The image of the "Jew" as an "enemy" in the propaganda of Late Stalinism and its reflection in the Czechoslovak context
Abstract
The period of late Stalinism (1948-53) witnessed a sharp increase in anti-Jewish discrimination on the part of the Soviet regime, accompanied by a radicalizing anti-Jewish animosity in the public. This article examines the phenomenon by analyzing the image of the "Jew" in Soviet propaganda of that time.
Using the means of semiotic analysis as a general framework, it strives to reveal the inter-relations between the image of the "enemy" and the notion of the "Jew." The analysis is based on two significant propaganda campaigns of the period, namely the campaign against "cosmopolitanism" and the campaign accompanying "the Doctors' Plot." The chosen method enables to document that due to its multi-layered semiotic character, the image of the "Jew" was used by the Soviet regime to justify both its foreign and domestic policies and struggles. The outcomes of the analysis are further applied to the Czechoslovak context of the early Communist rule in order to demonstrate how the image of the "Jew" as an "enemy" helped to secure important goals of Soviet foreign and domestic policies.