Chapter 6
In 1923, 24-year-old Joshka Gershon was appointed head of the organizational department of the Bobruisk District Committee of the Communist Party. It was not only a party position but, in fact, a leading state government position, because by that time the party organs had seized all real power in the country, giving the Soviets of People’s Deputies only the role of executors of their instructions and directives. In the five years following the October Revolution, the Party’s entire domestic policy underwent radical changes, and workers capable not in words, but in actions, were desperately needed everywhere to lead the restoration and uplift of the economy to a new, higher level.
According to the recollections of V. M. Molotov8, after the seizure of power the Bolsheviks had a vague idea of their next steps as leaders of the country. For the first three days after the October revolution, in the smoky office of the Smolny Institute, where their headquarters was located, the leaders of the revolution were still seriously discussing how to put into practice the theories of a classless society and the abolition of money, what measures could contribute to the withering away of the state and the stimulation of a world revolution.
But very soon they had to be convinced that these fantastic theories correspond neither to real-life circumstances nor to the urgent needs and moods of the masses. And the civil war, which soon engulfed the whole country, necessitated not the destruction, but the strengthening of the state institutions and monetary system, the creation of an army, police, and a special repressive structure designed to suppress the resistance of the overthrown estates — the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission.9
In terms of the economy, the Bolsheviks began by implementing so-called “war communism”. They nationalized industry, banned private trade, imposed a natural tax on peasants — a food allocation, according to which they had no right to sell their products, and all the crops, except for the minimum necessary to feed the family, were confiscated by armed squads.
These measures did not alleviate, but only exacerbated the crisis state of the economy. After the end of the civil war, in 1920, peasant uprisings erupted in many provinces caused by food surplus appropriation and repression. Illegal black market trade flourished and was increasingly expanding. In early 1921 in Kronstadt, a closed military port on the Baltic, sailors who had always been considered staunch supporters of the Bolsheviks revolted.
In the end, Lenin realized that the people were tired of the continuous deprivation and disasters, that a general discontent was building up which threatened to sweep away the new Bolshevik government altogether. Gradually it became clear that only hated capitalism, with its private property and commerce, could quickly lead the country out of the crisis. And in February 1921, at the 10th All-Russian Party Congress, Lenin announced to his delegates, dumbfounded by surprise, the transition to a new economic policy (NEP), meaning the abolition of war communism and a return to limited capitalism.
Lenin cunningly conceived the NEP as a maneuver, a temporary respite before the final destruction of capitalism. But the rank-and-file Party masses, not realizing this, took exception and panicked. Many local leaders were at a loss and doubted the rightness of such actions.
Bobruisk, recently abandoned by the Poles, was no exception. Therefore, the party leadership of the city turned its attention to Gershon, chairman of the tannery union, who was one of the first to practically use the NEP to improve the food supply of its workers and employees; after all, the lack of food was a huge problem for the population after the liberation of the city.
Having familiarized himself with the new directives, Gershon and his assistants promptly went to villages and secured contracts for the in-kind exchange of food for the products of the companies in the union: horse harnesses, plows, axes, saws, nails, lumber, etc. Things went well, food was distributed by the commission taking into account the number of families. The mood of the people improved noticeably.
Such actions couldn’t have corresponded better to the new course of the party, and this determined the further fate of Joshka Gershon. Thus began his career as a professional party activist.
Soon after the new appointment, the Gershon family moved into a two-room apartment with a bath and toilet. And on March 24, 1924, the third member of the family appeared in the apartment, a girl named Lena, in honor of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the leader of the world proletariat, who died in January of that year. And on the eve of Lena’s birth, Braina’s grandmother became seriously ill and died.
Joshka’s main concern and responsibility was the practical implementation of Party directives in enterprises and institutions. Particular difficulties were caused by the conversion of state enterprises to economic accounting, that is, the replacement of in-kind payment with monetary payment in accordance with the quantity and quality of labor. Joshka dealt with these issues with interest and energy: he involved specialists, consulted with workers and engineers. Together they found optimal solutions.
