It will surprise no one that attacks on Jews occur in Russia. After all, this is the country that gave us the word pogrom. Yet it might surprise you to hear that the level of antisemitic violence in Russia, by all accounts, is quite low compared to Western Europe. Given the political climate in later years, shouldn’t we expect otherwise? Patriotic rallying, attacks against “foreign agents” and internal “fifth columnists”, rampant and officially sanctioned homophobia, a fortress mentality in which one in four say the country is “surrounded by enemies on all sides” — isn’t this fertile soil for a reinvigorated antisemitism?
Author: Johannes D. Enstad
Welcome
The Restless Russianist will be intermittently used for sharing reflections, notes, and sources related to my research interests, which mostly revolve around Russian history (Soviet and post-Soviet), right-wing extremism, and antisemitism.
