The Gates of November

by Chaim Potok

"REMARKABLE . . . A WONDERFUL STORY."
--The Boston Globe

The father is a high-ranking Communist officer, a Jew who survived Stalin's purges. The son is a "refusenik," who risked his life and happiness to protest everything his father held dear. Now, Chaim Potok, beloved author of the award-winning novels The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev, unfolds the gripping true story of a father, a son, and a conflict that spans Soviet history. Drawing on taped interviews and his harrowing visits to Russia, Potok traces the public and privates lives of the Slepak Their passions and ideologies, their struggles to reconcile their identities as Russians and as Jews, their willingness to fight--and die--for diametrically opposed political beliefs.

"[A] vivid account . . . [Potok] brings a novelist's passion and eye for detail to a gripping story that possesses many of the elements of fiction--except that it's all too true."
--San Francisco Chronicle

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Jewish, Religion, Autobiography, Politics

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Herman Harold Potok, or Chaim Tzvi, was born in Buffalo, New York, to Polish immigrants. He received an Orthodox Jewish education. After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited as a teenager, he decided to become a writer. He started writing fiction at the age of 16. At age 17 he made his first submission to the magazine The Atlantic Monthly. Although it wasn't published, he received a note from the editor complimenting his work.

In 1949, at the age of 20, his stories were published in the literary magazine of Yeshiva University, which he also helped edit. In 1950, Potok graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English Literature.

After four years of study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America he was ordained as a Conservative rabbi. He was appointed director of Leaders Training Fellowship, a youth organization affiliated with Conservative Judaism.

After receiving a master's degree in English literature, Potok enlisted with the U.S. Army as a chaplain. He served in South Korea from 1955 to 1957. He described his time in S. Korea as a transformative experience. Brought up to believe that the Jewish people were central to history and God's plans, he experienced a region where there were almost no Jews and no anti-Semitism, yet whose religious believers prayed with the same fervor that he saw in Orthodox synagogues at home.

Upon his return, he joined the faculty of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and became the director of a Conservative Jewish summer camp affiliated with the Conservative movement, Camp Ramah. A year later he began his graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and was appointed scholar-in-residence at Temple Har Zion in Philadelphia.

In 1963, he spent a year in Israel, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Solomon Maimon and began to write a novel.

In 1964 Potok moved to Brooklyn. He became the managing editor of the magazine Conservative Judaism and joined the faculty of the Teachers’ Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary. The following year, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia and later, chairman of the publication committee. Potok received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1970, Potok relocated to Jerusalem with his family. He returned to Philadelphia in 1977. After the publication of Old Men at Midnight, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He died at his home in Merion, Pennsylvania on July 23, 2002, aged 73.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apr 21, 1245pm ~~ Review asap.

Apr 24, 8pm ~~ Fascinating but painful to read. Potok tells us the true story of a family of Russian Jews, beginning with patriarch Solomon Slepak who gave up his cultural roots to become a fervent revolutionary and eventually an 'Old Bolshevik'. But son Vladimir (Volodya) turned away from the Soviet regime, learned about his Jewish heritage and became one of the most famous 'refusniks' of the Soviet era.

We see the family history, but also a great deal about the formation of the Soviet Union, and the inner workings of the regime. It was brutal, cruel, and I could not believe that anyone, Jewish or otherwise, would have the stamina to live in such a place.

I have not been able to think of much to say here, the book was a little overwhelming. Constant surveillance, constant harassment, constant bureaucratic foolishness and dead ends. All just to torment people, to keep them under some sort of control, to try to erase them.

But even with all of that, it can be hard to keep the human spirit down. Somewhere, somehow, that spirit will endure and prevail. Volodya's story is proof of that.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never been a fan of non-fiction, and I don't find it easy to read and retain. But I picked up this book as its both the monthly pick for the Jewish Book Group, and its my November Fall Flurries for my main group. And what an education it was to learn about the life and trials that befell Soviet Jewry, through the lives of Masha and Voldaya Slepak, whose journals and story tells years of oppression, violence, needless death, and yet another attempt to exterminate or kick out Jews.

