Bookman Solomon Dolnik: A Zionist between Zionists
EDN: EHYHSR
Abstract
The article examines the life-story and autobiographical writing of Solomon Borisovich Dolnik (1901–1986), a Jewish activist in the Soviet Union who practically single-handedly engaged in underground Zionist samizdat during 1960–1966 and was sentenced to four years in a labor camp for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.” The article examines both the controversial aspects of Dolnik’s biography — his relationship with other activists before and after his trial, the actual reasons for his conviction, the background for the uncordial reception he received in Israel — and the idiosyncrasies of his conception of himself and his life writing. The article is primarily intended to highlight a forgotten historical figure, restoring another page in the history of the Jewish national movement in the USSR, the beginning of which, due to the almost complete replacement of the activist cohorts, is usually attributed to a later period. In addition, some observations are made as to how Dolnik (and this might be applicable to other Zionists of his generation) assessed the Jewish destiny in the USSR, the disposition of his fellow Jews, the abilities and determination of Jewish youth and activists among them. Another focus of the paper is the way Dolnik has constructed his autobiographies as both a manifesto, a polemics, an accusation, and an auto-apology.
Keywords
autobiography,
antisemitism,
corrective labor camp,
Israel,
Jewish national movement,
refuseniks,
samizdat,
Soviet Jewry,
Zionism
Supporting agencies: The article was written on the basis of the RANEPA state assignment research program.
About the Author
G. S. Zelenina
Lomonosov Moscow State University; The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Galina Svetloyarovna Zelenina, Cand. Sci. (History) Associate Professor, Department of Jewish Studies; Senior Researcher, Center for Cultural Studies, School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities
125009, Moscow, Mokhovaya Str., 11, Bld. 1
119571, Moscow, Prospekt Vernadskogo, 82
References
1. Bernstein, M. A. (1994). Foregone conclusions: Against apocalyptic history. Univ. of California Press.
2. Katz, J. (1975). Was the Holocaust predictable? Commentary, 59(5), 41–48.
3. Kostyrchenko, G. V. (2012). Tainaia politika Khrushcheva: Vlast’, intelligentsiia, evreiskii vopros [Khrushev’s secret policy: Power, intelligentsia, Jewish question]. Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia. (In Russian).
4. Nurkova, V. V. (2009). Istoriia kak lichnyi opyt [History as a personal experience]. Istoricheskaia psikhologiia i sotsiologiia istorii, 2009(1), 5–27. (In Russian).
5. Slezkine, Yu. (2004). The Jewish century. Princeton Univ. Press.
6. Tuller, D. (1996). Cracks in the iron closet: Travels in gay and lesbian Russia. Faber and Faber.
7. Wex, M. (2005). Born to kvetch: Yiddish language and culture in all its moods. St. Martin’s Press.
8. Zelenina, G. (2015). “U menia svoe khobbi — ia kollektsioniruiu evreev”: poiski identichnosti na dosuge [“I have a hobby — I collect Jews”: The search for identity as a pastime]. Teoriia mody: odezhda, telo, kul’tura, 36, 160–223. (In Russian).
9. Zelenina, G. (2022). “Ne dopuskaia na gubitel’nye puti”: evreiskoe dvizhenie i vosproizvodstvo neterpimosti [“Preventing from pernicious ways”: Jewish movement in the late Soviet Union and the reproduction of intolerance]. In O. V. Belova (Ed.). Professionaly i marginaly v slavianskoi i evreiskoi kul’turnoi traditsii (pp. 179–229). Academic Studies Press; Bibliorossika. https://doi.org/10.31168/2658-3356.2022.9. (In Russian).
Review
For citations:
Zelenina G.S. Bookman Solomon Dolnik: A Zionist between Zionists. Shagi / Steps. 2025;11(2):48-75. (In Russ.) EDN: EHYHSR
Views:
111
Email this article 