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{{Short description|Soviet anti-Zionist organisation}}
The '''Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public''' ({{langx|ru|Антисионистский комитет советской общественности}}, ''Antisionistsky komitet sovyetskoy obshchestvennosti''; abbreviated '''AZCSP''' {{langx|ru|АКСО}}) was a body formed in 1983 in the [[Soviet Union]] as an anti-Zionist propaganda tool. Formation of AZCSP was approved on 29 March 1983 by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in resolution 101/62ГС: "Support the proposition of the Department of Propaganda of the Central Committee and the [[KGB]] [[USSR]] about the creation of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public..."

== Anti-Zionist manifesto ==
On 1 April 1983, the CPSU official newspaper, ''[[Pravda]]'', ran a full front-page article titled ''From the Soviet Leadership'':
: "...By its nature, Zionism concentrates ultra-nationalism, chauvinism and racial intolerance, excuse for territorial occupation and annexation, military opportunism, cult of political promiscuousness and irresponsibility, demagogy and ideological diversion, dirty tactics and perfidy... Absurd are attempts of Zionist ideologists to present those who criticize them, or condemn the aggressive politics of Israel's ruling circles, as antisemitic... We call on all Soviet citizens: <u>workers, peasants, representatives of intelligentsia</u>: take active part in exposing Zionism, strongly rebuke its endeavors; <u>social scientists</u>: activate scientific research to criticize the reactionary core of that ideology and aggressive character of its political practice; <u>writers, artists, journalists</u>: to more fully expose the anti-populace and anti-humane diversionary character of the propaganda and politics of Zionism..." (highlights preserved)

The fundamental idea of the anti-Zionist manifesto was that potential Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union were to be considered enemies of the Soviet Union. The anti-Zionist manifesto was signed by 8 [[anti-Zionist Jews]]:
*[[David Abramovich Dragunsky]], Colonel-General, twice the [[Hero of the Soviet Union]]
*Samuel Zivs, law professor 
*Genrikh Gofman
*Yuri Kolesnikov 
*Martin Kabachnik, Lenin Prize winner 
*Gregory Bondarevsky, history professor 
*Boris Sheinin, filmmaker 
*Henrikas Zimanas, philosopher<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archive.jta.org/article/1983/04/05/2996028/antizionist-manifesto-seen-as-new-soviet-gambit-to-close-doors-to-any-jewish-emigration |title=Anti-zionist Manifesto Seen as New Soviet Gambit to Close Doors to Any Jewish Emigration |website=archive.jta.org |access-date=22 May 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415072828/http://archive.jta.org/article/1983/04/05/2996028/antizionist-manifesto-seen-as-new-soviet-gambit-to-close-doors-to-any-jewish-emigration |archive-date=15 April 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Background and history ==
From late 1944, [[Joseph Stalin]] adopted a [[Zionism|pro-Zionist]] foreign policy, apparently believing that the new country would be [[socialism|socialist]] and would speed the decline of [[United Kingdom|British]] influence in the [[Middle East]].<ref>[[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]], ''A History of the Jews'' (1987) p.527</ref> Accordingly, in November 1947, the [[Soviet Union]], together with the other [[Soviet bloc]] countries, voted in favor of the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]],<ref>[http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/UN%20General%20Assembly%20Resolution%20181 UN General Assembly Resolution 181] Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs</ref> which paved the way for the creation of the State of Israel. On May 17, 1948, three days after [[Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948|Israel declared its independence]], the Soviet Union officially granted [[de jure]] recognition of Israel,<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/pss/2193961 Recognition of Israel] ''JSTOR'' - ''The American Journal of International Law'', Vol. 4, No. 3, July 1948.</ref> becoming only the second country to recognise the Jewish state (preceded only by the United States' ''[[de facto]]'' recognition) and the first country to grant Israel ''de jure'' recognition.

By 1983, the Soviet regime needed a new propaganda weapon in the [[Cold War]], as well as against an increasingly active internal [[dissident]] movement, to arrest or discredit the mass emigration of Soviet Jews and to alleviate the [[Arab]] concerns about its effects on Israel's [[demographics]]. By the dramatic stepping-up of "anti-Zionist" activities, the AZSCP was designed to solve these problems.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}}

David Abramovich Dragunsky, Colonel-General, twice [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] and [[World War II]] hero (he was the commander of the 55th Guards Tank Brigade), well known inside the country and abroad, was designated its chairman.