Soon it turned out that the enterprises of Bobruisk district were faster and more successful than others in adopting the new conditions of labor and its payment. This did not go unnoticed, and in 1926, on the recommendation of an influential member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Belarus, Voronchenko, Gershon was transferred to a similar position in the Minsk District Party Committee.
Voronchenko had been a friend of Kashinsky, later shot in Bobruisk, for many years; before the revolution, he had often visited him and at the same time met Gershon. Since then, a good and trusting relationship had been maintained between them. He was a friendly guardian of Joshka in Minsk, helping him to get accustomed to his new surroundings. Here, too, Gershon was fully committed, regardless of time, and he persistently took to the task at hand along with his new assistants, using the experience and knowledge that he had accumulated in Bobruisk. Soon he was already recognized on sight in many plants and factories in Minsk, and the results of his work became so noticeable that two years later Gershon was elected to the Central Committee of the Party of Belarus and appointed deputy head of the department of transport and industry.
The successful career had not changed Joshka’s character at all. He had always been a stranger to arrogance and ambition. He remained as simple, open, humble, and outgoing as he had been in his Komsomol youth, and he was still sincerely committed to communist ideas. His coworkers and everyone with whom he had to cooperate even briefly appreciated his objectivity, honesty, benevolence, and self-criticism.
However, as usual, one could not get along without ill-wishers who gossiped about the insufficiently educated “upstart” from the province.
On one occasion, the Party Central Committee received an anonymous letter accusing Gershon of using his official position to get an apartment meant for a rank-and-file employee with a large family. In reality, Gershon was not even aware that there was another applicant for this apartment.
He called this stranger, apologized for the unintentional distress he had caused, and then continued to live with his family in a hotel for several more months while waiting for another service apartment.
Often Joshka had to finish his workday late in the evening, at the limit of all his physical and mental strength. And how welcome and pleasant the family environment was for him, where he was always surrounded by love, heartfelt care, deep interested understanding, and kind intelligent advice! His family was a truly happy one, with warm love maintained day in and day out by the sincere respect and joy from the spouses’ ordinary everyday interactions. There was no room for family misunderstandings, and occasional disagreements never turned into abusive quarrels, but often ended in playful compromises, hugs, and kisses. Little Lenochka, who was looked after by Ida, was an additional source of joy and fun in this strong, amicable family. Here Joshka could relax completely, rest his body and soul, share his doubts and reflections, and in the morning, after doing exercise, begin the difficult tasks with new strength and good spirit.
Braina worked with passion at Jewish School No. 7 as a zero-group teacher, and in 1927 she enrolled at the Gorky Pedagogical Institute in Minsk to qualify to work as a high school teacher.
In the late twenties, the young, reliable, and also physically strong communist Gershon was entrusted with a secret mission to establish contacts with illegal Jewish Marxist cells in Germany. Joshka traveled abroad twice with false documents. And if the first time all went well, the assignment was successfully carried out, then the second time he almost got caught in the clutches of the German secret police.
On his way to the safe house, where the pre-arranged meeting was to take place, he was stopped by an unfamiliar girl. When she gave him the password, she took Joshka under her arm, led him to a nearby square, and warned him that his appearance had been compromised by a provocateur and that a police ambush was waiting for him in the apartment. Matilda — that was the name of the stranger — helped Joshka to take refuge in a safe place and then travel outside of Germany. Later, Joshka had to explain himself in detail about this matter to the relevant authorities in his home country.
The year 1929 came. From the central party apparatus, Joshka was transferred to the position of secretary of the Pleshchenets District Party Committee, and this was no accident — the hour of the Russian peasantry had struck.
At the end of 1929, Stalin, who had succeeded Lenin as leader of the country, published an article entitled “The Year of the Great Breakthrough,” in which he declared “the liquidation of the kulaks as a class” to be the next most important state task. According to this doctrine, the most capable, industrious, economical, and therefore well-to-do peasants, the “kulaks”, were declared enemies of the Soviet government, subject to dekulakization and further exile with their families to the barren, sparsely populated northern and eastern regions of the country with an extremely harsh climate. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children were transported thousands of kilometers away from their homes in freight cars. Many of them died on the way, and those who miraculously survived were unloaded in the bare steppe at any time of the year, even in winter.
