Prague Trials

In 1967, during the time leading up to and during the Six Day War, the Polish public was generally sympathetic towards Israel. This contrasted with the party line in the Soviet Union, which had begun to attack Zionism and Israel and had switched their allegiance to the Arab states. Władysław Gomułka and the Polish leadership saw an opportunity to both please Moscow by moving against pro-Israeli sentiment, and to bolster Gomułka's own government by using a ...

See also:

Polish 1968 political crisis, Polish 1968 political crisis - Background, Polish 1968 political crisis - Persecution and the March 1968 Events, Polish 1968 political crisis - Official reaction in Poland

Read more here: » Polish 1968 political crisis: Encyclopedia II - Polish 1968 political crisis - Background

In 1967, during the time leading up to and during the Six Day War, the Polish public was generally sympathetic towards Israel. A popular joke of that era based on the knowledge that a significant percent of the Jews living in Israel were emigrants from Poland stated "The Polish Jews won [the war] with the Russian Arabs" (Polscy Żydzi wygrali z ruskimi arabami). This contrasted with the party line in the Soviet Union, which had begun to attack Zionism and Israel and had switched their allegiance to the Arab states. Władysław Gomułk ...

See also:

Polish 1968 political crisis, Polish 1968 political crisis - Background, Polish 1968 political crisis - Persecution and the March 1968 Events, Polish 1968 political crisis - Official reaction in Poland

Read more here: » Polish 1968 political crisis: Encyclopedia II - Polish 1968 political crisis - Background

Some people think that the scenario of the "Doctors' plot" was reminiscent of the previous Stalin purges of the late 1930s, and the plan to deport the whole population based on its ethnicity resembled previous similar deportations. Accordingly, some argue that Stalin was preparing a USSR-wide pogrom, the "Second Holocaust", to finish what Hitler had begun, but this time, the scheme was not completed because of Stalin's death on March 5, 1953. Proponents of this version cite mainly the memoirs (sometimes only alleged) and late testimon ...

See also:

Doctors' plot, Doctors' plot - Background, Doctors' plot - An article in Pravda, Doctors' plot - Arrests, Doctors' plot - Stalin's death and the consequences, Doctors' plot - The Second Holocaust controversy

Read more here: » Doctors' plot: Encyclopedia II - Doctors' plot - The Second Holocaust controversy

1952 (MCMLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). 1952 - Events. January 8 - West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders. January 24 - Sudden heavy snowfall in Algeria. January 24 - Vincent Massey sworn in as first Canada-born Governor-General of Canada. 1952 - February. February 2 - A tropical storm forms just north of Cuba moving northeast. The storm makes landfall in southe ...

Including:

• 1952 - Events
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Read more here: » 1952: Encyclopedia - 1952

Towards the end and immediately after World War II, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) grew increasingly influential to the post-Holocaust Soviet Jewry, and was accepted as its representative in the West. As its activities sometimes contradicted official Soviet policies (see Black Book), it became a nuisance to Stalin's absolute power. The CPSU Central Committee auditing commission concluded that instead of focusing its attention on the "struggle against forces of international reaction", the JAC continued the line of the Bund — a dan ...

See also:

Rootless cosmopolitan, Rootless cosmopolitan - Background, Rootless cosmopolitan - About one antipatriotic group of theater critics

Read more here: » Rootless cosmopolitan: Encyclopedia II - Rootless cosmopolitan - Background

Zionism maintains that the Jewish people constitute a nation and are entitled to a national homeland. Its focus is on governing the Land of Israel or Zion (a synecdoche for the Land of Israel). Jewish people have historically understood themselves to be part of a nation distinct from the non-Jewish nations. Like most nations, offspring of members are likewise considered members. However, common ancestry is not required and new members are admitted based upon prescribed criteria. None of the criteria incl ...

Including:

• Zionism and racism - History
• Zionism and racism - The demographic change
• Zionism and racism - Zionism and Israel
• Zionism and racism - Discrimination
• Zionism and racism - Viewed as anti-Semitism
• Zionism and racism - Soviet influence
• Zionism and racism - UN Resolution 3379

Read more here: » Zionism and racism: Encyclopedia - Zionism and racism

In the course of the Cold War and the State of Israel allying with the West, the Soviet regime eliminated the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in 1948 and launched an anti-Semitic campaign against so-called "rootless cosmopolitans". In a November 1952 public conference regarding the Prague Trials, the President of Czechoslovakia Klement Gottwald announced: "During the investigation, we discovered how treason and espionage infiltrate the ranks of the Communist Party. This channel is Zionism" (Pravda 1952, November 21). One of the c ...

See also:

Doctors' plot, Doctors' plot - Background, Doctors' plot - An article in Pravda, Doctors' plot - Arrests, Doctors' plot - Stalin's death and the consequences, Doctors' plot - The Second Holocaust controversy

Read more here: » Doctors' plot: Encyclopedia II - Doctors' plot - Background

The state-wide campaign was set out by an article appeared in Pravda on January 28, 1949 entitled About one antipatriotic group of theater critics: "unbridled, evil-minded cosmopolitans, profiteers with no roots and no conscience… Grown on rotten yeast of bourgeois cosmopolitanism, decadence and formalism… non-indigenous nationals without a motherland, who poison with stench… our proletarian culture."… "What can A. ...

