Synopses & Reviews
In the spring and summer of 1952, fifteen Soviet Jews, including five prominent Yiddish writers and poets, were secretly tried and convicted; multiple executions soon followed in the basement of Moscowand#8217;s Lubyanka prison. The defendants were falsely charged with treason and espionage because of their involvement in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and because of their heartfelt response as Jews to Nazi atrocities on occupied Soviet territory. Stalin had created the committee to rally support for the Soviet Union during World War II, but he then disbanded it after the war as his paranoia mounted about Soviet Jews.
For many years, a host of myths surrounded the case against the committee. Now this book, which presents an abridged version of the long-suppressed transcript of the trial, reveals the Kremlinand#8217;s machinery of destruction. Joshua Rubenstein provides annotations about the players and events surrounding the case. In a long introduction, drawing on newly released documents in Moscow archives and on interviews with relatives of the defendants in Israel, Russia, and the United States, Rubenstein also sets the trial in historical and political context and offers a vivid account of Stalinand#8217;s anti-Semitic campaign.
Synopsis
In 1952 fifteen Soviet Jews, including five prominent poets and writers, were falsely accused, secretly tried, and convicted of treason and espionage. Thirteen were executed, one died in a prison hospital, and one was exiled. This book presents the longsuppressed transcript of the trial, revealing the Kremlin's machinery of destruction and dispelling the host of myths that have surrounded
this horrifying episode.
Reviews of the first edition:
“No more important book on communism has been or will be published for years.”—Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Times Literary Supplement “A vivid, tragic panorama.”—Richard Bernstein, New York Times
“Haunting. . . . The fullest account to date of one of the most vicious
episodes of anti-Semitism in Russian history.”—Anna Kuchment, Newsweek
“Fascinating. . . . This book brilliantly portrays Soviet attitudes to the Jews [and] . . . also reveals a great deal about Soviet attitudes to justice in general.”—Anne Applebaum, Wall Street Journal
About the Author
Joshua Rubenstein is the Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International USA and a longtime associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University.
Vladmir P. Naumov is executive secretary of the Presidential Commission of the Russian Federation on the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression and editor of the Russian-language edition of this volume.