A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
For much of the twentieth century, Europe was haunted by a threat of its own imagining: Judeo-Bolshevism. This myth—that Communism was a Jewish plot to destroy the nations of Europe—was a paranoid fantasy, and yet fears of a Jewish Bolshevik conspiracy took hold during the Russian Revolution and spread across Europe. During World War II, these fears sparked genocide.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Paul Hanebrink is Professor of History at Rutgers University. His research interests are: Modern East Central Europe, with a particular focus on Hungary; the history of nationalism and antisemitism as modern political ideologies; the place of religion in the modern nation-state.