However, the poor peasants who remained at home, the poor and the middle class, also had to give up ownership of land and cattle, and instead “voluntarily,” but in fact forcedly, join collective farms (kolkhozes) and turn into rural workers. In this way, the Soviets realized another of Lenin’s long-standing ideas about the abolition of another petty-bourgeois class, the peasantry.
Because of his position, Gershon was inevitably to take a direct part in this sinister historical process. But fate willed that he should not taint his conscience with outright injustice. And his “luck” consisted in the fact that the Pleshchenets district of the Minsk region was a forested area, where agriculture was limited to small plots of low fertile loamy sandy soil, and where peasants always gathered a very modest harvest of grain, potatoes, and flax. In small local villages, there were hardly any well-to-do families, let alone rich landowners.
These objective circumstances made it possible for the Pleschenets district committee to convince the higher authorities to refrain from deporting people outside the republic at all, limiting themselves to relocating only a few uncooperative families to remote farms. This tactic was supported even by the head of the district party committee of the United State Political Administration (OGPU)10, an old Bolshevik from an intelligent Polish family who condemned arbitrariness and illegal violence.
But wicked villagers, representatives of the “committees of the poor”, recently created by the authorities, from time to time declared one or the other of their neighbors to be kulaks, demanding that they be dispossessed and deported. As a rule, after checking, it turned out that these were just independent middle-class people who used the labor of their family members, but who were envied by the less fortunate villagers or were being avenged for something.
Nevertheless, signals about the “softness” of Gershon, the district committee secretary, were reaching the higher authorities and were piling up. The generally successful results of collectivization in the district he headed saved Joshka from harsh measures.
And when numerous peasant revolts soon broke out in the country as a result of these violent reforms, in the program article “Vertigo from Success,” published in Pravda on March 2, 1930 as usual, becoming another important state directive, Stalin was forced to scold those who confused the kulak with the middle class and forced the peasants into collective farms. In light of this new directive, the methods of work of the Pleschenitsky District Committee looked almost exemplary, and at one meeting a simple-minded speaker even called Joshka “our Pleschenitsky Stalin”.
This stocky, stout-looking young man in a military coat of protective color, with a shrewd, intelligent look in his brown eyes, judicious, businesslike, cheerful, and self-critical, gave the impression of a strong-willed, convinced, and steadfast party leader. However, Joshka’s state of mind did not always match his outward appearance. His former fervent, almost fanatical faith in the Party as the only faithful and unselfish spokesman for the interests of the common people wavered under the influence of the real events of recent years.
The first disappointments came with the realization that there was not just political wrangling in the top leadership of the party, but a constant fierce struggle for leadership and power. This was the conclusion Joshka drew after the recent leader and symbol of the revolution, Lev Trotsky, was expelled from the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and then expelled from the country.
Following this, some strange, unconvincing, incomprehensible trials began against technical specialists, among whom were many old Bolsheviks. The fact that they publicly confessed to failed sabotage and undisclosed plots against the Soviet government was perplexing.
But the collectivization of the village, which took place as a brutal mass action of forced rearrangement of the century-old rural way of life under the bogus guise of voluntariness, made an especially grave impression. The theoretically attractive idea of the collective labor of happy people free from exploitation, in reality, turned into grief, tears, and death of millions11 of men, women, the elderly, and children.
Joshka could see that instead of fighting the real external enemies of the country, the State Political Administration was gradually morphing into an organ of intimidation of its people. More and more unrestrained praise is given to Stalin’s wise leadership, while in reality the people, living for more than a decade under Soviet rule, continue to live in poverty, hunger, and fear.
The weight of these doubts made it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to convince others that the Party was leading the people on the only right path to happiness and prosperity, as the directives of the center demanded. Even to Braina, his closest person, Joshka could not express the painful doubts that had accumulated in his soul, because she was expecting a child, and she had to be protected from unnecessary worries.
