Description

Book Synopsis

Zvi Preigerzon wrote memoirs about his time in the Gulag in 1958, long before Solzhenitsyn and without any knowledge of the other publications on this subject. It was one of the first eyewitness accounts of the harsh reality of Soviet Gulags. Even after the death of Stalin, when the whole Gulag system was largely disbanded, writing about them could be regarded as an act of heroism. Preigerzon attempted to document and analyze his own prison camp experience and portray the Jewish prisoners he encountered in forced labor camps. Among these people, we meet scientists, engineers, famous Jewish writers and poets, young Zionists, a devoted religious man, a horse wagon driver, a Jewish singer of folk songs, and many, many others. As Preigerzon put it, “Each one had his own story, his own soul, and his own tragedy.”



Trade Review

“This memoir, covering the author’s years in and out of labor and prison camps up to his release in 1955, describes the oppressive network of the Gulag; its social hierarchies, whose prisoners ranged from hardened criminals to Party members; and his relationships with Jews of every stripe, from former student radicals to Lubavitcher Chassidim… [T]he author’s heartfelt style shines through. His love of heritage is expressed in modern Hebrew language and literature, and his straightforward prose shows a certain innocence, as well as acceptance of the society around him. … [A] fascinatingly human glimpse into a world perceived as soulless, as well as testament to a painful Russian legacy…”

— Hallie Cantor, AJL News & Reviews


“Few of the millions of men and women who survived the Gulag were able to leave a record of what they had witnessed and endured. Such memoirs are a testament to the writer’s courage as well as an invaluable source on one of the great horrors of the twentieth century. Arrested on a trumped-up charge in 1949, Zvi Preigerzon, a respected professor of mineralogy and a published Hebrew writer and poet, was tortured by the secret police and subsequently spent several years in some of the most terrible camps in the Soviet penal system until his release after the death of the dictator Stalin. Preigerzon’s reminiscences, composed in spare but highly descriptive prose and beautifully translated by his grandson, contain moving descriptions of the author’s struggle to retain his religious and professional identity under the most brutal of circumstances. Vivid portraits of the people, good, evil, and fair-to-middling, he met behind the barbed wire and stories of covert and overt acts of resistance by the author and his fellow prisoners round off this epic account of how one man’s spirit triumphed over rampant, pervasive ideological evil.”

— Richard Tempest, Professor, Department of Slavic Languages, University of Illinois



Table of Contents

Introduction

Author’s Foreword


Part 1. Arrest

Part 2. Interrogation
Citizen Lieutenant Colonel
Lefortovo Prison
My Hebrew Writing
The MGB Informer
The Interrogation
The Initial Protocols
Taraskin
The Letter to Ben-Gurion
The Concluding Protocol
The Encounter with Baazov
Form 206

Part 3. Butyrka Prison
The Sentencing
Church Cell
The Jewish Theater

Part 4. On the Way to Karaganda
The Stolypin Carriage

Part 5. Karaganda
Sand Camp
Camp Rules
My Morning Prayer
Meir Baazov
The Invention
Thieves and Bitches

Part 6. The Eynikeyt Group
Alik Hodorkovsky
Eliyahu Mishpatman
Sasha Sucher
Misha Spivak
Volodya Kerzman
Meir Helfand
Zhmerynka
The Ghetto
The Zionist Group

Part 7. The People in Karaganda Camp
Yechezkel Pulerevitch
Aharon Kricheli
Dr. Leon Lemenev
Itzhak Kahanov (Kogan)
Motl Grubian
Kreinman
Leib Pashtandiker
Jabotinsky
Michail Yankovsky
Bokov
Ermakov
Other Characters in Karaganda Camp

Part 8. In Karaganda Transfer Camp
Abraham Shtukarevich
Israel Avrovich
Zinovy Shulman and Lublin Gymnasia in Odessa
Gitterman

Part 9. On the Way to Inta
Michael Ibambletov
Kononenko
Alexey Ivanovich
Ostrovsky

