Photo: Information and Analytical Agency "East of Russia"

Editor's Preface

The establishment of the Biro-Bidzhan Jewish National District in 1930, followed by the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 1934, was fully aligned with the Soviet policy of the era, which aimed at founding national-territorial autonomies of various levels and elevating the status of minority languages. Furthermore, establishing a Jewish autonomy specifically in the Far East corresponded to the strategic direction of Soviet policy at the time, which sought to resettle the Jewish population from their traditional areas of residence to a sparsely developed borderland of the country, whose development was necessitated by the geopolitical interests of the USSR.

However, the initiative did not depend solely on the priorities of the Soviet authorities. Attracting significant groups of European Jews to the Far Eastern taiga seemed, at first glance, highly unrealistic—unless they were inspired by the dream of a Jewish homeland. It was this vision, defined by Emmanuil Kazakevich in his Yiddish novel "Sholom and Hava" as a dream of "a taiga speaking Yiddish, of rivers foaming in Jewish," that drew Jewish settlers to Birobidzhan not only from Eastern Europe, but also from America, Argentina, and Brazil. Some even arrived from Palestine, where Zionists—regarded then as no less utopian than the pioneers of Birobidzhan—were building a nation for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland. To its enthusiasts, the Birobidzhan project represented the reclamation of a homeland by a people who had endured centuries of exile.

Here, within the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Yiddish-medium schools were opened, official administration was transitioned to Yiddish, a national press emerged (including the literary and socio-political journal "Forpost"), and the Jewish State Theater opened its doors. However, within less than a decade, Birobidzhan was subjected to severe repressions. The victims included the national intelligentsia, foreign settlers (such as the members of the Icor commune in the Smidovichsky District), and ordinary citizens. Concurrently, as the state shifted toward Great Russian chauvinism, it began rapidly dismantling national development programs ("korenizatsiya," or indigenization) for ethnic minorities in general, and Jews in particular. Plans for the further development of Birobidzhan as a Jewish homeland were effectively frozen. Indirect evidence of this is found in the fact that the Supreme Soviet of the USSR ignored a plan proposed in February 1941 by Hirsh Sukharev (1900–1963), the First Secretary of the Oblast Committee of the CPSU, to resettle tens of thousands of European Jews fleeing Nazi occupation into Birobidzhan.

One of the most prominent and tragic figures in the history of the Birobidzhan project was Professor Iosif Liberberg (1900–1937), the first Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. It is to him that this article by Birobidzhan scholar Iosif Brener is dedicated.

Dr. Velvl Chernin

Until recently, the name of Iosif Izrailevich Liberberg (27.10.1897[1] – 09.03.1937), the first head of the regional executive committee of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, remained largely unknown. His name is absent from the first Encyclopedic Dictionary of the JAO published in 1999. In the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia, the brief biographical entry on Liberberg, including his time in Birobidzhan and his tragic end, contains factual inaccuracies. The memoirs of E. Rosenthal-Shneiderman, published in Yiddish in Israel, which offer insights into Liberberg's life, remained inaccessible to Russian-speaking readers due to the language barrier. Documents from the personal archive of Rosenthal-Shneiderman, including post-war correspondence and photographs of the Liberberg family, are preserved in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem. Over the past two decades, fragmented information about him has appeared in D. Vaiserman's books "How It Was" and "Birobidzhan: Dreams and Tragedy," as well as in publications by E. Melamed, H. Berman, B. Kotlerman, and A. Zaremba. The files of Liberberg's criminal case from the KGB archives (No. 123) did not provide a comprehensive biography, and attempts to locate his relatives and associates were long unsuccessful.

The lost connection with Liberberg's descendants was re-established entirely by chance. His granddaughter, Irina Novitskaya, contacted the author of this article after coming across his publications online. "I have known that magical word, Birobidzhan, since birth," Irina wrote. "From early childhood, it was associated with a distant and wondrous land built by my grandparents, and I always felt that I would visit it one day. I am deeply moved that someone has preserved the memory of my grandfather... I grew up knowing I was the descendant of an extraordinary man, yet I was certain that no one else was left to keep his memory alive."

The fate of Irina Novitskaya's ancestors is an integral part of Jewish history, and the significance of Iosif Liberberg's role in the establishment and development of the JAO becomes increasingly apparent with each passing year.

