Letters of Jewish writer Isaak Nukhimovich Kipnis from Gulag

Copyright Holder: Center for the Studies of History and Culture of East European Jewry (Judaica Center) of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv, Ukraine Consist of 62 letters written by Isaak Kipnis to his relatives from a gulag in 1952-1953 as well as appeals to the Soviet government and judicial authorities to review his case. The correspondence provides information about his imprisonment, describes circumstances of Kipnis’s arrest and attempts of his relatives to free him from the imprisonment. Isaak Nukhimovich Kipnis (1894-1974) was a prominent Soviet Jewish writer, member of the Union of Ukrainian writers. He was arrested in 1949 and accused of the “Nationalist ( Zionist) and Anti-Soviet activities”. The main evidence incriminated against Kipnis were his literary activities before and after WWII, especially his short article “ On khokhmes, on kheshiboynes” published in 1947 in the Polish Yiddish newspaper “ Naye Lebn” where he suggested that Soviet Jews have to proudly wear Yellow Stars next to the military decorations received on the battle fields. Isaak Kipnis’s works has been widely published before his arrest in the Soviet Union and recently in Israel and USA.