Antisemitism and anti-Ukrainian propaganda
Antisemitism and anti-Ukrainian propaganda overlap in portrayals of Jews and Ukrainian nationalists as partners in a foreign conspiracy. In a thread published on 6 October 2023, Sergej Sumlenny compared Soviet caricatures with Russian attacks on the Jewish identity of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.[1]
Soviet caricatures
The 1981 Perets cartoon В одній упряжці (In the Same Harness) showed caricatured Jewish and Ukrainian nationalist figures pulling a cart marked “Cold War” and “Anti-Sovietism”. Its yoke combined the Star of David, Ukrainian trident and dollar signs. A contemporary editorial in Svoboda criticised the cartoon as an attack on growing Jewish-Ukrainian cooperation abroad. It identified the cartoon in a June 1981 issue of Perets.[2]
In the Same Harness, Perets (1981). Jewish and Ukrainian nationalist caricatures pull the same cart beneath a shared yoke. The original artist is not identified in the reproduced scan.
A “Zionist” and a “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalist” drink together amid Nazi insignia, dollar signs and bottles labelled “anti-communism” and “anti-Sovietism”. Signed S. Herasymchuk; the publication date and issue have not been established.
Sumlenny interprets these images as examples of Soviet propaganda combining antisemitic stereotypes with hostility to Ukrainian independence. The figures are presented as allied enemies, while their depiction uses the language and symbols of anti-fascism to associate both with Nazism.[1]
Russian propaganda against Zelenskyy
Asked on Rete 4’s Zona Bianca on 1 May 2022 how Russia’s “denazification” claim could be reconciled with Zelenskyy’s Jewish background, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov alleged that Hitler had Jewish ancestry and claimed that the greatest antisemites were Jews themselves.[3] On 2 May, Israel summoned the Russian ambassador. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called Lavrov’s remarks “unforgivable and outrageous” and a historical error, adding: “Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust.”[4]
Sumlenny’s later examples include Russian cartoons portraying Zelenskyy as both Jewish and a Nazi. He connects them with Vladimir Putin’s public attacks on Zelenskyy’s Jewish identity. His thread cites Putin’s 16 June 2023 claim that his Jewish friends regarded Zelenskyy as a disgrace to Jewish people[5] and a later statement that Ukraine’s Western backers had placed an ethnic Jew at its head.[1]
- Caricatures reproduced by Sergej Sumlenny on 6 October 2023 (post 10)
The drawing gives Zelenskyy a halo beside a powder swastika and a Star of David over Ukrainian colours. The speech bubble calls “Ukro-Jews” holy people.
A caricature gives Zelenskyy a Hitler-style moustache and an Iron Cross; his shadow makes a Nazi salute. The signature is retained, but the artist’s full identity is unverified.
A US general pats Zelenskyy, depicted as a missile warhead, and calls him “my little warhead”. By Aleksandr Gorbarukov, © REGNUM; published in REGNUM on 10 August 2021.[6]
See also
- Antisemitism in Russia
- Anti-Ukrainian racism
- Russian racism
- Holocaust Inversion
- Sergej Sumlenny’s threads on antisemitism
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Sergej Sumlenny, thread on Soviet and Russian antisemitism and anti-Ukrainian propaganda, 6 October 2023, especially posts 9–13 (original, archived PDF).
- ↑ “Заболіло…”, Svoboda, 15 August 1981, no. 153, p. 2 (scan).
- ↑ Mediaset Infinity, “Sergej Lavrov a Zona Bianca: ‘I maggiori antisemiti sono proprio gli ebrei’”, 2 May 2022; “Lavrov, Giuseppe Brindisi: ‘Ho fatto il mio lavoro’”, 3 May 2022, including Brindisi’s account of the 1 May interview.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “MFA media announcement”, 2 May 2022, reproduced by GlobalSecurity.org.
- ↑ Ekaterina Venkina, “Путин снова коснулся еврейских корней Зеленского”, Deutsche Welle, 16 June 2023, reporting Putin’s remarks at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
- ↑ REGNUM, “Боеголовушка” (illustration credited to Aleksandr Gorbarukov), 10 August 2021. The publisher’s caption and image metadata credit “Александр Горбаруков © ИА REGNUM”.
