ABSTRACT
The Judeo-Bolshevik myth is a distinguishing characteristic of antisemitism in the Baltic States. This chapter posits that the centrality of “the nation” in nationalist movements in the Baltic States helps to explain the persistence of the Judeo-Bolshevik myth today because it provides an adaptable discursive strategy for blaming external and internal “threats” to state sovereignty. Timothy Snyder describes antisemitism in Eastern Europe as “practically ubiquitous.” Economic and political variants of anti-Jewish and antisemitic thought found more fertile ground in the Baltic States than those rooted in religiosity because of geopolitics. The end of World War I ushered in two decades of self-rule for the Baltic States, and Jews supported these developments. The Lithuanian government granted its minorities cultural and linguistic autonomy as well, but nationalists maligned the idea that Jews would be allowed to circumvent speaking the Lithuanian language. As the Baltic States were adapting to democracy, Bolshevik revolutions were cropping up in German cities.
