” target=”_blank” title=”they’ve claimed”>they’ve claimed that Vladimir Lenin was a secret Jew. You know, just another ” target=”_blank” title=”Time”>Time reports:
This fascinating morsel of information, gleaned from declassified KGB files, is not a minor detail in a country where anti-Semitism was a recognized state doctrine for decades. Starting in the 1930s, the Soviet regime —spurred on by its leader Joseph Stalin — launched a violent discriminatory campaign against Jewish citizens.
Born in 1870, Lenin identified himself simply as Russian. His official biography mentions only his Russian, German and Swedish origins. But one of the exhibition’s priceless pieces adds a key new element to the official narrative.
In a letter to Stalin in 1932 — six years after Lenin’s death — Anna Ulyanova, Lenin’s older sister, wrote that their maternal grandfather “came from a poor Jewish family and was, according to his baptismal certificate, the son of Moses Blank.” Blank was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine. In her letter, Ulyanova said her brother “had always thought highly of Jews.” She also urged Stalin to reveal Lenin’s Jewish background, concluding that “it would be wrong to hide it from the masses.”
Stalin, however, ordered Ulyanova to keep Lenin’s Jewish roots under wraps. A few years later, Stalin began to purge Jews from among the leaders of the revolution.
It is, of course, significant that neither Lenin’s mother nor Lenin were Jewish. So what does it matter that Lenin had Jewish ancestors?
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