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The Anti-Zionist Circle was an informal group of Soviet publicists who professionally carried out domestic propaganda for the pro-Arab and anti-Israeli policies of the USSR in the Middle East. It was active from the early 1960s and received its name later. It was a significant part of the Russian nationalist movement, which became known as the "Russian Party".^[1]

Within the circle, it was customary to focus on their own anti-Semitism and "merits" in the fight against specific Jews.^[2] Information from the books of the "anti-Zionists" was used by other activists of the "Russian Party" without critical analysis. Most of the "anti-Zionists" maintained outward loyalty to the Soviet government and were willing to abide the restrictions of Soviet censorship, but in private correspondence they voiced opposition. Taking advantage of their status as “loyal” and legal writers, they had the opportunity to openly write letters to the authorities to draw their attention to the “machinations of the Zionists.” Often their requests were granted.^[3]

As early as 1963-1964, such figures as Yuri Ivanov and Yevgeny Yevseyev [ru] gave lectures exposing "Zionism" to students at the University of Young Marxists in Moscow. In 1966-1968, Yevseyev actively worked with the Central Committee of the Komsomol and carried out work trips on behalf of the propaganda department and consulted with the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya.^[1]

A significant stimulus for the development of anti-Zionism in Soviet propaganda was the Six-Day War of 1967, as a result of which the Soviet Union broke off relations with Israel, and among Soviet Jews the desire to revive Jewish culture increased and emigration sentiments grew.^[1]

The most senior of the "anti-Zionists" was Ivan Milovanov, who held the post of head of the Middle East sector of the International Department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.^[1] Milovanov often used his official position to "prevent the machinations of Zionism", allegedly "at the request of our Arab friends". In some cases, he addressed such requests to KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov through government communications.^[4]

Milovanov and his close associate, the Middle East sector referent Yuri Ivanov, consulted and were friends with such figures as the translator and teacher at the Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages ​​Valery Yemelyanov, Yevgeny Yevseyev, and the journalists A. A. Agaryshev and Vladimir Bolshakov [ru]. The writer Valery Ganichev, the historians Sergei Semanov [ru] and Apollon Kuzmin [ru], and a number of others also belonged to this circle from the late 1960s. In the early 1970s, the circle began fulfilling a large order from the Central Committee of the CPSU for ideological support of the campaign against Zionism.^[2]

On Milovanov's initiative, Yuri Ivanov wrote the book Beware: Zionism!, which gained great popularity among Russian nationalists.^[4] It was published in 1969, when Yuri Ivanov was in charge of the Israeli Communist Party in the Central Committee of the CPSU. The author explains all the failures and setbacks of the USSR through the machinations of the all-powerful and omnipresent "international Zionism", "the enemy of all peoples ... all freedom-loving people of the globe."^[5] In 1972-1973, the book was published in Armenian, Tajik, and Kyrgyz. The total circulation of the book in different languages ​​reached 550,000 copies, including 42,000 in Arabic.^[5]

The publication of this book marked a turning point in the state anti-Zionist ideology. Under the guise of “anti-Zionism” and under the slogan of “fighting modern fascism,” an anti-Semitic racist concept borrowed from Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda was introduced into the state ideology. In a modified form, it formed an integral part of the neo-Stalinist version of Russian-communist messianism.^[5]

Yevgeny Yevseyev was considered the greatest intellectual in this environment. His "scientific activity" culminated in the release in 1978 at the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences of his doctoral dissertation Zionism in the System of Anti-Communism, marked "For Official Use Only." Yevseyev also wrote the book Fascism under the Blue Star, published in 1971 in Moscow by the Central Committee of the Komsomol in a print run of 75,000 copies, and a number of other works.^[6][7] The monograph was popular among members of the "Russian Party" but provoked a negative reaction from academic scholars. A number of copies of the publication were sent to regional party committees.^[6] Yevseyev's publications "Fascism under the Star of David" in Komsomolskaya Pravda in 1970 and Zionism, Ideology and Politics and Fascism under the Blue Star (both 1971) are close in theme to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Jews are everywhere and are omnipotent.^[7] Yevseyev, considered a relative of the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee for International Affairs Boris Ponomarev, was the main disseminator of the myth about the "Jewish wives" of Soviet leaders.^[6]

