FROM THE BIOGRAPHY OF A JEWISH COMMUNIST. THE PLOT TO THE BIOGRAPHY OF JAKUB EGIT

Abstract

The article is devoted to the biography of the famous Jewish politician Jakub Egit. In his life, the traditional Jewish values   laid down by his family from an early age were intertwined with the multiculturalism of sub-Austrian Halychyna, the challenges of the war years, faith in communist ideals, Zionism, and, ultimately, disappointment, defeat and forced emigration.Born into an orthodox Jewish family, Jakub Egit fully embraced the Jewish identity, which laid the groundwork for his continued interest in Yiddish, Jewish history, and literature.However, the youth revolt and the heightened sense of social justice pushed him to the Zionist community at a young age, and later, due to the radicalization of his views, to the Jewish Communists. Numerous materials of the Security Service of the Second Commonwealth testify to the constant party activity of Jakub Egit, which confi rms the author’s thesis about its signifi cance in the political arena of interwar Poland. Jakub Egit associated the beginning of World War II with great hopes for the «Soviet good», the belief in which was generally characteristic of the Jews of Eastern Lesser Poland. In his case, the hopes were justifi ed given the high position. However, with the beginning of the German occupation, he had to emigrate to Soviet territory. The return was possible only after the end of World War II, and the further professional and political activities of Jakub Egit were connected with Silesia and the Voivodeship Jewish Committee. However, the realities of post-war Poland in the 1950s and 1960s, pressure from the authorities, internal opposition, and ultimately arrest forced Egit to look for migration opportunities. The place of his «new life» was Canada, where he ended his life. In the study, the biography of Jakub Egit is represented on the basis of a wide source base, primarily archival documents, some of which were introduced into scientifi c circulation for the fi rst time. In addition, his diaries and memoirs are analyzed in detail, which allows us to reveal not only the facts and external assessments but also the personal motives of the fi gure.