Jewish Chekists, Kolkhozniks and Komsomoltzy: Russian Jews in 1918-1930

Historian and educator Yigal Kotler will devote this session to the first decade of the history of the Soviet Jews with all its new opportunities and challenges. The participation of Jews in the Cheka-NKVD and their role in the murder of the Tzar’s family, the fight of the Jewish section of the Communist Party against Zionism, Hebrew and Judaism; new Communist Jewish schools, and how authorities tried to turn Jews into collective farmers. We will talk about the role of the Jews in the internal Communist party’s struggle and find out why Trotsky’s brilliant star fell.