Perets Markish

Poet, writer, and playwright. Recipient of the Order of Lenin. Born in Volhynia, he lived and published his works in Europe from 1921 to 1926. In 1926, he moved to the Soviet Union. He wrote plays for the Jewish Theatre and served in the leadership of the Union of Writers. He was a member of the Presidium of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), established in 1942 to raise support for the Soviet Union from ‘Jewish brothers throughout the world’. The JAC’s activities helped facilitate the opening of the Second Front.

He was arrested in January 1949 and accused of Jewish nationalism, creating an anti-Soviet underground organisation, maintaining ties with American intelligence, and committing high treason. The evidence against him was fabricated, and he was subjected to beatings and torture. The trial was held behind closed doors–without public access and without either the prosecution or the defence participating. In July 1952, he was sentenced to death by firing squad with confiscation of his property. He was executed on 12 August 1952. His ashes were buried in Common Grave No. 3 for unclaimed ashes at the New Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow. He was rehabilitated in 1955.

1950s

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The Final Statement

‘I ask the court to give me the opportunity to devote all my energy and my love for the Soviet people to serving them, just as I have done throughout the thirty years of my creative work.’

Mr Chairman, Honourable Judges! I know perfectly well that theft does not begin with breaking open a safe. Nationalism does not begin with the open preaching of racial superiority–it begins with the thoughtless assertion of one’s own personal superiority, which is the very ‘small foothold’ from which theft itself begins.

I never had that ‘small foothold’.

I want to tell the court that my entire life, my literary work, and my activities have been a struggle against backwardness in literature.

I was called a rebel, and in America I was harshly criticised for it.

All my books were imbued with that struggle. I was an ordinary soldier among Soviet writers and served as a correspondent for the newspapers Pravda and Izvestia.

In 1934, at the First Congress of the Union of Soviet Writers, I recited a poem in which I said that we no longer had any reason to write about the ‘Jew from the shtetl’, and for this I was severely criticised.

During the thirty years of activity of the first generation of Soviet writers, many mistakes were made, but despite this, we advanced steadfastly toward the heights of communism.

Our present generation of Soviet writers is working for the millennium ahead, and such work could not possibly be free of mistakes. Therefore, I say that even if my works have not been good enough today, I am proud that they will serve as fertiliser for the future Soviet Homers, and that the future Soviet culture will not be able to cast aside my small brick from the great construction of communism.

This also explains why my name is scarcely mentioned in connection with the activities of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, because I had nothing to do with it. A tragic misunderstanding occurred whereby I was made to share responsibility for the activities of the JAC.

During the initial stage of the investigation, I was not counted among those responsible for the activities of the JAC and was accused only of promoting non-Soviet books.

Throughout my imprisonment, I never felt that I had committed any crime, and despite my suffering for my family, my conscience remained clear.

I examined all the mistakes I might have made. If there was an error in my poem ‘To the Jewish Soldier’, it could only have become a grave offence in connection with the existence of the JAC.

Could it really be that after three and a half years in prison I have not atoned for that mistake?

Colonel Nosov told me that they would convict only the ringleaders and that I would be released.

As early as 1950, Ryumin told me that I could already begin thinking about a new book, and I was utterly astonished when I saw my own name listed among the leaders of the JAC, when in fact I had been ‘a bone in their throat’. I do not wish to speak about the indictment because the inclusion of my name in it is one continuous misunderstanding.

I ask the court to give me the opportunity to devote all my energy and my love for the Soviet people to serving them, just as I have done throughout the thirty years of my creative work.

I now wish to write with a new consciousness in the language of Lenin and Stalin.

Honourable Judges, I want to say that no slander has broken me. I believe that if the Party, the government, and the Soviet people themselves find my words to be of value, they will give me the opportunity to continue serving our Soviet Motherland.

11 July 1952
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court, Moscow, Soviet Union.
Source: Unjust Trial. The Last Stalinist Execution.
For more information: Wikipedia.
Photo: S. N. Strunnikov.