Soviet Statistics on Jews
Soviet Statistics on Jews IT HAS BECOME a persistent Soviet policy to conceal the part played by Jews in various spheres of Russian lifeas if Jews did not exist there. Or as if the Communist party...
...The 358 pages of this book include statistics and tables on virtually every aspect of Soviet life...
...It is, of course, well known that no Yiddish work was published in 1956...
...In subsequent years, Jews were again similarly mentioned in various Soviet publications, so that it is quite reasonable to suppose that Jews represent the major portion of the 397 "Heroes of the Soviet Union" whose nationality is unspecified in the above table...
...A footnote adds: "During the years of the Soviet regime, there have been published in the USSR books in 124 languages of the peoples of the Soviet Union, as well as of foreign countries...
...Or as if the Communist party and Government had adopted a dual policy of denigration, on the one hand, and silence about Jewish achievements, on the other...
...But nowhere do the words, "Jew" or "Jewish," appear...
...Either these 24,620 Jews have disappeared from their fields (which may, in part, be true, as a result of exclusionary processes) or honorable mention of them has disappeared or a combination of the two developments has occurred...
...A striking example is provided in a widely-distributed book issued by the State Publishing House for Statistics The Achievements of the Soviet Regime in 40 Years in Figures published in 1957 as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution...
...It was not found to be even as deserving as "Tat," the language of a small Daghestan tribe, which boasted of the publication of a single item in 1956, with a circulation of 1,000 copies...
...Yiddish is not listed in this table...
...2. On page 285, there is a table (for the year 1955) entitled "Division of Scientific Workers in Institutes of Higher Learning, Scientific and Other Institutions, According to Nationality...
...Voprosy Filosofii lists 24,620 Jews among a total of 223,893 scientific and academic workers...
...But in 1913, literally hundreds of Jewish publications appeared in Yiddish (as well as Hebrew), for it was the springtide of the Jewish cultural renascence in Russia...
...In this list, Jews occupy second place among the nationalities, and constitute almost 10 per cent of the total number...
...thus, 397 persons are unaccounted for...
...It quotes the very same figures cited by another official periodical, Voprosy Filosofii (Problems of Philosophy)which had, however, a much more limited circulation than the popularly produced statistical book...
...Another example of official silence on Jewish achievements is provided by an official Soviet booklet called The National Traditions of the Peoples of the Soviet Union, issued by the State Publishing House in Moscow in April 1957...
...No Jews are listed, which helps to explain the discrepancy...
...But the other publication Achievements of the Soviet Regime much more widely distributed and read, entirely omits even the mention of Jews...
...In April 1944, at the Third Conference of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, it was announced that as of April 1, 1944, there were 3,517 recipients of the distinction, "Hero of the Soviet Union," among whom were more than 100 Jews...
...The total comes to 10,543...
...There follows a statistical breakdown of these honors, by nationalities...
...Two other glaring examples of concealment are reflected in this book: 1. On page 294, a table entitled "Publication of Books in the Different Languages of the Soviet Peoples" provides comparative figures for 1913 and 1956, in terms of the number of published items and their aggregate circulation...
...Here, it is stated that 10,940 soldiers and officers received the order, "Hero of the Soviet Union," for their courage and heroism during World War II...
Vol. 42 • September 1959 • No. 33
