I present to you another update with Napoleon's permission. This covers efforts to relieve the Soviet Jews, and the international response to the August Revolution.
Exodus
Excerpt from Red in the Soil: 20th Century Russia by Vasily Prechov
Despite the sharp divisions within the Council of National Salvation, on one issue, besides opposition to the Soviets, the Council was unanimous about: freedom for the Soviet Jews. All sides understood that freeing the Jews was both a moral issue and as a way to rebuild Russia's destroyed prestige. And as almost all the "free settlements" were found in the liberated Siberia, it wouldn't require much violence to evacuate them.
This biggest dilemma among the Council was how to prevent atrocities toward Jews from their own side. There was a legitimate fear that, like the Whites in the First Russian Civil War, members of their own side would attack, rob, and kill Jews. Many Salvation officials were World War II veterans who remembered witnessing crimes committed by Poles against Jews in the aftermath of the war, and feared Russian civilians would attack Jews with little provocation.
"Should there be a Kielce [1]," wrote Social Democratic Party founder Andrei Sinyavsky ,"Rossiya would be as cursed forever. We could rebuild the Second Temple and it would not suffice the Jews."
After much debate, the Council decided to create a special army that would evacuate and protect the Siberian Jews. Officially labeled the 15th Division, it became known as the Red Sea Brigade [2].
The Red Sea Brigade had a unique training that combined riot prevention training (to deal with potential pogroms), Judaic studies, and Holocaust education. The Red Sea Brigadiers were told the story of Exodus, and how the deliverance of Jews from slavery in Egypt was the most holy act of all. The end goal was to create a unit, in the words of Yuri Galanskov, "that would be as loyal to the Jews as the Cossacks were to the tsars".
To test their worthiness, their commander, Nikolay Kiselyov [3] often staged surprise pogroms and hate crimes using actors and fake weapons to demonstrate the extent of their loyalty. When one was willing to get between a Jew a gun, is when one was ready to join. By December 1967, over 5,000 people had reached that level.
"Unbeknownst to me my commander hired actors to play a criminal and a Jew, with the criminal attacking the Jew", wrote Brigadier Nikita Korzhanik, "But not knowing the truth, I attacked the actor with the righteous rage of a man protecting a child."
To reduce the chance of a pogrom even less, The Council agreed to allow these rescue missions to be accompanied by humanitarians, NATO representatives, and Western journalists. The latter was especially crucial, as it would show the world the conditions Jews lived under, and destroy the reputation of the Soviet Union.
The Council also declared that any attack on Jews by soldier or civilian would be a capital offense, punished by hanging. To demonstrate this new law would be put into effect, every MGB Agent in Moscow was rounded up and imprisoned. Some, like Nikolai Ryzhkov and his Syndicalist allies, called for all the MGB agents to be taken outside Moscow and massacred in a ditch. Mikhail Kashnikov and others, however, ruled that out, claiming that unleashing terror would only set the stage for another tyrant.
Instead, a short but professional trial was organized for Vyacheslav Dorofyev, the leading MGB Agent in Moscow. Evidence of his role in the deportation of the Jews was gathered, and many MGB Agents were coerced into providing evidence through promises of leaner sentences rather than torture. On December 27, 1967, he was hanged in for "crimes against the Jewish people", and the news was announced in every single local and foreign newspaper. Many Jewish comedians called the hanging of Dorofyev, "the best Hanukkah present ever."
Excerpt of Transcript of CBS Evening News Report - January 15, 1968.
Walter Cronkite: Good evening. Our CBS Team has arrived at Yakutia-15, one of the so-called Jewish free settlements, accompanied by the Red Sea Brigade of the Russian Army, and a delegation of Red Cross members, NATO representatives, and other members of the media. Our team was invited by the request of the non-Communist Moscow government, to reveal the conditions Jews lived under. Due to much of Central Russia still under Red control, our team arrived in Russia through Vladivostok last week, but weather concerns delayed the journey to Yakutia-15. With the arrival of our delegation, the conditions the Soviet Jews have lived under, long a subject of intense speculation and anguish, can finally be revealed. We now cut to Yakutia-15. Bob?