The writers who specialized in the Soviet-invented and sponsored doctrine of ''[[Zionology]]'' ("сионология") considered any expressions of [[Jew]]ishness as [[Zionism|Zionist]] and therefore subject to being stamped out. In November 1975, the leading Soviet historian academic M. Korostovtsev wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Central Committee, [[Mikhail Suslov]], regarding the book ''The encroaching counterrevolution'' by prominent Zionologist [[Vladimir Begun]]: "...it perceptibly stirs up [[anti-Semitism]] under the flag of anti-Zionism".

In addition to propaganda in the mass media and publishing, the AZCSP's projects included the "International symposium on contemporary problems of anti-Zionism" and preparation for an "International anti-Zionist congress".

By the end of the 1980s, with the new policies of [[glasnost]] and [[perestroika]], and with the impending [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], the old Soviet regime had lost its stability and many of those plans had to be cancelled. Finally it was dismantled in October 1994.

Some materials produced by the AZCSP were used by [[ultra-nationalist]] groups such as [[Pamyat]].

== List of members ==
* [[David Dragunsky]], chairman – Colonel-General, Hero of the Soviet Union (twice)
* {{ill|Samuil Zivs|ru|Зивс, Самуил Лазаревич}} – doctor of jurisprudence
* {{ill|Mark Krupkin|ru|Крупкин, Марк Борисович}}, v.c. – vice-chairman of ''Agenstvo Pechati Novosti'' (APN) publishing house, director of department of ''Literaturnaya Gazeta''
* [[Elina Bystritskaya]], actress
* I. P. Belyayev – doctor of economics
* {{ill|Yuri Kolesnikov|ru|Колесников, Юрий Антонович}} – writer
* {{ill|Martin Kabachnik|ru|Кабачник, Мартин Израилевич}} – academician, Hero of Socialist Labor
* [[Teodor Oizerman]] – philosopher and academician
* {{ill|Vladimir Kudryavtsev|ru|Кудрявцев, Владимир Николаевич}} – member of the Academy of sciences of the USSR
* [[Matvey Blanter]] – composer, Hero of Socialist Labor
* [[Angelina Stepanova]] – artist, Hero of Socialist Labor
* [[Tatyana Lioznova]] – film director, the State Award nominee
* {{ill|Boris Sheinin|ru|Шейнин, Борис Соломонович}} – cinematographer
* A. K. Marinich – director of a [[kolkhoz]], Hero of Socialist Labor
* {{ill|Genrikh Gofman|ru|Гофман, Генрих Борисович}} – writer, Hero of the Soviet Union
* {{ill|Caesar Solodar|ru|Солодарь, Цезарь Самойлович}} – writer
* [[Aron Vergelis]] – poet
* {{ill|Genrikh Zimanas|ru|Зиманас, Генрих Ошерович}} – professor
* [[Yakov Leybovich Fishman|Yakov Fishman]] – chief rabbi of Moscow (died a few months after the creation of the committee)<ref name=barbieri1983>{{citation|title=Death Frees Moscow's Rabbi|periodical=Spokane Chronicle|date=Jun 9, 1983|author=Anthony Barbieri, Jr.|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5cQSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cPkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5174,1956293&dq=adolf+shayevich&hl=en}}</ref>
* [[Adolf Shayevich]] – the chief rabbi of Moscow (declared on 1989-01-01 that he was no longer a member)<ref name=nyt1989wjc>{{citation|title=Soviet Jews to Join World Congress|author=Ari L. Goldman|periodical=The New York Times|date=January 4, 1989|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/04/world/soviet-jews-to-join-world-congress.html}}</ref>
and others.

==See also==
*[[Anti-Semitism]]
*[[Anti-Zionism]]
*[[History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union]]
*[[Soviet Anti-Zionism]]
*[[Refusenik]]
*[[Jackson–Vanik amendment]]
*[[Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee]]
*[[Doctors' plot]]
*[[Rootless cosmopolitan]]
*[[Yevsektsiya]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{ISBN|3-7186-5740-6}} ''Russian Antisemitism, Pamyat and the Demonology of Zionism (Studies in Antisemitism)'' by William Korey
*Robert O. Freedman, The Politics of Anti-Semitism and Emigration and the Dynamics of Resettlement, Duke University Press, 1989

{{Refusenik movement and 1990s post-Soviet aliyah}}
{{Jews in the Soviet Union}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anti-Zionist Committee Of The Soviet Public}}
[[Category:Anti-Zionism in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Soviet propaganda organizations]]
[[Category:Israel–Soviet Union relations]]
[[Category:1983 establishments in the Soviet Union]]