The Dream of Social Justice and Bad Moral Luck: Eight Jewish Lives under Stalin

Alice Nakhimovsky

Published by Academic Studies Press 2023

The Dream of Social Justice and Bad Moral Luck

Eight Jewish Lives under Stalin

Alice Nakhimovsky

In the series Jews of Russia & Eastern Europe and Their Legacy

https://doi.org/10.1515/9798887192710

Overview
Contents

About this book

This volume examines the intertwined lives of six women and three men, Russian Jews in the first half of the twentieth century, as their belief in the Soviet dream unraveled. Under what circumstances did they bow to political pressures, and under what circumstances did they resist, even heroically?

Author / Editor information

Nakhimovsky Alice :

Alice Nakhimovsky is Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Russian at Colgate University. Her books include Russian Jewish Literature and Identity, Dear Mendl, and Dear Reyzl: Yiddish Letter Manuals in Russia and America, written with Roberta Newman, which won a National Jewish Book Award.

Alice Nakhimovsky is Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Russian at Colgate University. Her books include Russian Jewish Literature and Identity, Dear Mendl, and Dear Reyzl: Yiddish Letter Manuals in Russia and America, written with Roberta Newman, which won a National Jewish Book Award.

Reviews

“If you were arrested and interrogated by the NKVD in Lubyanka, how would you act? In telling not only the WHAT but also exploring the crucial WHY, award-winning author Alice Stone Nakhimovsky brings posthumous justice and dignity to the martyrs of socialism. In eight dramatic story-biographies, she fixes on truth in the face of humanity’s most painful cruelties.”

— Brian (Yossi) Horowitz, Sizeler Family Chair Professor, Tulane University

“The Dream of Social Justice and Bad Moral Luck provides parallel stories of eight men and women—all of them Jews—who lived and died under catastrophic historical circumstances, the 1917 revolution, World War II, the Holocaust, and several waves of Stalin’s terror, forced to make difficult moral choices. The results were out of their control.

A historical study, carefully researched, this book will fascinate diverse readers who wonder how people lived and acted in ‘dark times.’ Superbly written, enhanced by the author’s gentle irony, it speaks to those who negotiate the political and cultural landscape we inhabit today.”

— Irina Paperno, author of Stories of the Soviet Experience: Memoirs, Diaries, Dreams

“This book by Alice Nakhimovsky makes a superb new addition to the growing library of studies of Soviet Jewry, which is not surprising, considering Nakhimovsky's status as one of the founders of the field of Russian-Jewish literary studies. The stories Nakhimovsky tells—from the poet Leyb Kvitko to the writer Vasily Grossman—illuminate the hopes and tragedies of the lives of Soviet Jewish intellectuals under Stalin, enriching immensely the readers' understanding of this complex and pivotal epoch.”

— Marat Grinberg, Professor of Russian and Humanities, Reed College

“Alice Nakhimovsky's new book writes new history of Soviet Jewish culture by focusing on individuals who both created it and fell victims to Soviet policies towards it. Focusing on eight people, three men and five women, including writers Vassily Grossman and Leyb Kvitko, scientist Lina Shtern, translator Lilianna Lungina and others, the book offers insights on career trajectories, difficult choices and dilemmas of these talented individuals. By avoiding the old-fashioned lenses of suppression or totalitarian ideologies, or imposing measures of identity, the book is an excellent example of what happens to a historical writing when people are placed front and center, rather than as illustrations to broader phenomenon. Nakhimovsky’s study is deeply researched, extraordinarily insightful, and beautifully written. I cannot recommend it highly enough!”

— Anna Shternshis, Al and Malka Green Professor of Yiddish Studies, University of Toronto

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VI
A Note on Transcription Publicly Available Download PDF	VIII
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Introduction: The Soviet-Jewish Historical Calendar and Moral Decision-Making, 1890 to 1953 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
1. Origins
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Doba-Mera Medvedeva: A Working Girl Seeks a Future Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
Leyb Kvitko: Shtetl, Poetry, Violence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
Solomon Lozovsky: Blacksmith, Autodidact, Orator Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
2. Communist Romance and Border Crossings, 1917 through the 1930s: Part I
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Leyb Kvitko: Transformations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
Solomon Lozovsky: Fighter, Compromiser, Fiction Writer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
Lina Shtern: A Career in Science and a Fateful Choice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
Doba-Mera Medvedeva: Two Borders, Poor Choices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
3. Communist Romance and Border Crossings, 1917 through the 1930s: Part II
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
Nadezhda and Alexander Ulanovsky: Anarchism to Espionage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
Mary Leder: Santa Monica, Birobidzhan, Moscow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Lilianna Lungina: A German Child, a French Child, a Soviet Adolescent Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
4. Negotiating the Late 1930s: Terror and Career
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
Lilianna Lungina: A World of Contradictions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
Kvitko: Prosperity and Compromise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Mary Leder: Close Encounters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
Nadezhda Ulanovskaya: Communications and Failed Communications Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Vasily Grossman: Jews vs. Bolsheviks, and Jewish Bolsheviks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Doba-Mera Medvedeva: Manuscripts Burn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
5. War: 1941–1945
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Kvitko: Despair and Faith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Shtern: Iconoclasm Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Leder: Evacuation and Trauma Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
Medvedeva: Evacuation without Privilege, Grief beyond Resentment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Grossman: A Personal Quest Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
6. Jews, Scientists, and the Trial of the Jewish Antifascist Committee, 1944–1952
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Kvitko: “I don’t value my life. I want to leave here with a pure heart” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Lozovsky: “I can’t look Academician Shtern in the eyes” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Shtern: “I always tell the truth” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
Grossman: Scientists and Old Bolsheviks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
7. Jews, Doctors, and Aliens
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Nadezhda Ulanovskaya: Foreign Connections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182
Mary Leder: Endgame Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Lilianna Lungina: Reality and Rumor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Vasily Grossman: A Novel and a Letter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
8. What Happened Next Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 234
Keywords: Russian Jews; Soviet Jews; Political courage; Political Cowardice; Vasily Grossman; Leyb Kvitko; Nadezhda Ulanovskaya; Lina Shtern; Liliana Lungina; Mary Leder; Solomon Lozovsky; Doba-Mera Medvedeva; Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

eBook

Published: September 12, 2023
ISBN: 9798887192710