The article presents the figure of Mieczysław Weinberg, a composer of Jewish roots, who was born in Poland, but lived in the Soviet Union, and his peculiar approach to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s legacy. The Idiot, opera based on the eponymous novel by Dostoyevsky, was one of the greatest works that was performed on stage during the composer's lifetime. The inevitable question is: why Dostoyevsky's anti-Jewish and anti-Polish views remain unnoticed by Weinberg. This article is an attempt to understand this important issue by analyzing the facts of the composer’s biography, his works, and the historical realities.

This article analyzes the antisemitic discourse in Friedrich Gorenstein’s play Debates about Dostoevsky, an intellectual drama of ideas. The central theme is the perception of Dostoevsky as a symbol of “Russianness” and a target of ideological projections within Soviet society. The study examines how the writer’s figure is employed by characters to express xenophobic sentiments, particularly antisemitism — not as a reflection of Dostoevsky’s own views, but as a symptom of social and personal tensions. Special attention is given to the character of Chernokotov — a marginalized figure who masks his aggression and failures with the name of the great writer. The play emerges as a satire on Soviet censorship, cultural conformism, and ethnic prejudice, presenting antisemitism as a secondary but alarming consequence of ideological crisis. The paper raises the issue of the limits of interpreting cultural symbols under political pressure.

The article attempts to create a new theory of Russian-Israeli literature based on recent ideas about complex emergent phenomena. In particular, the author takes as a starting point some provisions expressed and substantiated by the British philosopher David Deutsch. During the analysis, a hypothesis is formed about what elements constitute the core and distinctive structure of Russian-Israeli literature. This hypothesis can serve as a starting point for creating a method for studying the ideological and poetic features of both this literature itself and the literary process and community based on it. The article presents the results of the first, initial stage of the theoretical and methodological project, the continuation of which is expected in subsequent works.

The article examines the evolution of a discourse on Jewish solidarity in Russian émigré communities during the 1920s. It explores the reception of Soviet plans for Jewish colonization in Crimea, the debates triggered by the works of Shul’gin, who systematized this notion, and Amfiteatrov’s “Stena Placha.” This discourse is crucial to understanding the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment among the Russian intelligentsia in exile, even within the liberal faction. Additionally, a parallel emerges between the Russian and Jewish exilic experience, which prompts a reflection on the very identity of the Russian diaspora. The perception of a supposed “cohesion instinct” of the Jewish people becomes a mirror in which émigrés attempt to define (or redefine) their own sense of belonging and national solidarity, thereby showing how dynamics of self-representation intertwine with the construction of new stereotypes and xenophobic sentiments.

The new Russian-language publication of Iulii Margolin’s Puteshestvie v stranu zeka; Doroga na Zapad; Poeziia, Part 1 of a three part edition that includes his correspondence and articles is a welcome addition to his published output. With compassion, philosophical insight, and a keen eye for detail, Margolin describes the plight of Polish Jews caught between the pincers of Nazi and Soviet invasions in 1939; life in the Soviet Gulag from 1940-1945; exile in the USSR; and his return to life in post-Holocaust Europe and Mandate Palestine. His camp poetry provides an emotional complement to the prose.