The future historian, bibliographer, and public figure was born in Starokostiantyniv, Volhynian Governorate, the youngest of four sons of a fur shop clerk and a corset maker. When Iosif was seven, the family relocated to Vinnytsia, where he attended a four-year school, graduating in 1911. The family then moved to the suburb of Kyiv, the settlement of Slobodka in the Oster Uyezd, Chernigov Governorate. From October 1914 to February 1918, Iosif earned 15–20 rubles a month by tutoring, which enabled him to continue his education. He entered the sixth grade of the Kyiv Private 8-Class Gymnasium, graduating in 1917. It was there that he began studying underground literature in Russian and Yiddish. According to the memoirs of E. Rosenthal-Shneiderman, "...the Jewish gymnasist Liberberg became famous for his profound, comprehensive knowledge, phenomenal memory, and civic temperament. He was exempt from tuition fees and became a favorite of his classmates and teachers." <...>

While still at school, he mastered French, German, and English independently. He insisted on reading classical literature in the original languages, noting during discussions of literary masterpieces: "I do not care to read classics in translation," often adding: "It is not without reason they say that even the finest translation is no more than kissing a beautiful girl through a silk handkerchief..."[2].

In 1917, Liberberg enrolled in the Faculty of History and Philology at Kyiv University. "The professors of St. Vladimir University were no less proud of their student Liberberg than his former gymnasium teachers had been," Rosenthal-Shneiderman writes. "They predicted a distinguished academic career for him"[3].

During his university years, Iosif was deeply involved in political activity, joining the Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party (Poale Zion) in 1916. In May 1918, he joined the Komfarband. That same year, he participated in the uprising against the Hetman, leading a group of ten comrades to seize the offices of the Cadet newspapers "Utro" and "Vecher." In June 1919, he joined the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine in Kyiv[4].

According to his relatives, the formation of Iosif's political views was significantly influenced by Moshe Rafes, a prominent figure in the Bund and the Yevsektsiya (1883–1942). It was likely under his influence that the young man joined the Kyiv organization of the Bund, which Rafes led.

In March 1919, Liberberg volunteered for the Red Army, fighting against Petliura's forces. After joining the CP(B)U (also under the influence of Rafes), he was placed at the disposal of the Kyiv Military District as a political worker for the Jewish Military Section. In this capacity, he traveled through the shtetls of Podolia to recruit revolutionary Jewish youth into the Red Army, and was subsequently sent to Pyriatyn, Poltava Governorate, for underground work. Following the liberation of southern Ukraine from Denikin's forces, Iosif was recalled in January 1920 and assigned to the Berdychiv District Committee of the CP(B)U.

In April of that year, as a delegate to the Kyiv Governorate Party Conference, Liberberg was mobilized into the Red Army as a political instructor and subsequently assigned to the Higher Military-Political School in Kyiv, where he joined a study group on the history of the revolutionary movement in Western Europe.

Moshe Rafes introduced the young man to several conferences, allowing him to enter the circles of active political figures and workers of Jewish organizations in Russia and abroad. On July 4–11, 1920, he attended the Third Conference of the Yevsektsiya in Moscow as the youngest voting delegate (aged 21) from Ukraine. Alongside 64 voting delegates and 20 advisory ones, representatives of various foreign parties and organizations from Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and elsewhere arrived in Moscow. Prominent figures like M. Rafes, A. Merezhin, S. Dimanstein, and M. Litvakov stood out for their activity. They would later provide significant support to Liberberg during his tenure as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the JAO.

In the summer of 1920, Iosif married Nadezhda Goldstein, and on May 3, 1921, their daughter Tamara was born.

Liberberg served as a political worker until June 1924, when he was demobilized by a Central Committee decree and appointed as a lecturer, and subsequently Professor of History, at the Kyiv Institute of National Economy.

In June 1925, Iosif undertook an academic research trip to Berlin. Upon his return, he lectured at the Institute of National Economy, the Polytechnic Institute, and other higher education institutions in Kyiv. While initially lecturing primarily in Russian, Liberberg later switched to Ukrainian and Yiddish. Concurrently, he conducted research at the Department of Marxism-Leninism, heading the Section for the History of the Revolutionary Movement in the West.

From 1926, his career was closely linked to the Department of Jewish Culture of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN), where he initially headed the historical section. In 1927, Liberberg's first book, "Essays on the Social and Economic History of England," was published in Ukrainian and Yiddish[5]. At the official opening of the "Jewish" department in early 1928, the young scholar was already designated as its head. Thanks to his organizational skills and support from party and Jewish circles, the opening of the department was attended by colleagues from other Soviet republics. Academician V. N. Peretts, speaking on behalf of the All-Union Academy of Sciences, stated that "the entire Soviet scientific community has long awaited researchers of Jewish history, science, and literature. The Academy believes that through this department, this field of research has gained a solid, materialist, and active foundation."

