History Theses and Dissertations

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The Soviet Critique of a Liberator's Art and a Poet's Outcry: Zinovii Tolkachev, Pavel Antokol'skii and the Anti-Cosmopolitan Persecutions of the Late Stalinist Period
(University of Oregon, 2018-10-31) Benjaminson, Eric; Hessler, Julie
This thesis investigates Stalin’s post-WW2 anti-cosmopolitan campaign by comparing the lives of two Soviet-Jewish artists. Zinovii Tolkachev was a Ukrainian artist and Pavel Antokol’skii a Moscow poetry professor. Tolkachev drew both Jewish and Socialist themes, while Antokol’skii created no Jewish motifs until his son was killed in combat and he encountered Nazi concentration camps; Tolkachev was at the liberation of Majdanek and Auschwitz. Both men were excoriated during the “anti-cosmopolitan” campaign. Using primary sources, I examine their art and the balance between Judaic and Soviet references, the accusations made and the connections between the attacks, the Holocaust, and Soviet paranoias of that era. While anti-Semitism played a role, I highlight the authorities’ reaction to their style and content. This moment in cultural policy was part of a continuum of reactions to World War II and included themes that went beyond the native anti-Semitism of the period.