Braina, of course, sensed and understood from his mood, remarks, and appearance that Joshka was having a hard time, that he was worried about the situation in the country. Tension and anxiety reigned among the teachers, too. But she did her best to make sure that at home, by the family, Joshka was distracted from heavy thoughts, fully rested, and calmed down.
Most of the time this was the case: the home environment, games with Lena, communication with Braina and Ida soothed and improved Joshka’s mood. Again and again, he wanted to believe that the unpleasant and inexplicable events were only the costs of the transition period, which in time would be justified by the future well-being of the people and the prosperity of his beloved country. Therefore, it was not worth it to waste strength and time on doubts, one should work honestly and conscientiously in one’s place, and this is the most justified behavior in such a difficult time.
Such primitive self-deception temporarily brought welcome relief. Along with political events, ordinary human life continued, after all. At the end of 1930, Braina gave birth to a son who was named Kim in honor of the youth organization of the Communist International. Joshka gave every free minute to the baby; he often babysat and played with him, causing jealousy in Lena, who by then was used to always being the center of attention of the family. For Braina, it was a good opportunity to apply her considerable experience as an educator, which she used with success.
Braina’s brothers and sister became adults. The older one, Solomon Shvedik, showed notable creative ability and was accepted into the troupe of the Moscow State Jewish Theater under the direction of the outstanding actor Solomon Mikhoels12. The youngest, Gennady, started to write poems at an early age, which were published in the local newspapers.
In the early 1930s, at the age of 17, Gennady Shvedik and his brother Chaim left for the Far East, where the Jewish Autonomous Region was being born, to earn a pass to enter the workers’ faculty (rabfak) of an institute without competition. In those days, all Soviet universities had rabfaks specifically for the training of young workers, so the brothers worked on the construction sites of the local kolkhozes. But one night Chaim was killed by unknown bandits, of whom there were many in the area. Gennady deeply grieved the loss of his brother, with whom he had always been very close.
After earning the coveted voucher, Gennady returned to Minsk and enrolled in the literature department of the Pedagogical Institute, where the youngest of the Shvedik children, Genya, was also studying. Gennady and Genya often dropped in at the Gershons’, where they could count on a tasty lunch prepared by Ida, which in those difficult times was always a good thing for students.
Soon Gennady married Beta, a chemistry student, a charming, sociable, cheerful beauty, out of passionate mutual love. Wherever this happy young couple appeared, they drew attention everywhere with their vivid beauty.
In 1932, luck unexpectedly smiled upon Joshka in official matters. The People’s Commissar of Education of Belarus, Voronchenko, who knew Gershon’s business qualities well, offered him the position of his deputy. In response to the leadership’s objections that Joshka, in their words, was not sufficiently educated, Voronchenko assured that Gershon would be the one to provide schools and educational institutions with everything they needed so that thousands of Belarusian children and adults could receive a good education. This is how Joshka became deputy People’s Commissar for Education of the Republic.
He was to be responsible for the timely construction and repair of school buildings, as well as for the material and technical support of the educational process, meaning the supply of textbooks, visual aids, appliances, furniture, inventory, including equipment for school canteens and cafeterias. Once again, he had a lot of difficulties to overcome, since confusion, irresponsibility, and arbitrariness reigned in these matters.
However, not only did this not frighten Joshka, on the contrary, he felt great moral satisfaction from active participation in the real and important task of improving the conditions of education in the system of public education. A friendly team of enthusiasts rallied around him, among whom Joshka’s secretary, Marya Ivanovna Minkevich, was particularly distinguished by her devotion to the cause. Visiting city and village schools with her, listening to her remarks about the leadership of the People’s Commissariat, Joshka often responded with self-criticism and humor by declaring: “It’s my and Marya Ivanovna’s fault!”, a phrase that became popular among the public in Minsk.
The fruitful business environment at work had a beneficial effect on the family situation as well. The unnecessary nervousness and tension disappeared. The former calmness and friendliness returned, and Jewish songs and jokes could be heard again.
