Науковий вісник Чернівецького національного університету імені Юрія Федьковича. Історія (Jun 2020)
Repressions Against the Jews in Chernivtsi Region in 1948–1953
Abstract
The article analyzes the causes, nature and methods of repressions against the Jewish population of Chernivtsi region in the last years of I. V. Stalin’s ruling. The cases of well-known Jewish poets Naphtali-Hertz Kon (Ya. I. Serf) and M. Kh. Harac, a lawyer M. D. Feldman, who were convicted of «Jewish bourgeois nationalism» (Zionism), were revealing. V. Sh. Pecheniuk, a head of the Jewish community in Chernivtsi, Yu. I. David, a rabbi of the local choral synagogue, V. F. Epelboim, a former translator of the headquarters of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, accused of Zionist activity with good reason, were subject to repression. At the end of 1946, the mass exodus of the Jews to Romania was completed, and all attempts by the Jews to cross the Romanian-Soviet border illegally were severely punished. On such charges D. I. Volokh, Z. P. Sobelman, B. A. Shornik and others were convicted up to 10 years in prison. Given the intensification of repressions in 1949–1952, even the personal opinions of the Soviet citizens became dangerous. The party organizations in the city and region periodically called for an intensification of the ideological struggle against «Ukrainian and Jewish bourgeois nationalism», for conducting internal party personnel purges in order to get rid of unwanted communists who tarnished their reputations with the dubious ties and lack of reputation. Instead, many cases against the Jews were overtly criminal. Thus, on the basis of the archival material the author proved that repressions against Bukovyna Jewry was made possible by the atmosphere of general xenophobia in the USSR in 1948–1953, the struggle of the Stalinist leadership against nationalism, as well as by the national uplift of the Jews in the early post-war years. The repressions were conditioned by the peculiarities of I. V. Stalin’s totalitarian regime and were embodied in the numerous acts of criminal and administrative persecution of the Jews of Northern Bukovyna by the Soviet authorities.
