The Six-Day War Victory and the Rise of the Soviet Zionist Movement

By early June 1967, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq had mobilized their armed forces, supported by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria. Combined, the Arab coalition forces numbered 547,000 troops, equipped with 957 combat aircraft and 2,504 tanks. Everything was prepared to obliterate the nascent State of Israel from the map.

In response, Israel deployed 50,000 regular troops and 214,000 reservists, alongside 300 combat aircraft and 800 tanks. The apprehension was well-founded, and the global Jewish community, still reeling from the tragedy of the Holocaust, waited in tense anticipation. 

Soviet propaganda treated the outcome as a foregone conclusion, predicting the total defeat and destruction of Israel and suggesting that the future of the Middle East should be envisioned without a Jewish state. Backing its rhetoric with action, the Soviet Union provided unconditional support to the Arab coalition. 

Yet, an extraordinary victory ensued. Despite being forced to fight on three fronts simultaneously, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, Minister of Defense General Moshe Dayan, and Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Yitzhak Rabin successfully led the country to a decisive victory in just six days.

It was a stunning triumph. 

To salvage its reputation, the Soviet propaganda apparatus accused Israel of aggression and launched a massive anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist campaign. The Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with Israel, and the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, Alexei Kosygin, accused Israeli leadership of war crimes from the UN podium. 

Israel was depicted as possessing formidable military might and playing a central role in a global imperialist coalition opposing the "camp of peace and socialism."

Photo source: Telegram channel "The Fifth Point"

Meanwhile, by the end of the summer of 1967, Soviet OVIR (Office of Visas and Registration) departments were overwhelmed with repatriation requests to Israel. In several regions, particularly in Ukraine and Lithuania, spontaneous demonstrations by the Jewish population occurred. 

Inspired by the historic victory of the relatively small State of Israel, Soviet Jews reclaimed their heritage and asserted their right to Jewish identity. Furthermore, the Israeli triumph in the Six-Day War shattered the persistent stereotype of the weak and submissive "Galut Jew." 

For the first time in Soviet history, Soviet Jews experienced a surge of national pride and a willingness to challenge the official policy of state antisemitism, expressing solidarity with Israel.

On January 22, 1969, under pressure from Western nations and international Jewish organizations, the Supreme Soviet ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which served as the formal legal basis for emigration to Israel. 

The impact was profound. In 1969 alone, 27,000 Soviet Jews requested invitations from relatives in Israel, and between March and December 1971, over 41,000 applications were submitted to OVIR offices. 

Until the late 1960s, the Zionist movement in the USSR consisted of small, clandestine groups that lacked broad appeal and clear goals. State security agencies routinely apprehended participants in these circles, sentencing them to GULAG terms ranging from 10 to 25 years. 

Once emigration to Israel commenced, the movement gained a definitive objective, and its ranks swelled. Leaders and members of Zionist groups—who, among other activities, taught Hebrew and listened to Israeli radio broadcasts—began to openly assert themselves and demand legalization. Soviet Jews transformed into active historical agents.

At great risk to their lives and freedom, Soviet Jews publicly demanded the right to emigrate, as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thousands of letters and petitions were sent to the Soviet government and Western public figures. In August 1969, an underground All-Union Coordinating Committee was established in Moscow to direct the activities of Zionist groups.

The "Jews of Silence," as Elie Wiesel famously termed them, were turning into "Jews of Hope"—a phrase coined by British historian Martin Gilbert, who visited the USSR in the 1980s. There was a steady increase in the number of individuals wishing to link their future with Israel and prepared to fight for that right.

In particular, in 1969, eighteen Jewish families from Georgia managed to smuggle their famous appeal to the West (see article; video). "We believe our prayers have reached God. We know our appeals will reach mankind. For we ask for little: let us go to the land of our forefathers," the letter pleaded. 

The Soviet authorities reacted swiftly. In January 1970, the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a secret resolution "On Measures to Counter the Anti-Soviet Campaign of Zionist Organizations," initiating a large-scale, state-sponsored antisemitic and anti-Israeli propaganda campaign aimed at dismantling the emigration movement from within. 

On February 18, 1971, another secret resolution was adopted: "On Measures to Strengthen the Struggle Against the Anti-Soviet and Anti-Communist Activities of International Zionism," which formed the basis of Soviet international anti-Zionist propaganda.

In 1972, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences established the Permanent Commission for the Coordination of Scientific Criticism of Zionism. The commission viewed all Soviet Jews as potential traitors and anti-Soviet elements, and was responsible for generating the prominent propaganda tropes of the Brezhnev era. 

Any positive references to Jews or mention of the Holocaust were systematically expunged from publications, leaving room only for narratives depicting them as enemies and traitors. The state combatting the Jewish movement utilized well-established methods: surveillance, wiretapping, disconnection of telephone lines, deprivation of livelihoods, "preventative" interrogations by the KGB, physical assaults, searches, and inevitable imprisonment and exile.

The anti-Zionist policies of the USSR persisted without significant change until the Perestroika era, when the rapid and largely uncontrollable progression of events led to the dismantling of the "Iron Curtain," allowing for emigration to Israel.  

Debates continue as to the extent to which the national Jewish movement contributed to, or was one of the primary causes of, the dissolution of the Soviet Union. One fact remains indisputable: Israel's extraordinary victory in the Six-Day War served as a catalyst and an inspiration for many Soviet Jews in their struggle for rights and freedoms.