Jewish Community of Irkutsk in 1917 - the Late 1930s

Abstract

The authors examine the history of the early Soviet period (1917 - late 1930s) of the Jewish community of Irkutsk, which by the beginning of the 20th century was the largest Jewish community in Siberia. The fate of the main choral synagogue, three houses of worship and rabbis. The source base for the study consisted of documents from the State Archives of the Russian Federation and the State Archives of the Irkutsk Region. The study also contains an analysis of legislative acts of the Soviet government, materials from periodicals published in Irkutsk. The authors came to the conclusion that the policy of the Soviet state in the field of religion led to fundamental changes in the situation of the Jewish community of Irkutsk. Its existence in the early Soviet period was fraught with numerous difficulties. It was at this time that the Jewish community of Irkutsk lost all movable and immovable property that previously belonged to it. At the same time, all Jewish organizations in the city were liquidated, and in 1939 the community finally ceased to exist.