Soviet Chemist Launches Appeal Against Anti-Semitism

People's Deputy Vitali Goldanski, a leading scientist and politician, steps up campaign against Russian 'monarcho-Nazis'. Extending his involvement in the politics of his troubled country, Soviet chemist Vitali Goldanski has launched an international appeal warning of the rise of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. Goldanski, director of the Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics and a member of the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies, wrote in January to his foreign colleagues about a new "mo

Ken Kalfus

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People's Deputy Vitali Goldanski, a leading scientist and politician, steps up campaign against Russian 'monarcho-Nazis'.

Extending his involvement in the politics of his troubled country, Soviet chemist Vitali Goldanski has launched an international appeal warning of the rise of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union.

Goldanski, director of the Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics and a member of the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies, wrote in January to his foreign colleagues about a new "monarcho-fascist" movement that has developed in his country under the guise of Russian nationalism.

This concern was heightened by an incident on January 18, when several men entered the Moscow House of Writers and roughed up people there, while shouting anti-Semitic slogans and waving anti-Semitic banners. Police did not respond to the attack for 45 minutes and made no arrests.

[Editor's note: Following are excerpts from Goldanski's letter, which has been edited for clarity by The Scientist.] ...

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