The story itself was incredible, even more so that we never find out how Voldaya's father Solomon escaped was should have been extermination. As an old Bolshevik, and a Jew, he should have been arrested and executed a long time ago, and he always escaped sure death, always stayed protected. He swore to his son that he and his family would never leave, and somehow they never could. The father son disconnect was one of the most compelling parts of the story. By attending his estranged father's funeral, that had a big impact on saving Voldaya's life at the time. Many people had the Slepak's story, but many didn't live to tell it, and others got out far earlier, and with less circumspect behind the scenes mystery. I thought it was a story worth telling and reading, and am glad I had the opportunity (twice) to pick it up and remember.

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the silence of Soviet winters, Jewish families carried their identity hidden and vague, an unfortunate trait learned by all of this minor minority to this day. The pain they endured was relentless: visas denied again and again, careers destroyed overnight, children barred from schools, homes invaded by suspicion, and years of exile in Siberia where cold and hunger became daily companions. Every knock at the door carried the terror of arrest; every bureaucratic rejection was another wound to the soul.

Potok shows us how this wasn’t just political oppression—it was a slow, grinding torture of dignity.

To be a “refusenik” meant living in limbo, stripped of rights, watched by neighbors, punished for wanting freedom. Families were torn apart, friendships poisoned by fear, and hope itself became dangerous. Yet even in this torment, the Slepaks and countless others refused to surrender who they were. Their endurance was not passive—it was an act of defiance, a refusal to let the state erase their identity.

As one of my favorite American novelists, Chaim Potok has always written with deep humanity, but The Gates of November marks his first journey into nonfiction. Unlike the flowing intimacy of his novels, this tome is dense, researched, layered with history and detail, demanding patience from the reader. Yet that is part of its power—it forces us to feel the weight of oppression as the Slepaks lived it, without the softening of fiction.

Reading The Gates of November is to feel both the ache of their suffering and the awe of their resilience. It reminds us that while people are abstract, freedom is not—it is the difference between a life of humiliation and a life of dignity. Soviet Jews bore years of pain and persecution, but their courage lit a path through the darkness, proving that even under torture, the human spirit can remain unbroken.

Generation after generation, for six thousand years, the Semitic people remain persecuted for not accepting your god or his god, or a nation without a god.

[Bettie · Rating 1 out of 5]

A tedious season they await
Who hears November at the gate

- Alexander Pushkin

Introduction: History brought together on the same soil two vigorous peoples, Russians and Jews, whose bitter destiny it was to be ruinously at each other's throats.

Prologue: On a Thursday evening in the first week of January 1985, Adena and I landed in a snowstorm at Sheremetevo Airport in Moscow.

Opening: Shortly after the turn of the century, a thirteen year old boy in a small town in White Russia fled from the impoverished home of his mother, his father having died five years earlier.




1* The Gates of November
3* Moominvalley in November

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd read and loved My Name Is Asher Lev and In the Beginning, both novels by Chaim Potok, so I picked up this book without realizing that it was a true story. It lacked some of the polish of his novels, but was more than made up for by the power of the story.

Through the Slepak family, Potok tells the story of Soviet Jewry. It's an amazing story. One I'm glad I read.

[Menashe Bernstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of Potok's lesser known works, as far as I can tell. It's non-fiction, but it definitely shows the imprint of a talented story teller. This book is about the Slepak family, who were among the most famous of the "refusniks" - Jews who were denied permission to emigrate from the USSR. They had to wait 17 years! During that time, one of them was exiled to Siberia for 5 years for some trumped up charge against the government. It's a story of brute determination to be Jewish and be free to be Jewish no matter the cost. We can all learn from this story of courage.

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent true story of the Slepak family and the treatment of Jews in Russia. The story follows the rise of Solomon Slepak who became a high ranking member of early Communist Russia and his eventual downfall and then on to his son Volodya who became a leader of the dissidents. A very informative story of life in Russia beautifully told by Potok.

[Anita R · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really explains the history of Russia. It is filled with facts about Russia and the Jews who lived there. It is a detailed account of the "refuseniks " and what they went through to gain their freedom. It is a real "eye opener".

[Heleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book, but I didn't find it easy to finish. Sometimes the history bits were too long, and I didn't find it hard to put down. But a good book, especially for those interested in Russian History (like me)

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

“If you want logic, you have to go someplace else.”

