Doubly Chosen: Jewish Identity, the Soviet Intelligentsia, and the Russian Orthodox Church by Judith Deutsch s> Kornblatt (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 175 However, instead of accusing these men of spying, the British decided to involve them in a counter-espionage operation;in particularPhilby,who was regarded as reliable by Moscow, was used as a channel for passing false information to the Soviets about the extent of the Britishnuclear deterrence; and he was also used as a stalkinghorse in a wider operation to try to trap Maclean and Burgess, an operation that would have succeeded had it not been for 'bungling'in London by Burgessand Blunt. This is allfascinating,even it is not alwayswrittenin an accessibleway. The problem with the argument, as Hamrick himself acknowledges,is that much of the evidence is circumstantial.The case dependspartlyon a certainreading of the British review of the Venona project that took place in I996 (which followed the US National Security Agency's declassificationof the Venona archive in 1995); according to Hamrick, British intelligence's account of Venona's role in exposing Maclean as an agent was deliberatelyselective and even deceptive, and designed to cover up how much M15 had really known. In regardto Philby,the case also owes somethingto a comment once made by a prominent US intelligence officer, General Edwin Sibert, that Philby was used by Washingtonto passfictitiousinformationabout US defence capabilities to Moscow during the Korean War. The detail was wrong, Hamrick claims, but the idea that Philby was part of a counter-espionage operation, even if Britishratherthan American, was right. Even if Hamrick's thesis remains unproven, his book has much to recommend it. It castslight on the post-warrelationshipbetween the US and Britain,on rivalriesand differencesbetween MI5, MI6 and the ForeignOffice, and the secret world of deceptions operations. It also shows the way in which a legend was later built up around Philby (partly fostered by Philby himself through his I983 memoir, My SilentWar),emphasizing his greatnessas a spy. Hamrick,who clearlydislikesPhilby (callinghim a 'patheticweaklinglooking for recognition and acclaim'), makes a strong case for saying that Philbywas less importantthan is usuallythought. School ofHistory PHILIP BOOBBYER University ofKent Kornblatt,Judith Deutsch. DoublyChosen: JewishIdentity, theSoviet Intelligentsia, andtheRussianOrthodox Church. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI,2004. xii + 203 pp. Appendices.Notes. Selectedbibliography.Index. ?21.50 (paperback). AT the startof the twentiethcenturyhalftheJews in the worldlived in Russia. Jews have played a central and shaping role in Russian culture. At the same time, their identity in Russia came to be defined in a unique way, involving a separationof ethnicity from religion.And in Soviet times the 'religion'option was removed, while the strongest force preservingJewish national identity became negative:Jews felt the effectof theirnationalitymainly in the form of pervasiveofficialand unofficialanti-Semitism. The dissident movement in the USSR took shape in the I96os. Some dissidentsdiscovered religiousfaith. Formost their move was connected with I76 SEER, 84, I, 2006 maintaining one's identity as an individual person as opposed to the Soviet mass, and with 'inner emigration'from Soviet cynicism. Most dissidentswho became religious discovered Russian Orthodoxy. Jews were among them. It iswith thesethatJudith Kornblatt'sbook is concerned. It isbasedon extensive interviewswith Russian and SovietJewish converts to the Russian Orthodox Church. The first question which arises in the reader's mind is: why did these embryonicbelieversnot turn toJudaism?The obvious answeris that thiswas not a real option: there was virtuallyno institutionalJewish religiousactivity in the USSR. As a then recentJewish intellectualemigre told me in the early I98os, 'They did not consciously choose the Christianfaith in preference to Judaism aftersearching,testing and comparingthe two. They were not given a choice: they simplyfound what was nearerto the surface,as it were. If there is only one loaf of bread, the hungry man takes that'. Kornblatt makes the point also that all dissidentswere allies,a minorityof outcasts. Kornblattgives a good deal of space to the influence of FrAleksandrMen', aJewish convert to Orthodoxy and one of the most importantspiritualfigures of thelaterSovietperiod. Men' introducedpeople to a spiritualworldcouched in the language of inclusiveness and universalism, and he was also able to build bridges between the church and secular society, and between science and religion. Kornblatt notes that Jewish converts to Orthodoxy prize the 'ideological "breadth"of "true"Orthodoxy' (p. io8), which is associatedwith tolerance and ecumenism. To this should be added the fact that 'it is...