Tag #146423 - Interview #95374 (Mark Kabakov)

For many years I personally came across anti-Semitism for a number of times like any Jew, living in Russia. In 1951 I finished higher courses for the officers. Those very higher secretive courses held in the period of time when the doctors’ plot [24] was in the full swing. At that time there were repressions against Jews, both military and civil. In 1951 5 Jews were expelled right shortly after the course commenced. The quota must have been exceeded by admission. Only 2 Jews were left, and both of them were Muscovites. Upon finishing course, neither I nor my comrade were to stay in Moscow, but we were sent in godforsaken places. My further service was in Alma-Ata. There my little sonny was teased and called ”Little Zhyd” [editor’s note: ‘Zhydy’ – abusive nickname of Jews in the Soviet Union]. He came home sobbing. I slapped one of the parents of those kids. The regional engineer of state acceptance, my boss, called me on the carpet and started edifying me that our country was multinational and there was no anti-Semitism in it. When I was in the navy, I had never felt anti-Semitism during the entire period of my service. But when I was demobilized in 1974, I was not hire in any civilian enterprise. I understood why- because I was a Jew. Then for 17 years I was not permitted to go abroad since I had an access to secret documents during my service, though those people who performed my job later and had an access to even more sensitive documents were permitted to go abroad earlier than I was. Probably KGB deemed that there was nothing more dangerous as a Jew, who had an access to secret documents.