The Pete Quiñones Show - Reading Solzhenitsyn's '200 Years Together' w/ Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson - Part 112

Episode Date: February 18, 2026

38 MinutesPG-13Dr. Matthew Raphael Johnson is a researcher, writer, and former professor of history and political science, specializing in Russian history and political ideology.Pete and Dr. Johnson continue a project in which Pete reads Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's '200 Years Together," and Dr' Johnson provides commentary.Borhy Splacheni Krovyu: The Foundations and Causes of the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022-2025The Soviet Abuse of Psychiatry and Its Roots in Leftist Ideology - Matthew Raphael JohnsonSelf-Indulgent Historical Mythology: The Fantasy of Stalin’s “Antisemitic Russian Nationalism”Stalin the Eternal Philosemite: Soviet Support for Zionism and Israel before and after 1948Communist Misrule in Soviet Kazakhstan: The Ideological and Ethnic Nature of the Goloshchyokin Genocide (1930-1933)‘Crushing the Resistance’ – Joseph Stalin’s Ukrainian Genocide RevisitedStalin the Eternal Philosemite: Soviet-American Joint Support for Zionism in the 1940sDr Johnson's PatreonDr Johnson's CashApp - $Raphael71RusJournal.orgTHE ORTHODOX NATIONALISTDr. Johnson's Radio Albion PageDr. Johnson's Books on AmazonDr. Johnson's Pogroms ArticleThe Unmentionable Genocide: New Khazaria, the Russian Revolutions and Soviet Legality in the 1920s by Dr. Matthew Raphael JohnsonWith Friends Like These. . . Patriarch St. Tikhon, General Anton Denikin and the Defeat of the White Armies, 1917-1922 by Dr. Matthew Raphael JohnsonThe Orthodox Nationalist: Karl Marx “On the Jewish Question” (1844)Pete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

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It's all because of you. And, yeah, I mean, I'll never be able to thank you enough. So thank you. The Pekingona Show.com. Everything's there. I want to welcome everyone back to our reading of 200 years together by Alexander Solzhenison. This is episode number 112. Dr. Johnson, how are you doing?

I am doing well. I can honestly say that. Um, no exaggeration. Um, it's been a rough few months. I thank you, I thank you personally, but everyone else for the prayers that you've offered up for me. Um, uh, and, uh, there's a few more medications I have to get on, which the pharmacy doesn't have. And once I get them, um, I'll be, I'm 80%, 85% right now. I'll be 100% after that. So I truly appreciate you guys concerned.

Awesome. Good to hear. Glad to have you back. Glad you made it through. Yep. All righty. Picking up where we left off last time. All these political fluctuations and changes in the Jewish policies in the Soviet Union did not pass unnoticed but served to awaken the Jews. In the 1959 census, only 21% Jews named Yiddish as their first language. In 1926, it was 72%. Even in the 1970s, they used to say that Russian Jewry, which was in the past, the most Jewish Jewry in the world, became the least Jewish. The current state of Soviet society is fraught with destruction of Jewish spiritual and intellectual potential. Or as another author put it, the Jews in the Soviet Union were neither allowed to assimilate,

nor were they allowed to be Jews. Yet Jewish identity was never subdued during the entire Soviet period. The Soviet Union was, to a great extent, the creation of Jewish intellectuals. Not entirely, but it was a creation of Jewish intellectuals. They were extremely secular. And unlike, for example, military dictators from Latin America, who overwhelmingly came from impoverished backgrounds. The Jews in the party came from upper class backgrounds, overwhelmingly,

usually emergence from Ukraine or Belarus did very, very well, upper middle class. And so clearly, you know, Judaism as such, was never repressed in the Soviet Union. As such, it was never repressed in the Soviet Union. But as I've said before, Israel's founded largely by the Soviet Union in 1948, and that's when the wheels came off. It doesn't mean there was any kind of anti-Semitism. And Ropov, as I've said before, was a Jewish head of the KGB and then eventually became dictator of the USSR. But still, it was Christians that were orthodox and imprisoned. particular, but Christians in general that were destroyed on a daily basis.

