Does this image have anti-Semitic undertones? Did anti-capitalism in the USSR have anti-Semitic undertones?

by AbstractLemgth

It's a meme pretty popular in leftist circles (especially Marxist, 'anti-identity politics' ones), coming from an old ROSTA Soviet agitprop (dated 1921)

I wouldn't have thought twice about it otherwise, but a good few months back I saw a guy accosting someone for using it because they believed that it was bathed in anti-Semitism - for example, the use of a pig to represent a capitalist, and the pig being non-kosher to Jewish people.

Is there any truth to this, and was anti-semitism worked into Soviet (or any other noteable) anti-capitalist sentiment - especially around when the poster was created in 1921 - either 'officially' or otherwise. Was this, if you like, a form of reverse-'cultural bolshevism'?

levl289

Roughly translated:

  • With every truancy, comes the happiness of our enemy
  • But the hero of hard work, is a hit to the Bourgeois

Being Russian and Jewish, I honestly don't see the connection. There are far more obvious ways to make the Jewish/Bad-guy connection - usually starting with the nose (from my experience).

Edit: a a word