In his address, Liberberg noted that he "intended to propose the establishment of an all-union association of Jewish research institutes." By then, the department had established contacts with Jewish academic circles in the USSR, the Vilna Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO) in Poland, and academic centers in Germany, France, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Argentina, and other countries. Following the events, Liberberg was reprimanded for inviting individuals and institutions deemed "hostile" to the Soviet regime, including the historian S. Dubnow, the central organ of the Polish Bund newspaper "Folks-Tsaytung," and the journal "Literarishe Bleter."

As Rosenthal-Shneiderman recalls, following the publication of the first reports of Professor B. Bruk's expedition to the Biro-Bidzhan district in the summer of 1927, Liberberg entered into active correspondence with Bruk and Professor R. Williams. The institute followed the results of the expedition to this uncharted region of the Far East with keen interest. By the spring of 1928, the government had decided to colonize the region, and there was little doubt that a Jewish autonomous state entity would be established there.

In 1929, Iosif Liberberg was appointed Director of the Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture (IEPK) of the VUAN, which had been established on the basis of the department. During this period, he maintained contact with prominent Jewish figures in the USSR and Europe, including S. Dimanstein, S. Dubnow, and writers D. Bergelson, I. Fefer, G. Kazakevich, and M. Litvakov.

The Director invited scholars from various cities in Ukraine, as well as Moscow, Leningrad, Minsk, and even from abroad, to work at the IEPK, an initiative that required considerable political courage at the time[6].

In July 1930, Liberberg was sent on an academic mission to Berlin, where he conducted research in the state library and delivered lectures at the USSR Embassy. That same year, his book "The Great French Revolution"[7] was published in Ukrainian. He was also known as the author of the articles "The Tasks of Jewish Bibliography," "The Library and Press Archive of the Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture" (both published in the "Bibliographical Collection," 1930), and "Jewish Academic Work in the Soviet Union" ("Jews in the USSR," 1935).

Following the establishment of the Jewish national district in the Far East in 1930 and the convening of the first Congress of Soviets, the Institute held a solemn assembly, during which a congratulatory telegram was sent to the Birobidzhan District Congress.

In 1932, Liberberg and Borukh Guberman, an institute staff member, undertook a research trip to the Biro-Bidzhan district. The institute eagerly awaited their return. According to the memoirs of Rosenthal-Shneiderman, the main hall of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences had never seen such excitement as on the day of the report on the trip to Birobidzhan. The researchers returned captivated by the region's vast expanses, speaking enthusiastically of their visit to the Bira Agricultural Experimental Station, where they observed that crops typical of warmer climates could thrive on Birobidzhan soil. They spoke of the abundant water resources and timber reserves, which would facilitate the rapid and cost-effective construction of enterprises and housing for settlers. This visit helped establish close links with the district leadership and raised the question of organizing a Far Eastern branch of the All-Union Academy of Sciences in Birobidzhan.

The head of the IEPK decided to temporarily redirect the institute's focus, sending over 60 staff members to the shtetls of Ukraine to encourage the Jewish poor to resettle in Birobidzhan. The results were clear: according to the regional archives of the JAO, up to half of the settlers during that period arrived from Ukraine.

A reciprocal visit by a delegation from Birobidzhan to the IEPK in 1933 led to the approval of a joint work plan, which included promotional activities among the local Jewish population.

At the end of 1932, the Institute dispatched three postgraduate students to Birobidzhan for permanent work: I. Rabinovich, B. Goldfain, and N. Korman. Rabinovich was appointed director of the pedagogical technicum, Goldfain became head of the regional public education department, and N. Korman took charge of the local GOSET (State Jewish Theater) in 1934. The following year, the Institute delegated I. Elevich, a qualified bibliographer and head of the press archive, to organize the regional library. In addition, the IEPK donated several thousand books to their colleagues in Birobidzhan.

In February 1934, on Liberberg's initiative, a Section of Birobidzhan Studies was established within the Institute. It began collecting materials concerning Jewish migration, regional history, natural resources, soil, climate, mineral reserves, the training of academic personnel, and the prospects of establishing a state research institute for the JAO.

