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Anti-Semitism in the Lithuanian SSR was a phenomenon produced by the interaction between negative attitudes towards and prejudice against Jews that had taken root in certain sections of society prior to the Soviet occupation and the hostility towards Jews under the influence of Soviet ideology, sporadically aided and abetted at the state level, which might be designated as Soviet anti-Semitism. The hostility towards Jews based on anti-Judaic myths acquired the hallmarks of modern anti-Semitism during the period of the Lithuanian national revival in the nineteenth century; anti-Semitism in the interwar Lithuania manifested itself in competition for the domination in the economic sphere and in accusing Jews of pro-communist activities; anti-Semitism, gaining momentum during the first Soviet occupation, warranted genocidal policies pursued under Nazi occupation. Since 1944, when Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union, anti-Semitism could neither be tolerated nor openly disseminated due to its contradictions to the basic ideological tenets of Communism. Hence, anti-Semitism was regarded as a social phenomenon of the capitalist system and was formally persecuted. Notwithstanding ideological postulates, Soviet anti-Semitism, however, was effectively shaped and maintained until the declaration of Lithuania’s independence through latent hostility towards the Jews by way of various propaganda campaigns and restrictions in the cultural, educational and religious spheres. The dissertation analyzes the development of anti-Semitism in the Lithuanian SSR based on an integrated analysis of the scientific research, archives, periodicals, memoirs and reminiscences.

After World War II the movies concerned with the Jews were eliminated from the Soviet cinematography. Even though there were scenes of Nazi massacres of the Jews or related episodes, the word ‘Jews’ was never mentioned. The Jews as a nation ended up outside of the screen and became implicit characters because the Holocaust and Nazi crimes and their perception were unified, making the Jews to ‘share’ the victim status with other ‘peaceful citizens’. The concept ‘Holocaust without Jews’ came into life as an identity of Nazi victims could have been guessed only through allusions in the movies (archival footage from Jews’ mass killing, ghettos, and concentration camps). Movies, as audiovisual representations of the past, tended to retouch the Holocaust and sort of erase it from history. It was not in the best interest of the Soviet regime to recognize the Jews as a focus group of the Third Reich genocide politics. The Holocaust representation in the movies of the Lithuanian SSR was in line with the ideological line of the Soviet historical memory politics. The allusions to the Holocaust were symbolic and had the function of a stenographic element in the background of the main plot line. It was noticed that the Star of David was often used to indirectly convey the passivity and insensibility of the people around in the films of Soviet Lithuania. On the other hand, unlike the communist Polish cinematography, less significant artistic expressions, there were no Jewish preservation moments and no intentions to condemn antisemitism. There were no Jewish characters in the Lithuanian film studio. It may be assumed that the indoctrination of the ideological mythology of the fascist crimes through cinema was one of the elements, which produced a distorted perception of the Holocaust in the Lithuanian collective consciousness.

