Solomon Mikhoels, founder of the Moscow Yiddish theater, was liquidated on orders of Stalin’s security police chief Lavrenti Beria, the Soviet news paper Lituaniya Soviettika has reported, according to the French press today.
This was the first time that a Soviet organ had officially given the facts of Mikhoels death. Until now Soviet sources had claimed that Mikhoels had died in an automobile accident in 1948. The Lithuanian newspaper said that Mikheols, a former head of the wartime Soviet Anti-Fascist Committee, died “a victim of Beria’s infamy.” Beria was executed by the Khrushchev regime following Stalin’s death.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
