Jewish Life in Belarus: The Final Decade of the Stalin Regime, 1944-1953

7 Jews in the Reconstruction of the Economy and Cultural Life

Chapter 7 Jews in the Reconstruction of the Economy and Cultural Life in AdministrAtion, the eConomy, And sCienCe The Nazi occupation inflicted enormous material losses on Belarus. These were estimated at 75 billion rubles, 35 times more than the total 1940 budget of the republic. The restoration of the economy was carried out under difficult circumstances. Many enterprises could not fulfill government production quotas and suffered major losses because of poor organization of production processes. Despite the fact that in 1945 Belarus managed to manufacture 3.7 times more industrial products than in 1944, this amount represented only 20.4 percent of the 1940 level.1 Immediately after the war, the state had an acute need for specialists capable of leading and managing the reconstruction of the republic’s economy. This meant that ulterior considerations, such as the ethnic origin of a candidate, were put aside. In 1945, the Jews constituted 2.9 percent of the party officials and members of the Soviet governing bodies of provinces, 8.1 percent of the main functionaries2 on provincial committees, 8 percent of the officials of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus (CPB), and 10.2 percent of the senior management of the economy of the republic.3 Table 7.1 compares the number of Jews in the Belarusian leadership in the late 1940s with the numbers of other ethnic groups. 1 NARB, F. 1, Op. 22, D. 15, 200. 2 The term “leading functionaries” denotes not only party and state officials, but also bank managers, directors of learning institutions, heads of the departments of education and health, and directors of institutions and enterprises. 3 NARB, F. 4, Op. 109, D. 5, 35–7. 200 JEWISH LIFE IN BELARUS Table 7.1. The ethnic composition of the BSSR leadership in 1946–49.4 Year Total Belarusians Russians Ukrainians Jews Other % Jews 1946 4,569 2,818 1,229 174 279 69 6.1 1948 4,605 2,879 1,172 192 299 63 6.5 1949 4,420 2,748 1,185 247 240 n.d. 5.5 The table shows that in the period in question, Jews played a significant role in many fields of the republic’s economy, and in its educational, scientific , and cultural institutions. However, even at that time they were beginning to be phased out of important positions, and were experiencing difficulties in being promoted to responsible posts. The number of Jews among the chairmen of provincial and city executive committees was very low. In 1944–45, only two Jews were among the 161 heads of city administrations , though the exceptional cities were Minsk and Mogilev. By the end of 1949 not a single Jew remained as the head of a local administration.5 Those wanting to make a career in administration had, of course, to join the Communist Party. Before the war, the Communist Party of Belarus comprised people from 52 different ethnic groups, among whom the Jews (with 21.6 percent) were second only to the Belarusians, although they constituted only 8 percent of the population of the republic. In the war years the number of the communists in Belarus fell sharply, and the percentage of Jews among them was significantly lower, as can be seen in Table 7.2. Table 7.2. The ethnic composition of the Communist Party of Belarus in 1941–45.6 Date Total Belaru­ sians Russians Ukrai­ nians Poles Jews Other % Jews Jan 1, 1941 72,177 39,573 12,606 2,557 867 15,572 1,002 21.6 Jan 1, 1945 29,515 13,726 10,885 1,502 115 2,702 585 9.5 The membership of the Communist Party of Belarus after the war had dropped to 41 percent of its prewar level. By January 1945, the percentage of Belarusians (46.5%) in the party organization of the republic had dropped to 54.8 percent of its 1941 level, although they were still 4 Source: NARB, F. 4, Op. 109, D. 5, 35; D. 13, 2; F. 4, Op. 29, D. 539, 24. 5 NARB, F. 4, Op. 109, D. 1, 87–96; D. 5, 51. 6 Sources: Ignatenko and Mokhovikov, Kommunisticheskaia partia Belorussii, 102– 103; Platonov, Stranitsy istorii Kompartii Belorussii, 285. 201 Jews in the Reconstruction of the Economy and Cultural Life the largest single ethnic group. The percentage of Ukrainians slightly increased (5 percent from 3.5 percent). The percentage...