In the autumn of that year, the young scholar was elected a corresponding member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. "...The Birobidzhan impulse may have assisted the Kyiv Institute, which apparently began to regard itself as a academic reserve for the Jewish Autonomous Oblast until such time as the cultural work there could stand on its own feet," noted the prominent historian Alfred Greenbaum.

In October 1934, the JAO adopted its own independent budget for the first time. Concurrently, Liberberg's candidacy was approved in Moscow and Khabarovsk, and he was appointed Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the JAO. On December 18, the First Regional Congress of Soviets convened, and at the plenary session, Liberberg was elected Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee.

The memoirs of Shifra Lifshits provide an interesting account of Iosif Izrailevich's first address at the local pedagogical technicum, which focused on the development prospects of the JAO. His presentation was illustrated with a map of all projects under construction in Birobidzhan. The Chairman criticized the initial plans, noting that the site for the capital had been poorly chosen due to a lack of suitable building ground for a major city.

"Liberberg made a strong impression through his presence," Lifshits writes. "He was an imposing, tall, handsome, and well-built man. His speech inspired and energized everyone, making us ready to overcome any difficulties associated with the construction. We... were proud to be in the region and to actively participate in an initiative of such magnitude."

Following Liberberg's appointment, work immediately began on a draft Resolution of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR "On the Organization of the Research Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture" in Birobidzhan. As immediate steps, the head of the JAO recommended:

To instruct the Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR to commence construction during the current year, to be completed no later than October 1936, of:

1. The main building for the Institute and its laboratories.

2. A building for an academic library designed for 300,000 volumes.

3. A residential building containing 30 apartments for academic staff.

4. To request the government of the Ukrainian SSR to transfer to the Institute of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast during 1936 no fewer than 20 academic and technical staff members from the Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

5. To request the book chambers of the RSFSR, BSSR, and UkSSR to include the Central Birobidzhan Library, effective June 1, 1935, among the institutions receiving legal deposit copies of all publications free of charge.

6. To instruct the Far Eastern Krai Executive Committee and the Regional Executive Committee of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast to place the construction of the Institute under their direct supervision and ensure its opening in the fourth quarter of 1936.[8]

He petitioned M. Kalinin to resolve the issue of transferring the Kyiv Institute to the region to mark the anniversary of the JAO's formation[9], and sought assistance from A. Khatskevich, Secretary of the Council of Nationalities of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, who dispatched qualified personnel to the region.

On April 9, 1935, on the initiative of the head of the JAO, the Presidium of the Regional Executive Committee established a Scientific Commission for the Study of the Productive Forces and Culture of the Region[10]. Alfred Greenbaum wrote: "Regarding concrete steps, in 1935 Liberberg established a scientific commission intended to serve as the research center of the region, and perhaps even the center of Jewish studies in the entire Soviet Union"[11].

Anna Louise Strong, one of the most prominent journalists of the era, described Liberberg in the journal "Nailebn" after meeting him in Birobidzhan as "one of the most brilliant men I have ever met"[12]. Coming from Strong—who founded the first English-language newspaper in the USSR, "Moscow News," had access to Stalin and Mao, and had the preface to her book written by Trotsky—such praise carried significant weight.

In 1935, at Liberberg's instigation, a decision was taken to establish Yiddish as an official language of the JAO alongside Russian. Schools with instruction in Yiddish were opened; street signs, railway station notices, and even postmarks were bilingual. The circulation of the newspaper "Birobidzhaner Shtern" also increased.

The prominent Jewish writer David Bergelson relocated to Birobidzhan, an event widely covered by the central and Jewish press. At the same time, the Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee signed a resolution "On Funding the Construction of D. Bergelson's Residence"[13].

In May 1935, Liberberg traveled to Moscow for negotiations regarding the migration of Jews from abroad and the allocation of a commodity loan for construction in the JAO. Dr. Joseph Rosen, Director of the Agro-Joint, supported the Birobidzhan project and promised to secure a commodity loan of 50 million dollars in America. "According to Rosen," Liberberg wrote to M. Khavkin, "the Agro-Joint project has received the approval of Roosevelt and his financial advisor Morgenthau (Rosen discussed this matter with Roosevelt personally)."

On December 25, 1935, the Regional Executive Committee approved a resolution commemorating the centenary of Mendele Mocher Sforim. It was decided to name the first street of the new town "Mendele Avenue" in his honor. It was also proposed to name the Central Jewish Library after the great writer, and to establish a Mocher Sforim scholarship of 200 rubles for students of the pedagogical technicum. Furthermore, it was decided to request the Krai Executive Committee to petition the Commissariat for Education of Ukraine to transfer the Odessa Museum of Jewish Proletarian Culture named after Mendele Mocher Sforim to the JAO[14].