Lena often brought home a group of Jewish girls, her school friends, and they enjoyed the cakes that Ida made and listened to Jewish folk songs sung by such an important-looking but in fact simple and cheerful dad. And at his request, they all sang together as a choir.
Many years later, one of Lena’s former school friends recounted that she remembers the unusually warm and cozy atmosphere of Lena’s family, the surprisingly kind and attentive relationship between the parents and children, and this memory has always been an example to her in her own life.
Joshka and Braina had equally ironic attitudes when it came to discussions of wealth and luxury; they preferred modesty in apartment furnishings, clothing, and food. Lena’s father gently persuaded her that it was indecent and shameful to stand out among her classmates with anything but knowledge and diligence. Lena did not contradict him, but sometimes her heart could not stand the temptation of seeing beautiful things.
One-day foreign patent-leather shoes appeared in a shoe store, and Lena begged her parents to buy them for her. Joshka insisted that it was an unnecessary extravagance. However, Braina and even the taciturn Ida sided with Lena. Seeing this unity, four-year-old red-headed Kim, without even understanding the reason for the argument, climbed into his father’s lap and, hugging him by the neck, proclaimed: “And I, Daddy, am on your side!” Everyone laughed, and Joshka, holding his son to his chest, said: “Here’s an example of true unselfish friendship!”
This was no accident. A harmonious, unusually tender, even somewhat enthusiastic relationship emerged and strengthened between father and son, and a sense of deep mutual affection grew.
By 1933, new industries had gradually formed in the USSR: the production of automobiles and tractors, iron and steel, and increased production of electricity, petroleum products, and coal. The collective farmers, judging by official reports, grew a rich harvest. Mass arrests and high-profile trials stopped. There was a desire to believe that the long-awaited good times were finally coming.
The Gershon family also rejoiced at each other’s successes. Braina received her degree in pedagogy and enthusiastically mastered the techniques of teaching in high school, Lena studied easily and successfully, Kim amused everyone by trying to rhyme his observations, and Braina neatly wrote them in the album: «Ида ушла за картошкой, а я остался один с кошкой», «Всюду, всюду тишина, только капает вода!» (“Ida went out for potatoes, and I stayed alone with the cat,” “Silence everywhere, everywhere, only water drips!)
Braina’s younger brother Gennady Shvedik published his first collection of poems in Hebrew in 1934. It was called “Start”. There were poems about Belarus, the Far East, the Komsomol, youth, friendship, love…
Gennady Shvedik with his wife Beta. The 1930’s.
8 Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (real surname Scriabin; 1890-1986) was a Russian revolutionary, a leading figure in Soviet policy and government. One of the highest-ranking officials of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Communist Party from 1921-1957.
9 The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for combating counter-revolution, speculation and malfeasance was formed on December 7 (20), 1917 by a decree of the Council of People’s Commissars. Its tasks included “suppression and liquidation of counterrevolutionary and sabotage activities throughout Russia, no matter by whom they were originated”, trial by the Revolutionary Tribunals and development of measures to combat counterrevolution and sabotage.
10 United State Political Administration under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR. It was formed on November 15, 1923, after the establishment in 1922 of the USSR, a union of four Soviet republics. In 1934, the United State Political Department became part of the Soviet National Security Committee as the Main Directorate of State Security.
11 On April 2, 2008, the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the fifth convocation made a special Statement on the memory of victims of the famine of the 1930s in the USSR, which covered a significant part of the territory of the Soviet Union. As a result of the forced collectivization in many regions of the Russian Federation (the Volga Region, the Central Black Earth Region, the North Caucasus, the Urals, the Crimea, part of Western Siberia), as well as in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus about 7 million people died of hunger and diseases associated with malnutrition in 1932-1933.
12 Solomon Mikhailovich Mikhoels (born Shloyme Vovsi; 1890-1948) was a Soviet theater actor and director, teacher, public and political figure. Leading actor and director of the Moscow State Jewish Theatre since 1925. In February 1942, when the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was formed by initiative of the Soviet leadership for the “involvement of the Jewish populace of the whole world in the fight against fascism,” Mikhoels became the first chairman of this committee.