Part 10. Inta Mineral Prison Camp

Part 11. 4th Abez Prison Camp
The Engineering Team
Suchoruchko
Lihachev
Kalinin
Kargin
Boris Ivanovich
Zeleny
Isaak Hoffman
Shmuel Halkin
Leib Strongin
Gregory Shitz
Yakov Shternberg
Weissman
The Coachman

Part 12. Vorkuta
Barracks Number 18
Kuznetsov
Stalinsky
Kostia Amarnetov
1st River Camp
Stein
Shkolnik
Reminiscence of Odessa
Kaplinsky
Capitalnaya Mine Technical Control Department
Coal Sorting
Getting Paid

Part 13. The 9th Vorkuta Prison Camp
The Beginning of Coal Enrichment Work
The Laboratory of Professor Stadnikov

Part 14. My Fellow Jewish Prisoners in the 9th Vorkuta Camp
David Cohen
Leonid Kantargy
Yosef Kerler
Rotenberg
Hesin
Solomon Fayman
Shaya Bilik
Mordechai Shenkar
Leonid Aronov
Shmuel Ferdman
Menachem Levi
Boris Dinaburg
Michail Shulman
Sasha Eisorovich
George Grin

Part 15. Work on Coal Enrichment: Fresh Winds
The New Laboratory
Fresh Winds
The Rudnik Laboratory and Transfer to the 40th Prison Camp
The Home of Haim and Nehama Solz

Part 16. Release from Vorkuta Prison Camp

Images


Memoirs of a Jewish Prisoner of the Gulag

    Product form

    £15.19

    Includes FREE delivery

    RRP £15.99 – you save £0.80 (5%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Thu 18 Jun 2026.

    A Paperback / softback by Zvi Preigerzon, Alex Lahav

    1 in stock

      Trusted by thousands of customers. See 2,385+ Customer Reviews

      View other formats and editions of Memoirs of a Jewish Prisoner of the Gulag by Zvi Preigerzon

      Publisher: Academic Studies Press
      Publication Date: 13/10/2022
      ISBN13: 9781644699041, 978-1644699041
      ISBN10: 1644699044
      Also in:
      History of other geographical groupings History of religion Judaism

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Zvi Preigerzon wrote memoirs about his time in the Gulag in 1958, long before Solzhenitsyn and without any knowledge of the other publications on this subject. It was one of the first eyewitness accounts of the harsh reality of Soviet Gulags. Even after the death of Stalin, when the whole Gulag system was largely disbanded, writing about them could be regarded as an act of heroism. Preigerzon attempted to document and analyze his own prison camp experience and portray the Jewish prisoners he encountered in forced labor camps. Among these people, we meet scientists, engineers, famous Jewish writers and poets, young Zionists, a devoted religious man, a horse wagon driver, a Jewish singer of folk songs, and many, many others. As Preigerzon put it, “Each one had his own story, his own soul, and his own tragedy.”



      Trade Review

      “This memoir, covering the author’s years in and out of labor and prison camps up to his release in 1955, describes the oppressive network of the Gulag; its social hierarchies, whose prisoners ranged from hardened criminals to Party members; and his relationships with Jews of every stripe, from former student radicals to Lubavitcher Chassidim… [T]he author’s heartfelt style shines through. His love of heritage is expressed in modern Hebrew language and literature, and his straightforward prose shows a certain innocence, as well as acceptance of the society around him. … [A] fascinatingly human glimpse into a world perceived as soulless, as well as testament to a painful Russian legacy…”

      — Hallie Cantor, AJL News & Reviews


      “Few of the millions of men and women who survived the Gulag were able to leave a record of what they had witnessed and endured. Such memoirs are a testament to the writer’s courage as well as an invaluable source on one of the great horrors of the twentieth century. Arrested on a trumped-up charge in 1949, Zvi Preigerzon, a respected professor of mineralogy and a published Hebrew writer and poet, was tortured by the secret police and subsequently spent several years in some of the most terrible camps in the Soviet penal system until his release after the death of the dictator Stalin. Preigerzon’s reminiscences, composed in spare but highly descriptive prose and beautifully translated by his grandson, contain moving descriptions of the author’s struggle to retain his religious and professional identity under the most brutal of circumstances. Vivid portraits of the people, good, evil, and fair-to-middling, he met behind the barbed wire and stories of covert and overt acts of resistance by the author and his fellow prisoners round off this epic account of how one man’s spirit triumphed over rampant, pervasive ideological evil.”