In 1966, the official mouthpiece, Sovitesh Heimland, claim that, quote, even assimilated Russian-speaking Jews retain their unique character distinct from that of any other segment in population, end quote. Not to mention the Jews of Odessa, Kiev and Karkov, who, quote, sometimes were even snooty about their Jewishness to the extent that they did not want to befriend Agoy. End quote. Okay. Scientists Leo Tumerman, already in Israel in 1977, recalls the early Soviet period when he used to reject any nationalism.

Yet now, looking back at those years, quote, I am surprised to notice what I had overlooked then. Despite what appeared to be my full assimilation into the Russian life, the entire circle of my close and intimate friends at that time was Jewish. Well, what a shock. And when he uses the word Russian, you know, the basis of Russian culture is orthodoxy. So the only thing he really could be talking about is the language.

But he's claiming full assimilation on the one hand, but oh my God, wait a minute, all my friends were Jewish. This is just, it's a shock to me. The sincerity of his statement is certain. The picture is clear. Such things were widespread, and I witnessed similar situations quite a few times. and Russian people did not mind such behavior at all. Another Jewish author notes, in the USSR, quote, non-religious Jews of all walks of life hand in hand defended the principle of racial purity.

He adds, quote, nothing could be more natural. People for whom the Jewishness is just an empty word are very rare, especially among the unassimilated Jews, end quote. This is the key issue, and not just in the USSR or Russia or anywhere else. There's only one nation in the world, according to the Jews, and it's them. Everyone else should be in chaos, intermixing and everything. But to promote ethnocentrism as a Jew anywhere is accepted and considered praiseworthy. you do that for other people who might not be in favor at the time.

The regime always used to do with Albanians, another doing it with Ukrainians. But any other group you're going to be looked at strangely, especially if you're white or white ethnicity or orthodoxy or Catholicism. And that just speaks to the power that they have, like they continue to have. They had it then and they have it now. how could there be any possible oppression of Jews? And when we hear words like this.

Natanzh Shoransky's testimonial, given shortly after his immigration to Israel, is also typical. Quote, much of my Jewishness was instilled into me by my family. Although our family was an assimilated one, it nevertheless was Jewish. My father, an ordinary Soviet journalist, was so fascinated with the revolutionary ideas

of happiness for all and not just for the Jews, that he became an absolutely loyal Soviet citizen. End quote. Yet in 1967, after the Six-Day War and later in 1968 after Czechoslovakia, quote, I suddenly realized an obvious difference between myself and non-Jews around me, a kind of sense of the fundamental difference between my Jewish consciousness and the national consciousness of the Russians. Russians weren't allowed to have a national consciousness. I the time. Russia was exploited beyond belief. It was the one place.

I've said this a thousand times, but it's important to look at the Leningrad affair because it was based on some vague form of Russian nationalism, despite the fact that they were Stalinists. There is no Russian national consciousness at the time. it wasn't permitted. It was called Black Hundred National Chauvinism or something like that. Jews were completely different. And it's true that as Israel really, you know, these wars that they won, little tiny Israel defeating these much larger states, backed by the USSR, by the way, created this tremendous pride. And the key issue is that the Soviet Union,

and Israel were on different sides. So if you're a Soviet, so-called assimilated, a Soviet Jew, you have to make a choice. There were hardcore Stalinists that rejected Israel and all that stuff. But you have people like him who, you know, their ideas changed. People weren't even certain if Israel was going to make it in the first few years after 1948. But only did they make it, but they defeated all their enemies. And this is when the IDF got this. They don't have it anymore, but the IDF got this aura of invincibility about them.

