Russkii Arkhiv

12-32

Authors: Leonid L. Smilovitsky

This article is devoted to the little-studied topic of the correspondence abroad of Jews from the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. It examines the renewal of mail correspondence of the Jewish families with the outside world, which – due to dramatic internal political changes in the USSR during the 1930s – had ceased until the summer of 1941. The author provides an analysis of Jewish letters from the USSR to the United States, Palestine, South Africa, Argentina, and Mexico. This correspondence offers a window into a number of different aspects of the Jews’ experiences of the period: solidarity with the Red Army, the participation of Soviet Jews in the struggle against Nazism on the fronts of the war, Zionism, and Yiddish from the USSR. Particular attention is paid to such themes as the Holocaust, the search for relatives and the help of the Red Army, aid sent from Palestine, life after evacuation, and observance of the Jewish tradition. The letters of Jews from the Soviet Union abroad during 1941-1945 are an extraordinary phenomenon in the history of private military correspondence. The sympathy and attention demonstrated by tens of thousands of people from abroad helped the USSR overcome its international isolation and provided moral and material assistance, which significantly contributed to the ultimate victory of Soviet weapons over a common enemy.

52-62

Authors: Alla V. Shadrina

This article deals with one of the under-studied phenomenon in the history of the antireligious movement in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s – the antireligious work and activities of the League of Atheists in North Caucasus Krai. The Memorandum on the Antireligious Activities in Krai (1927), kept in the depository of the Centre of Documents on the Modern History of Rostov Oblast and published here for the first time, provides an exhaustive view on the organization of the antireligious propaganda in the Don Okrug of the North Caucasus Krai, and on the dissatisfactory conditions that the League of Atheists was in due to the lack of attention paid by the Communist Party officials to that association, to the deficit in well-trained staff, and because of the lack of material resources and financing.

95-102

Authors: Evgeny F. Krinko

The Lev Smilovitsky’s book of memoirs, “From the experience”, was published in 2016 in Jerusalem (Israel) in Russian. The author tells about the history of his family and his life in Rechitsa (Belarus) before the war and in its early months, evacuation to Bashkortostan, voluntary withdrawal to the Red Army, service as a chauffeur in antitank artillery of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command, wound and hospital, participation in combat operations for Vitebsk and Koenigsberg. The book contains many interesting facts and reflections of the author about the front life and military everyday life. After the war, Lev Smilovitsky graduated from the Minsk Law Institute, worked in the governing bodies of the regional and republican Komsomol organization of Belarus, in the Ministry of Culture of the Belorussian SSR, and in the Belarus’ publishing house. He defended his thesis and lectured at the Department of CPSU History of the Minsk Pedagogical Institute. In the early 1990s, he emigrated to Israel together with his family. The book was prepared for publication and published by the son of Lev Smilovitsky – historian Leonid Smilovitsky (Diaspora Research Center of Tel Aviv University).