Manifestations of anti-Semitism in Russia in 2013

Manifestations of anti-Semitism in Russia in 2013 Acts of violence
racist violence is a serious problem in Russia. If, according to the Center "Owl", from 2009 to 2012 the level of violence was decreasing, then in 2013 it can be stated that its growth has been outlined again. According to preliminary data as of early January, victims of violence motivated by ethnicity and religious hatred and ultra-right ideology, became in 2012 210 people (of which 19 were killed), and in 2013 - 198 (of which 20 were killed), but figures for 2013 continue to rise as more information is collected.

Violent hate crimes against Jews are quite rare and are becoming, as far as we can judge, less and less: if in 2009 we knew about 4 victims, in 2010 and 2011 - 3 each, in 2012 already did not know a single one, and in 2013 - at least 2 victims. Main objects attacks - people from Central Asia, from the Caucasus, from other eastern countries, etc. But anti-Semitic ideology does not disappear from the repertoire far-right groups, so the risk of anti-Semitic attacks from them.

Table 1

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Total number of victims of hate crimes	541	468	244	212	206
Number of victims of apparently anti-Semitic attacks	4	3	3	0	2

IN on the night of September 13, 2013, a group of ultra-rightists attacked the company Jewish youth in the suburban train. The attack took place in eve of Yom Kippur in front of the Kraskovo station of the Kazan railway (that there is not far from the famous synagogue in the Moscow region). Two passengers, wearing masks, began to beat young people who did not speak Russian piles of people. According to eyewitnesses, they were beaten with stun guns or short clubs. After that, the attackers jumped out of the car and already on the platform showed the Nazi salute and shouted “Heil Hitler! Holocaust! The exact number of victims is unknown. The perpetrators are not found.

There is a risk of attacks also from some radical groups Islamists. On July 25, an attempt was made on the life of a rabbi in Derbent Ovadya Isakov. An unidentified person shot the rabbi when he came out of car near his house, and shot him in the chest. Rabbi Ovadia himself believes that the attack was motivated by religious hatred. This the attempt caused a significant resonance in society, and not only in Dagestan. In September, during the antiterrorist operation in Dagestan the militant was eliminated, according to law enforcement agencies, involved in organizing this assassination. But the attack itself, thereby, not investigated, and it is difficult to say for sure what his motive was.

Note that in the 2000s, attacks on Jews took place predominantly in situations of domestic conflict. But in recent years we we see that anti-Semitic attacks are returning to the "repertoire" national radical groups. Anti-Semitism fits these groups into the context of broader ethnic xenophobia; for example, let's mention an entry left on his page by one of the network users VKontakte (he was punished for it already in 2014): “Beat the Jews - do not becomes a chump."

In addition, the first of the mentioned attacks became known only Thanks to the blogosphere, the media did not get a message about this. Can suggest that there may have been other attacks during the year, which the public has never been aware of.

Acts of vandalism

The level of ideologically motivated vandalism in 2013 was slightly decreased: according to the SOVA Center at the beginning of January - 70 episodes of protia 95 in 2012 and 94 in 2011; This decrease was due to reducing the number of specifically neo-Nazi actions, and not attacks against religious or ethnically defined objects.

The level of anti-Semitic vandalism has been declining for several years in a row: 2009 – 22 episodes, 2010 - 15, 2011 - 14, 2012 - 8. But in 2013 there were 10 such episodes were recorded, so we have to say that the downward trend in the activity of anti-Semitic vandals was also interrupted.

table 2

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Total number of acts of hate-motivated vandalism	180	178	94	95	69
Total number of acts of vandalism against Jewish objects	22	15	14	8	10

On the night of February 15, 2013, unknown people attacked the building of the Ulyanovsk Jewish community. Unable to get into the building, the intruders desecrated the facade of the community center, damaged the sign, smashed menorah lamp.

On March 9, two attackers threw a stone and a bottle of flammable liquid into the building of the Perm Jewish community center. As a result of the attack, a window was broken in the building, in one of rooms burned part of the floor. The guard managed to put out the fire, there are no casualties. The attack was preceded by an appearance in the local media several articles directed against the procession on the occasion of the introduction of a new scroll of the Torah.

On June 19, a 52-year-old resident of Smolensk threw Christmas balls with black paint the wall of the local synagogue. The building was dirty. According to police, the woman suffers from a mental disorder.

June 22 (that is, the day the Nazi Germany attacked the USSR) on one right-wing sites published a video with a scene of arson "elite Jewish restaurant Solomon", accompanied by antisemitic inscriptions. Responsible for filming the video far-right group "Sparrows Crew" from Yekaterinburg, known publishing videos of racist attacks.