Bob Simon: Hello Walter. As you can see, the conditions here can be described, at best, as ascetic. Were it not for trucks and our equipment, I feel like I would have traveled back in time to the Middle Ages.
Excerpt from The Icy Shtetl: Life in the Free Settlement by Thomas Freund
By 1958, the Free Settlements were home to almost all the surviving Soviet Jewish population. 500,000 people were scattered across 63 settlements. The largest, Yakutia-15, held 58,000 people, while the smallest, Tuva-9, held less than 300.
Conditions in the free settlements, were described by one journalist as "the worst, most free" place in all of Russia.
Indeed, living standards in the free settlements were possibly the lowest in all of the Soviet Union. Many Jews lived in conditions similar to their ancestors in did in the old Pale of Settlement. To avoid romanticizing the conditions for survivalists, it must be clear that these communities lacked the most basic amenities of modern civilization.
There was no plumbing or even wells, so water, for hydration, washing, and laundry had to be collected from melting snow. The housing for Jews was little more than tiny shacks that had to accommodate as many as ten people in one room.
All heating had to come from firewood that would be collected in the woods. Even then, the winter were brutal. Thousands of people in the settlements died of hypothermia during their first full winter in the Settlements, in 1958-59. The people crammed into the shacks would cuddle together for warmth.
Food was provided, but just enough to prevent starvation. During the scant time when farming could occur, during the summer months, some wheat and vegetables could be grown. Some food was provided by Soviet officials, but it was often stale or spoiled.
Medical supplies were rarely provided, and what was provided could only treat rudimentary illnesses. The only medical professionals were themselves Jews whose skills had atrophied during the Gulag.
However, there was one bright spot living in the free settlement: despite living in the worst conditions outside of the Gulags, the Jews had a freedom and autonomy unknown in the rest of the Soviet Union. There is a debate over why authorities largely ignored these communities. Some believe that, because of their isolation and poverty, Suslov and Malenkov didn't seem the as a serious threat. Others speculate that guilt prevented Soviet authorities from entering: no one wanted to stare a symbol of their betrayal in the face.
But in any case, this degree of autonomy had several consequences. Even though all these settlements were isolated from each other, a certain pattern emerged.
With no Soviet authorities interfering, the residents of these shtetls began rediscovering their Jewish faith. Indeed, there was an religious and cultural renaissance during the 1960s throughout these communities. In small shacks, schools teaching Hebrew prayer opened. Yiddish instruction became mandatory. Religious instruction that had been suppressed even well before the 1950s became common.
Religious faith, like in the past, was often used an escape from daily hardships. But for many, it was also done as a means of building a separate identity. By the time these Jews entered the free settlements, they had long stopped thinking of themselves as Soviets, or even Russians. Rediscovering religion was meant to permanently sever themselves from the communist society that so brutally failed them.
Jewish culture also thrived. In every settlement, there was at least one writer or musician. Near the end of the unified Soviet system, they became the centers of their communities, composing stories, plays, and songs, often in Hebrew and Yiddish.
Yakutia-15, the largest settlement, also had the largest numbers of cultural innovators. The famed composer Matvey Blanter [4] wrote dozens of songs during his stay, which are still sung by Russian Jewish communities in Israel. Vasily Grossman, who famously wrote
The Yellow Star during his time there, also wrote short stories that were the beloved by the men and women who swept it up.
It was in the settlements that the tradition of
Shney Teater, or Snow Theater in Yiddish, was born. During the harsh winters, dozens of plays, with stories that often related to World War II and the Revoluton, were written and acted out in the largest shacks in the settlements. Whole communities would crowd in to watch plays done with little props but a lot of imagination. These plays were what kept Jews going during harsh winters.
"The real heroes were the playwrights," wrote the far-right Israeli politician and settlement resident Vladimir Eidelstein [5], "they were what made us want to live into the next day. Simply so we could hear more of the story".
When the Soviet Jews arrived in Israel, they brought the tradition of
Shney Teater with them. Which is why the most active period of theater in Israel is January and February.
Excerpt from The History of the Refugee by Harold James
The plight of Soviet Jews quickly became an issue that unified the American people. The US Congress, with bipartisan support, contributed $98 million (in modern day value) to the UN to provide aid to the newly liberated Soviet Jewry. But there were no shortages of private efforts to raise funds for Soviet Jewish aid.