Shortly thereafter, preparations began for one of the Scientific Commission's most important projects: the Academic Language Conference. It was planned to involve institutes from Kyiv, Minsk, Leningrad, Moscow, and other cities where Yiddish was taught, as well as representatives from theaters, publishing houses, editorial boards, writers' organizations, educators, cultural figures, and several political leaders. The repressions that began in 1937 brought an abrupt end to nearly a year of preparatory work for the conference.

In late July 1936, Liberberg traveled to Moscow to attend a meeting. On August 20, he was arrested by NKVD officers at the Metropol Hotel on charges of belonging to a "Trotskyite-terrorist organization that carried out the assassination of Kirov." During a personal search that concluded well after midnight (the protocol is dated August 21, 1936), the following items were confiscated: a new-style party card No. 0501520, a Central Executive Committee member card No. 269, a Central Executive Committee badge, a Krai Executive Committee member card No. 131, a trade union card No. 150751, Liberberg's passport No. 140368, official correspondence, telegrams, materials for a report, statements, articles in Russian and Yiddish, personal letters, addresses, and a handwritten autobiography stating his year of birth as 1899. When questioned about weapons, Liberberg stated that he possessed a Browning revolver at his residence in Birobidzhan[15].

On August 29, he was transferred to Kyiv, where he was identified as one of the leaders of a Trotskyite center. The first interrogation protocol is dated September 2, 1936. Many of Liberberg's colleagues were also arrested, and on September 6, the newspaper "Birobidzhanskaya Zvezda" first informed the public that during operations to purge alien, hostile elements, counter-revolutionary Trotskyites, Zinovievites, spies, and swindlers, the Trotskyites Liberberg and Volobrinsky had been exposed as bitter enemies and deceivers. Three days later, the Presidium of the Regional Executive Committee of the JAO resolved:

"1. To remove I. I. Liberberg from the post of Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee, and to expel him from the Plenary Session and the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the JAO.

To request the Far Eastern Krai Executive Committee to expel I. I. Liberberg from the Plenary Session and the Presidium of the Krai Executive Committee.

To request the Central Executive Committee of the USSR to expel I. I. Liberberg from the Central Executive Committee."

Iosif Izrailevich spent the final seven months of his life in the NKVD prisons of Moscow and Kyiv. He marked his 37th and final birthday in a prison cell. In the autumn of 1936, Liberberg's wife, Nadezhda, took their child and personal belongings and secretly left Birobidzhan for Kyiv. As Rosenthal-Shneiderman recorded in her memoirs: "...His Nyusha did not have to travel far to see him during the two visits they were permitted (such leniency was still possible then), as the prison was located just a short distance from the apartment..." Iosif did not believe his fate was sealed, as he asked his wife to bring him a Spanish textbook. He was bewildered by the charges, including accusations of being a Japanese spy. "It would be one thing if they tried to prove I was a German spy—I traveled to Germany twice on official missions for four to five months—but this is sheer nonsense; no one will believe it, and everything will be cleared up at the trial," he told his wife during their meeting in prison.

In early March 1937, he was transferred to Moscow, and on March 9, a closed session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR took place, lasting ten minutes. On the evening of the same day, Iosif Liberberg was executed by firing squad in the building of the Military Collegium. The death certificate issued to the family falsely stated that Liberberg died while serving his sentence on July 26, 1938. Only years later did his relatives learn from the author of this article that he had been shot in Moscow, cremated, and buried at the Donskoye Cemetery in mass grave No. 1.

By decision of the Politburo of the CPSU, the wives of exposed traitors to the motherland and Right-Trotskyite spies were subject to imprisonment in labor camps for terms of no less than five to eight years. In the summer of 1937, an NKVD directive instructed that wives be arrested alongside their husbands, but by that time, Liberberg had already been executed. Nadezhda was arrested on December 27, 1937, and sentenced to eight years in corrective labor camps, serving her full term in the Akmola camp. Upon her return on October 6, 1945, she found that her mother, Frida Goldstein, had perished at Babyn Yar.

On May 30, 1956, Iosif Liberberg was posthumously rehabilitated. By decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, the case was dismissed for lack of a corpus delicti. The Birobidzhan project, which had been the defining purpose of life for the Starokostiantyniv native and many of his associates, was transformed after his death into a Soviet propaganda campaign supervised by the NKVD.