Apollon Kuzmin, a prominent member of the "Russian Party",^[8] being deputy editor-in-chief of the academic journal Voprosy Istorii, supervised "anti-Zionist" publications.^[9] Kuzmin, Lidiya Modzhoryan [ru], E. D. Pyrlin, and Drastamat Chalyan sent a "Note" dated 30 March 1974 to the International Propaganda Department of the CPSU Central Committee, containing a complaint against the editor-in-chief of Sovetish Heymland, Aron Vergelis, who had condemned Yevseyev's book Fascism under the Blue Star on the pages of his magazine.^[10] In the 1980s, Kuzmin joined the campaign to popularize the literary work of Valentin Dmitriyevich Ivanov [ru], one of the participants of the "Russian Club", writing a lengthy afterword for the mass edition of Ivanov's novel Tales of Ancient Years, which was published in 1985 and 1986 by Sovremennik Publishing House [ru] in a print run of 200,000 copies. In 1986, the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house reissued Rus Primordial to open the library series History of the Fatherland in Novels, Stories, and Documents. The publication was supplied with introductory articles and a set of appendices by Kuzmin, who recommended this publication to his students as a teaching aid. The prefaces demonstrated Kuzmin’s own views on the Varangian-Russian question.^[8]

In the late 1960s, the "anti-Zionist circle" was joined by the activist of the "Russian Club", writer and publicist Dmitry Zhukov, who became famous among the participants of the "Russian party" primarily as the author of the script for the film Secret and Explicit (The Aims and Acts of Zionists). The film was directed by Boris Karpov [ru], another visitor to the "Russian Club", and the official consultants included other anti-Zionist authors Yevgeny Yevseyev, Lidiya Modzharyan, and Drastamat Chalyan. According to Sergei Semanov, it was created by order of the KGB. This anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic film details the role of the "Jewish conspirators" who, according to the filmmakers, were behind all the key events of the 20th century. The film was shot by 1973 and uses Nazi newsreels. The importance of the film for its customers is evidenced by the fact that the authors were allowed to travel to three European capitals to obtain materials. The state acceptance of Secret and Explicit was delayed for a year by the State Committee for Cinematography, which expected an ambiguous reaction to the film. In August 1973, one of the cameramen at the Central Documentary Film Studio, a front-line acquaintance of Leonid Brezhnev, wrote him a letter asking him to prevent the release of an anti-Semitic film. In August-October 1973, the Committee for Cinematography issued its considerations for reworking the film, which turned the film into "ideological chewing gum" that went unnoticed by the public.^[11]

During the 1970s and the early 1980s, the circle was joined by several new members, including the Minsk journalist Vladimir Begun, the author of the document The Charter of Morals Valery Skurlatov [ru], the Arabic translator G. V. Ryzhikov, and the historian Lev Korneyev [ru]. A. Ivanov [ru] (Skuratov) and Ivan Shevtsov were also close to the circle. Valery Ganichev considered the publication and distribution of the works of Begun, Yevseyev, Agaryshev, and other "anti-Zionists" to be one of his main tasks as director of the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house.^[12] In 1977, the Central Committee of the CPSU reacted negatively to a letter that was written by Yevseyev and sent on behalf of G. V. Ryzhikov's son about the "rampant Zionism in the USSR".^[13]

Of this second generation of the circle, the most famous was Begun, who wrote the book Invasion Without Weapons, published in 1978-1979 in a total print run of 250,000 copies. In his activities, Begun enjoyed the support of the leader of the Communist Party of Byelorussia, Pyotr Masherov. However, the academic "anti-Zionists" did not consider Begun one of their own. Some other "Zionologists" spoke out against his works, saying that they are "are medieval in form and content"; these included the chairman of the Standing Commission for the Coordination of Scientific Critique of Zionism under the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Mikhail Korostovtsev [ru]. In November 1975, Korostovtsev sent a letter to the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Suslov, in which he condemned the publication of Begun's book The Creeping Counterrevolution, which "under the banner of the struggle against Zionism preaches outright anti-Semitism". However, in response to this letter, the deputy head of the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Yuri Sklyarov, used the conclusion of specialists from the department of the theory of nations and national relations of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, according to which Begun’s book fits entirely into the mainstream of Lenin’s national policy.^[12]