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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE REFUSENIK MOVEMENT

Memoirs

  • The Soviet Jewry Movement - Oral History Project

The Soviet Jewry Oral History Project was initiated by Glenn Richter, former National Coordinator of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, in conjunction with Yeshiva University Archives to collect and preserve the memories of various activists in the Soviet Jewry movement. The oral history video recordings were conducted in the United States and Israel, primarily by Glenn Richter. Funding for the project was provided by Henry Gerber.

Roger Rosenblatt commented, “When Natan Sharansky was celebrated both for his imprisonment and for his eventual freedom, everyone's unspoken question was: What is so special about this man? Fear No Evil answers that question. It is a brilliant account of courage in the prison state, but the truly great power of the book lies in Sharansky himself. He shows all the fascinating complexities of a hero of Russian fiction. But, of course, Sharansky is real. His story is real. It brings you to your knees."

San Francisco Chronicle (summarized) commented, “Drawing on taped interviews and his harrowing visits to Russia, Potok traces the public and privates lives of the Slepak family: Their passions and ideologies, their struggles to reconcile their identities as Russians and as Jews, their willingness to fight--and die--for diametrically opposed political beliefs.”

  • Dmitry Stonov; In the Past Night: The Siberian Stories. ISBN-0-89672-358-5

Alan Cheuse (NPR) commented, “Intensely etched portraits of fellow prisoners in the Siberian camp: religious zealots some of them; others, ordinary murderers; most, like himself, honest men caught up in Stalin's maniacal tryanny.  They ache, they suffer interrogation and hard labor, the knife-like cold, the bitter loneliness, and like all prisoners, as Stonov tells us, they long to talk of their experiences.  Thus, Stonov becomes their mouthpiece.

  • Mark Dymshits; Hijack for Freedom: The Memoirs of Mark Dymshits: Soviet Pilot, Jew, Breacher of the Iron Curtain. ISBN 10: 9657023254

This is Mark Dymhits autobiography of the aborted attempt by Soviet Jews and two non-Jews to steal a Russian civilian biplane and fly it to freedom. The manuscript was found after his passing in Israel in  2015, and translated into English. It's a really worthwhile read.   It's straightforward, not literary, and gets increasingly interesting as he moves from his personal background to planning to take over the 12-seater plane on a run near the Finnish border, to the arrests at the Smolny Airport in Leningrad, the famed December 1970 Leningrad Trial, his survival in the Gulag -- and finally, freedom to Israel in 1979. - Glenn Richter

  • Zev Yaroslavsky; Zev's Los Angeles: From Boyle Heights to the Halls of Power. A Political Memoir. ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8887191676

This autobiography details his path from a Soviet Jewry activist to Los Angeles County Supervisor. One of these chapters is devoted entirely to the Soviet Jewry movement.

Books

  • Sasha Senderovich; How the Soviet Jew Was Made. ISBN 9780674238190

Sasha explores how the Soviet Jewish identity grew, specifically through its literature during the post-Revolution period.

  • Gal Beckerman; When They Come For Us We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry. ISBN 978-0-618-57309-7

Jonathan Sarna (Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University) commented, “At last, the Soviet Jewry movement has found its chronicler.  To read this book is to relive the heroism and the heartached, the desperation and jubilation that marked the long struggle to free Soviet Jews.  This is a moving, reliable and memorable narrative of one of the greatest human rights dramas of our time.”

Rav Yosef Mendelevitch (One of the key figures in the book comments) “In my eyes, the book, in its human portrayal, even more than its historical research, reveals the drama of Jewish life between 1960-90. Many individuals, many chapters, that are woven into a complete tapestry. It is a drama of Jewish life in its most realistic portrayal.” For the complete review, go too…

  • Philip Spiegel; Triumph over Tyranny; The Heroic Campaigns That Saved 2,000,000 million Soviet Jews. ISBN

George P. Shultz (Frmr. Sec. of State) commented, “The best reason to record and remember how Soviet Jews were saved is to be prepared to act again when the need arises.  If we are ever to live in a civilized world, what was accomplished for the Soviet Jews must become the rule rather than the exception.  We must not only preach the doctrine of human rightss, we must learn how actually to be our brother's keeper.”

  • Stuart Altshuler; From Exodus to Freedom:The History of the Soviet Jewry Movement. ISBN 978-0742549364

Micah Naftalin (Exec. Dir UCSJ) commented, “This is a must-read, not only for the thousands of veterans of the movement during the 1980s and 1990s, but for everyone interested in understanding the power of ordinary citizens to promote human rights reform and freedom anywhere in the world.”

