Do the Jews of the Soviet Union constitute a nation in the same way as the other nations living in the multi–national Soviet State? Is their political and constitutional status determined by Marxist-Leninist theory on the national question or by pragmatic political considerations alone? Does the determination of this status influence the position of the Jews in the Soviet Union and the formation of their national consciousness? And, finally, can one speak of a consistent approach in the policies of the Soviet Union towards Soviet Jewry?

These are the central questions which we shall endeavour to clarify, albeit in brief, in this chapter.

The Jewish national question in Soviet theory and constitutional documents

The Soviet theory of nationality and the Jews

There is no doubt that the Jewish problem has engaged Marxist theoreticians from the times of Marx himself, who devoted one of his early works to it, until today. As a complicated problem, an anomaly which does not easily fit into rigid theoretical frameworks, the Jewish question confronts them with a serious challenge and a perpetual torment. If Marx confines his debate on the Jewish national question to the sphere of religion and the Emancipation, and to the framework of general discussions on the question of alienation, of which he considers religion to be one of the most extreme forms, Lenin and Stalin – despite their being Marx's most consistent followers in all that concerns a negative attitude towards Jewish national existence – adopt purely ethnic terminology.