Interior Minister Decries Rumors of ‘Pogrom’ : Anti-Semitism Wave Worries Soviet Jews

Anonymous posters and handbills have appeared here demanding “Death to Jews,” and members of Moscow’s Jewish community are worried that they are facing an outburst of violent anti-Semitism.

Tension has risen so sharply that some Jewish parents are keeping their children home from school, families living in remote suburbs have moved into the city and young men in the Jewish community have assumed “defense responsibilities.”

Several minor incidents, mostly bullying and name-calling in addition to the handbills, have added to fears that anti-Semitic attacks are being planned by ultra-nationalist Russians during the current observance of the 1,000th anniversary of Christianity in Russia.

“When we might move from the ugly to the dangerous is hard to say, but we are all very much on edge,” an active member of the Jewish community said Thursday. “Anti-Semitism is a part of daily life for us, but things of this type are truly frightening.”

In a country where, under the czars, the organized massacre of hundreds and thousands of Jews--the pogroms--came at moments of great political tension, it seemed to some Jews that history might repeat itself during the current political infighting here.

As a result of the threats, the government has opened an investigation, according to officials, and additional police patrols have been ordered to prevent such attacks.

Interior Minister Alexander V. Vlasov has described the rumors of a “Jewish pogrom” as intended to cause panic and to incite a revolt against the political, economic and social reforms planned by the Soviet leadership.

Received Assurances

Several representatives of the Jewish community, accompanied by foreign lawyers taking part in a meeting here this week of the International Bar Assn., outlined their concerns to Justice Ministry officials and received an assurance of full government efforts to prevent any resurgence of anti-Semitism.

“We are aware that attacks upon Jews are a part--an ugly part--of our history, and we will do everything we can to stop them,” a government official said.

The poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, writing this week in the newspaper Moscow News, accused opponents of the reforms of “invisibly blessing anti-Semitic outbursts” for their own political purposes.

Leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church, aware of its history of anti-Semitism but committed to religious tolerance, have condemned the apparent resurgence of anti-Semitism and said it would spoil the atmosphere for celebrating the church’s anniversary.

The main cause of concern is a political tract widely distributed in the city’s subway and railroad stations and pasted in a larger format on the walls of workers’ clubs and meeting halls. It denounces Jews for their “penetration” of Russian life and calls for their removal, “one way or the other,” from Russian society.

Signed by an unknown group calling itself “Death to the Yids Organization,” it demands “Russia for the Russians.

“Comrades! Russian patriots! How long can we put up with the dirty Jews brazenly penetrating our entire society, especially in the best places?” the tract says. “How can we accept that the dirty ones have made our wonderful nation into a Jewish mob of sorts?

“Why should we--outstanding, intelligent, beautiful Slavs--consider Jews among us to be a normal phenomenon? And why should Jewish cattle be able to acquire Russian surnames and put down Russian as their nationality as do these dirty, stinking Jews, hiding under such heroic and proud names as Russians?”

Members of the Jewish community cite several recent incidents in warning of the danger posed by such attitudes:

-- About two weeks ago, a crowd of youths gathered outside a Moscow physicians’ residence where a number of Jews live and shouted, “Soon we will be coming to kill you.” This went on for an hour, until police dispersed them.

-- A middle-aged Jewish couple, traveling in the evening on the Moscow subway, were harassed last weekend by a group of eight youths who followed them virtually to their apartment door shouting anti-Semitic slogans.

-- Three junior high school students were sent home from school this week after what one mother described as “rather nasty incidents” of anti-Semitic name-calling. “The teachers wanted a cooling-off period while they tried to explain to the other children what is wrong with calling other people ‘dirty Yids’ and ‘stinking Hebes,’ ” the mother said.

-- Graves at a Jewish cemetery were desecrated, and the Moscow News reported that two drunks, both Communist Party members, were responsible.

“Anti-Semitism is always in the air here,” Yuri Zeiman, a Jew who has been refused permission to emigrate, told newsmen this week. “Although there have been no pogroms for a long time, the people are always ready.”

Another refusenik said that anti-Semitism is an interwoven theme of Russian history, particularly church history, and that the nationalism encouraged by the church celebration could be enough to “ignite those old emotions.”

Although the bullying can be blamed on what is called “hooliganism” here, the posters, handbills and longer tracts, all widely distributed, are being attributed to an organization known as Pamyat, a small group of strongly nationalistic Russians. Pamyat has already been warned by the police that its anti-Semitic statements and publications violate Soviet law.

Pamyat--the word means memory--extols not only the greatness of Russian culture and history but also of the Slavic people as “a race blessed above all others.”

Meanwhile, Jews wishing to emigrate complained that Soviet policies appear to be shifting again.

Several families who said they were told before the Soviet-American summit meeting here last week that they would be allowed to leave soon have been informed this week that they will have to wait longer, perhaps a year.