See also:

Rootless cosmopolitan, Rootless cosmopolitan - Background, Rootless cosmopolitan - About one antipatriotic group of theater critics

Read more here: » Rootless cosmopolitan: Encyclopedia II - Rootless cosmopolitan - About one antipatriotic group of theater critics

On January 13, 1953, some of the most prestigious and prominent doctors in the USSR were accused of taking part in a vast plot to poison members of the top Soviet political and military leadership. Pravda, the official newspaper of the CPSU, reported the accusations under the headline "Vicious Spies and Killers under the Mask of Academic Physicians": "The majority of the participants of the terrorist group… were bought by American intelligence. They were recruited by a branch-office of American intelligence — t ...

See also:

Doctors' plot, Doctors' plot - Background, Doctors' plot - An article in Pravda, Doctors' plot - Arrests, Doctors' plot - Stalin's death and the consequences, Doctors' plot - The Second Holocaust controversy

Read more here: » Doctors' plot: Encyclopedia II - Doctors' plot - An article in Pravda

Initially, thirty-seven were arrested, but the number quickly grew into hundreds. Scores of Soviet Jews were promptly dismissed from their jobs, arrested, sent to gulags or executed. This was accompanied by show trials and by anti-Semitic propaganda in state-run mass media. Pravda published a letter signed by many Soviet notables (including Jews) containing incitive condemnations of the "plot". On February 9, 1953, there was an explosion in the territory of the Soviet mission in Israel, and on February 11 the USSR broke off dip ...

See also:

Doctors' plot, Doctors' plot - Background, Doctors' plot - An article in Pravda, Doctors' plot - Arrests, Doctors' plot - Stalin's death and the consequences, Doctors' plot - The Second Holocaust controversy

Read more here: » Doctors' plot: Encyclopedia II - Doctors' plot - Arrests

After Stalin's death on March 5, the new leadership admitted that the charges had been entirely invented by Stalin and his cohorts. The case was dismissed on March 31 by the Chief of NKVD and Minister of Internal Affairs Lavrenty Beria, and on April 3 the Presidium of the Central Committee of CPSU officially acquitted the arrested. Chief NKVD investigator M. Ryumin was blamed for making up the plot and was promptly arrested and executed. Boris Kogan's son Leonid rec ...

See also:

Doctors' plot, Doctors' plot - Background, Doctors' plot - An article in Pravda, Doctors' plot - Arrests, Doctors' plot - Stalin's death and the consequences, Doctors' plot - The Second Holocaust controversy

Read more here: » Doctors' plot: Encyclopedia II - Doctors' plot - Stalin's death and the consequences

Dariusz Stola of the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, called the events that followed in 1967 and 1968 as an anti-Semitic "massive hate campaign," clearly aimed at Polish Jews, despite the use of the word Zionists: The term “anti-Zionist campaign” is misleading in two ways, since the campaign began as an anti-Israeli policy but quickly turned into an anti-Jewish campaign, and this evident anti-Jewish character remained its distinctive feature. Firstly, the words Zionism and Zionist, were a substitute and code-name for “Jew” and “Jewish.” Secon ...

See also:

Polish 1968 political crisis, Polish 1968 political crisis - Background, Polish 1968 political crisis - Persecution and the March 1968 Events, Polish 1968 political crisis - Official reaction in Poland

Read more here: » Polish 1968 political crisis: Encyclopedia II - Polish 1968 political crisis - Persecution and the March 1968 Events

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - National Level. KSČ organization was based on the Leninist concept of democratic centralism, which provided for the election of party leaders at all levels but required that each level be fully subject to the control of the next higher unit. Accordingly, party programs and policies were directed from the top, and resolutions of higher organs were unconditionally binding on all lower organs and individual party members. In theory, policy matters were freely and openly discussed ...

See also:

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - History, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - 1921 - 1945, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - 1945 - 1969, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - 1969 - 1992, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - New party after 1995, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Function, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Organization, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - National Level, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Republic level, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Regional level, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Local level, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Membership, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Training of members, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Social composition of members, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Lack of devotion of the members in the 1970s and 1980s, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - The party as the ruling elite, Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Leaders

Read more here: » Communist Party of Czechoslovakia: Encyclopedia II - Communist Party of Czechoslovakia - Organization

Egon Erwin Kisch - Prague. Kisch was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, at that time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and began his journalistic career as a reporter for a local German language newspaper in 1906. His early work is characterised by an interest in crime and the lives of the poor of Prague, taking Jan Neruda, Emile Zola and Charles Dickens's Sketches by Boz as his models. His most notable story of this period was his uncove ...

