ANTI-SOVIET YOUTH NATIONALIST JEWISH ORGANIZATION “UNION OF JEWISH YOUTH”

Abstract

The source publication is an attempt to document the reconstruction of one of the little-known episodes of the “fight against manifestations of Jewish nationalism” on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR in the first years after the end of the Nazi occupation and the Holocaust. The investigative materials from the archives of the Security Service of Ukraine, which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, are related to the case of the “Union of Jewish Youth” (SJY) - an organization that was fictitiously created by the Soviet state security agencies. The history of the case of the “Union of Jewish Youth” is one of the examples of “small” cases of a regional scale that were part of the Soviet post-war anti-Semitic wave.
The algorithm of actions of representatives of the Soviet punitive system during the anti-Semitic campaigns of 1947–1953 is shown and the fate of those people who were not lucky enough to be in the field of view of this punitive system. United by Jewish origin, family ties, and circle of acquaintances, the representatives of Jewish students and school youth who found themselves among the participants of the "Union of Jewish Youth" were in reality accidental victims of the Soviet repressive campaign. The latter was directed against all citizens of the USSR who retained their Jewish identity despite the tragic experience of the Holocaust and the growth of anti-Semitism in the country.