Introduction

Zvi Preigerzon wrote his memoirs in 1957-1958, a year and a half after his release from the Gulag, where he was held in 1949-1955. He was arrested during the period of brutal antisemitic campaign unleashed by Joseph Stalin in the last years of his rule. The campaign started in 1948 with the murder of Solomon Mikhoels, the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and the arrest and execution of all the committee members—well-known Jewish writers, poets, and actors. During the campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans,” all Jewish newspapers, magazines, and theaters in the Soviet Union were shut down. Many innocent