ATTITUDES TO ISRAEL
Berglund broadly agrees that Solzhenitsyn's views are very close to Shafarevich but there are, I think, two quite striking differences. Shafarevich is very hostile to Israel, seeing the israeli treatment of Palestinians as an example of a viciousness, a contempt for the non-Jew, that he regards as intrinsic to Jewish culture. The French edition of Russophobia includes a 'Letter of Marque against the calumniators of Russia', published in March 1990 and signed by seventy four writers including Rasputin, the editors of Molodaia Gvardia and Nash Sovremennik and Shafarevich, attacking in particular 'the joint efforts of all the official press to characterise the 6th Plenum of the Union of Writers of the USSR as an "anti-semite sabbath"'. The letter complains against a 'straightforward idealisation of Zionist ideology':
'These days this idealisation concerns not only personalities of Jewish origin in the cultural and political circles of the USSR but also those at the centre of the aggressive, fascist-type state of Israel. This idealisation - purely racist as it is - regards with scorn the whole international community and the sober, well-thought-out judgements it can make. So in the Soviet press, the Zionists and their supporters are busy disguising the face of Zionism, whitewashing it; and already they affirm, in defiance of their own conscience, that Zionism has been "calumniated by the UN" which, ever since 1948, has condemned through many resolutions, Zionist aggression in the Middle East and given a definition of Zionism which likens it to a form of racial discrimination. These pharisees of the "democratisation'" of our national politics sometimes aim to characterise Zionism with the status of a '"spiritual" or "religious" movement. and sometimes they give it the heroic character of a movement of "national liberation" (for whom? the Arabs in Palestine, or the Russians in Russia?) ...
'Under these conditions, even the many honest, straightforward Soviet Jews are not at all sure of being able to escape accusations of "antisemitism" nor the sometimes painful consequences of such accusations. Under these conditions, for all practical purposes, even sympathy for the Arab Palestinian people fighting to defend their legitimate right is interpreted as a "provocation to national discord among the peoples of the Union."' (8)
(8) Igor Chafarévitch: La Russophobie, Eds Chapitre Douze, 1993, pp.262-4. My translation from the French translation.
The comment on the 'Soviet press' is interesting given that only five or six years earlier the Soviet press would have been unanimously anti-Zionist, supporting the Palestinians as a national liberation movement. And it is perhaps Solzhenitsyn's instinct to regard anything said in the Soviet press as necessarily a lie that led him to become a strong supporter of Israel. Solzhenitsyn evokes this period in Two Centuries Together:
In the 1960s 'it was necessary to launch a campaign against Israel. The convenient, ambiguous and vague term "anti-Zionism" was invented and this took the form of "a sword of Damocles hanging over all the Soviet Jews." A savage press campaign against "Zionism" was launched. How could it be established that this wasn't quite simply a matter of antisemitism? But the danger was real: "Zionism is the weapon of American imperialism." The Jews were forced "to furnish, directly or indirectly, proof of their loyalty, to persuade, one way or another, those about them that they maintained no relationship with their own Jewish identity nor, certainly, with Zionism" ...' (p.462)
'But with the "thaw" of the Khrushchev years, then without him during the sixties, Soviet Jews began to raise their heads again and to assume their identity.
'In the late fifties "the growing sense of bitterness which had been felt by many layers of the Soviet Jewish population" had the effect of "reinforcing the feeling of national solidarity"
'But "it was only in the late sixties that a small group of Russian intellectuals, mostly scientists ... undertook to restore a national Jewish consciousness in Russia."
'And it was at that moment that the Six Day War - sudden, rapid, victorious, a true miracle! - broke out. The prestige of Israel reached its highest point in the eyes of Soviet Jews who felt drawn to it by the heart and by the blood.
'But the Soviet power, exasperated by Nasser's shameful defeat, immediately launched a devastating campaign against "Judaism-Zionism-Fascism". From now on, it was almost as if all Jews were "Zionists"; the Zionist "world conspiracy" was considered to be "the necessary and inevitable culmination of the whole of Jewish history, of Jewish religion, marked by its national character"; "Judaism is a religion that suits very well those who aspire to a universal domination because it has elaborated systematically an ideology of racial superiority and apartheid."
'To the press campaign was added the dramatic break in diplomatic relations with Israel. Soviet Jews had good reason to be afraid: "We had the impression we were on the verge of a call to a pogrom."
'But this fear was only superficial and what was in fact produced was a new, irresistible affirmation by the Jews of their national identity ...
'The process of national renaissance got under way ...' (pp.468-9. Sources are given for all the passages in quotation marks but it would be too cumbersome to repeat them here).
Michael Scammell, quoting a press conference Solzhenitsyn gave in Paris in 1975, says 'He also expressed his admiration for Israel as a state with a guiding idea - "It is the only religious state in the West (! - PB), a model that is difficult to attain for Western countries" and he praised the Israelis for "their courage and firmness in the face of the dangers that surround them."' (9). At the conclusion of a rambling article on 'The Terrible Question of Alexander Solzhenitsyn', the father of US Neo-Conservatism, Norman Podgoretz, says 'In my opinion, Solzhenitsyn's bitterness at seeing the role so many Jews played in the introduction of Communism in Russia is less important than his constant, ardent support for Israel.' (10).
(9) Michael Scammell: Solzhenitsyn, London, Paladin Books, 1986, p.907, quoting Le Monde, 12 April 1975.
(10) Esquisses d'exil, t.2, p.428, quoting the article in Commentary, 1 Feb 1985. My translation from the French. The original is available in English in the internet at the Commentary website behind a pay wall.
According to Saraskina it was through Shimon Peres, who met Solzhenitsyn during a visit to the USSR in 2001, that the world learned of the existence of Two Centuries Together. She quotes him saying 'I was agreeably surprised to learn that he was writing a book on relations between Russians and Jews.' (11)
11 Saraskina, p.888.