The Fate of Yiddish Writers under Stalinist Rule: Support, Repression, and Linguicide

Abstract: This article represents an attempt to understand the role of antisemitism in the repression of Yiddish writers in the pre- and post-World War II Stalinist Soviet Union. The question at stake is not about a secret police officer’s attitude and actions toward Jews, but whether or not antisemitism was a prominent factor behind the decision to incarcerate or execute Yiddish authors, including those previously praised and awarded as top-tier cultural figures. It is contended that, for the decision makers (often Jewish themselves), the writers’ Jewishness tended to be of secondary, if any, importance in the years before the war. The situation changed dramatically by the end of Stalin’s rule, from 1948 to 1953, when the entire structure of Soviet Yiddish cultural life had come under attack by repressive state machinery.