Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
To answer your question, no, I doubt they ever identified as Russian and the Russians were not persecuted in Ukraine for being Russian back when they lived there. They were persecuted for being of Jewish ethnicity. They couldn’t get into good universities/were prohibited from getting higher level jobs and generally were mistreated by the ruling elite. It didn’t matter in what part of the USSR they lived since the Soviet government made sure to make them feel unwelcome in all parts of the country. That’s why most of them got out as soon as they were able to obtain a visa to the US/Israel/Germany,etc.
You are just repeating the stereotypes someone taught you. The top echelons of science and arts in the USSR were literally brimming with Jewish names. That's not to say discrimination didn't exist, I'm sure it did at some level, but to say that Jews were kept from education and high-level jobs is nonsense. The faculty at top universities was heavily Jewish.
Yes, the Jewish citizens of the USSR got out when they could but guess what! So did everyone else! Life in the USSR was harsh for everyone at some level so the Jews got out to escape the USSR, not the discrimination. They left first because they were the first to be allowed exit visas.