Schachno Epstein

Schachno Epstein ( Russian Шахно Эпштейн ; scientific. Transliteration Sachno Ėpštejn ; born in 1883 in Iwje (Ивье) Ujesd Ashmyany (Ошмянский) in Vilnius (Vilna), Vilna Governorate , Russian Empire , died on 27. July 1945 in Moscow , Soviet Union ) also Schachne Epstein and in other spellings; actually Alexander Borissowitsch Epstein ( Russian Александр Борисович Эпштейн ; wiss.Aleksandr Borisovič Ėpštejn ; also: Alexander Borisovich Epstein), was a Soviet functionary , publicist and agent of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). He was general secretary of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee .

Live and act

Epstein was born into a Hasidic family. Among his ancestors were famous rabbis and maskilim . He studied with private tutors in a yeshiva until he was sixteen and was well acquainted with Jewish and Russian literature . Then he went to study the painting to Warsaw . He had been a member of the Bundists since 1903 , was forced into exile and only returned to Russia after the February Revolution . He broke with his political past in 1919 and became a member of the Communist Party and the Jewsekzija , d. H. the Jewish section of the Communist Party, whose tasks included the liquidation of bourgeois Jewish culture and all non-communist organizations. According to Arno Lustiger , Epstein, along with Solomon Spiegelglas and Grigori Heifetz, was one of the key figures on the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAK / JAFK). He was also the editor of the Yiddish newspaper Ejnikajt of the JAFK and helped with the editing of the black book . Itzik Fefer and he, without Ilya Ehrenburg's knowledge, had sent 552 pages of documents to the USA on October 19, 1944 from the material gathered in the Soviet Union . Ehrenburg and Epstein were accused by SL Bregman , another member of the JAK, of withholding the materials. According to the author Ilja Altman , Epstein was "the main proponent of the idea of an independent publication of the documents collected by the JAK". Together with Solomon Michoels and Itzik Fefer, he was one of the signatories of the Crimean Memorandum sent to Stalin in 1944 , which the leaders of the JAFC discussed with the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov . For planned by JAK Jewish Crimea - Republic Epstein was assigned as head of government.

Epstein made two trips to the United States . The first such trip took place in 1909, when he took part in the work to establish the Jewish Socialist Federation (JSF). He set out on a second trip lasting several years in 1921 - presumably on the instructions of the Comintern . Under the pseudonym Josef Barson he became an editor in New York appearing Yiddish weekly newspaper The Emes ( Truth ). After the JSF split up, he worked for the Morgen Freiheit newspaper, founded in 1922 by Moissaye Olgin . In 1929 he returned to the Soviet Union. During the Second World War he became General Secretary of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee .

Publications (selection)

Ḳnuṭ Hamsun : biyografye . Warsaw approx. 1911 (a critical-biographical sketch)
YL Perets als sotsyaler dikhṭer (" JL Perez as a social poet"), New York, 1916. 2nd edition entitled "Dos arbetsfolk in YL Peretses Verk" - "The working people in the work of JL Peretz" (1918).
In'm land fun der sotsyaler reṿolutsye ("In the land of social revolution") New York , 1928 - digitized
At the oyfgang. 1905-1909 ( Moscow , 1929).
Frilings-Toit ("Spring Death ", Berlin - Kaunas ) 1921.

Po evreĭskim poselkam. ( Kharkiv ) Izd. Ukrozeta, 1929.

Osher Shṿartsman: monografye. 1929

Translation: the Polish drama in four acts by S. Przybyszewski Der shnee: a drame in fir aḳṭen (The Snow) (New York, 1911) into Yiddish

Translation: the drama Mit'n vilen fun folk: drame fun revolutsie in fir akten. (“After the will of the people”) (New York, 1923) by Sergeĭ Sabatʼev (Aroys given fun der Idisher federatsye fun der Vorkers parti, New York, 1923) into Russian

Lenin . ilustrirt zamlbukh . New York 1925

Yehudah Gombarg; Shakhne Epstein: Flamfayer: ḳarṭuns . New York 1925 (?)

The “ covenant ”: ṿos er iz geṿen ṿos fun im iz geṿorn . New York 1927

Y. Stalin . Kharḳoṿ : Melukhe-farlag fun Uḳraine, 1930.

In tsuriḳ-marsh . Kharkov: Melukhe-ferlag far di natsyonale minderhayṭn in USRR, 1933.