This is a fascinating companion to more autobiographical works such as Natan Sharansky’s Fear No Evil. Potok tells the story of the Slepaks, especially Volodya Slepak, starting with his father, an Old Bolshevik who never lost faith in the Soviet Union, even when it started persecuting Jews and inciting violence against Jews.

This was not a unique viewpoint; Potok writes of the death of Stalin (which follows the recent comedy-drama movie fairly closely) that

Even in the labor camps, many cried.

Solomon loved books, but had no problem defacing or destroying them in the service of the state.

One day Volodya saw his father remove some books from a shelf and toss them into the garage; the authors had been arrested. Another time his father took down a history of the Russian Civil War and proceeded to ink out the photographs of Trotsky and others. In school Volodya’s teachers told the students to tear out the pictures of this or that person who had just been discovered to be an imperialist spy. At home one day his father expunged with India ink faces of friends and relatives in their family album—all had been arrested.

It wasn’t a matter of erasing history overnight, as in 1984. Students were forced to take part in the cancellation of history, acknowledging that 2 and 2 must make 5.

When the Soviet Union canceled his son, Solomon reacted pretty much the same way, refusing even to look at him when forced to be in the same room. As he did with the illogically mandated book edits, he acknowledged his grandsons, but not his son.

What little we see of Solomon Slepak’s story is a fascinating one, but most of the records of his relationship with the Soviet leadership—and he clearly had outsized influence—have either been destroyed or even under Russia in the nineties were access denied to both Volodya and his sons.

This would probably have been a much longer book if those records were available, because it seems clear that part of Volodya’s and Masha’s troubles were caused either by their father or by his reputation.

Natan Sharansky appears several times as Anatoly Shcharansky.

Volodya Slepak’s role in the refusenik movement appears to have started somewhat randomly. The movements was primed by rising official anti-semitism and official encouragement of more violent antisemitism. The communist bureaucracy refused to recognize Jews as Russian. But it was the six day war that got Soviet Jews thinking they could fight back, and Soviet reaction to the war, and Israel’s victory, that resulted in a Jewish nationalism growing among Russian Jews.

If they couldn’t be Russians, if remaining in Russia was dangerous, it Russia didn’t want them, why not emigrate to Israel, who already considered them Israeli, who seemed able to defend themselves against violence, and who outspokenly did want them?

Like the Germans, the Soviets apparently had something in mind for the Jews, because they refused to let them leave. And while the numbers who did receive permission to leave varied depending on how much the Soviets wanted from the West, the leaders of the movement were not among them. Except when the “wild American cowboy” administration tied international relations to specific individuals.

They were their own doctors; Masha Slepak, as a radiologist, had medical training, and would nurse not just her husband back to health but also other refuseniks.

Keeping one another alive was another weapon in that war.

The past described here is a very different country. The refusenik movement in Russia was helped by members of the press, for example. But it is also eerily familiar. KGB agents didn’t just infiltrate the movement; they orchestrated fake gatherings. They attempted to organize the schools to pressure the Slepaks’ children against their parents.

One of the advantages of being exiled to Siberia (Tsokto-Khangil, in the Aginskoye District, Chitinskaya Province) rather than, say, imprisoned in the nation’s capital, was that they received postcards from supporters abroad.

For some reason the authorities had neglected to inform the local post office to hold their mail, and no one in the post office seemed to care enough to do that on his own.

One of the odder character names comes in the beginning, Solomon Slepak’s story during the revolution, about Admiral Alexander Kolchak,

Kolchak was a taciturn man, given to dark moods and politically naïve.

Which could of course apply just as well to my favorite fictional reporter, Carl Kolchak.

…who would think that once they had been among the leaders of a movement that had hurled itself against, and helped bring down, the Soviet colossus?

[Rachel Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are not many writers who can move beautifully between fiction nd non-fiction, turns out Potok is one of them.

[Julie Merrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I much prefer Potok's fictional works. This is a time and place I find interesting, but the pace of this non-fiction was just too slow.

[John Eliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Content 5* Written 5*
Superb. Non fiction history of a Jewish family over a hundred year period in Russia. An incredible read. I doubt I'll read much better this year.

[Mabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised by this book. I had read The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev and admired them both. Because The Gates of November is non-fiction, and having seen a number of unenthusiastic reviews, I didn't really expect this one to be as good. It was a subject I wanted to know more about though, so I prepared myself for a less than absorbing read. Boy was I wrong. For me, this book was more compelling than either of the novels. Willa Cather once said there are only one or two human stories and they keep repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened (words to that effect). Maybe there are more than one or two, but this true story is certainly repeating itself before our very eyes. It is a powerful story and Potok did it justice and then some. The rift between the Bolshevik father, a committed lifelong Communist who rose in the ranks fighting in the Revolution, and the son, who had a very good life, (particularly by Russian standards), but began to question and become thoroughly disenchanted with Soviet life, was uncannily like the breakdown of relationships between parents and children and others that I have witnessed in this country for the past 5 years.

Such inspired writing can only happen, IMO, when the author is caught up heart and soul in the story he is telling. Potok was. He travelled to Russia to meet the Stepaks and other Refusniks and he worked unceasingly with them and for them. Chaim Potok was an ordained Orthodox rabbi but he did everything in his power to help Jews, religious or not, escape Russia. I am grateful to him for what he did and for this wonderful book. This is a story with a happy ending because, against all odds, this war was won. Those old values of courage and strength and faith and hope triumped in the end. Lest we forget.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a long short book. It looks deceptively short but took forever to read. That's not a criticism just an observation. Small letters i suppose.

Having taken several Russian history courses in college I can say with some authority that this is a really good book for getting an idea of Russian history from the bolshevik revolution to a few years after stalins death. Probably the best I've read. It focuses more narrowly on one of the characters after that time period and you lose the general sweep of history however the soviet union sort of froze in time and I've always found everything after Stalin to be tedious, as though the government couldn't figure out if they wanted to open up more or keep murdering everyone so they settled for allowing petty KGB agents to settle personal scores with no repercussions. Stalin was killing like 2 million people a year because he was paranoid. After Stalin they weren't necessarily killing you, just messing with you. If someone didn't like you they'd send you to Siberia for hard labor for 10 years or maybe get you fired or not let you leave the country.

The other weird thing about the book is that it feels like a school report. Its kind of disjointed at times as though the author wasn't sure what he wanted to focus on. But since its Chaim Potok even those parts are beautifully written.

Newly updated writer rankings. Mark twain is still number one. Chaim Potok is number two. I can't get enough of these Jewish books.

[Ryan Mclean · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.
The Chosen by Chaim Potok is one of my favorite books so when I see this for $5 at a used book store, I decided to buy it. Be warned, it is not the same type of book. This is a historical chronicle that is filled with dates, events, and people that I had never heard of. The only thing I knew about Russian Jewry was from the Fiddler on the Roof and Potok left that behind in about 10 pages. However, even though I spent much of my time reading confused, I do feel more educated about a place and people that I previously knew anything about. If you want to be more knowledgeable or you have an interest in the Russian Jewish refuseniks, this is a great book. If that is not you, you can skip this book and not give it a second thought.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and informative read by one of my all-time favorite authors. Potok does not disappoint in this non-fiction book that tells the story of how this family went from shtetl to socialist to refusenik.
As a grandchild of grandparents who emigrated to the US in the late '20s, I felt that I was able to get a better picture of my grandparent's life before they were fortunate enough to leave.
And having been a teenager who marched and demonstrated for Soviet Jewry, I learned much that I did not know about life for the refuseniks.
Highly recommend- it reads like historical fiction and was enjoyable.

[Tamar Frankiel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of information here about Soviet-era Jews, told through the lens of chronicling one family. However, it's not Potok's best writing. Rich in detail, but hard to assimilate if you don't already know Russian history; and it often seemed repetitive, so it was sometimes difficult to know where you were in the timeline as he circled back and re-told the story from a slightly different perspective. The strongest points of the book are the evolution of the father Solomon Slepak into a Bolshevik and even a supporter of Stalin, and of the son Volodya Slepak and his wife from part of the trusted scientific community into refuseniks.

[Brandon Burrup · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book blew me away. There are parts that are a bit dry and slow and other parts that are utterly fascinating and interesting and inspiring and horrifying. The book serves as a great intro to the history of the USSR from the Bolshevik Revolution to the collapse of the USSR. But ultimately the story of the Slepak's and their attempts to gain visas to emigrate to Israel really captures your mind and your soul. You wonder if you would be able to stand strong for something you believe in as much as they did. In one sense they are brave and in another they didn't have much of a choice other than to face the persecution of the state against them with bravery. It was either that or waste away.