They could take on three much larger states at once and win. And I don't think that he suddenly realized there was a difference between myself and non-Jews around me. I don't think that was, I think he's exaggerating there a little bit. And there is a fundamental difference between my Jewish consciousness and the national consciousness of anybody else, but the one place that was not allowed to have it was Russia. And here is another very thoughtful testimonial from 1975. Quote, the efforts spent over the last hundred years by Jewish intellectuals to reincarnate themselves into the Russian national form were truly titanic.

yet it did not give them balance of mind. On the contrary, it rather made them to feel the bitterness of the binational existence more acutely. And they have an answer to the tragic question of Alexander Block. Quote, my Russian life, my Russia, my life, are we to drudge through life together? To the question to which a Russian as a rule gives an unambiguous answer. A member of Russian Jewish intelligentsia used to reply, sometimes after self-reflection, quote, no, not together for the time being. Yes, side by side,

but not together. A duty is no substitute for motherland. And so the Jews felt free from obligations at all sharp turns of Russian history. That last line is vague. Obligations to the Russian Soviet Union. We know they had no obligations to Russia, but to the Soviet Union, maybe it was a different story. I think the anti-Zionists, well, I'm sorry, I know that the anti-Zionists in USSR at the time were becoming a majority and not just there. You know, we're talking about 1975 here. This is a very different time. Things had changed radically.

older Soviet capital was not profitable. The Jews needed to look elsewhere, and they saw it in places like the U.S., the huge money that was going into Israel, not just from assistance, but from Germany had to pay these reparations. Of course, they had their Rothschilds behind them, which he was quite aware of. and Jews have this tendency. They are aware of, you know, one side is declining, another side is rising, you need to go to the other side. And that's why Israel was such a huge problem.

And by 1975, and as soon as I'm done with this essay, I'll send it to you. It's very important. Jews had separated largely from the Soviet Union. sometimes physically and certainly mentally. So I think that's what he means Jews felt free from obligations. That this isn't the Soviet Union anymore. This isn't my country anymore. Lekindu Block, who I've read tremendously over the years,

was well aware of these issues. he was an symbolist poet excellent excellent writer but you know I want to point something out that I didn't point out

the last time in the previous paragraph the revolutionary ideas of happiness for all that was never ever mentioned in any of the writings of any of the leaders

of the USSR ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever happiness that's such a strange way to put it Maybe it's a strange translation, but happiness for all was not concern. Marxism, everything is inevitable. Everything is as follows a scientific pattern. You have really no choice.

But I don't, happiness for all, I've never heard that phrase used seriously by any of the great revolutionary writers in the early US. are. That's something that they simply created. Fair enough. One can only hope for all Russian Jews to get such clarity and acknowledge this dilemma. Yet usually the problem in its entirety is blamed on anti-Semitism. Quote, excluding us from everything genuinely Russian, their anti-Semitism simultaneously barred us from all things Jewish. Anti-Semitism is terrible, not because of what it does to the Jews by imposing restrictions on them, because of what it does to the Jews by turning them into neurotic, depressed, stressed, and

defective human beings, end quote. Damn. That came out of nowhere. I don't know specifically what are you talking about. I'm going to look and see who quoted that while you'll comment. Yeah, yeah. Where that's from. Again, by 1975, it's somewhat believable, but those laws against anti-Semitism were still

on the books and they were still enforced. You still had trials. People still want to prison because of it. And Dropov and Brezhnev they were trying to revive the old Stalinist concept.

But there was no going back unfortunately for them. And but there was But there certainly were no substantial restrictions. And I don't think that that's what turned them into neurotic, depressed, stressed, and defective human beings. If that was the case, Russians would be absolutely off the charts. It says it's from V. Bogoslovsky, titled Galuto with Hope, volume 22, written in 1985, number 40, page 133 and 133 and 134.

I think I'm familiar with him. Some kind of journal probably, if I were to guess. Yeah, I'm not familiar with that. Okay. Still, those Jews who had fully woken up to their identity were very quickly, completely, and reliably cured from such a morbid condition. Jewish identity in the Soviet Union grew stronger as they went through the historical ordeals predestined for Jewry by the 20th century.

