From the Bund journalist Lenin called a slanderer to Pravda's campaign pen
Born to a Jewish family in Kiev, he joined the Social Democratic movement in 1900 and the Bund in 1903. In 1917 his attacks on the Bolsheviks in the Menshevik-leaning paper Den drew Lenin's denunciation of him as a slanderer, and he sat on the Bund Central Committee in 1917–1919. After publicly recanting his view of Bolshevism in 1919 he moved into the Soviet press, joined the editorial board of Pravda in 1928 and the party in 1934. He was a leading writer of campaign pieces, from the 1936 editorial 'Muddle Instead of Music' against Shostakovich to the attacks on Pasternak. He escaped both the Great Terror and the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee affair and died in Moscow in 1965.
Activities and affiliations
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1903–1919
Social movements and organizing
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1928–
Soviet Communist Party and BolsheviksMember of the Pravda editorial boardMain
Ideology and propaganda -
1934–
Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
Ideology and propaganda
Career Timeline
- 1903Joined the Bund
- 1917–1919Member of the Bund Central Committee
- 1919Publicly recanted his view of Bolshevism
- 1928Joined the Pravda editorial board
- 1934Joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
- 1936.01.28Editorial 'Muddle Instead of Music'