Communists and Liberal
Democrats -- of the Russian parliament on March 21, 1997.
In the course of the last two years, several leaders of the Russian security
forces made public their view that Jewish citizens of Russia were not loyal to
their country and constituted an easy and natural target for recruitment by the
Israeli intelligence services which, presumably, worked through Jewish
organizations in Russia. Letting this view be known gave official weight to a
similar claim made by the opposition parties which regard the Jews as a foreign
body willing to work against the homeland.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the blatant anti-Semitism of the Russian
Orthodox Church has been intensified, expressed during public and political
discussions of such subjects as the broadcast policies of the Jewish-owned TV
station NTV, and the claim that the Jews murdered the last tsar of Russia,
Nicolas II, in 1918 as a religious act.
All this has taken place against a background of heightened nationalism and
anti-Westernism -- which, for Russians, includes Israel -- openly expressed by
intellectuals and political figures with influence on government decision making,
the mass media and the general public.
A large-scale public opinion poll taken in October, 1997, revealed that over 6
percent of the adult population (about 6.5 million people) were in favor of the
ideas of extreme nationalists, for example, the RNE. They represented a youthful
population (19-35), of high income and education, living in the major cities. It
should be recalled that in the last parliamentary elections, in 1995, over a
million voters chose representatives of the extremist movements, which failed to
get into parliament only because they were divided by personal and ideological
differences.
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