The Historical Weakening of Anti-Semitism in Russia and its Short-Term Actualization in the Discourse of Modern Russian Nationalists

The article outlines the results of a study of anti-Semitism using two complementary methodological approaches, allowing us to view this phenomenon and its dynamics in Russia from different angles. On the one hand, macro sociological analysis points to the fundamental reasons for the consistent weakening of anti-Semitism in post-Soviet times. On the other hand, the content-analysis method used to study the discourse of Telegram channels of Russian nationalists showed that at a certain time (October-December 2023), the rhetoric of anti-Semitism increased sharply, as a reaction to the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Words and topics that are markers of anti-Semitism began to surpass the leader of Russia’s information agenda for the last two years - the topic of the Special Military Operation; by the end of the third month of the information explosion, however, Russian attention to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict had waned. In the discourse noted, the ideological differences between the imperial and ethnic currents of Russian nationalism became clear.