On October 7, windows in a synagogue building were damaged in Yekaterinburg. Before the people in the building heard the pops. Community members believe that the synagogue was fired upon, apparently from a traumatic weapon. Police officers who arrived on call confirmed the presence of chips on windows.

The Jewish Cultural Center of Syktyvkar was subjected to attacked by vandals twice - on May 9 (on the day of the victory over the Nazi Germany) and 10 October. In both cases, unknown persons drew on the wall swastika buildings. In October, the inscription "Death Jews." Presumably, this could be done by members of the nationalist organization "Frontier of the North".

The same organization appears to be involved in two other acts of vandalism, occurred in 2013 in the Komi Republic. 22 October and 9 November In the city of Pechora, vandals overturned a slab installed at the site of the future monument to prisoners of the Gulag who built a bridge across the Pechora River in 1938-45 gg. The text engraved on the slab mentioned the one who served in the Pechora camp Menachem Begin, who later became Prime Minister of Israel.

In both cases, information about acts of vandalism was the first to appear. on the website of the local newspaper Krasnoye Znamya, co-owned by leader of the nationalist movement "Frontier of the North" Alexei Kolegov. The authors of the messages emphasized that the installation of the stove involved Jewish national-cultural autonomy, and reproached the local officials in unjustified spending of budgetary funds.

At the end of November in St. Petersburg, people who call themselves Cossacks covered the building of the Maly Drama Theater in St. Petersburg insulting inscriptions and threw a pig's head at the entrance. So way they protested against the holding of the "Winter Festival" and, in in particular, the performance of the Berlin theater "Schaubühne" "Death in Venice”, according to the Cossacks, promoting homosexuality. They wrote a letter to the head of the theater Lev Dodin, where they promised to repeat action and toss more pig heads to the theatre. The content of the inscriptions on the building was not disclosed, but the presence of a pig's head allows you to speak not only about the homophobic, but also about the anti-Semitic nature of the action.

The pig's head was also attached to the building of the Jewish community center in Krasnodar 20 December. In addition, the vandals wrote: “Happy Tu bi-Shvat, Jewish pigs" (the inscription is made in English) and left other anti-Semitic inscriptions.

In addition, it should be noted two more acts of vandalism in relation to Orthodox objects, where anti-Semitic inscriptions were also applied. IN In June, unknown people cut down a wooden worship cross on Novo-Olgovskoye settlement of the Ryazan region. On the fragments of the cross were found a swastika and antisemitic graffiti. In August, attackers threw a bottle of incendiary mixture into the building of the church of St. Peter, Metropolitan Moscow on Stachek Avenue in St. Petersburg. Responsibility for the neo-Nazi group NS / WP "Nevograd" took over the incident, explaining the act of vandalism by the desire to "cleanse the Slavic land from Christian-Jewish Plague.

Crimes of this kind are usually investigated poorly. It's too early to say whether the listed episodes will be investigated. But it's already possible state that in 2012 there were three sentences for vandalism, including anti-Semitic motives, and in 2013 there were no such judgments.

Public antisemitic speeches
antisemitic statements of political figures - fortunately, a phenomenon in modern Russia is quite rare. However, one such statement in 2013 we fixed.

In December, the head of the Chechen parliament, Dukuvakhat Abdurakhmanov, reacted to the xenophobic proposal of the leader of the LDPR, Vladimir, expressed on television Zhirinovsky to limit the birth rate in the Caucasus for the sake of fighting terrorism clear anti-Semitic innuendo. The Chechen speaker wondered if whether Zhirinovsky speaks "on behalf of the Russian people, when the Russians - from Donskoy to Putin, Gagarin, Zhukov - so many historical figures Russian people, why should he defend the Russian people?

Anti-Semitic comments by Internet users on various publications (not necessarily dedicated to Jewish topics) and in social networks make up the bulk of public anti-Semitic utterances. It is not possible to count such replicas, since they have long become a common and massive reaction of a certain part of users for a variety of events and publications.

We also did not set ourselves the task of marking anti-Semitic passages in ideological publications for which anti-Semitism is part of their ideological platform and affects almost exclusively their already indoctrinated audience.

A completely different effect was caused by an article published in May 2013 on the website one of the most popular newspapers, Komsomolskaya Pravda, which, together with appendices, circulation of 3 million copies. The author of the article is Uliana Skoybeda expressed regret that "of the ancestors of today's liberals, the Nazis are not put on lampshades." The statement of the journalist caused a wide public outcry, as well as sanctions from the authorities. Roskomnadzor issued a warning to the newspaper's website about the inadmissibility of violations legislation. One of the officials, Deputy Mayor of Moscow, Leonid Pechatnikov publicly refused to give an interview after the incident. correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda.

On October 30, Uliana Skoybeda was awarded the "Silver Galosh" - anti-award of the radio station "Silver Rain" for the most dubious achievements in show business. "Komsomolskaya Pravda" was awarded the prize in the Intolerance of the Year category.