First, it was a Jewish catastrophe during the Second World War, though the, through the efforts of official Soviet muffling and obscuring Soviet jury only comprehended its full scope later. Another push was given by the campaign against cosmopolitans in 1949 through 1950. Then there was a serious threat of a massacre by Stalin, eliminated by his time. death. And with Khrushchev's thaw and after it, later in the 1960s, Soviet Jewry quickly awoke spiritually, already sensing its unique identity. This is, it's amazing how they think because this is Solzhenitin writing, but he's reflecting, you know, Jewish literature at the time. cosmopolitan often meant Jewish

but if there's one group of people who were not cosmopolitan will be a Zionist what it comes down to what cosmopolitan comes down to is a realization that Jews are fanatical nationals which to some extent is okay but the problem is they despise nationalism of anyone around them. And they will do anything and everything. You know, immigration, whatever it is.

Divide in rule, divide and conquer. To keep it from developing in others. Massacre by Stalin? I don't think so. In fact, Schultz and Eaton laid that out a few chapters ago. And yeah, his death was always timely. and the thaw you know part of the thaw was being very image conscious with the with the with the west the west wanted to well they were always very image conscious but the thaw was um you know this is why you know sholson eaton got even though it was later you know was not shot why goreyev was not shot they just were dumped

in the West that would be terrible optics by them and it's funny that Khrushchev renewed the well there was always attacks on the Orthodox Church anywhere it was found it was destroyed unless it was connected with this tiny little patriarchate in Moscow but that's

the renewal of the shooting of of Prigian monks went hand in hand with and occurred at the same time with Soviet jewelry awakening, sensing its unique identity. I don't think that's a coincidence. During the second half of the 1950s, quote, the growing sense of bitterness spread over large segments of Soviet jewelry

led to consolidation of the sense of national solidarity, end quote. But, quote, only in the late 1960s did a very small but committed group of scientists, Note they were not humanitarian, the most colorful figure among them was Alexander Voronel, begin rebuilding of Jewish national consciousness in Russia, end quote. And then against the nascent national consciousness of Soviet Jews, the Six-Day War suddenly broke out and instantly ended in what might have seemed a miraculous victory. Israel had ascended in their minds, and Soviet Jews awoke to their spiritual, and consanguous kinship with Israel?

Yeah, this is, you know, it's still so twisted to me that these Khazars, speaking, you know, Yiddish, just march into the Middle East and claim that this is our identity. This is where we're from. It had to have known that this is nonsense. But it just goes to show that the Soviet press didn't lie. They didn't say that it was a great, great Arab victory, but they told the truth. Now, they may have editorial.

It's typical of proffield. You know, they would usually tell the truth, but then they would editorialize. You know, Israeli, America's puppet defeated the Arabs, and it shows you that we have to be more self-conscious to fight this development of imperialism or something like that. I would, in terms of factual, you know, simple facts, I would trust profit over any American newspaper, major American newspaper. It's just that they would always at the end editorialize and tell you what to think about it. But this racial concept, which they mentioned, yeah, the foundation of Israel ruined everything. I mean, it was it was tenuous to begin with, but it ruined everything. And once, you know, it wasn't just that the U.S. gave them a better deal, Israel a better deal,

and we're pumping huge amounts of money in there. It was just that it was in addition the radical separation of the Soviet way of life and the American way of life. at the U.S., Britain were shooting ahead specifically at this time. Now, it's not the only reason why Jews separated from the Soviet Union, but it was a big part of it. And there was now Zionism was taking over. Before we first started talking about it, it was like six guys.