  • Semyon Reznick; Chaim & Maria: or Bloodthirsty Lovers. ISBN-13: 978-1950319176

This historical fiction is an account of a blood libel that happened over 200 years ago, but written originally in Russian during the height of the Soviet Union and their oppressive refusenik policies. Here is a wonderful review of it. https://marinachubkina.com/blog/chaim-and-maria

 Biographies

  • Sir Martin Gilbert; Shcharansky: A Hero for our Time. ISBN 0-670-81418-0

Financial Times commented, “A celebration of one man's indomitable spirit in the face of extraordinary odds and perversities.”

  • Dmitry Stonov; The Raskin Family: A Novel. ISBN: 9781644690574 (hardcover) / 9781644690581 (paperback)

Meyer Raskin is a wealthy Jewish entrepreneur running a large agricultural estate in Belarus on the western outskirts of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. His wife Chava feels out of place and yearns for the quiet life of a Jewish shtetl. Together they have six children, some of whom help their father on the estate, while others are more interested in pursuing education or getting involved in revolutionary politics. Their lives are interrupted first by the Russian revolution of 1905 and later by World War I, which eventually turns them all into refugees. This is an autobiographical novel based on the author’s family.

  • Dmitry Stonov; In the Past Night: The Siberian Stories. ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0896723585

Each night, he composed stories in his head, memorizing every line. In the day, he secretly scribbled down on cigarette paper the tales he had created in the past night.Dmitry Stonov was already a well-known Russian author when he was sentenced to a Siberian work camp in 1949. Denied all writing materials, he developed and memorized stories at night. During the day while he worked in the prison library, he removed the tobacco from his cigarettes and recorded his stories in tiny script on the rescued papers. These Stonov managed to smuggle to his family.Terrified that discovery would lead to Stonov's execution, his wife and son buried the stories and hoped for his return. In 1954, when Stonov was released, he transcribed the stories into a notebook. Upon his death in 1962, the stories were concealed again. When Stonov's son Leonid and Leonid's wife Natasha finally won their freedom in 1990, they brought this remarkable manuscript with them to the United States.In the Past Night brings gripping clarity not only to prison life, but also those imprisoning aspects that pervaded every level of Russian society—fear, betrayal, loneliness, the death of hope. Yet Stonov's simple, lyrical compassion allows the reader to glimpse the transcending human spirit.

Dmitry Stonov (1898-1962) was a Soviet literary author and a war correspondent in World War II. Because of his ties to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, he spent over five years in the Gulag (1949-1954). He published a dozen books and many short stories, some autobiographical.

Movies

Lea Zeltserman (Tablet) commented, “It is safe to say that Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov has created the definitive tale of the Leningrad Hijacking, and in the process, humanized the larger than life characters behind it.  It's hard not to pepper descriptions of the film with superlatives like heroic and courageous.  It's equally hard to stay dry-eyed throughout.”

The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive - Yosef Begun: Human Rights Limited. A documentary about the prisoners of conscience, in Russia, from the 1980’s. Produced by the World Zionist Organization and Israel TV.

"Women of the Refuseniks" - by Jerusalem University in an online effort to educate viewers about Judaism and Israel - jerusalemu.org.

Articles

Worthwhile to read an overview of the history of the movement. The refusenik movement has parallels in Jewish history with the time groups would kidnap Jews to ransom them. Often the community would then raise the money to release them. This is a new twist on an old idea.

 Additional Bibliographies

Grassroots national student organization formed by Jacob Birnbaum in 1964 to oppose the persecution of Soviet Jews and promote their right to emigrate freely from the Soviet Union. Collection contains correspondence, questionnaires and statistical information on refuseniks, administrative and financial records, press releases and publicity material, newsletters, clippings, photographs, publications, reports, reel-to-reel tapes, audiocassettes, videotapes, CDs, and buttons, bumper stickers, posters, uniforms and other ephemera. The records are mostly in English, with some material in Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish.

Here are some suggestions for Russian-American authors that will share a unique insight into their lives as a result of their background.

 Websites of Interest

 https://www.refusenikproject.org/history/#interactive-timeline

If you’re looking for an overview of the history of the Refusenik movement, this is a good website to peruse. There are also lesson plans and activities that one can use for teaching.