However, this reaction was not enough to change editorial policy. Commenting on these events, the newspaper again admitted anti-Semitic remarks. In dedicated to the receipt of the "Silver galoshes" article says that the newspaper is going to continue to demonstrate intolerance "to stupidity, vulgarity and all sorts of cynically forgetful bergs and gozmans who do not remember kinship. So you can prepare another prize."

Commenting on the publications of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the President of the Russian Jewish congress, Yuri Kanner noted that they are “not an editorial blunder, this brand": U. Skoybeda - "journalist, employee of a respected and popular publications, member of the journalistic community. More recently in this community I was ashamed to express my cannibalistic views. Until recently, none the editor wouldn't let her do that - at least on the pages of his edition. Now - not ashamed and not forbidden. And this is not only a problem Jews, the Communist Party and the journalistic community. This is the problem with our society."

One of the resonant events of 2013 was the review of the case of Ilya Farber - Moscow artist and rural teacher, sentenced for bribery to imprisonment in a strict regime colony. First the Farber trial in 2012 was marked by a rhetorical question public prosecutor: "Can a man named Farber help the village for free? In the then published comment Russian Jewish Congress noted that "neither the surname nor origin, or even a way of life, if it does not create a danger or inconvenience to others cannot in itself be grounds for suspicion of a crime, nor aggravating circumstances in its commission. Like an excuse."

None of the participants in the re-trial of 2013 allowed anti-Semitic statements, but I. Farber was still perceived by many observers as having suffered from anti-Semitism. August 1 the artist was again sentenced to imprisonment - this time to 7 years and 1 month, and already on December 31, the Moscow District Court of Tver satisfied I. Farber's petition for parole. His exit to freedom in January 2014 was accompanied by a flurry of comments. Most commentators were outraged, mainly "performance" by I. Farber, who trampled on officer insignia in front of prison building, and many commentators, including the one mentioned above W. Skoybed, considered it necessary to emphasize that Farber is a Jew, or to even hint at it.

In April, the governor of the Ulyanovsk region, Sergei Morozov, proposed replace the text by Dina Rubina, which was used in the framework of the public literacy test "Total dictation", on the text of the Russian journalist Vasily Peskov. Although the governor himself motivated the rejection Dina Rubina in that she uses profanity in her books vocabulary, in the subsequent discussion, many journalists and public figures have already focused on the origin of Rubina, in particular, Maxim Shevchenko, speaking on the air of "Echo of Moscow", called Dina Rubina "Nazi writer" preaching "ideas of racism".

The President of the Russian Jewish Congress appealed to law enforcement agencies with a request to investigate the actions of the Ulyanovsk officials, as he considers “a consequence of the silence of the authorities after anti-Semitic scandal around the action "Total dictation"" not only the appearance of such comments, but also a number of acts that took place in 2013 vandalism.

Anti-Semitic books are easy to find in popular bookstores, but usually they are still lost among other book products. visible booksellers place only the most popular conspiracy books, among which, of course, there are anti-Semitic, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

But at book fairs, publishers of such literature can present it in a more concentrated form, which could be observed in March at the XVI national exhibition-fair "Books of Russia" and in September at the XXVI International Book Fair in Moscow, held at the All-Russian Exhibition Center. IN in particular, books by N. Levashov, B. Mironov, the leader of the Union of the Russian people" by L. Ivashov, the author of a number of works on the "Jewish Masonic conspiracy" O. Platonov, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Russian Messenger" A. Senin, “Nearby is at the door” by S. Nilus, “International secret government" of the Black Hundreds of the early twentieth century. V. Shmakova. In addition, at MIBF a documentary film dedicated to the author of a number of anti-Semitic novels of the Soviet period to I. Shevtsov.

Anti-Semitic statements spread without the help of the media and bookstores. counters. In January, on the wall of the Jewish Community Center of Abakan was anti-Semitic leaflet found. The leaflet was written on behalf of "Fascist Union of Siberia" and "Khakass National Socialist party” and urged representatives of the community to come to the station with things. In addition, the leaflet had an image of a swastika. At the Owl Center note that the ultra-right organizations mentioned in the text of the leaflet, most likely do not exist.

At the end of November, in Vladimir, unidentified persons handed out anti-Semitic leaflets. The text contained common anti-Semitic clichés (about 80% Jews in the government, about the participation of the Beitar organization in the clashes October 1993) and dissatisfaction with current events, for example, the installation of a menorah on the Revolution Square in Moscow on the occasion of Hanukkah.

