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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.
“Alice Nakhimovsky investigates the lives of five Jewish men and three women who were true believers in the dream of Soviet Communism and later became disillusioned…The reader learns how they resisted, caved in, or professed their Jewish identity after arrest and the pressure of show trials. This title is highly recommended for academic libraries and of interest to synagogue libraries.”
— Harvey Sukenic, AJL News and 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
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