It’s also like, one of the most confusing policies that ever occurred. There’s no explanation for why the USSR took that position, and we know that the communists viewed zionism as a far right ideology at the time.
They were doing something but we have zero documentation about what it was and then they U-Turned pretty fast too.
It is one of the most curious historical questions that remains unanswered. Why did they take that position? What did they think they were getting out of it?
At the time Israel was controlled by the Mapai party (socialist/“labor Zionist”) with Mapam party in second (Marxist Leninist). At the time it appeared Zionism would be a socialist force to break open the Franco-British imperial project middle east. In retrospect it was a foolish bet that came at the expense of Palestinians, but at the time the Arab world was largely still under colonial rule.
Pure speculation on my part, but could it have been some sort of appeasement? Trying to work with the western powers to avoid escalating tensions? But when the USSR saw that the west was going to be escalating with them anyway they realised that policy wouldn’t work.
I have no idea. We can only speculate. We have literally zero documentation about it to work from. I’ve never seen a single thing and I’ve looked.
This is a complete contrast because even before the Russian revolution was successful Stalin was writing about how the zionist movement was far right reactionary. He knew exactly what it was decades beforehand.
[1] Zionism – A reactionary nationalist trend of the Jewish bourgeoisie, which had followers along the intellectuals and the more backward sections of the Jewish workers. The Zionists endeavoured to isolate the Jewish working-class masses from the general struggle of the proletariat.
So given that he knew what it was, there must have been some other strategy going into these decisions. But what they were we just don’t know. I will stay deeply curious about this shit until some documents about it are eventually discovered.
And you’re completely right that zionism has been thorn in the back of communism in Russia literally since there even was communism in Russia, they constantly pushed to the right and tried to wreck party by drawing Jewish workers from it. So it might be so that USSR seen the chance to get rid of them.
Another possible reasons i can think of:
WW2 just ended and world was in outrage over fresh info about holocaust. Opposing creation of “Jewish state” would create instant outrage towards USSR. And Israel would have been created anyway, it was basically 95% on USA and UK anyway. Then USSR would be put into yet another nasty position of choosing between “Jews are running away from USSR” or “USSR is the prison for Jews”
Israel was iirc created based on UN charter, again USSR was invested in creation of UN, it wouldn’t wanted to torpedo it right at start. Also remember it was before the ultimate shift in 1949 that put an end to the illusion western powers are not hostile to USSR and that it is possible to maintain good will relations with them.
Ultimately they maybe hoped to maintain some control over it but alas.
Still i see this issue as choosing between bad or worse, it would be only avoidable by creating Jewish state in Germany, but western powers would absolutely never agree to that. As for creating it in USSR, the autonomous oblast existed back then already and still exist but zionist have zero interest in it.
Labour Zionism got very popular during the early days of israel and the USSR in a geopolitical play saw that if they supported them they could get an ally in the middle east to fight the American-Saudi alliance
I know all of this video but the fact remains there’s no documentation, from what I have seen. The idea that it was a play is essentially just speculation. It’s the most likely but without evidence it’s still fairly mysterious.
It’s also like, one of the most confusing policies that ever occurred. There’s no explanation for why the USSR took that position, and we know that the communists viewed zionism as a far right ideology at the time.
They were doing something but we have zero documentation about what it was and then they U-Turned pretty fast too.
It is one of the most curious historical questions that remains unanswered. Why did they take that position? What did they think they were getting out of it?
At the time Israel was controlled by the Mapai party (socialist/“labor Zionist”) with Mapam party in second (Marxist Leninist). At the time it appeared Zionism would be a socialist force to break open the Franco-British imperial project middle east. In retrospect it was a foolish bet that came at the expense of Palestinians, but at the time the Arab world was largely still under colonial rule.
Pure speculation on my part, but could it have been some sort of appeasement? Trying to work with the western powers to avoid escalating tensions? But when the USSR saw that the west was going to be escalating with them anyway they realised that policy wouldn’t work.
I have no idea. We can only speculate. We have literally zero documentation about it to work from. I’ve never seen a single thing and I’ve looked.
This is a complete contrast because even before the Russian revolution was successful Stalin was writing about how the zionist movement was far right reactionary. He knew exactly what it was decades beforehand.
This is the very first note in Stalin’s “Marxism and the National Question”.
So given that he knew what it was, there must have been some other strategy going into these decisions. But what they were we just don’t know. I will stay deeply curious about this shit until some documents about it are eventually discovered.
Yes unfortunately there are only speculations.
And you’re completely right that zionism has been thorn in the back of communism in Russia literally since there even was communism in Russia, they constantly pushed to the right and tried to wreck party by drawing Jewish workers from it. So it might be so that USSR seen the chance to get rid of them.
Another possible reasons i can think of:
Ultimately they maybe hoped to maintain some control over it but alas.
Still i see this issue as choosing between bad or worse, it would be only avoidable by creating Jewish state in Germany, but western powers would absolutely never agree to that. As for creating it in USSR, the autonomous oblast existed back then already and still exist but zionist have zero interest in it.
Labour Zionism got very popular during the early days of israel and the USSR in a geopolitical play saw that if they supported them they could get an ally in the middle east to fight the American-Saudi alliance
https://youtu.be/ehp9PZo4UR0
Obviously this didnt happen, but thats why they took that position
I know all of this video but the fact remains there’s no documentation, from what I have seen. The idea that it was a play is essentially just speculation. It’s the most likely but without evidence it’s still fairly mysterious.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I just assume it was some weird geopolitical play to get back at the UK somehow.