Private donations from philanthropists, non-profit groups, and ordinary citizens raised tens of millions of dollars. Volunteers from across the US traveled to Siberia to help out with humanitarian efforts. Celebrities organized benefit concerts. One such concert hosted by the Rat Pack raised $500,000 dollars. Sammy Davis Jr., a convert to Judaism, called it the "saddest, but most beautiful night of my career." There were even rumors that the gangster Meyer Lansky made a contribution, but it was never proven. The odd couple of Southern Baptist churches and African-American churches associated with the Civil Rights movement both made many donations, which was all the more notable as many congregants were themselves very poor.
In other foreign nations, aid efforts were no less dramatic. Jewish groups and other non-profits in Canada, Australia, the UK, Hungary, Argentina, South Africa and France contributed aid money and volunteers. Chiang Kai-Shek and Park Chung-Hee, as a favor to President Knowland, sent hundreds of Chinese and Korean volunteers to aid Jews in the refugee camps set up for them in Siberia. As it turned out, there were more volunteers than slots available. Almost all of these volunteers (like every person in China and the former North Korea) lost family during the Korean and Sino-Soviet Wars, and saw Jews, themselves victims of Soviet tyranny and betrayal, as kindred spirits. M It had helped that these countries lacked a history of antisemitism found in Europe.
"My parents were slaughtered by the Slavic barbarians," wrote Lee Pai Chou, one of the Chinese volunteers, "I spent my childhood forced to eat rats. Nobody was able to help me. I came to Yakutia, because I didn't want a Jewish child to go through what I went through, with no one able to help them."
The effort made by the international community can be attributed to a mixture of guilt: guilt over their humanitarian failure during the First Holocaust, but also guilt for the failure to provide aid during the Chinese Refugee Crisis. The international community was determined to make up for its failure in the past.
By March 20, thousands of UN soldiers and volunteers entered Siberia, and hundreds of millions of dollars had been raised to aid the Jewish people.
Excerpt from The Sixth Aliyah by Michael Rosenberg
The process of evacuating the Jewish settlements proved to be one the greatest successes of the Council of National Salvation. Settlements were quickly evacuated, with Jews given food. As they had been trained to do, the Red Sea Brigadiers ensured that no Jew came to harm. There were countless incidents when they were needed.
During the evacuation of a free settlement near Khabarovsk, a mob of 15 neo-Stalinists descended upon a makeshift camp of Jews. The three Red Sea Brigadiers, armed with little more than pistols and fists, quickly put down the mob, and strictly disciplined the soldiers who had failed to protect the refugees. Countless incidents proved to the world that a new Russian government emerged that would not harm the Jews.
There was even an urban legend of a young Brigadier who stood up to three heavily armed Council soldiers who were about the rape a Jewish woman. As the rumor went, they had rifles, and all he had was a pistol. One of soldiers told him "beat it boy, or we'll cap you." The young man replied, with nothing but absolute confidence,"Yes, but not before I send at least one of you to hell." The soldiers were so shaken by his resolve, that they surrendered the woman and ran away.
There were indeed confirmed stories of Brigadiers standing up to racist soldiers and policemen, some of them twice their age. Many Jews were so moved by the devotion of these young men, that some were granted Honorary citizenship in the state of Israel.
By the end of February 1968, virtually all the free settlements were evacuated. The roughly 500,000 Jews were congregated around 12 UN run refugee camps in the Sakha Republic. Yakutia-15, with the addition of tens of thousands of refugees, grew to a population of 95,000, making it the largest refugee camp in history at the time [6].
These communities became semi-permanent. Despite the desire of the international community to evacuate the Jews as soon as possible, it was clear they were in no shape to be moved. Over a decade of hard labor and isolation left many infirm, underfed, and diffident. Many were not physically or psychologically capable of re-entering a new society. The UN, with the help of doctors and psychologists, set up a six-month rehabilitation program for the Jewish refugees. It consisted of language education (mostly in English and Hebrew), physical exercise and therapy, Jewish instruction, and some technical education which helped Jews relearn the skills they had lost during their incarceration. Cafeterias were set up, providing Jews with the first real meal they had in years. More often than not, their meals were followed by controllable crying. After years of mistreatment, real kindness was impossible for them to comprehend.
