Stalin Against the Jews

by Arkadi Vaksberg, Antonina W. Bouis, Arkady Vaksberg

The first full-scale account of Joseph Stalin's personal vendetta against Soviet Jews. Drawing on newly opened archives and on his own experiences in the USSR of the early 1950s, the investigative journalist-lawyer Arkady Vaksberg reveals the genesis and evolution of the Communist leader's malevolent campaign - and the extraordinary cunning and shrewdness of his tactics. He shows us Stalin prosecuting prominent Jews in the notorious trials of the 1930s while appointing Jews as commanders of eleven out of twelve Gulags. We see the "Man of Steel" awarding the Order of Lenin to a celebrated Jew every time he launches a new anti-Semitic assault - and choosing a Jew, the infinitely hypocritical and sadistic Lazar Kaganovich, as his protege and chief hatchet-man. All this, while thousands of innocent Jewish men and women across the Soviet Union are being stripped of their jobs and property . . . arbitrarily arrested . . . summarily shot. Vaksberg also tells of the trumped-up trial of Soviet Jewish diplomats that was ultimately abandoned after Hitler's invasion; the curious life, and death, of the Jewish Antifascist Committee; the state-ordered murder of the great actor-director Solomon Mikhoels; the plan to deport the entire Soviet Jewish population to Siberia; how Ilya Ehrenburg finally abandoned his role as a "house Jew" and dared to criticize Stalin's policies; and the infamous "Doctor's Plot" just before the dictator's death. A fascinating, richly documented, and profoundly shocking work of twentieth-century history.

Genres: History, Russia, Politics, Judaica

311 pages, Hardcover

First published April 5, 1994

Reviews

[Davy Bennet Surf]

I have this book, have not read it.
Can't believe there are no reviews.
Touchy subject no doubt.

I will say I think life was terrible for everybody under Stalin.
I think Lee Harvey Oswald is about the only Gentile I ever heard of that got out before the end.
You should ask yourself how LHO was able to do that. Especially if you believe the Warren Commision Report and haven't sought help.

Timothy Snyders Bloodlands is a classic.
Stephen Kotkin too, though I've only seen Kotkin on You Tube talking about his books.
I think both authors are even handed and fair.