From the Great Terror to the Terror in 1941: The Case of Yiddish Writers in Soviet Belorussia

ABSTRACT The article focuses on the repressions against Minsk Yiddish writers in 1936-41 and analyzes them in context of, first, the status of Yiddish in Soviet Belorussia and, second, the general policy of purges under the Stalinist regime. The majority of the arrests and executions took place during the final months of 1937. However, also in 1941, on the eve of the Soviet-German phase of World War II, several Yiddish authors had been detained by the secret police. Among the victims were the most significant Yiddish writers of the republic Izi Kharik, Moyshe Kulbak, and Zelik Akselrod. Compared with Moscow, Kyiv, and Kharkiv, the Yiddish literary circles of Minsk sustained the heaviest devastation.