Moscow museum puts Lenin's Jewish roots on display

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: AP

MOSCOW (AP) -- For the first time ever, ordinary Russians can now see documents that appear to confirm long-standing rumors that Vladimir Lenin had Jewish heritage.

In a country long plagued by anti-Semitism, such heritage can be a significant taint, especially for the founder of the Soviet Union who is still revered by many elderly Russians.

Among dozens of newly released documents on display at the State History Museum is a letter written by Lenin's eldest sister, Anna Ulyanova, saying that their maternal grandfather was a Ukrainian Jew who converted to Christianity to escape the Pale of Settlement and gain access to higher education.

"He came from a poor Jewish family and was, according to his baptismal certificate, the son of Moses Blank, a native of (the western Ukrainian city of) Zhitomir," Ulyanova wrote in a 1932 letter to Josef Stalin, who succeeded Lenin after his death in 1924.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_LENINS_SECRETS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Behind the Aegis]

1. I fail to see the major importance of this item.

[boppers]

3. Notorious anti-semite was a Jewish descendant.

You fail to see how this could be considered important?

[inna]

4. "notorious anti-semite"? - whaa?

[boppers]

5. My bad. I was thinking of later socialist/communist leaders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Russia

Lenin spoke against *general* anti-semitism, but also against Zionism, Stalin exemplified anti-semitism... it's a complex thing.

edit: Lenin didn't believe in Israel

[izquierdista]

14. Important correction

Lenin didn't believe in religion. Any religion. That would also include states founded on religion (i.e. Israel). It's disingenuous to call their anti-religious fervor anti-semitism....it's a complex thing.

[socialist_n_TN]

18. ALL the old Bolsheviks were against the foundation

of a "Jewish" state, even though MANY OF THEM WERE OF JEWISH ETHNIC BACKGROUND. As you said, religion was one of the FIRST ways that the capitalists divided the working class and a state founded on religious principles would have been divisive of the world wide working class and, consequently, anti Marxist.

Trotsky was full Jewish (mother and father and ancestors) and he was against a Jewish state. Not really THAT complicated. :) They were Marxists first and religion and ethnic background played no role, positive or negative, in their beliefs.

[BOG PERSON]

23. on the other hand,

Stalin, an old Bolshevik himself, was one of the earliest supporters of Israel.

[makhno]

24. As an outpost of Socialism in the heart of the British Empire

Realpolitik at its finest.

[BOG PERSON]

17. re: Stalin

In answer to your inquiry :

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

First published in the newspaper Pravda, No. 329, November 30, 1936

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/01/12.htm

[Behind the Aegis]

6. Yup.

I see you have learned from your mistake, but it (the story) really still doesn't mean all that much.

[boppers]

9. Well, it might educate those who came after him.

I think that's the point.

Or maybe the point is to educate folks like me.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. Educate in what way?

How were you educated by this?

[boppers]

19. I thought most of the old-guard were anti-semitic.

Turns out I needed some more schooling....

...and maybe I'm not the only one. :)

[Behind the Aegis]

20. OHHH! OK! Gotcha! Thanks for the explanation!

That makes sense.

[LanternWaste]

16. Or that Jefferson had a black mistress...

"I fail to see the major importance of this item..."
Or that Jefferson had a black mistress...

[No Elephants]

32. Did Lenin have sex with a Jewish slave many years his junior and own their children?

Lenin was a part Jewish man (but not by Jewish standards) who was against Zionism. And theocracies. And all religions.

I am not seeing the basis for the comparison of Lenin and Jefferson, esp. re: mistresses.

[JVS]

34. Rape victims aren't mistresses.

[aquart]

2. A Blank?

My tree has Blanks!

[Nossida]

7. This is

Of Monumental Importance to many Russians.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. Why?

[boppers]

10. Anti-semitism in Russia.

...and former parts of the USSR.

[Behind the Aegis]

11. That doesn't make sense.

How is this that important to Russians?

[Fool Count]

21. How? By playing into the meme that the Bolshevik revolution

was just another Jewish conspiracy against Russia. That's how. The meme that came about the next day after
Bolsheviks came to power in 1917 and was played up by anti-Soviet forces since. That's why the Soviets
kept that info on Lenin's Jewish roots under wraps for so long.

[makhno]

25. Yep

Goes way back to bourgeois attempts at splintering the working class by questioning Marx's ethnicity.

[boppers]

27. I actually went a mentally different angle than other responders.

I was raised on a heavy diet of propaganda that the soviet system was inherently anti-semitic. The last 24 hours of reading has ripped a lot of veils from my eyes.

[Fool Count]

29. There is no question that Stalin was a closet anti-semite,

just from reading memoirs of his daughter, for instance. But he could not afford to be overtly so, given that majority of his Politburo comrades
were of Jewish origin. Some may even argue that Stalin's anti-semitism was a result of his personal distaste for Trotsky, who was his main
political rival, and for some other Jewish Bolshevik leaders. This anti-Jewish sentiment may have colored some unofficial policies during the
Stalin's rein, in particular in personnel decisions. But even then there was no place for a shred of official or semi-official anti-semitism in
the USSR, as it would fly straight in the face of the established internationalist Communist ideology. That is not to say that USSR was immune from
the common everyday anti-semitism, no country is even now. But officially it was always condemned and scorned upon by the educated class.
The myth of Soviet anti-semitism originates from two particular instances: The case of physicians in 1952-53; and the USSR anti-Israeli foreign policy in 1967-89
which resulted in refusal to grant exit to thousands of Soviet Jews (refuseniks) in early 1970s. The first was a typical fabricated anti-Soviet conspiracy
case directed against a group of prominent medical professionals (most, but not all, of whom happened to be Jewish). It was dismissed immediately
after Stalin's death. In the second instance, USSR became anti-Israel almost by default after Israel itself made strategic decision to become a US client
and Soviets had to turn to Arabs to counteract US influence in the Middle East.

[Brickbat]

15. It confirms something many of them have suspected for many years.

[makhno]

22. Like what?

Please be a little more specific in your assertions.

[Brickbat]

26. That Lenin was part Jewish.

[makhno]

33. And why is it important?

[Kolesar]

13. Historical and cultural accounts of Ukraine ignore the huge Jewish presence

Ukraine is always pictured as the land of Byzantine churches and Easter eggs. Many Ukrainian communities were actually majority Jewish. A few of them immigrated to communities where I live.

[Fool Count]

30. Exactly. There were probably over 10% of Jews among

Ukrainian population before WWII. Big cities (Kiev, Odessa, Lviv) were all about 30% Jewish. The other 70% of city dwellers must have had at least
some Jewish blood in them. It was hard not to.

[rug]

28. The Pale of Settlement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement

[Name removed]

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