Personal Account of Soviet Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign Targeting Jewish Intellectuals

The article recounts the persecution of Jewish intellectuals in the Soviet Union during the late 1940s anti-cosmopolitan campaign. It focuses on Yakov Ilyich Gordon, a professor of French and German literature at Kiev University, who was dismissed on March 8, 1949, along with his sister-in-law Liya Yakovlevna Khinchin, a professor at the Kiev Academy of Music. Both were accused of being "rootless cosmopolitans" and faced expulsion from Kiev, professional ruin, and forced relocation to multiple cities. Gordon's scholarly work on German poet Heinrich Heine was used against him, with authorities claiming he promoted foreign influence on Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka. Despite obtaining a rare rehabilitation certificate in October 1949 stating he was not a cosmopolitan, local anti-Jewish sentiment prevented his reinstatement in Kiev, forcing him into exile in Central Asia. The narrative illustrates how Soviet authorities targeted assimilated Jewish cultural figures who were patriots but were stripped of their right to represent Soviet art.