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Notes
1. Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), f. 3121.
2. Der Nister, “Birobidzhan,” RGALI, f. 3121, op. 1, d. 32, ll. 1–12.
3. For this trip, see Kotlerman, “We Are Lacking ‘A Man Dieth in a Tent’,” 174–184.
4. For more details regarding this specific train Vinnitsa–Birobidzhan, see Lyumkis, Eshelonen geyen keyn Birobidzhan; Lev, “Yunge ‘birobidzhaner,’”; Shternberg, “‘Eshelonen geyen keyn Birobidzhan,’”.
5. See, for example, Kerler, “Der Nister (1884–1950),” 109–24; Tshernyak, “Der Nister un zayn gvies-eydes,” 214–215; Emiot, “Der Nister in Birobidzhan (a bintl zikhroynes),” 77–83.
6. Der Nister, “Mitn tsveytn eshelon (bildlekh un ayndrukn),”; “Mit ibervanderer keyn Birobidzhan,” 108–18. The same essays were published in Birobidzhan under the common title “Mitn ibervanderer-eshelon keyn Birobidzhan.” Later the essays appeared in the pro-Soviet Yiddish journals in New York, under slightly changed titles: “Oyfn veg keyn Birobidzhan,” 18–20, and “Mitn eshelon keyn Birobidzhan,” 9–11. The second essay was also included in the writer's New York posthumous collection: “Mit ibervanderer keyn Birobidzhan,” 257–278. For the English translations of the essays, see Kotlerman, Broken Heart / Broken Wholeness, 23–54.
7. Der Nister’s letter to Mayzel, in Hone Shmeruk, “Arb’a igrot shel Der Nister”, 242.
8. RGALI, f. 3121, op. 1, d. 32, l. 8.
9. Der Nister’s critical attitude toward his colleagues was well known in Soviet Yiddish literary circles. The Yiddish prose writer Shmuel Gordon published a semi-documentary novel, In Memoriam (Yizker), which recreates the atmosphere of those days. Der Nister, appearing there under the name Pinkhas Mashberg (echoing his novel, The Family Mashber), explains the meaning of his trip to Birobidzhan as follows: “Since they have given us a Jewish autonomy, then Yiddish writers should also settle there together with the people.” See Gordon, Yizker: di farmishpete shrayber, 143.
10. Shmeruk, “Der Nister: hayav u-yetsirato,” 46.
11. Stalin, “Marxism and the National Question,” 6–9; emphasis added by Stalin.
12. Comp.: “Let them be as chaff before the wind, the angel of the Lord thrusting them” (Psalm 35:5).
13. Yanasovitsh, “Der Nister,” 225.
14. See Der Nister, “Di umfargeslekhe aveyde,” 6–13. On the murder of Mikhoels in a secret operation in Minsk, see Kostyrchenko, Tainaia politika Stalina, 388–395; Veidlinger, The Moscow State Yiddish Theater, 258–259; Rubenstein and Naumov, Stalin’s Secret Pogrom, 1–2, 39–40; Redlich, War, Holocaust, and Stalinism, 442–450.
15. Der Nister, “Der shperling un dos shvelbele.” The translation was initially published in the collection Tolstoy, Dertseylungen vegn khayes, 33–34.
16. Markish, The Long Return, 148.
17. See Broderzon, Mayn laydns-veg mit Moyshe Broderzon, 88. This scene was reconstructed in the novel by Horn, The World to Come, 251–253.
18. See the note to Stalin sent by Dmitry Shepilov, regarding the closing of Yiddish-language almanacs, February 3, 1949, Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI), f. 17, op. 118, d. 305, ll. 21–22.
19. Maggs, The Mandelstam and “Der Nister” Files, 26, 30, K-21.
20. Ibid, 22–25.
21. Collection “Israel Emiot,” Ru-1467, the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem (CAHJP), 83. The manuscript is much more detailed than its published version, Yisroel Emiot, Der birobidzhaner inyen (khronik fun a groyliker tsayt), and than its English translation, Emiot, The Birobidzhan Affair, 83.
22. Collection “Israel Emiot,”, 83.
23. See Maggs, The Mandelstam and “Der Nister” Files, K-29 (“Certificate of Death”). On Minlag, see Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History, 654, 677.
24. See Maggs, The Mandelstam and “Der Nister” Files, K-30 (“Certificate of Burial”).