Jewish Tycoons "Ruining" Russia
Communist Party
Chief
Joins Attack On
Zionism
By David Hoffman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 25, 1998; Page A42
|
"Zionism has in reality revealed itself
as one of the varieties of the theory and practice of the
most aggressive imperialistic circles striving for world
supremacy."
- Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Russian
Communist Party.
|
MOSCOW, Dec. 24 Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov has
declared in an open letter his belief in a Zionist conspiracy to
seize power in Russia and asserted that "Zionist capital" has wrecked
Russia's economy.
The letter appeared to be aimed at the Russian business tycoons --
known here as the "oligarchs" -- who were instrumental in reelecting
President Boris Yeltsin over Zyuganov in 1996. Most of the small
circle of tycoons in this country are Jewish.
Zyuganov wrote the letter in the aftermath of criticism of Albert
Makashov, a member of his party in parliament. In recent months,
Makashov has made virulently antisemitic statements. The lower house
of parliament, the State Duma, in which Zyuganov's party is the
largest single faction, has refused to condemn Makashov.
In the letter, made public this week, Zyuganov, without naming
Makashov, said some members of his party had made "insufficiently
considered remarks directed against Jews" and that these comments
were "contrary to the directives" of the party.
But Zyuganov devoted most of his letter to a strident attack on
Zionism that echoed some of the most severe Soviet-era propaganda.
Zyuganov was a former Soviet Communist Party ideologist when the
Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Zyuganov said Zionism was not a movement of Jews returning to
their homeland. Rather, he said, "Zionism has in reality revealed
itself as one of the varieties of the theory and practice of the most
aggressive imperialistic circles striving for world supremacy."
Zyuganov observed, "In this respect it is similar to fascism. The
only difference between them is that Hitler's Nazism was performing
under the guise of German nationalism and sought world supremacy
openly. And Zionism, performing under the guise of Jewish
nationalism, is operating stealthily, using other people's
hands."
Zyuganov said that by attacking Zionism he did not mean to attack
Jews. "We have never put an equation mark between the notions of a
'Jew' and a 'Zionist,' " he said. "The spread of Zionist ideology
among the Jewish people is by far not the fault, but a misfortune of
the Jewish people."
Zyuganov's remarks were taken right from the pages of anti-Zionist
diatribes of the Stalin years and later. For example, the Big Soviet
Encyclopedia, which closely reflected Soviet Communist Party
ideology, stated in the 1950s that the Zionists, "agents of American
and English imperialism, are the sworn enemies of the Jewish
workers."
In 1976, the encyclopedia defined modern Zionism as "a
nationalistic ideology, a wide network of organizations and a policy
expressing the interests of the big Jewish bourgeoisie, which is
closely connected with monopolistic bourgeoisie of imperialistic
states. The main features of modern Zionism -- militant chauvinism,
racism, anti-Communism and anti-Sovietism."
Zyuganov said that while Jews were welcome to leave Russia, or
recognize Russia "as their only Motherland," or "assimilate" into its
ethnic groups, they could not be some kind of "inner emigrant in it,
acting for the damage of her interests in favor of another state or
an international corporation."
Then Zyuganov attacked the Jewish financiers, without naming them.
One of the tycoons, Boris Berezovsky, has called for outlawing the
Communist Party in Russia.
"Our people are not blind," Zyuganov said. "They cannot but see
that Zionization of the government authorities of Russia was one of
the reasons of the present catastrophic conditions of the country,
mass impoverishment and dying out of its population."
"They cannot turn a blind eye to the aggressive, destructive role
of Zionist capital in ruining Russia's economy and plundering her
property owned by all."
"There is a growing understanding among the people that the origin
of all the current troubles is the criminal course of an anti-people,
supra-national oligarchy that seized power," the letter declared.
