13 January 2026
by Leonid Parfenov
Source: BaBook
What began as an ideological state antisemitism campaign (see “Rootless Cosmopolitans”, 1948) later takes a more violent turn: state security passes off the murder of the chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, Mikhoels, as an accident, and subsequently arrests the leaders of the JAC, almost all of whom end up being shot.
The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was created in 1942 in order to mobilize the Jewish lobby of Western allied countries to the side of the USSR. Solomon Mikhoels, the artistic director of the Moscow State Theatre (GOSET) was appointed as its head. In an appeal “to Jewish brothers throughout the world,” the luminaries of Soviet science and art, “in the voice of the innocently spilled blood of millions,” implored: “Let your fate be in this holy war!” In 1943, at the invitation of the American Committee of Jewish Scientists and Cultural Figures, signed by Albert Einstein, Mikhoels embarks on a triumphant tour of Great Britain, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Aid committees for Russia are established, and donations — enormous for the time— are collected. After Mikhoels’ speech at a massive rally in New York, the city’s mayor demands that the White House urgently open a Second Front.
After the war, amidst external confrontation with the West and internal state patriotism’s emphasis on “Russianness,” the Jewish Anti-Corruption Committee (JAC) became obsolete. Evidently, in the belief that Mikhoels’ popularity as “Soviet Jew No. 1” would only serve to hinder the committee’s liquidation, the authorities saw fit to first eliminate its chairman. Only Stalin could have given such an order to the Minister of State Security, Abakumov. The operation was led by Abakumov’s deputy, General Ogoltsov. When Mikhoels was viewing plays nominated for the Stalin Prize in Minsk in January 1948, he was persuaded to attend a Jewish wedding to congratulate the newlyweds. The victim is taken to the dacha of Tsanava, the head of the Belarusian MGB, and killed there, along with the informant accompanying Mikhoels. The bodies are placed in an alley near the hotel, making it look as though they have been hit by a truck. An official funeral is held in Moscow for the “outstanding figure of Soviet culture.” The Chekists are awarded military medals for carrying out the assassination.
Several months of markedly friendly relations with the newly-formed Israel followed (see 1948), and only toward the end of the year did the arrests of JAC leaders begin. Around 70 similar cases were opened in many regions. All Jewish organizations, theatres, and newspapers were closed. During interrogations, investigators describe Mikhoels as an exposed agent of the US and global Zionism. The Jewish Anti-Corruption Committee (JAC) case expands, and most prominent Soviet Jews are implicated in the investigation. In January 1950, the death penalty was reinstated in the country. Perhaps they were preparing for an open trial that would unmask the double-dealing traitors. However, many of the accused later refuse to confirm the confessions extracted under torture, and in the closed Military Collegium trial they continue to maintain their innocence. The affair would drag on for more than three years, with the Jewish Anti-Corruption Committee’s leaders executed in August 1952. The Kremlin was clearly not satisfied with the outcome, and four months after the execution, a new, far more vicious campaign began, with Mikhoels’ brother, a medical professor, among the accused (see “The Doctors’ Plot,” 1953).
Translated by Nathalie Wilson
