ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether the various definitions of the Jewish question formulated during the Soviet period mirrored ideological changes in the perceptions of the Soviet regime, or whether they were solely terminological variations. The Russian Social-Democratic Party, and especially its Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin, were the most active opponents of Jewish nationalism as a solution to the Jewish question. In Leninist theory definition, Lenin avoided a materialist, class-conscious interpretation, and focused on the uniquely Jewish-nationalist aspects as the dominant components of the Jewish question. In this connection, Lenin opposed Jewish nationalist manifestations, on the one hand, and anti-Semitic demonstrations, on the other, as activities which underscored Jewish distinctiveness and delayed the inevitable process of assimilation. Thus, towards the end of the Stalinist period, the Jewish question disappeared from the political and public lexicon. Those who used the term were considered to be anti-Soviet elements who stressed antisocialist national alternatives as a solution to the problem.