Leib Kvitko ; Itzhak Katzenelson ; IM Nusinov; Shakhne Epstein: Dos Bluṭ rufṭ tsu neḳome !: ṿos gelilṭene dertseyln ṿegn de fashisṭishe akhzories inem oḳupirṭn Poyln (1941) (The blood cries out for revenge!). Moscow 1941

literature

Wassili Grossman / Ilja Ehrenburg (ed.): The Black Book - The Genocide of the Soviet Jews. Rowohlt-Verlag , Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-498-01655-5 (editor of the German edition: Arno Lustiger )

Arno Lustiger : Rotbuch: Stalin and the Jews. Berlin 1998 (TB 2. A. 2002) (especially p. 368 f.)

Jochen Laufer: Pax Sovietica. Stalin, the Western Powers and the German Question 1941–1945 (2009). Reprint by: Jochen Laufer, Pax Sovietica. Stalin, the Western Powers and the German Question 1941–1945, Böhlau Verlag Cologne 2009 ISBN 978-3-412-20416-7 - zeitgeschichte-digital.de

Joshua Rubenstein, Vladimir Pavlovich Naumov (eds.): Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. 2005 ( partial online view )

Benjamin Gitlow: The Whole of Their Lives; Communism in America - a Personal History and Intimate Portrayal of its Leaders. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1948)

Boris Volodarsky: Stalin's Agent: The Life and Death of Alexander Orlov. 2015 ( partial online view )

Web links

References and footnotes

↑ Jewsekzija / Евсекция / Evsekcija
↑ Arno Lustiger, p. 368.
↑ Solomon Spiegelglas (1900–1946), see Lustiger, Rotbuch, p. 339.
↑ Arno Lustiger (2002: 368 ff.)
↑ Ilja Altman : "The fate of the black book", in: Das Schwarzbuch , German, p. 1067 f.
↑ Das Schwarzbuch , German, p. 1070.
↑ Das Schwarzbuch , German, p. 1073.
↑ Arno Lustiger, p. 183.
↑ Jewreiskaja avtonomija w Krymu / Еврейская автономия в Крыму / Evrejskaja avtonomija v Krymu ("Jewish autonomy in the Crimea") (Russian)
↑ According to Arno Lustiger (2002: 179) the posts for this were distributed as follows: Solomon Michoels as President of the Republic; Epstein as head of government; Shimeliovich as Minister of Health; Kwitko as Minister of Education; Trained as Minister of Justice; Yusefowitsch as head of the trade unions; Markisch as chairman of the writers' association.
↑ With Solomon Losowski and Schachno Epstein, the JAFK, according to Arno Lustiger (2002: 123), is firmly in the grip of the party and state leadership and the secret service.
↑ Asher Schwarzman (1890-1919)
↑ Isaak Markovich Nusinov (1889–1950)

personal data
SURNAME	Epstein, Schachno
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Epstein, Schachne; Epstein, Chakhno; Szachne, Epsztajn; Epštejn, Šachno; Epshteyn, Shakhno; Epshtein, Shakne; Epstein, Shakne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Soviet journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH	1883
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vilnius Governorate
DATE OF DEATH	July 27, 1945
Place of death	Moscow

[1] Jewsekzija / Евсекция / Evsekcija

[2] Arno Lustiger, p. 368.

[3] Solomon Spiegelglas (1900–1946), see Lustiger, Rotbuch, p. 339.

[4] Arno Lustiger (2002: 368 ff.)

[5] Ilja Altman : "The fate of the black book", in: Das Schwarzbuch , German, p. 1067 f.

[6] Das Schwarzbuch , German, p. 1070.

[7] Das Schwarzbuch , German, p. 1073.

[8] Arno Lustiger, p. 183.

[9] Jewreiskaja avtonomija w Krymu / Еврейская автономия в Крыму / Evrejskaja avtonomija v Krymu ("Jewish autonomy in the Crimea") (Russian)

[10] According to Arno Lustiger (2002: 179) the posts for this were distributed as follows: Solomon Michoels as President of the Republic; Epstein as head of government; Shimeliovich as Minister of Health; Kwitko as Minister of Education; Trained as Minister of Justice; Yusefowitsch as head of the trade unions; Markisch as chairman of the writers' association.

[11] With Solomon Losowski and Schachno Epstein, the JAFK, according to Arno Lustiger (2002: 123), is firmly in the grip of the party and state leadership and the secret service.

[12] Asher Schwarzman (1890-1919)

[13] Isaak Markovich Nusinov (1889–1950)