Memoirs of a Jewish Prisoner of the Gulag

321 Pages·2022·6.57 MB·English

by  Zvi Preigerzon, Alex Lahav

MEMOIRS OF A
JEWISH PRISONER
OF THE GULAG

MEMOIRS OF A
JEWISH PRISONER
OF THE GULAG
ZVI
PREIGERZON
Edited & Translated
by Alex Lahav
B O S TO N
2022
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Preigerzon, Zvi, 1900-1969, author. | Lahav, Alex, 1952- translator, editor.
Title: Memoirs of a Jewish prisoner of the Gulag / Zvi Preigerzon ;
translated and edited by Alex Lahav.
Other titles: Yoman ha-zikhronot, 1949–1955. English
Description: Boston : Cherry Orchard Books, 2022.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022017345 (print) | LCCN 2022017346 (ebook) | ISBN
9781644699034 (hardback) | ISBN 9781644699041 (paperback) | ISBN
9781644699058 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781644699065 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Preigerzon, Zvi, 1900–1969. | Political prisoners–Soviet
Union–Biography. | Jews–Soviet Union–Biography. | Authors,
Hebrew–Soviet Union–Biography.
Classification: LCC HV8959.R9 P6813 2022 (print) | LCC HV8959.R9 (ebook)
| DDC 365/.450947–dc23/eng/20220625
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022017345
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022017346
Copyright © 2022, Academic Studies Press
All rights reserved
Book design by Kryon Publishing Services
www.kryonpublishing.com
Cover design by Ivan Grave
Published by Academic Studies Press
1577 Beacon St.
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www.academicstudiespress.com
Contents
Introduction ix
Author’s Foreword xiii
Part 1: Arrest 1
Part 2. Interrogation 4
Citizen Lieutenant Colonel 4
Lefortovo Prison 5
My Hebrew Writing 7
The MGB Informer 8
The Interrogation 10
The Initial Protocols 14
Taraskin 18
The Letter to Ben-Gurion 20
The Concluding Protocol 23
The Encounter with Baazov 27
Form 206 29
Part 3: Butyrka Prison 33
The Sentencing 35
Church Cell 37
The Jewish Theater 38
Part 4: On the Way to Karaganda 40
The Stolypin Carriage 41
Part 5: Karaganda 43
Sand Camp 43
Camp Rules 44
My Morning Prayer 51
Meir Baazov 52
The Invention 54
Thieves and Bitches 56
vi Contents
Part 6: The Eynikeyt Group 58
Alik Hodorkovsky 58
Eliyahu Mishpatman 60
Sasha Sukher 61
Misha Spivak 62
Volodya Kerzman 63
Meir Gelfond 65
Zhmerynka 66
The Ghetto 67
The Zionist Group 69
Part 7: The People in Karaganda Camp 71
Yechezkel Pulerevitch 72
Aharon Kricheli 76
Dr. Leon Lemenev 77
Itzhak Kahanov (Kogan) 79
Motl Grubian 79
Kreinman 82
Leib Pashtandiker 83
Jabotinsky 84
Michail Yankovsky 85
Bokov 86
Ermakov 87
Other Characters in Karaganda Camp 88
Part 8: In Karaganda Transfer Camp 93
Abraham Shtukarevich 94
Israel Avrovich 95
Zinovy Shulman and Lublin Gymnasia in Odessa 95
Gitterman 97
Part 9: On the Way to Inta 100
Michael Ibambletov 101
Kononenko 101
Alexey Ivanovich 102
Ostrovsky 104
Part 10: Inta Mineral Prison Camp 108
Contents vii
Part 11: 4th Abez Prison Camp 114
The Engineering Team 115
Suchoruchko 116
Lihachev 117
Kalinin 118
Kargin 118
Boris Ivanovich 119
Zeleny 119
Isaak Hoffman 121
Shmuel Halkin 123
Leib Strongin 124
Gregory Shitz 124
Yakov Shternberg 125
Weissman 126
The Coachman 127
Part 12: Vorkuta 133
Barracks Number 18 133
Kuznetsov 136
Stalinsky 137
Kostia Amarnetov 138
1st River Camp 139
Stein 143
Shkolnik 144
Reminiscence of Odessa 144
Kaplinsky 145
Capitalnaya Mine Technical Control Department 146
Coal Sorting 149
Getting Paid 151
Part 13: The 9th Vorkuta Prison Camp 153
The Beginning of Coal Enrichment Work 154
The Laboratory of Professor Stadnikov 155
Part 14: My Fellow Jewish Prisoners in the 9th Vorkuta Camp 160
David Cohen 161
Leonid Kantargy 164
Yosef Kerler 167
Rotenberg 170
Hesin 171
viii Contents
Solomon Fayman 173
Shaya Bilik 174
Mordechai Shenkar 176
Leonid Aronov 180
Shmuel Ferdman 181
Menachem Levi 183
Boris Dinaburg 184
Michail Shulman 185
Sasha Eisorovich 186
George Grin 187
Part 15: Work on Coal Enrichment. Fresh Winds 188
The New Laboratory 188
Fresh Winds 191
The Rudnik Laboratory and Transfer to the 40th Prison Camp 195
The Home of Haim and Nehama Solz 203
Part 16: Release from Vorkuta Prison Camp 208
Images 212
Index 224
Introduction
Zvi Preigerzon wrote his memoirs in 1957-1958, a year and a half after
his release from the Gulag, where he was held in 1949-1955. He was
