Julius Margolin
Encyclopedia
Julius Margolin was a Jewish writer and political activist, and author of the book A Travel to the Land Ze-Ka (Путешествие в страну Зэ-Ка).
, West Belarus
, then in the Russian Empire
. He moved to Palestine
in 1939. Several months later he was visiting his relatives in Pinsk and was trapped there by the Soviet invasion of Poland
. Together with numerous other "socially-dangerous elements", he was rounded up by the NKVD
and sent to a labor camp
on the northern bank of the Lake 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, from where he moved to Palestine. He immediately started writing A Travel to the Land Ze-Ka, which was finished in 1947, when Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
just been sent to the gulag
.
It was impossible to publish such a book about the Soviet Union in the West at that times, immediately after World War II
. The manuscript was also rejected in Israel
as well. The book was eventually printed in the United States in 1952 Chekhov Publishing House, and was reprinted in 1975.
In 1951, Margolin was a witness in the trial of David Rousset
against a French communist newspaper. The paper was engaged in slander of Rousset for revealing information about the gulag to the French public.
Biography
Margolin was born in PinskPinsk
Pinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region was known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...
, West Belarus
West Belarus
West Belarus is the name used in reference to the territory of modern Belarus which belonged to the Second Polish Republic between 1919 and 1939. The area of West Belarus was annexed into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic following staged elections soon after the Nazi-Soviet Invasion of...
, then in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. He moved to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
in 1939. Several months later he was visiting his relatives in Pinsk and was trapped there by the Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)
The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II. Sixteen days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the Soviet Union did so from the east...
. Together with numerous other "socially-dangerous elements", he was rounded up by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
and sent to a labor camp
Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
on the northern bank of the Lake Onega
Lake Onega
Lake Onega is a lake in the north-west European part of Russia, located on the territory of Republic of Karelia, Leningrad Oblast and Vologda Oblast. It belongs to the basin of Baltic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and is the second largest lake in Europe after Lake Ladoga...
. 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, from where he moved to Palestine. He immediately started writing A Travel to the Land Ze-Ka, which was finished in 1947, when Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...
just been sent to the gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
.
It was impossible to publish such a book about the Soviet Union in the West at that times, immediately after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The manuscript was also rejected in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
as well. The book was eventually printed in the United States in 1952 Chekhov Publishing House, and was reprinted in 1975.
In 1951, Margolin was a witness in the trial of David Rousset
David Rousset
David Rousset was a French writer and political activist, a recipient of Prix Renaudot, a French literary award....
against a French communist newspaper. The paper was engaged in slander of Rousset for revealing information about the gulag to the French public.
Publication history of the Travel to the Land Ze-Ka
- 1949 - Margoline Jules. La condition inhumaine. Cinq ans dans les camps de concentration Sovietiques Traduit 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 Margolin Uberleben 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 by Luba Jurgenson. Octobre 2010, Le Bruit du temps, Paris. More information here.
External links
- Forgotten Witness to the Gulag
- Gaby Levin A body broken, but free HaaretzHaaretzHaaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
21.01.2011 - Путешествие в страну зэ-ка A Travel to the Land Ze-Ka, as published in the book
- Travel to the Land Ze-Ka, 2005, full text, according to the original manuscript (Part I was skipped in print) (KOI8-RKOI8-RKOI8-R is an 8-bit character encoding, designed to cover Russian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet. It also happens to cover Bulgarian, but is not used since CP1251 is accepted. A derivative encoding is KOI8-U, which adds Ukrainian characters...
encoding)