Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

Annals of Communism

by Joshua Rubenstein, Vladimir P. Naumov, Laura E. Wolfson

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 Moscow'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 Kremlin'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 Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Jewish, Russia, Russian History

562 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Joshua Rubenstein is an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. He was a staff member of Amnesty International USA from 1975 to 2012. He lives in Brookline, MA.

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

About two-thirds of the book consists of the transcripts of members of the Jewish anti-fascist committee. There is a long introduction to the work of the committee followed by interesting pictures from archives. Before the testimony, there is a good introduction to each defendant’s life. Although I confess to only having scanned the transcripts, the questions that the judges ask and the defendants’ ways of explaining their positions on Jewish nationalism, Yiddish literature, and Jewish religious identity are fascinating.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great work of history. Incredible testimonies.