Stalin and the Jews: The Red Book

by Arno Lustiger, Roman Brackman (Introduction), Yefim Etkind (Foreword by)

Overview

An in-depth study of the secret pogroms in Stalin’s Russia and the consequences they were to have on the Jews, especially the prominent writers and artists that were to suffer so harshly because of the dictator’s paranoid obsessions. An encyclopedia of the people and the events that took place until Stalin’s death and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781929631100
Publisher:	Enigma Books
Publication date:	01/01/2003
Pages:	475
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Arno Lustiger was born in Poland in 1924 and spent part of his youth in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Since 1945 he has been a publicist and journalist in Frankfurt, Germany, where he lives.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	xv
	Foreword	xix
	The events
Part I	History of the Russian Jews
1.	The Jews Under the Tsars	3
	The Jews in Poland--The Cradle of Russian Judaism	4
	Discrimination Under the Tsars	5
	Assimilation and "Utilization"	7
	Anti-Semitism and Pogroms	9
2.	The Jewish Parties	13
	The Bund	13
	The Anthem of the Bund	14
	The Bund and Establishment of the RSDRP	16
	The Zionists	19
	Zion's Workers (Poale Zion) and Young Zionists (Ze'ire Zion)	21
	Zionists-Socialists (Sionisty-Sozialisty--S.-S.)	22
	Other Jewish Parties and Organizations	22
	ORT	23
	OSE	23
	EKOPO and YIDGEZKOM	24
	Thriving Cultural Life Despite Repression	25
3.	Jews in Russian Politics Before the October Revolution	25
	Cadets	25
	Mensheviks	26
	Narodniki and Social Revolutionaries	27
	Anarchists	29
	Jewish Bolsheviks	30
	Lenin and Stalin on the "Jewish Question"	31
4.	From the February Revolution to the October Revolution	34
	The Jews in Independent Ukraine 1917-1920	37
Part II	Janus-Faced Liberation: The Jewish Ascent After the October Revolution
5.	The Jews in Revolution and Civil War	41
	The Pogroms	42
	Jews in the Red Units	43
	The End of the Bund	45
	Lenin's Rhetoric Against the Pogrom Campaign	45
6.	The Jewish Commissariat Yerkom and the Jewish Party Section Yersektsiia	47
	War Against Zionism	49
	Persecution of the Jewish Religion	51
7.	Jewish Life Under the Dictatorship	53
	The Jewish "Blossoming of Culture"	53
	The Place of the Jews in Soviet Society	54
	The Shift in Professional Structures	55
8.	Pseudo-Zion	57
	"Productivity" and Survival of the Jewish Nation	57
	The Crimea--A Soviet Palestine?	57
	Birobidzan	60
	Predictable Failure	60
9.	Under Stalin's Reign of Terror	63
	The End of Yiddish Journalism	63
	Jews in the Grip of Terror	64
	The Extermination of the Leaders in Birobidzan	66
	Jewish Critics of the Soviet System	69
Part III	Prehistory and Foundation of the JAFC
10.	Anti-Fascism, Soviet Patriotism and Disguised Anti-Semitism on the Eve of World War II	71
	A Land Without Anti-Semitism?	71
	The Jews as the New "Judas"	73
	Russian Nationalism Rekindled	74
	The Diplomatic Service Becomes "Jew-Free"	75
	First Investigations of a "Jewish Conspiracy"	77
11.	Persecution and Deliverance--The Jews at the Time of the German-Soviet Pact	78
	Eastern Poland Under Soviet Rule	79
	Mass Deportations	82
	Murder of Polish-Jewish Officers in Katyn	83
	Destruction of Jewish Culture in Poland and the Baltic Provinces	84
	Deliberate Overlooking of German Crimes	86
12.	Henryk Erlich and Viktor Alter and the Creation of a Jewish Anti-Hitler Committee	87
	Erlich and Alter in the Clutches of the NKVD	88
	Free Again--The Struggle for an Anti-Hitler Initiative	90
	New Arrests and Murders	92
	Interventions on Behalf of Erlich and Alter	93
13.	Early Jewish Anti-Hitler Initiatives and the Founding of the JAFC	95
	The First Meeting	96
	The Founding of the JAFC	99
14.	Strategy of Silence--The Holocaust in the Soviet Information and Propaganda Policies	101
	The War Against the Jews	102
	Collaboration and Anti-Semitic Agitation	103
	Silence About the Slaughter of the Jews	105
	A Few Exceptions	106
	No Attempt to Save the Jews	107
Part IV	JAFC Activities Inside and Outside the Soviet Union
15.	The JAFC and Soviet War Propaganda	109
	Propaganda and Nationalism	109
	Additional Anti-Fascist Committees	111
	The Second Meeting	112
	The First Plenum of the JAFC	113
	The Oath of the Jewish People	114
	The Second Plenum	117
16.	The Organ of the JAFC--the Yiddish Newspaper Unification (Eynikeyt)	119
	A Few Examples	119
	Eynikeyt's Changing Function	122
17.	The JAFC in America--Fundraising and "Treacherous" Contacts	123
	Jewish Anti-Hitler Initiatives in the United States	123
	Mikhoels and Fefer in America	125
	Under the Control of the "Organs"	126
18.	Anti-Semitism Reappears in the Soviet Union and its Effect on the JAFC	127
	Jews Are Not Welcome Here	127
	First Attacks on the JAFC	130
	Resurgence of Anti-Semitism in the Population	131
	The Third Meeting	132
	The Third Plenum	133