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Egon Erwin Kisch, Egon Erwin Kisch - Biography, Egon Erwin Kisch - Prague, Egon Erwin Kisch - Berlin, Egon Erwin Kisch - Exile, Egon Erwin Kisch - Legacy, Egon Erwin Kisch - Selected Bibliography

Read more here: » Egon Erwin Kisch: Encyclopedia II - Egon Erwin Kisch - Biography

Beria was born, the son of a peasant, in Merkheuli, near Sukhumi in the Abkhazian region of Georgia. He was educated at a technical school in Sukhumi, and is recorded as having joined the Bolshevik Party in March 1917 while an engineering student in Baku. (Some sources say that the Baku Party records are forgeries and that Beria actually joined the Party in 1919. It is also alleged that Beria joined and then deserted from the Red Army a ...

See also:

Lavrenty Beria, Lavrenty Beria - Rise to power, Lavrenty Beria - Beria at the NKVD, Lavrenty Beria - Postwar politics, Lavrenty Beria - After Stalin, Lavrenty Beria - Beria's fall, Lavrenty Beria - Allegations against Beria

Read more here: » Lavrenty Beria: Encyclopedia II - Lavrenty Beria - Rise to power

Zionism and racism - The demographic change. Despite the history of violence against the Jews, there is no evidence of any interruption in the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel for more than three millennia. In addition to traditional religious Jewish communities known as the old yishuv, the second half of the 19th century saw a new kind of Jewish immigrant, the generally left-wing socialist who aimed to reclaim their land by working on it. Mikveh Israel was founded in 1870 by Alliance Israelite Univer ...

See also:

Zionism and racism, Zionism and racism - History, Zionism and racism - The demographic change, Zionism and racism - Zionism and Israel, Zionism and racism - Discrimination, Zionism and racism - Viewed as anti-Semitism, Zionism and racism - Soviet influence, Zionism and racism - UN Resolution 3379

Read more here: » Zionism and racism: Encyclopedia II - Zionism and racism - History

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej - Under Soviet directives. Soviet influence in Romania under Joseph Stalin nonetheless favored Gheorghiu-Dej, largely seen as a local leader with strong Stalinist principles. The economical influence of the Soviet Union were highlighted by the creation of SovRom companies, which directed Romania's commercial exchanges towards unprofitable markets. On the political level, all of the Romanian political changes had to be pre-approved by Stalin. Gheorghiu-Dej maneuvered Antisemitic trend ...

See also:

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej - Early life, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej - In power, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej - Under Soviet directives, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej - Personal rule, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej - Death and legacy

Read more here: » Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej: Encyclopedia II - Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej - In power

Kibbutz - Origins. Conditions were hard for all subjects of the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but they were especially difficult for Jews. It was the official policy of the Russian government to "cause one-third of the Jews to emigrate, one-third to accept baptism, and one-third to starve." Except for a wealthy few, Jews could not leave the Pale of Settlement; within the Pale of Settlement, Jews could neither live in large cities, such as Kiev, nor any village with fewer than 500 resid ...

See also:

Kibbutz, Kibbutz - History, Kibbutz - Origins, Kibbutz - The Second Aliya and founding the first kibbutzim, Kibbutz - Kibbutzim during the British Mandate, Kibbutz - Kibbutzim in Israeli statebuilding, Kibbutz - Kibbutzim in independent Israel, Kibbutz - About, Kibbutz - Ideology of the kibbutz movement, Kibbutz - Communal life, Kibbutz - Psychological aspects, Kibbutz - Kibbutz and child rearing, Kibbutz - Kibbutz economics, Kibbutz - Future, Kibbutz - Decline of the kibbutz movement, Kibbutz - Prospects, Kibbutz - Legacy

Read more here: » Kibbutz: Encyclopedia II - Kibbutz - History

Romanian Communist Party - Early history. The party was founded in 1921 when the Communist faction won control of Romania's Social-Democratic party (Socialist Party of Romania, successor to the defunct Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party and short-lived Romanian Social Democratic Party), renaming it the Socialist-Communist Party (Partidul Socialist-Comunist; soon after, the Communist Party of Romania - Partidul Comunist din România or PCdR). At the end of World War II it ...

See also:

Romanian Communist Party, Romanian Communist Party - History, Romanian Communist Party - Early history, Romanian Communist Party - Gaining power, Romanian Communist Party - Stalinism, Romanian Communist Party - Ceauşescu Era, Romanian Communist Party - Membership, Romanian Communist Party - Organization, Romanian Communist Party - General Secretaries, Romanian Communist Party - Other notable communists

Read more here: » Romanian Communist Party: Encyclopedia II - Romanian Communist Party - History

Slánský received his formative education in Plzeň at the Commercial Academy. After the end of World War I, he went to Prague, where he found a leftist intellectual scene in institutions such as the Marxist Club. Slánský joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia when it broke away from the Social Democratic Party in 1921. He rose within the party and became a senior lieutenant of its leader, Klement Gottwald. At the Fifth Party Congress in 1929, Slánský was named a member of the party Presidium and the Po ...

See also:

Rudolf Slánský, Rudolf Slánský - Early life, Rudolf Slánský - Power in the postwar period, Rudolf Slánský - The trials, Rudolf Slánský - Posthumously

Read more here: » Rudolf Slánský: Encyclopedia II - Rudolf Slánský - Early life