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

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?

List of contents

A Note on Transcription

Preface

Introduction: The Soviet-Jewish Historical Calendar and Moral Decision-Making, 1890 to 1953

1. Origins

Doba-Mera Medvedeva: A Working Girl Seeks a Future

Leyb Kvitko: Shtetl, Poetry, Violence

Solomon Lozovsky: Blacksmith, Autodidact, Orator

2. Communist Romance and Border Crossings, 1917 through the 1930s: Part I

Leyb Kvitko: Transformations

Solomon Lozovsky: Fighter, Compromiser, Fiction Writer

Lina Shtern: A Career in Science and a Fateful Choice

Doba-Mera Medvedeva: Two Borders, Poor Choices

3. Communist Romance and Border Crossings, 1917 through the 1930s: Part I

Nadezhda and Alexander Ulanovsky: Anarchism to Espionage

Mary Leder: Santa Monica, Birobidzhan, Moscow

Lilianna Lungina: A German Child, a French Child, a Soviet Adolescent

4. Negotiating the Late 1930s: Terror and Career

Kvitko: Prosperity and Compromise

Mary Leder: Close Encounters

Nadezhda Ulanovskaya: Communications and Failed Communications

Vasily Grossman: Jews vs Bolsheviks, and Jewish Bolsheviks

5. War: 1941–1945

Kvitko: Despair and Faith

Shtern: Iconoclasm

Leder: Evacuation and Trauma

Medvedeva: Evacuation without Privilege, Grief beyond Resentment

Grossman: A Personal Quest

6. Jews, Scientists, and the Trial of the Jewish Antifascist Committee, 1944–1952

Kvitko: “I don’t value my life. I want to leave here with a pure heart”

Lozovsky: “I can’t look Academician Shtern in the eyes”

Shtern: “I always tell the truth”

Grossman: Scientists and Old Bolsheviks

7. Jews, Doctors, and Aliens

Nadezhda Ulanovskaya: Foreign Connections

Mary Leder: Endgame

Lilianna Lungina: Reality and Rumor

Vasily Grossman: A Novel and a Letter

8. What Happened Next

Bibliography

About the author

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.

Summary

The Dream of Social Justice and Bad Moral Luck examines the intertwined lives of five women and three men, Russian Jews in the first half of the twentieth century, as their belief in social transformation unraveled. The book looks at why these eight people bought into the dream, and what they did when things went bad. Under what circumstances did they bow to political pressures antithetical to the ideas they professed, and under what circumstances did they resist, even heroically? Political cowardice is a constant theme, but so is moral resistance that had no point beyond an individual’s conscience.

Product details

• Authors: Alice Nakhimovsky
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 12.09.2023
• EAN: 9798887192703
• ISBN: 979-8-88719-270-3
• No. of pages: 234
• Series: Jews of Russia & Eastern Europe and Their Legacy
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; European History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Jewish, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies, Social & cultural anthropology, Religion & politics, Jewish Studies, Judaism, Political oppression & persecution, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General