	Outcome of the JAFC	134
19.	Jewish "Heroes of the Soviet Union," Jewish War Heroes, JAFC Members and Their Part in the Victory Over Germany	137
20.	The War on the Invisible Front	143
	The "Rote Kapelle"	143
	The Jewish Fighters of the "Rote Kapelle"	146
21.	The Crimea Under German Rule	147
	A Soviet California with U.S. Aid?	148
	The Crimea Memorandum	149
Part V	The Fate of the JAFC After the War
22.	The History of the Black Book	157
	The Beginnings of the Black Book	158
	Competing Concepts	158
	Material for Foreign Countries Only?	161
	The Black Book	162
	The First Complete Edition	164
	What the Black Book Was Not to Contain	166
	The Foreword	167
23.	Assisting in the Birth of Israel and Worsening of Anti-Zionism	169
	Soviet-Palestine Policy During the War	169
	Support for the Founding of Israel	170
	Israel Enthusiasm Among the Soviet Jews	174
	Ehrenburg and the Anti-Zionist About-Face	175
24.	Barrage of the Experts--the JAFC in the Investigators' Sights	177
	Isolating the JAFC	178
	Monopoly for Russian Nationalism	178
	The Inquisitors Begin Their Work	180
	State Security Pronounces the Death Sentence on the JAFC	182
	The End of the JAFC	184
25.	The Attempt to Decapitate Soviet Judaism--the Murder of Solomon Mikhoels	185
	Mikhoels as the Target	186
	Stalin's Terror Against His Own Family	187
	The Anti-Semitic Interrogations Begin	189
	Killers on Behalf of the Government	191
	State Funeral for the Victim of a State Murder	192
Part VI	Open War Against the Jews--The Last Years of Stalin's Dictatorship
26.	The Campaign Against the "Rootless Cosmopolitans" and the Waves of Anti-Jewish Purges	195
	Open Jew-Phobia: The Attack on the Theater Critics	195
	The Extermination of "Cosmopolitanism"	199
	Mass Dismissal of Jews	200
27.	The Destruction of the Last Remnants of Jewish Culture	202
	The Fight Against "Bourgeois Nationalism"	203
	Elimination of Jewish Cultural Institutions	204
28.	Pursuing the "Zionist Conspiracy"	206
	American "Agents"	206
	Zhemchuzhina: Political VIPs in the Dock	207
	The Head of the JAFC Disappears	209
	In the Torture Chamber of the MGB	211
	The Downfall of Abakumov and the "Jewish Conspirators" in the MGB	215
	Ryumin Takes Control	216
	First Signs of a "Doctors" Conspiracy"	218
Part VII	The Trial
29.	The Indictment	221
	Verdict Before the Trial	221
	The Indictment	222
30.	The Trial	224
	Fefer--Witness for the Prosecution	225
	Markish Counterattacks	228
	Forced Confessions	229
	"Jewish Nationalism" or Assimilation?	230
	The Main Defendant	231
	Torture and Testimony	233
	An Agent Reveals Himself	234
	The Accused: A Language	235
	The Experts Disgrace Themselves	236
	Last Declarations and Final Words	237
31.	The Sentence	239
	A Judge Doubts	239
	Legalized Murder	241
32.	The Rehabilitation of the JAFC	244
	The Secret Proceedings of 1955	245
	The Public Rehabilitation of 1989	246
Part VIII	After the Trial
33.	A Catastrophe Averted--Stalin's Last Months	248
	"Conspiracy of the Kremlin Doctors"	248
	Were the Soviet Jews Going To Be Deported?	251
	The Planned Letter of Jewish Personalities to Pravda	253
	Letter to the Editorial Office of Pravda	256
34.	Developments in Eastern Europe	262
	Stalinist Persecutions and Trials in Eastern Europe	263
	The Slansky Trial	264
	The Planned Trials in Poland	266
	German-Jewish Communists	268
	The Jews in the GDR	269
	The Planned Show Trial in East Berlin	271
35.	State-Sponsored Anti-Semitism After Stalin	274
	No Thaw Under Khrushchev	274
	Anti-Semitism Disguised as "Anti-Zionism"	275
36.	Reaction of the Jews to State-Sponsored Anti-Semitism	276
	International Conferences for Soviet Jews	276
	The Jewish National and Emigration Movement in the Soviet Union	278
	The Fight for the Right to Emigrate--The Refuseniks	281
	The Refusenik Colonels	283
	Perestroika, Gorbachev, and the Jews	283
	The Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public	284
	Epilogue to the Refusenik Story	286
Part IX
37.	In the Balance: Russian Jews Between Hitler and Stalin	288
	The People
	Mensheviks and Bundists	295
	Zionists	302
	Social Revolutionaries	303
	Anarchists	306
	Bolsheviks	307
	Yevseki and Other Jewish Bolsheviks	313
	Generals of the Red Army	316
	The Precursors of the JAFC	323
	The President of the JAFC	326
	The (True) Chiefs of the JAFC	331
	The Americans	334
	The Editors of the Black Book	338
	The Accused	344
	The Other Persecuted and Victims	373
	Authors and Editors of the Black Book	379
	Members of the JAFC in May 1945	385
	Members of the Presidium of the JAFC in May 1946	387
	Murdered Yiddish Authors and Publishers	388
	Yiddish Authors Killed in Action as Soviet Soldiers	389
	Yiddish Authors Repressed	390
	Hebrew Authors Murdered	391
	Jewish Generals	391
	Significant Publications About the JAFC	399
	Archives and Journals	402
	Selected Bibliography	404
	Articles and Journals About Soviet Jews	409
	Notes	410
	Index	427