Now it's this, it's everywhere. This is not something that Moses has to say it will predict it or anything like that. This was something brand new. And, yeah, racial solidarity. They always had racial solidarity. But after the Six-Day War, that just was put on steroids. But the Soviet authorities, furious at Nassar's disgraceful defeat, immediately attacked Soviet Jews with the thundering campaign against the, quote,

Judeo-Zionist fascism, end quote, insinuating that all the Jews were Zionists and claiming, that the, quote, global conspiracy of Zionism, end quote, is the expected and inevitable product of the entirety of Jewish history, Jewish religion, and the resultant Jewish national character. And because of the consistent pursuit of the ideology of racial supremacy and apartheid, Judaism turned out to be a very convenient religion for securing world dominance, end quote. This is why the 1970s in Moscow were just completely different than, the 30s, 40s, 50s.

You had high-ranking people talking like this. You had major newspapers talking like this. Even today, you know, you go to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, for example. I have many times, and you read some of their analysis of world events. And you think that it's like one of us speaking, you know, until you get to the end. and then the last sentence is that's why we need to

return to the ideals of Lenin which doesn't make any sense but but this kind of thing the party was was realizing that the Jews didn't want to be there

anymore but it was very difficult for them they had so many you know it wasn't a huge part of the population but was there was generally elite as I said before they didn't want anybody with military knowledge or secret, you know, clearance, just up and going. What about their education, which we paid for?

Which now is going to be put at the service of the West. But racial supremacy apart? This was unheard of before. And how it's a convenient religion. Well, it does make sense. And this is something that you would find. in a lot of different major newspapers in the in the in the Soviet Union and it's true and much as I admire nasser his ideological approach was was actually a social nationalist 100% his defeat was absolutely disgraceful

but it it gave Jews a sense that there's there's a miracles going on and it's just so happens that we're at a period where there's no profitability left in the Soviet capital things are starting to fall apart, things starting to get older. There's no consumer market or anything like that. But maybe we need to leave. And now you have a huge problem for the USSR, again, proving how important Judaism was to the Soviets. The campaign on TV and in the press was accompanied by a dramatic break of diplomatic relations with Israel. The Soviet Jews had many reasons to fear. quote, it looked like it was going to come to calls for a pogrom, end quote. But underneath this scare, a new and already unstoppable explosion of Jewish national consciousness

was growing and developing. Quote, bitterness, resentment, anger, and the sense of social insecurity were accruing for a final breakup, which would lead to a complete severing of all ties with this country and this society, to emigration, end quote. The victory of the Israeli army contributed to the awakening of national consciousness among the many thousands of almost completely assimilated Soviet Jews. The process of national revival had begun. The activity of Zionist groups and cities all across the country surged. In 1969, there were attempts to create a united Zionist organization in the USSR.

An increasing number of Jews applied to emigrate to Israel. That's all one quote. Yeah, and I can't stress how significant this is. It's uncomfortable for Western intellectuals to talk about because it proves that Soviet communism was very Jewish. Marxism in general is very Jewish. The left is very Jewish. But as I've said before, you have very important people

now wanting to leave. now, the Soviet Union doesn't their homeland anymore. Stalin, yeah, Stalin defeated Germany. Wonderful. That was a long time ago. We have a new patron now. And you really can't blame them for it. Again, I want to be consistent.

You know, I'm an ethnic nationalist. I've always been. You can't separate. The Jews certainly are allowed to have that. Just not the way that they do it. Not the way Israel functions. But you really can't blame them for it. You can't really blame them for seeing this.

Zionism at the time meant alliance with the U.S. There's no getting out of it because the U.S. was finding. American Jews, British Jews, were spending a fortune on Israel, arming it and, you know, there's no getting out of it. And so it wasn't paranoid for the Soviets, for the KGB, even though you had Jewish members to start wondering, you know, what's, do we have a, do we have a, do we have an enemy within? A pogrom is a little bit dramatic, you know. But it's, it's, you know, you can't blame the Jews in the one hand. You can't blame the Soviets on the other.

