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Night of the Murdered Poets

On the night of August 12, 1952, 13 Jewish writers, artists, journalists, and scientists were executed by a firing squad in Moscows Lubyanka prison after being convicted on accounts of treason and espionage. This mass-execution, which would become known as the Night of the Murdered Poets, was one of Joseph Stalins final acts of persecution before he died less than a year later.

Following years of repression of Yiddish and Jewish culture, a renewed campaign began in 1948, propagated by the state-sponsored assassination of Solomon Mikhoels. Mikhoels had led both GOSET, the Moscow State Jewish Theatre, as well as the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) during World War II.

Among the victims of 8/12/52 were five Yiddish writers who were members of (JAC): David Bergelson, David Hofshteyn, Perets Markish, Itsik Fefer, and Leyb Kvitko, as well as legendary actor and director of GOSET, Benjamin Zuskin. Since the secret executions were revealed, each year Yiddishist organizations around the world have honored the victims of that awful night, along with other victims of Soviet repression, with a memorial evening.

The five writers mentioned above were all born in the region now known as Ukraine, and even as that region is today aflame with war, BluePrint fellow Yelena Shmulenson (herself a native of Crimea) offers a new piece of writing examining how the Soviet state repressed Yiddish culture, to be performed on Thursday, August 10 at 7 pm.

Appearing in the upcoming program, co-sponsored by the Congress for Jewish Culture, are Shmulenson and her husband Allen Lewis Rickman, both stars of stage and screen in English & Yiddish (the Coen brothers A Serious Man, Off-Broadways Tevye Served Raw), along with Suzanne Toren and Shane Baker. This very special event commemorating the 71st anniversary of the Night of the Murdered Poets will be performed in English, Yiddish and Russian.

The Wild Project is located at 195 East 3rd Street, between Aves. A & B. For reservations or for more information, visit www.CongressForJewishCulture.org or call 212-505-8040.