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Stalin's Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign: The Purge of Jewish Culture

Stalin's Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign: The Purge of Jewish Culture

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In the years after World War II, Stalin turned his paranoia against the Soviet Union's Jewish population, launching a campaign against 'rootless cosmopolitans' that targeted intellectuals, artists, and doctors. This episode explores the ideological crackdown that began in 1948, focusing on the closure of Jewish publishing houses, theaters, and schools; the arrest of prominent Jewish writers and poets; and the fabrication of the 'Doctors' Plot' just before Stalin's death. We discuss key figures like Solomon Mikhoels, whose murder in 1948 signaled the start of the purge, and Ilya Ehrenburg, who navigated the shifting political winds. The episode also examines how this campaign reflected Stalin's broader turn toward Russian nationalism and anti-Western isolationism, and how it devastated Yiddish culture in the Soviet Union. By tracing the roots of state-sponsored anti-Semitism to the betrayal of revolutionary internationalism, we uncover a chilling chapter in the late Stalinist era that foreshadowed the stagnation of the Brezhnev years. #Stalin #AntiCosmopolitanCampaign #SovietJews #JewishCulture #Yiddish #SolomonMikhoels #DoctorsPlot #IlyaEhrenburg #MGB #Pravda #RootlessCosmopolitans #StalinistPurges #SovietUnion #ColdWar #1940s #1950s #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
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