By the way, this is, this is, this is a milieu. where Putin came from. A little bit later. Soviet patriotism against Zionism, against Jewish nationalism and racial supremacy. People coming from the KGB from high ranks in the army. This was the ideological ferment of the time. Zionists in the one hand,

Soviet nationalist on the other, with big air quote, whatever that might mean. And in my book, Russian populist, on the ideology of Vladimir Putin. I go into this in some detail. And I'm glad, you know, Solzhen Eaton confirms it. And it's, but it's true.

Although you certainly, you can't blame either side, given the, given the contact. After, and the numerous refusals to grant exit visas led to the failed attempt to hijack an airplane on June 15, 1970. The following dim shits, Koznetsoff hijacking affair can be considered a historic landmark in the fate of Soviet Jewry. Yeah, I know a thing or two about that.

We get into it in the next chapter, really. Very unfortunate name. But this is something that all Jews were following. They did try to hijack a plane. And they were caught. They were executed, this is something that only the most hardcore Stalinist Jew living in the Soviet Union could have been, you know, could have supported. Our people, people on our side, the nationalist side, often don't realize that the Jews had made their split with, this was happening anyway. But then the hijacking affair, there was a lot of anger about that.

And that's for the next chapter, I believe. He wouldn't just leave us hang in there. But yeah, and the next chapter is entitled Breaking Away from Bolivism. This is one of the key events of the 20th century. This is world-defining. This isn't just some academic issue here. And I think in the next the next episode, I'll talk more about that hijacking, but they were doing all kinds of things like that. A bit later on, the Jewish Defense League was setting bombs off at the Soviet embassy in the U.S. and Britain.

Anything to harm the USSR. The Jewish Defense League supported the U.S. and the U.S. getting on war, which is, you know, which is odd, but it hurt the USSR that the U.S. were involved. That's all it took. And the neocons came into their own now. The neocons really came into their own, given all of this and the success of the Israeli experiment, so to speak.

And, well, unfortunately, the only good. people who were not allowed to be nationalists were Russians. All righty. That was a short one so that we could finish up this chapter. And like you said, the next chapter is chapter 24 breaking away from Bolshevism. And we will start that one on the next episode. All righty. Remind everyone, go over to the show notes and go over to the links in the descriptions in the video descriptions.

And please support Dr. Johnson's work. go to the Patreon. There's ways you can support him directly. Also buy his new book. That's another way of supporting him. And let him know that you've appreciated what he's done here. We are getting close to being done. So if you haven't, yeah, if you haven't shown your support for Dr. Johnson, please do it now.

Yes, please. I appreciate those who have. And you have a great listener base. Pete, you really do. And they've been quite generous. Absolutely. They're the best. I mean, yeah.

I yell at them often. I berate them often. But it's only because I love them so much. Yeah, like a drill sergeant, you know. Yeah. What you do. Yeah. Yeah.

We just, um, I think sometimes we, um, even I do it. I fail to, stop living in reality and I start living inside my head. And it's like, all right, break out, break out. Reality's out here. And we have to see things for what they are. Well, you know, I think that's more the case for our opponents than us or you personally. We can fall into it.

Yeah, yeah, it's quite possible. I understand. But our enemies live in a complete bubble. and just understand that someone like me, I know the leftist arguments inside and out. I went to grad school, Missouri, St. Louis, Nebraska, Lincoln, all leftist professors, usually from the Ivy League. You know, they laid it all out.

But our point of view, especially our intellectual point of view, they don't know at all. They're not subject to it. It's censored. You can't get it on Google unless you really know. know where you're going. And so when they hear us, they get hit because I'm getting hit with a truck. And the reaction is either, in my experience, is either total anger, you know, censorship, get rid of this guy, or in some cases, in some cases, you know, please explain yourself.

So I become a better professor or a better scholar. You know, I told you before the one place I got thrown out. The one man who supported me was Jewish professor there. So, you know, they didn't think I'd done anything wrong. It really just depends, but that's, you know, and we're hitting people with a ton of bricks here. I'm very, very happy to be a part of it.

Thank you. So I'll see you in a couple days. All right, my friend. Bye-bye.