cher@ihuxi.UUCP (10/03/84)
a Jew (Mr. Martillo's bark worse than his bite!)
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 37
<>
Just not to say dreck. I did not respond to Martillo's article
because it was generally anti-leftist. No objections here.
However, from my grandmother's tales and from my own experience
(some 20 years in USSR) I would conclude that Soviet oppression
is less severe then that of czars. Russian Jews generally
greeted the czar's overthrow and even the Communist takeover
(some 8 months later). Some subjective accounts of the Soviet
life in the 20's and 30's indicate that there practically was
no anti-semitism (on state level at least). Same conclusion
can be made observing the abundance of Jews in high Communist
Party positions during that period.
My possible explanations are: revolutionary hype,
non-russian origin of Stalin himself
social rather then racial scapegoats (main)
I do not think there were any pogroms, but I talked to
some trustworthy people who claimed that they
saw barracks in Siberia built in the area to which all
Jewish population of the country was to be exiled. Stalin's death
supposedly prevented the plan from being materialized.
Anyway, everybody has some idea of what happened later.
One area where there is more oppression is religion (some
would say it is the main thing). Access to education,
with all existing inequalities is easier (no max quotes).
Getting the hell out of that country is HARDER.
No geographical restrictions on settlement (yet).
Overall, I stand behind my initial statement.
Some other things Martillo said sounded unfounded to me.
Like Ashkenazi desire to become French, German, etc.
Like stating that Sefardic attitude is "more correct".
But that's already much more typing then I intended to do.
Uff.
Mike Cherepov (aka Musing)