Straipsnyje, remiantis laikraščiu „Tiesa“, Lietuvos centrinio valstybės ir Lietuvos ypatingojo archyvų dokumentais, siekiama nustatyti tezės pagrįstumą, kad sovietiniai propagandininkai spaudoje kūrė su žydais susijusius įvaizdžius, kurie viešajame diskurse galėjo transformuotis į antisemitinę reakciją. Sovietų Sąjungoje antisionistinė ir antiizraelietiška kampanijos buvo glaudžiai susijusios, o sionizmas, vadintas valdančiąja Izraelio ideologija, paverstas įsivaizduojamos, „užslėptos“, galingos tarptautinės imperializmo jėgos įrankiu. Po 1967 m. Šešių dienų karo tarp Izraelio ir arabų koalicijos sovietinėje spaudoje įsitvirtino motyvai apie agresyvią, ekspansionistinę Izraelio politiką, o sionizmas tapo kryptingos kritikos objektu. Propaganda siekė formuoti įvaizdį, kad SSRS nusistačiusi ne prieš žydus, o tik prieš Izraelį ir sionizmą. Sionizmo ir Izraelio, kaip žydų valstybės, kritika galėjo dalyje visuomenės transformuotis į priešiškumą žydams, atliko antisemitinių nuotaikų kurstymo ir palaikymo vaidmenį. Sovietiniai propagandininkai dažnai naudojosi per atitinkamą ideologiškai parankią prizmę pateiktais įvykių Artimųjų Rytų regione komentarais, kurie darė aliuzijas į „priešiškus žydus“, inspiravo abejones dėl SSRS piliečių žydų lojalumo. Antisemitizmas pasireiškė per visuomenei nuolatos kartotus naratyvus, kad Izraelis yra agresorius, JAV įrankis, socializmo priešas. Taip bandyta „blokuoti“ viešajame diskurse kitaip manančiųjų mintis, versti juos abejoti ir paklusti valdžios formuojamai kolektyvinei nuomonei. The aim of the paper is, referring to the content of the "Tiesa" daily and documents kept in the Lithuanian Special Archives, to prove the statement that the image of Jews, created by Soviet propaganda, could have been aimed at inspiring anti-Semitism in public discourse. There was a close link between the anti-Zionist and anti-I srael campaigns carried out in the Soviet Union; Zionism, the ruling ideology of Israel, was presented as a tool used by imaginary and "hidden" powerful forces of international imperialism. After the Six Day Arab-I sraeli War in 1967 Israel’s aggressive and expansionary policy and Zionism became a dominant theme in the Soviet media. Soviet propaganda tried to show that the Soviet Union was not against Jews, that its hatred was directed only towards Israel and Zionism. Criticism of Zionism and Israel as a Jewish state could have inspired hostility towards Jews and provoked anti-Semitism in part of the public. Ideological commentaries on the events in the Middle East, implications that "Jews are enemies and aggressors", doubts over their loyalty to the USSR prevailed in Soviet propaganda. Anti-Semitism was demonstrated in many articles, Israel was shown as an aggressor, instrument of the US, enemy of socialism. Articles presenting another opinion were eliminated from public discourse, efforts were made to force society to accept official opinion.

File of foreign exchange traders is related to criminal trials of currency exchange speculators in the Soviet Union (1961-1963). This file is reflected as a part of SSRS anti-Semitic politics against Zionism in the historiography data. This statement can be confirmed by the fact that the ranks of the accused were dominated by the Jewish people. The consequence of speculation was currency exchange trading of the United States dollar and British Pounds Sterling. The United States dollars bought by currency exchange traders were sold to the citizens of the USSR that aimed to travel abroad because they were authorized to buy foreign currency for up to 30 rubles of value. At the beginning KGB aimed to find out the process of speculative exchange trading, therefore firstly persecuted the suspects in Moscow and subsequently in the whole USSR. As this file has never been researched in the historiography of Lithuanian SSR, therefore current theses are verified in this paper: was the USSR antiSemitic political direction reflected in the Lithuanian SSR? What were the characteristics of the current campaign propaganda in general? It was useful for the USSR to have ideological – political “internal enemy” and criminal trials inspired negative view of Jews – speculators. Thus Soviet regime tried to ground its political legitimacy, the status of “peaceful USSR” as well as it was tool of mass control and social tension deflection, especially after unsuccessful Nikita Khrushchev agro reforms. Leaders of USSR aimed to avoid society dissatisfaction, therefore used the concept of Jew-Scapegoat. However, anti-Semitism was already positioned in the USSR society by latent forms, therefore functioned as not evident but foreknown phenomenon. Soviet propaganda did not lack rhetorical methods to cast a new light on the question of Jewish population loyalty to the regime. Even though non-socialistic behavior was defined without national and religious identity having involved, Jewish names and other semantic Jew’s image details made picture that Jewish people participated in the currency exchange trading speculations. Therefore the making of Jews as the rhetoric figure of the USSR propaganda is the main question analyzed in the research. The noteworthy fact is that it was not useful for the Soviet regime to accept Jews as the objective group for the Third Reich genocide politics, because such a decision might have invited to consider the idea if USSR is also against the same group of Soviet citizens which was killed by the Nazi regime. This circumstance affected tendencies for the formation of negative Jews image which defined not only the identity of currency exchange traders, but also strengthened the influence of ideological anti-Semitic attitudes in the society.