In the 1970s, international scholars including A. Greenbaum, H. Sloves, J. Levavi (Babitsky), E. Rosenthal-Shneiderman, and G. Vinokur, studying the available documents, recognized Liberberg's primary role in the establishment of the JAO, noting his administrative competence and determination in advancing the Birobidzhan project.

By Resolution of the Legislative Assembly of the JAO No. 4 dated January 24, 2014, I. I. Liberberg was posthumously awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast." The honorary insignia and certificate were presented at a ceremony to his granddaughter, Irina Novitskaya, who traveled from the United States at the invitation of the regional Governor. A commemorative plaque was installed in his honor on the building of the former Executive Committee of the JAO—now the Birobidzhan City Hall—where the first head of the region worked.

The tragedy of the Liberberg family, like that of hundreds of thousands of victims of Stalinist repressions, remains an important chapter in the history of the Jewish people. His name appeared in the Kyiv list (p. 4, No. 29), where over 60% of the 56 individuals listed were Jewish, and was included in the first Stalinist execution list of February 27, 1937. This document contains the names of 479 individuals condemned to death. Stalin's execution lists represent only a fraction of the documented crimes of the Great Terror, during which over 680,000 citizens were executed. The repressions that began after the October Revolution of 1917 and continued until the mid-1950s occasionally assumed an overtly antisemitic character. Regrettably, comprehensive data on the number of Jewish victims of persecution during those years remains unpublished. It may be timely to consider the establishment of a unified Memorial to the Victims of Political Repressions in the former USSR, which would properly record Jewish figures, including the members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee executed on August 12, 1952.

1 | In official documents (party cards, character references, and criminal case files), his year of birth is recorded as 1897. According to his handwritten autobiography dated August 8, 1936, he was born on October 27, 1899.

2 | Memoirs, Vol. 3, Part 1, The Creators of Soviet Jewish Science: Iosif Liberberg, pp. 1-22. Tel Aviv, 1982. The memoirs of E. Rosenthal-Shneiderman are the primary source providing a detailed account of Liberberg's life and fate, given that Esther was a postgraduate student at the IEPK, a family friend, and maintained close relations with Liberberg's wife, Nadezhda, after her release from the camps. According to family recollections (as related by Irina Novitskaya), Iosif spoke 12 languages. See Brener, I., The Land of Birobidzhan, Khabarovsk, 2013, p. 35.

3 | Ibid., pp. 1-22.

4 | Brener, The Land of Birobidzhan, pp. 24, 25.

5 | The publication of the book was noted in a report by Academician N. A. Skrypnyk (Ukrainian Commissar for Education) "On the Work of the Ukrainian Institute of Marxism," which stated: "Liberberg has published 'Essays on the Economic and Social History of England' and an article in 'Prapor Marksizmu' (No. 1): 'Freemasonry as an Organizational Form of the Bourgeoisie on the Eve of the Revolution,' and is preparing a work on the history of the French Revolution." Skrypnyk's report was published in "Vestnik Kommunisticheskoy Akademii" No. 3(27), Moscow, 1928, p. 307.

6 | Rosenthal-Shneiderman, E., "Oyf vegn un umvegn" (On Paths and Highways). The Creators of Soviet Jewish Science: Memoirs, Vol. 3, Part 1, Tel Aviv, 1982, p. 52.

7 | Liberberg, I., The Great French Revolution, Kharkiv-Kyiv: Proletary Publishing House, 1931, 192 pp.

8 | State Archive of the JAO (GA EAO), Fund R-75, Inventory 1, File 42a, Sheets 2-1.

9 | GA EAO, Fund R-75, Inventory 1, File 42a, Sheet 19.

10 | GA EAO, Fund 138, Inventory 1, File 3, Sheet 1.

11 | Greenbaum, A., "Jewish Scholarship in Soviet Russia, 1918-1941."

12 | Anna Louise Strong, “Biro-Bidjan as I saw It”, Naylebn — New Life, 10, 3 (March 1936), pp. 12-14 (English section) and 10, 4 (April 1936), pp. 10-11 (English section).

13 | GA EAO, Fund 75, Inventory 1, File 24, Sheet 43.

14 | GA EAO, Fund R-101, Inventory 1, File 135, Sheet 107.

15 | Criminal Case No. 123 (Archival Criminal Case P-81837).