Bolshevik repressions against Zionist organizations and the Jewish community in Ukraine (the 1920s and 1930s)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to analyze the ideological foundations and mechanism of the Bolshevik regime’s repressions against the Zionist movement and individual representatives of the Jewish community in Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s. The research methodology is based on special methods of historical science – comparative-historical, problem-chronological, as well as on general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and critical processing of sources, which, combined with the principles of historicism, objectivity and complexity, allowed for a comprehensive study of the stated issues. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the systematization and generalization of the mechanisms of political repressions directed against Zionist parties and representatives of the Jewish nation in Ukraine, as well as in revealing the relationship between the ideological attitudes of the Bolshevik leadership, everyday anti-Semitism and the practice of falsifying political accusations. Conclusions. The analysis of the processed documents and research works allows us to conclude that the Soviet authorities purposefully destroyed alternative forms of national self-organization of Jews in Ukraine, treating Zionism as an ideologically hostile movement and a threat to the political monopoly of the Bolshevik party, and the Jewish population as a potentially disloyal social group. The repressions, which began with selective arrests and liquidation of Zionist organizations in the early 1920s, in the middle of the next decade grew into mass persecutions, supplemented by accusations of 'Trotskyism', 'espionage' and the active use of anti-Semitic stereotypes in investigative and punitive practice. As a result, the implementation of this policy led to the destruction of the political, cultural, and intellectual infrastructure of Jewish life in Ukraine, the marginalization of the national elite, and the loss of important forms of public self-organization, which became part of the broader process of establishing totalitarian control in Soviet society.