      — Richard Tempest, Professor, Department of Slavic Languages, University of Illinois



      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Author’s Foreword


      Part 1. Arrest

      Part 2. Interrogation
      Citizen Lieutenant Colonel
      Lefortovo Prison
      My Hebrew Writing
      The MGB Informer
      The Interrogation
      The Initial Protocols
      Taraskin
      The Letter to Ben-Gurion
      The Concluding Protocol
      The Encounter with Baazov
      Form 206

      Part 3. Butyrka Prison
      The Sentencing
      Church Cell
      The Jewish Theater

      Part 4. On the Way to Karaganda
      The Stolypin Carriage

      Part 5. Karaganda
      Sand Camp
      Camp Rules
      My Morning Prayer
      Meir Baazov
      The Invention
      Thieves and Bitches

      Part 6. The Eynikeyt Group
      Alik Hodorkovsky
      Eliyahu Mishpatman
      Sasha Sucher
      Misha Spivak
      Volodya Kerzman
      Meir Helfand
      Zhmerynka
      The Ghetto
      The Zionist Group

      Part 7. The People in Karaganda Camp
      Yechezkel Pulerevitch
      Aharon Kricheli
      Dr. Leon Lemenev
      Itzhak Kahanov (Kogan)
      Motl Grubian
      Kreinman
      Leib Pashtandiker
      Jabotinsky
      Michail Yankovsky
      Bokov
      Ermakov
      Other Characters in Karaganda Camp

      Part 8. In Karaganda Transfer Camp
      Abraham Shtukarevich
      Israel Avrovich
      Zinovy Shulman and Lublin Gymnasia in Odessa
      Gitterman

      Part 9. On the Way to Inta
      Michael Ibambletov
      Kononenko
      Alexey Ivanovich
      Ostrovsky

      Part 10. Inta Mineral Prison Camp

      Part 11. 4th Abez Prison Camp
      The Engineering Team
      Suchoruchko
      Lihachev
      Kalinin
      Kargin
      Boris Ivanovich
      Zeleny
      Isaak Hoffman
      Shmuel Halkin
      Leib Strongin
      Gregory Shitz
      Yakov Shternberg
      Weissman
      The Coachman

      Part 12. Vorkuta
      Barracks Number 18
      Kuznetsov
      Stalinsky
      Kostia Amarnetov
      1st River Camp
      Stein
      Shkolnik
      Reminiscence of Odessa
      Kaplinsky
      Capitalnaya Mine Technical Control Department
      Coal Sorting
      Getting Paid

      Part 13. The 9th Vorkuta Prison Camp
      The Beginning of Coal Enrichment Work
      The Laboratory of Professor Stadnikov

      Part 14. My Fellow Jewish Prisoners in the 9th Vorkuta Camp
      David Cohen
      Leonid Kantargy
      Yosef Kerler
      Rotenberg
      Hesin
      Solomon Fayman
      Shaya Bilik
      Mordechai Shenkar
      Leonid Aronov
      Shmuel Ferdman
      Menachem Levi
      Boris Dinaburg
      Michail Shulman
      Sasha Eisorovich
      George Grin

      Part 15. Work on Coal Enrichment: Fresh Winds
      The New Laboratory
      Fresh Winds
      The Rudnik Laboratory and Transfer to the 40th Prison Camp
      The Home of Haim and Nehama Solz

      Part 16. Release from Vorkuta Prison Camp

      Images


      Recently viewed products

      © 2026 Book Curl

        • American Express
        • Apple Pay
        • Diners Club
        • Discover
        • Google Pay
        • Maestro
        • Mastercard
        • PayPal
        • Shop Pay
        • Union Pay
        • Visa

        Login

        Forgot your password?

        Don't have an account yet?
        Create account