Despite the fears of the Council, who kept countless Red Sea Brigadiers on guard at the refugee camps, who were joined with a lot of UN peacekeepers, rarely did the natives of the area make any attempt to harm Jews in the UN camps. In fact, many of the locals mingled well with the residents. Some clever locals even made a small fortune from the informal economy of the refugee camps [7], selling food and other goods to Jews, soldiers, and countless volunteers. In turn, the camp officials provided Russians (both Jew and gentile) with the first Western Goods they had seen in decades, which they then sold to their neighbors. William F. Buckley memorably called these small-scale entrepreneurs, "the people who re-discovered free enterprise in Russia."
Some groaned that the Jews were being coddled and conditioned to remain, but the UN was already making plans to evacuate them to Israel and any other country would provide refuge. In September of 1968 the first evacuation of Jews from the camps was made. Due to the recent conflict in Manchuria, and continued Soviet domination in central Russia, the Jews had to be evacuated by boat from Vladivostok, first to Hokkaido, where they stayed in other less sophisticated transit camps before going off to the destination of their choosing. Despite this long, somewhat inefficient process, within six months, 50,000 Jews had been evacuated.
By January 1971, almost all the Jews had immigrated, and the UN camp in Yakutia 15, the last of the refugee camps, was closed. The structures built to house refugees were either donated to the State of Israel or stolen by locals.
Excerpt from The Stalingrad Government by Harold Kinter
When the Solzhenitsyn Report was published, it sent Fyodor Kulakov into a terrible fit.
"He kept cursing almost every traditional opponent of communism" recalled Valentina Tryium, an aide, "capitalists, Zionists, reactionaries. Punctuated by a number of swear words."
With his dirty laundry exposed to the world, Kulakov's response was typical of any person who was a cog in a machine of mass murder: repression. Learning his lesson from Stalin, Kulakov resisted the destructive urge to mass murder members of his government and military, choosing instead have MGB agents publicly drag random people off the street and imprison them. This campaign of terror, launched in January 1968, had effect was to scare the people of Stalingrad into compliance.
By the beginning of 1968, Stalingrad was the most totalitarian city in the world. The protests from the August Revolution had long been put down, and an atmosphere of paranoia not seen since the 1950s reigned over the city. Even in daytime, the streets, watched over by brutal secret police, were as quiet as a graveyard. Speakers throughout the city blared communist slogans against the "reactionary traitors". To many, these proclamations were less of a rallying cry, and more of a coded warning against any dissent.
Even food lines, often areas of emotion, remained eerily calm. Even those who left them empty handed avoided crying or screaming in public.
Despite creating an atmosphere of persecution, Kulakov still felt other enemies needed to be put down. On March 8, he gave a top secret order, motivated by paranoia, racism, and a bizarre attempt at political cover-up: "The Zionist influence in Russia is to be eliminated." The message was clear. Any Jews found by the reds were to be shot.
Unfortunately, for Kulakov, his order was soon intercepted. The Stalingrad Government of was indeed full of rebel spies, who now had more ammo to use against Kulakov. By March 28, the infamous memo was published in the New York Times, creating an international uproar.
Excerpt from the Foreign Relations of the USSR by John Carson
The Kulakov Memo was described as the point of no return for the USSR by world leaders. Many had already suspicious of the kind of man Kulakov was, and the fact that Kulakov attempted to finish was Stalin started proved to the world that he was indeed "a Stalin in a suit". It marked the end of the diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union by many countries.
Since the August Revolution, many nations already began to question their continued diplomatic ties with the Soviet government. The US was pressuring many of them to recognize the rebel Russian government, but many nations refused, believing that maintaining ties with the Soviet government, a nuclear power, was a geopolitical necessity. There was also skepticism about the Council Government and its stability. The Kulakov Memo, however, destroyed any faith that the Soviet government could be a responsible international partner. By the end of April, almost every nation on Earth expelled their Soviet embassy.
Some embassies, like the embassy in Switzerland and India, saw whole defections by their entire staff.