Manifestations of anti-Semitism in the activities of the largest religious organizations have traditionally attracted increased attention. In October Priest of the Holy Spirit Cathedral of Saratov Andrey Evstigneev during the baptism of the girl expressed dissatisfaction with her worldly name is Mira. According to the priest, parents should not have chosen "Jewish" name for a child. The reaction from the ruling bishop was adequate: the priest was banned from serving for two months, and expiration of this period, he was transferred from the cathedral to the ordinary city ​​temple.

It is noteworthy that the participants of the "Russian march" in Voronezh decided financially support the aforementioned Saratov priest and held fundraising for him.

Law enforcement practice

Most anti-Semitic speeches do not entail punishment. Of course, as a rule, they should not cause a reaction. law enforcement agencies due to the low public danger of these speeches, but it is impossible not to notice some inconsistency in law enforcement.

The activities of the media in the sense that interests us is controlled by Roskomnadzor. IN In 2013, he issued four warnings for publications with more or less antisemitic content.

In June 2013, the newspaper "In Their Own Names" - the successor of the closed by decision trial publications "To the Barrier" and "Duel" - published an article by M.M. Zhasimova "With a thought about the future", which has a pronounced anti-Semitic character. IN September Roskomnadzor submitted to the editorial office and the founder of the newspaper warning about the inadmissibility of breaking the law. Prior to this, Roskomnadzor issued warnings to the same newspaper in 2013 for publishing in January, an open letter to President Putin, which also included anti-Semitic phrases, and for the publication in April of fragments from "Protocols of the Elders of Zion".

All three warnings to the newspaper "In Their Own Names" and for the sensational the subtitle of the article by Uliana Skoybeda (see above) we consider quite legitimate, but it is difficult to assume that in a year there were no more manifestations of anti-Semitism.

From year to year, the number of criminal sentences handed down on articles 280 and 282 of the Criminal Code for propaganda of hatred. If in 2010-12 approximately 80-90 such sentences were handed down per year against 100-120 people, then in 2013 the SOVA Center knew 150 sentences against 154 people. Not all of these sentences are rightfully handed down, and many lawful ones were handed down for insignificant speeches, which might not be the basis for a criminal case. But anyway, this dynamics indicates an increase in the attention of law enforcement agencies specifically to propaganda activity.

At least 16 convictions in 2013 were total or partly for promoting anti-Semitism. Of these, in 7 cases the publications were directed specifically against the Jews, in other cases it was about xenophobic materials in relation not only to Jews, but also to other groups.

For example, in November, a 34-year-old resident of Magadan was found guilty under Part 1 Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred) for publishing a photo with appeals to attacks on the Jews. The court sentenced him to 6 months in prison. work with deduction of 10% of earnings in state income. And in December a student of Izhevsk vocational school, found guilty under the same article, was sentenced to 80 hours of community service for publishing anti-Semitic photos on the VKontakte page of the Jewish Sunday schools.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to single out from the general mass of sentences about propaganda namely sentences for anti-Semitic propaganda. Center "Owl" at about half of the cases do not know for the distribution of which particular xenophobic materials punished convicts. It is possible that some of these sentences were also handed down for anti-Semitic publications.

Conclusion
Role anti-Semitism in modern Russia has clearly become less noticeable than in those times when it was the main content of the nationalist propaganda, and even more so in those when there was a state anti-Semitism. But we see that anti-Semitism does not disappear from the ideology all nationalist and fundamentalist movements in Russia. More Moreover, ceasing to be their "calling card", anti-Semitism turns into for everyone who is more or less influenced by these currents, something like already learned knowledge about history and about society. We see it is in the prevalence of anti-Semitic motives in popular pseudo-historical books or films, in the ease with which one can to hint to readers on the "Jewish theme" not even in anti-Semitic publications.

Anti-Semitism thus continues to play the role of one of the fundamental elements in any worldview associated with ethnic or religious xenophobia. The level of such xenophobia in 2013, according to the Levada Center, has grown significantly. Hence, anti-Semitism remains one of the important phenomena of public life and, alas, one might even say that its importance grows as these xenophobic tendencies in society become stronger.

Such anti-Semitism does not necessarily translate into violent actions. A those violent actions that we record are predominantly symbolic: the attack on the synagogue is more of an act of propaganda for criminals than an act of violence. However, symbolic violence can be really dangerous when it comes to arson or attacks on Jews on their way to the synagogue.

In previous years, we could talk about a decrease in the level of anti-Semitic violence and vandalism. But, unfortunately, in 2013 it was clearly interrupted a downward trend in the level of xenophobic violence in general, and with it a downward trend in the number of violent manifestations of anti-Semitism.

Thus, we see that the dynamics of anti-Semitism, for all its specificity, fits into the general dynamics of ethno-religious xenophobia. And this dynamic inspires serious concern.

Sources

• Manifestations of anti-Semitism in Russia in 2013 // Russian Jewish Congress. 2014. January 27.