arrested during the period of brutal antisemitic campaign unleashed by
Joseph Stalin in the last years of his rule. The campaign started in 1948
with the murder of Solomon Mikhoels, the chairman of the Jewish Anti-
Fascist Committee, and the arrest and execution of all the committee
members—well-known Jewish writers, poets, and actors. During the
campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans,” all Jewish newspapers, mag-
azines, and theaters in the Soviet Union were shut down. Many innocent
Jewish government officials, scientists, engineers, and just simple Jewish
people were arrested. They were accused of anti-government nationalis-
tic activity, using the infamous article 58 of the penal code, and were sent
to the Gulag with sentences ranging from five to twenty-five years. The
antisemitic campaign culminated in 1952-1953 with the “Doctors’ Plot,”
when thousands of Jewish physicians were publicly accused of the poi-
soning of Communist Party officials and ordinary Soviet citizens.
The antisemitic campaign was in full swing in the Soviet newspapers
and on the radio. It was intended to conclude with a series of public trials
to expose the widespread Jewish conspiracy. Public riots and pogroms
against Jews were already planned. The multimillion Jewish population
of the Soviet Union was intended to be deported to the eastern parts of
Russia, where they would be starved and murdered far from the pub-
lic eye. In short, Stalin’s goal was to replicate Hitler’s “Final Solution.”
Only Stalin’s death in March 1953, which accidentally coincided with the
Jewish Purim holiday, prevented this disaster from happening. Some call
it “the miracle of Purim.” Eventually, in 1954-1956 the Jews who survived
the brutal forced labor camps, together with millions of other Soviet and
x Introduction
foreign citizens, were released. Most of them were formally acquitted and
their rights restored. Zvi Preigerzon was one of them.
Zvi Preigerzon wrote his memoirs about his time in the Gulag long
before Solzhenitsyn and without any knowledge of the other publications
on this subject. It was one of the first eyewitness accounts of the harsh
reality of the Soviet penalty system. Even after the death of Stalin, when
the Gulag forced labor camps were largely disbanded, writing about the
Gulag could be regarded as an act of heroism. Preigerzon attempted to
document and analyze his own prison experience, and portray the fellow
Jewish prisoners he encountered in forced labor camps. Among these
people, we meet scientists, engineers, famous Jewish writers and poets,
young Zionists, a devoted religious man, a horse wagon driver, a Jewish
singer of folk songs, and many, many others. As Preigerzon put it, “Each
one with his own story, his own soul, and his own tragedy.”
A well-known Russian writer and a former Gulag prisoner, Varlam
Shalamov, famously wrote: “No man gets better after the camp. The prison
camp corrupts everyone.” However, Zvi Preigerzon managed to maintain
his dignity and faith in the human soul. Despite of all the atrocities that
he experienced, his writings are full of warmth and humor. Most of all,
he treasured Jewish brotherhood, the care and support of each other, and
the preservation of Jewish culture and the Hebrew language. He wrote:
“While in prison, I swore to myself not to abandon the Hebrew language
until the end of my life, and to this very day I have stood by this promise.
And even if I am arrested for the second time, I will continue to worship
the Hebrew language until my last breath.”
Zvi Preigerzon (1900-1969) was an expert in coal enrichment, a pro-
fessor at Moscow Mining University, where he invented technologies for
coal processing and wrote textbooks that were used by college students all
over the Soviet Union. However, his real passion was writing in Hebrew.
“The Hebrew thrill has poisoned my blood forever,” he wrote in one of
his short stories. After the Communist Revolution, Preigerzon faced a
major dilemma—the choice between studying in Moscow or emigrating
to Palestine. This decision would shape the rest of his life, as he chose to
acquire a profession. Soon, Stalin’s regime made emigration impossible.
Preigerzon’s short stories and poems were first published in the
1920s in several Hebrew language journals and magazines in Europe.
Later, when Hebrew was banned in the USSR, he continued writing