Julius Margolin
Julius Margolin(‹See Tfd›Russian:Юлий (Юлиус) Борисович Марголин,Hebrew:יוליוס מרגולין,October 14, 1900 – January 21, 1971) was an Israeli writer and political activist. After spending five years in Soviet labor camps and being released, he authoredA Journey to the LandZe-Ka(Путешествие в страну Зэ-Ка), one of the first books about SovietGulagpublished long before the books byAleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Biography
[edit]Margolin was born inPinsk,Russian Empire.He studied at theHumboldt University of Berlin.Margolin received his doctorate in philosophy in 1929. He then moved toŁódź,Poland, and later, in 1936, toPalestine.Three years later he was visiting his relatives in Pinsk and was trapped there by theSoviet invasion of Poland.Together with numerous other "socially dangerous elements", he was rounded up by theNKVDand sent to alabor campon the northern bank of theLake Onega.He survived, and was freed in 1945 as a former Polish citizen according to the agreement with Poland. In 1946, he was permitted to return to Poland. Heemigratedto Palestine, settling inTel Aviv.
Literary career
[edit]He completedA Journey to the Land Ze-Kain 1947, whenAleksandr Solzhenitsynhad just been sent to thegulag.[1]It was impossible to publish such a book about the Soviet Union in the West at that time, immediately afterWorld War II.The manuscript was also rejected by publishers inIsrael.An abridged version was published in France in 1949.[2]The book was printed in the United States in 1952 byChekhov Publishing House(also abridged), and was reprinted in 1975.
In 1951, Margolin testified at the trial ofDavid Rousset,who was accused of revealing information about the gulag to the French public.[3][4]
Published works
[edit]- 1949 - Margoline Jules.La condition inhumaine. Cinq ans dans les camps de concentration SovietiquesTraduit par N. Berberova & Mina Journot. Novembre 1949. Calmann-Levi, Editeurs, Paris.
- 1952 - Марголин Ю. Б. "Путешествие в страну зэ-ка", 414 стр. Chekhov Publishing House, New York
- Reprinted several times in various places
- 1965 - Julius MargolinUberleben ist alles. Aufzeichnungen aus sowietischen Lagern,Munchen,
- Separate chapters from the book were also published in various magazines.
- 2010 - Julius Margolin,Voyage au pays des Ze-Ka.The first complete edition (more than 1/3 of the text had never been published before in any language). Edited byLuba Jurgenson.October 2010, Le Bruit du temps, Paris.More information here.
- 2013 -Reise in das Land der Lager.Suhrkamp Verlag, November 2013,ISBN978-3518424063.[5]
- 2013 - Julius Margolin,"Podróż do krainy zeków",translated by Jerzy Czech, Czarne publishing house,ISBN978-83-7536-538-2
See also
[edit]- In the Claws of the GPU,a Gulag memoir by a citizen of interwar Poland, published in 1935.
References
[edit]- ^A traveller to the land of the zeks,by Zeldin, Y., Margolin, Julius.,New Times,Moscow, 2001.11. 7, pp. 50-53
- ^Gaby LevinA Body Broken, But FreeHaaretz21.01.2011
- ^La bataille de David Rousset, T. Bernard — G. Rosenthal. Pour la vérité sur les camps concentrationnaires. Paris, Le Pavois, 1951: 108-119(in French)
- ^The Paris Report,Margolin's article about his involvement in Rousset's affair(in Russian)
- ^spiegel.de:Sklavendienst für Stalin,suhrkamp.de