In North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh was planning the expulsion [8] of the Soviet diplomats in Hanoi. But before he could issue the order, a group of private citizens ended up doing the deed for him. On April 10, 1968, a mob of 29 Vietnamese citizens and Chinese refugees appeared in front of the Soviet embassy, carrying guns, clubs and Molotov cocktail bottles. All of them had faces scarred by smallpox, and a murderous look in their eyes. They launched a vicious assault on the embassy, overwhelming the security staff. Once they breached the walls of the embassy, they began attacking embassy workers. The Soviet ambassador tried to call for help from the Hanoi police, but the assailants already severed the phone lines. But it is unlikely that it would have mattered. Hanoi police did appear on the scene, but refused to step in, watching the attack with the expression of men watching a cockfight as did other Vietnamese citizens.
Within an hour, almost the entire staff had been killed and the facility destroyed. The police only stepped in to arrest the attackers when they feared that the fires they would start would spread into the rest of Hanoi, but even in court, they were given meager sentences for arson.
The Vietnamese Embassy Massacre, as it became known, was the ultimate symbol of the USSR's fall from grace. Even more humiliating for Kulakov was Ho Chi Minh's pointed refusal to extradite the mob or even send back the bodies of those killed.
By the beginning of May, even the recognition of the USSR as a nation by international law began to be questioned.
Excerpt of Transcript of UN Ambassador George H.W. Bush's Speech to the UN-June 17, 1968
When the representatives of world's nations gathered in San Francisco in 1945, the deadliest war humanity had known was nearing its end. The soil of Europe had been stained with the blood of innocents. All of its nations laid in ruin. Within a few months, the Empire of Japan would be brought to its knees through the terrifying power of atomic warfare.
At the conference, it was the goal of representatives that such horrors would never again stain the world. When the USSR came to San Francisco and signed the charter, and was given a seat on the UN Security Council, it was assumed by all of us that the USSR believed in this same humble goal. We believed that the USSR, itself ravaged by war and genocide, would be willing partner toward international peace.
But since that hopeful day over the generation ago, what has the USSR given us, in return for our faith and cooperation. Were the promises of a free and democratic Eastern Europe fulfilled? No! The people of Eastern Europe found the Nazi jackboot replaced with a Communist one. Did Joseph Stalin honor the Genocide Convention of 1948? No! Stalin not only completed the Final Solution, but attempted genocide on the Baltic States and the Caucasus. Has the USSR honored its promises against wars of aggression and crimes against humanity? No! The USSR launched a war on its own ally, China, unleashing nuclear bombs, gas, and germ warfare with wild abandon. So many died during the Sino-Soviet, that some argue it to be worse conflict than the Second World War.
Even after Joseph Stalin's death, the leadership of the USSR continued to flaunt the principles of the United Nations when it suited its purposes. When the people of Eastern Europe rose up demanding freedom, the USSR met those demands with the threat of force, bringing back the horrors of the Second World War. Warsaw, a proud and beautiful city, was again was flattened for the second time in the 20th century.
When its own people rose up demanding bread and liberty, the Soviets chose to act like the tsars they abhorred, and punched its people in the throat. Even today, the government of the USSR continues to wage a war on its own citizens in defense of a cruel tyranny, and continues to deny statehood and self-determination to those who demand.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are at a turning point. To continue to let the USSR sit in this chamber, is to continue to be a party to the worst violations of human rights since World War II. Let us set an example, let us prove that we are a body that represents the hope for mankind, by throwing the USSR out, and inviting the Council of National Salvation in.
Excerpt from History of the United Nations by Albert Fritz
On May 7, 1968, one of the most important Resolutions in the history of the United Nations was introduced. Resolution 2758 [9], introduced by US Ambassador to the UN George H.W. Bush, would recognize the Council of National Salvation "as the only legitimate representative of the Russian people." In effect, it would end UN recognition of the Soviet Union, and gives its seat on the UN Security Council to the Council of National Salvation. The goal of the Resolution was to weaken the Stalingrad government by robbing it of all legitimacy, and strengthen the resolve of the rebel government.