Editorial Reviews

These two publications deal with similar topics but have different areas of focus. In Stalin's Last Crime, Brent, editorial director of Yale University Press, which publishes the distinguished "Annals of Communism" series, and Naumov, executive secretary of the Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation of Repressed Persons in Moscow, have researched materials previously buried in KGB archives to make the startling but long-suspected assertion that Stalin was poisoned by Politburo members and allowed to die. Their focus is the "doctors' plot" that Stalin concocted to implicate Jewish doctors in the deaths of two top Kremlin leaders in 1945 and 1948. These incidents were tangled together with his paranoid suspicions that the Jews and the Americans were planning to invade Russia (and nuke Moscow), which he used as a cover to purge the MGB (precursor to the KGB). As Stalin fabricated the plot, he had concentration camps built to hold the Jews of Moscow and then all of Russia, and he planned to detain or deport the entire Jewish population. In contrast, Lustiger's Stalin and the Jews begins with the repression of the Jews from the time of Catherine II (the Great) through the tsars of the 19th century to the known anti-Semitism of Nicholas II as background for its own account of the "doctors plot "and the plight of the Jews in Soviet Russia. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAFC) was established in 1942 to muster Jewish support for the war against Hitler's Germany. But its remarkable success was not enough to convince Stalin, who saw demons in the organization's leaders and, with forced confessions, false evidence, and compliant underlings, had the JAFC leadership murdered after a secret mock trial. Both books are well researched and complement each other. But while Brent and Naumov do a great deal of guessing, asserting what Stalin probably did, Lustiger-a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald and an independent publisher and writer-is less interpretive. Both books are recommended for all libraries with Russian history collections.-Harry Willems, Southeast Kansas Lib. Syst., Iola Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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