Chaika Vatenberg-Ostrovskaya

Translator from Yiddish and English. At the age of thirteen, she emigrated from Ukraine to the United States, where she later married. In 1933, she and her husband returned to the USSR. She worked as a translator for 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 advance the opening of the Second Front.

Arrested in January 1949, she was accused of Jewish nationalism, organising an anti-Soviet underground, maintaining ties with American intelligence, and committing high treason. Her testimony was fabricated, and she was subjected to beatings and torture. The trial was held behind closed doors–without the public and without the participation of either the prosecution or the defence. In July 1952, she was sentenced to death by firing squad with confiscation of property. She was executed on 12 August 1952. Her ashes were interred in Common Grave No. 3 for Unclaimed Ashes at the New Donskoy Cemetery in Moscow. She was rehabilitated in 1955.

1950s

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The Final Statement

‘I also wish to tell the court that all of ‘my testimony’ given during the preliminary investigation was the product of the investigator’s invention and did not correspond to reality.’

I hope that the court has been convinced that I had no espionage connection whatsoever with Novik. The fact that I passed information to him was an act of carelessness, not espionage. I ask the court to take into account that my testimony during the preliminary investigation concerning a conversation with Davis was false and was given at a time when I was in a state of extreme mental distress.

I had absolutely no connection with the JAC, and I believe that I have succeeded in proving this. I never held nationalist views. I left America for the Soviet Union because it was difficult for me to live there–morally speaking, of course–and therefore I could not regret leaving that life behind. My wish was to work in a socialist state. From 1934 onward, I worked honestly in the Soviet Union and found complete fulfilment in my work. Perhaps I displayed certain petty-bourgeois attitudes on occasion, but they were never anti-Soviet in character.

If the court nevertheless finds me guilty, I ask to be allowed to serve my sentence together with my husband. I also wish to tell the court that all of ‘my testimony’ given during the preliminary investigation was the product of the investigator’s invention and did not correspond to reality.

11 July 1952,
Military Collegium of the Supreme Court, Moscow, USSR.
Source: ‘An Unjust Trial: Stalin’s Last Execution’.
Further reading: Wikipedia.
Photo: Evgeny Berkovich Portal.