However, the resolution required two-thirds vote in the United Nations for it to pass. Even though almost the entire body of nations had ended their foreign relations with the USSR, they still believed that the USSR needed to have a seat on the Security Council. The Soviet ambassador, Oleg Troyanovsky [10], was by this point one of the most despised men in geopolitics. Appointed in 1964, he, like all Soviet diplomats, continued to repeat the official line of the Soviet government, to the jeers of many. He was nevertheless commended for his incredible patience in the face of ridicule and threats.
By July 17, 5 versions of the Resolution had failed to pass. The most recent went 63 to 55 with 10 abstentions. Ambassador Bush, in an attempt to push the UN members into an agreement as the final vote approached, gave his famous ,"Throwing the USSR Out," speech. Observers noted that Troyanovsky listened to Bush's angry tirade with a look that combined sadness and disgust.
The next day, before the final vote was cast, Troyanovsky asked to speak before the UN assembly. He came to the podium jeered and ridiculed, but nevertheless continued to march with his trademark stoicism. Instead of speaking his usual dogma, Troyanovsky did something unexpected; he pulled a stack of papers out of his coat packet, claimed they were a script, and declared "I will not be an actor anymore," and tore up the documents, to the shock of everyone present.
Troyanovsky then admitted that he, like millions like him, believed in the promises of the Soviet state. He claimed, with tears in his eyes, "the hardest thing to admit is spending your life serving a lie. Well that's what I've done." He admitted the USSR sold out its promises of a worker's paradise, and finished his speech with ,"I love my homeland. I love it with all my soul. But that love cannot blind me to the fact that madmen now control it. Please vote for 2758. Please help my nation right itself again." After finishing, the whole assembly gave one of its loudest ovations ever. Troyanovsky's confession forever marked him as a brave man who stood for what was right, even when it meant standing against his homeland. His willingness to denounce his homeland proved to be the ammo needed to push 2758 through.
On July 18, Resolution 2758 was adopted by a roll call of 94 to 24, with 11 abstentions, with one of the for votes by Troyanovsky himself.
Across the world, millions of people in dozens of cities who had been protesting in favor of 2758 broke out into a thunderous cheer and applause. The excitement was greatest in Central Park, where a million people had gathered.
On July 31, the Council of National Salvation began representing Russia at the UN, and its delegates were seated on the UN Security Council. On that day, the flag of the USSR was removed from its place in the United Nations.
By the end of the year, the name "Soviet Union" would disappear from all official maps, replaced with Russia instead. However, this would soon complicate the issue of independence for the SSRs.
[1] That was a post-war pogrom against the surviving Jewish community in Poland. It was considered to be the final nail in the coffin for Poland's Jewish community.
[2] The idea is, like Moses splitting the Red Sea, The Brigadiers will split the Reds, and deliver the Jews from bondage.
[3] This guy helped rescue hundreds of Jews while serving as a partisan in Nazi-occupied Belarus, for which he became a member of the Righteous Among the Nations. ITTL, he was shipped off to a gulag, and after he got out, he quickly joined the dissident movement. ITTL, running the Red Sea Brigadiers is going to give him even more recognition.
[4] Blanter composed Katyusha, one of the most famous Soviet songs. His fate will again underscore the utter depravity of Stalin, and his war on the symbols of the USSR.
[5] Yes, that's Zhirinovsky. Due to his father fleeing Russia, his Jewish faith wasn't revealed until the tail end of the Soviet Holocaust, until a man betrayed his mother. His mother was executed, and he spent just a few months in Kolmya. I think he would probably more nuts than OTL, because of the sheer trauma of it all.
[6] By contrast, the Zaatari camp in Jordan is home to about 80,000 people.
[7] In the Syrian camps, a similar phenomenon has also occurred. It might even encourage the people living there to settle permanently.
[8] Ho Chi Minh, by this point, despised the Soviets. He himself was appalled by the Soviet Pogrom and Stalin's duplicity, having OTL had a cordial relationship with David Ben Gurion. He was also pissed off by the military setbacks Stalin's wars caused. He kept the embassy open for the sake of international clout, but with the Kulakov Memo, he decided to push the Soviets out.
[9] This was the OTL resolution that made the PRC the legitimate representative of China. In fact, I read about the events of that resolution to write this part.
[10] OTL, he became UN ambassador in the 1970s, but the frequent purging of foreign affairs sped up his promotion up a little.