I read that Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Karl Marx , Rosa Luxemburg and others of great influence in the early Russian communist revolutionary era were Jewish or of Jewish descent. Was it only a fear of Hitler and fascism that got them to adopt communism as a counterpoint to fascist dictatorships (which were largely anti-semitic)?
2007-04-16 20:16:26 · 4 answers · asked by Mike 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Jews were and are always at the front of any social movement. The reasons vary according to the person who describes them. Here are some sites:
http://www.stormfront.org/whitehistory/hwr61.htm
http://news.google.com/archivesearch?sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8&q=Jews+and+communism&um=1&scoring=t&sa=X&oi=archive&ct=title
http://wais.stanford.edu/Russia/russia_JewsAndCommunism(102503).html
http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.py?documents/communism/Jewish-role.9910
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Times-Dire-Decisions-Contemporary/dp/0195182243
2007-04-16 23:59:12 · answer #1 · answered by Josephine 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, it was rejection of elitism (the bourgeoisie) that made them adopt communism. Read "The Communist Manifesto," originally written in 1848 in Germany, ironically (which Marx added prefaces to), for more details.
It happened before World War II - Communism originated in Germany in the late 1800s, and fascism originated in Italy in the early 1920s (see wikipedia.org).
As a side note, Jewish people were respected in China quite a lot back in the Mao days, since the Chinese followed that whole Marxist communist ideal then.
2007-04-17 03:24:10 · answer #2 · answered by shanhelp 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Before Jews had their homeland, they were spread out over much of Europe and largely oppressed. Communism appealed to a lot of Jews because firstly, Jews wanted a society where they would not be mistreated or viewed unequally, and secondly because many Jews living in Europe were wealthy intellectuals (but not elites) who had a hand in crafting many philosophical and sociological theories of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
-IR
2007-04-17 03:27:59 · answer #3 · answered by IRelayer 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Jews in Eastern Europe suffered greatly under the rule of the Czar and other rulers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom
as a result many saw Communism as a way to live in peace.
Unfortunately they were dead wrong.
2007-04-17 22:03:10 · answer #4 · answered by Gamla Joe 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