[Persephone Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suspect that by now, 2024, archival documentation might be available regarding the senior Slepak. This was written back when the twists of the defunct Soviet Regime were still keenly felt and bureaucracy was as always fifteen to fifty years behind. I remember finishing honor studies in Soviet History back in ‘84 - ‘85 and reading quite a lot about dissenters. The second half of this book felt like I was reading familiar material. I am rather curious to whether more information could be gleaned re the father. I was slightly bothered by the folksy dialogue and less “journalistic” style of the second half. But, of course, Potok is a story teller of the classic vein type.

[LJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Geschiedkundig interessant: het leven in Stalinistisch Rusland is goed uitgewerkt en de groteske en onvoorstelbare treiterijen van de KGB zijn zowel gruwelijk als bijna amusant (ware het niet dat ze te wreed zijn om daadwerkelijk geestig te worden bevonden).
Jammer genoeg is het bijzonder onleesbaar geschreven. Springt van de hak op de tak, vol met onnodige details en herhalingen en ik werd werkelijk gek van - bijvoorbeeld - continue ‘Solomon Slepak’ bij zijn volle naam noemen: er is maar één Solomon in het boek en hij is de derde hoofdpersoon.

[Evan Sproul · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book is a multi-generational history of a family, it is also a view, through this family, of the plight of Russian Jewry at the hands of the power hungry, fearful of what is not like them; and, as Potok writes, “. . . those rendered so rigid by ideas that all reason fails them . . ..”
As he did with “Wanderings,” Potok writes this history like he writes his fiction. It is not a compilation of facts, places, and dates but a compelling story, one that draws you into the protagonist, which in this book is the family and what they represented.

[Tim Stafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a Russian Jewish family--the father one of the Old Bolsheviks who fomented the revolution, the son (and his wife and children) who was a privileged princeling but threw it all away as he discovered his Jewish identity and sought to emigrate to Israel. Along the way we get a brief but cogent history of Bolshevism and an much more detailed account of Judaism in the Soviet Union. The father is a true believer until he dies; the son an embattled, indefatigable sufferer who is persecuted by the government. They never come to any sort of agreement. It's interesting stuff.

[Lucas Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true story about a Jewish family navigating the chaos of the Soviet Union, from the Bolshevik revolution through the Gorbachev era. Much of the book is a history of the USSR, but the story of the Slepak family is interwoven throughout, as Solomon Slepak was a high-ranking communist officer. The main tension of the book is in the family's dual identities as both Russians and Jews, culminating in Volodya Slepak, Solomon's son, actively working against his father to end communist rule.

[Huub · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bij asnschaf niet gerealiseerd dat het non fictie was, ik verwachtte een soort Davita's Harp. Dit bleek een b3schrijving van een Joodse dissidente familie. Beginnend in de tijd van Lenin en de revolutie beschrijft het de lotgevallen van de joden in Rusland adhv een familie. Grootvader een originele bolsjewiek, zoon werd vooraanstaande dissident. Daarbij inkijkje in zowel de binnenlandse vervolgingen en kgb praktijken als de wereldpolitiek.
Interessant leesvoer.

[Sacha · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a long time to get into this book. I have read his book 'Davita's Harp' and loved it, but this book is less like a novel or more like a history book. Eventually I did to get pulled into the story I was happy to finish the book. It is an impressive story and it's crazy that people really went through all of this.

[Nedra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a difficult read for me because I love the author’s other works so much. This one seemed too much a dated and named in 20th century Russia more than the family saga. I did enjoy the family saga. They endured so much, learned so much over generations. They were brave and committed even while victims of an awful government.

[PC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way harder to get through than Potok's fiction, but i think that might be because it's inherent in the genre. This book is a biography of two generations, and yet also a history lesson. It taught me more about my own family history than my own "family chronicles" ever did, just by being so freakin' informative!

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I love Russian history. It was fascinating and well written. It was also easy to put down. It jumped all over the place and was sometimes hard to follow as a result.

[Paschalis]

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