Person of Jewish ethnicity (russian: Лицо еврейской национальности) is а Russian euphemism that was invented as a supposedly

politically correct ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

alternative term for an

ethnic Jew "Who is a Jew?" ( he, מיהו יהודי ) is a basic question about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification. The question pertains to ideas about Jewish personhood, which have cultural, ethnic, religious, political, ...

. It was invented because the word "Jew" (russian: еврей, yevrey) became

pejorative A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...

during Soviet antisemitic campaigns.

Benedikt Sarnov Benedikt Sarnov (russian: Бенеди́кт Миха́йлович Сарно́в; January 4, 1927 – April 20, 2014) was a Moscow literary critic, historian of Soviet literature, and writer. After graduating from Maxim Gorky Literature Institut ...

, ''Our Soviet Newspeak: A Short Encyclopedia of Real Socialism'', Moscow: 2002, (Наш советский новояз. Маленькая энциклопедия реального социализма.), "Persons of Jewish ethnicity", pp. 287–293.Person of Jewish ethnicity

RFE/RL Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...

Several officially sanctioned antisemitic campaigns took place in the Soviet Union, most notably the

Doctor's Plot The "Doctors' plot" affair, group=rus was an alleged conspiracy of prominent Soviet medical specialists to murder leading government and party officials. It was also known as the case of saboteur doctors or killer doctors. In 1951–1953, a gr ...

and the struggle against the "

rootless cosmopolitans Rootless cosmopolitan () was a pejorative Soviet epithet which referred mostly to Jewish intellectuals as an accusation of their lack of allegiance to the Soviet Union, especially during the antisemitic campaign of 1948–1953. This campaign ...

". However, the entire Jewish population was never openly and officially declared the

enemy of the people The term enemy of the people or enemy of the nation, is a designation for the political or class opponents of the subgroup in power within a larger group. The term implies that by opposing the ruling subgroup, the "enemies" in question are ac ...

. Instead, several euphemisms were used, such as

Zionists Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

and "persons of Jewish ethnicity". There was an important distinction between these words: ''zionist'' and ''rootless cosmopolitans'' served as a label for "bad Jews" as

enemies of the state An enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state such as treason, among other things. Describing individuals in this way is sometimes a manifestation of political repression. For example, a government may purport to m ...

, whereas "persons of Jewish ethnicity" was a

expression for good, loyal Jews who were called by some ordinary folks as ''trained'' Jews (the original Russian word "дресированные" (dressage) typically refers to animals trained to perform in circus). However most people realized that all these euphemisms denoted ''all'' Jews. A dean of the Marxism-Leninism department at one of the Soviet Universities explained the policy to his students: The analogous euphemism "person of Caucasian ethnicity" (Russian: лицо кавказской национальности) is used in modern Russian to refer to peoples of the Caucasus, such as Georgians or

Armenians in Russia Armenians in Russia or Russian Armenians are one of the country's largest ethnic minorities and the largest Armenian diaspora community outside Armenia. The 2010 Russian census recorded 1,182,388 Armenians in the country. Various figures estimate ...

, though this expression has been criticized as there are multiple ethnic groups in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

References

Antisemitism in the Soviet Union Euphemisms Soviet phraseology Antisemitic slurs {{Jewish-hist-stub

See also

References