Half a century ago on August 12, 1952 13 members of the Jewish anti-fascist committee (JAC) were executed on falsified case. The USSR officials didn't like the fact that the members of JAC tried to help the Jews who, having returned from the front or evacuation, were striving to return their apartments and apply for a job overcoming post-war anti-Semitism. The "JAC case" became a part of repressions which caused the imprisonment of nearly all Jewish artists, the culture itself was banned.

If an anti-Jewish component of Stalin's repressions began to reveal after the war, documents, which witness its presence, refer to the earlier period. The researchers of the Stalin epoch crimes, director of the Center for historical political studies at the Institute of political and ethnic national research of NAS of Ukraine, doctor of history Y.Shapoval tells: "Two anniversaries can be celebrated in August. The first one is the anniversary of the execution of 13 leaders of JAC; the second is conditioned by the fact that in August of 1942 the administration of propaganda and agitation of VKP(b) Central Committee (CC) prepared for CC secretaries a memorandum on a distorted national policy in all spheres of culture during the previous years. As a result, as it was stated in the memorandum, mainly Jews used to head establishments dealing with the Russian culture.

It turned out that state anti-Semitism revealed its features during such a difficult period for the country as 1942.

The JAC tragedy shows that Stalin's regime manipulated people's consciousness.

During the recent years causes and phases of that part of the policy of state anti-Semitism which received the name "JAC case" have been studied in details. Subjective reasons didn't play role in this planned action.

Along with the anti-Jewish campaign there was an anti-Ukrainian campaign. One of Jewish writers said during repressions against his culture, "Today they lambaste us, tomorrow it will be your turn". One more evidence of the anti-Semitic nature of the policy became Stalin's utterance quoted by Hitler on the 24th of July 1942: "Stalin talking to Ribbentrop didn't conceal that he was just waiting for a moment when there would be enough of own intelligentsia in order to do away with the domination of Jews in administration" (quoted in the book by senior Hitler's stenographer G.Pikker).

Among accusations against the JAC leadership was the statement that they tried to create Jewish bourgeois republic in the Crimea. Jews had lived in this region for more that 2 thousand years; archaeological excavations on the territory of the Ancient Bospor kingdom witness to this fact.

In 1920 's Crimean Jews are getting involved into agriculture. "Agro-Joint" helped Jewish agricultural settlements, whereas Soviet administrative institutions ruined Gekhalouts. In response to anti-Semitic statements about Jewish domination in Crimea M.Kalinin wrote that Jews were given just 60 thousand desyatins of land that had not been used before. The area of allotments to Jews accounted for 2,5% of the Crimean lands.

When in 1943 JAC leaders S.Mikhoels and I.Fefer visited the USA raising funds for the Red Army; they learnt that "Joint" could help to the development of Jewish settlements in Crimea. They talked about it after their return to the USSR with V. Molotov who advised to mention this fact in the memorandum. Such memorandum, signed by S.Mikhoelos, I.Fefer, S.Epstein was handed over to Stalin and Molotov but left unanswered.

After the war Stalin's repressions against the Jewish culture within the "JAC case" began to gain motion. People who framed up this case recalled about the memorandum and claimed that JAC heads were planning to set up Jewish bourgeois republic in Crimea.

Three years after the execution of defendants after the "JAC case" the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR decided that allegations against JAC members-were unjustified. They were completely rehabilitated. It referred to the charges connected with the memorandum. Rehabilitation was announced when some members of JAC were executed, others were imprisoned or exiled.

But at the turn of the century some political forces in Ukraine decided to appropriate Stalin satrap achievements.

Ukrainian weekly "Vecherniy Kiev" in its article dedicated to Crimean Tatars' deportations (May 24, 1996) has reported that namely at that time Churchill and Roosevelt were planning to establish the state of Israel on the south of Ukraine and in Crimea. Deportations of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars that followed became constituents of the plan. Developing the same problem "Vecherniy Kiev" has copied from the Russian daily "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" S. Usov's article "The Way Russia lost Crimea". It was stated there, "With an aim of vacating the territories for Jews 'removal to the Crimea the Central Executive Committee of the USSR has rapidly adopted a special law... About 20,000 Crimean Tatars were resettled to the Urals. It was planned that the territory would be inhabited by 100,000 Jews where their republic would be declared". Anti-Jewish accusations have been taken up by the Crimean regional daily "Krymskiye Izvestiya" (March 20, 2002) stating that deporting Crimean Tatars "was an obligatory condition of the second front opening by the Allied Forces. Churchill initiated this under the pressure of international Zionism". The authors of this statement again reiterate fabrications of Stalin executioners about a Zionist character of JAC's report on Crimea.

Fortunately, nowadays such accusations don't entail any repressions but testify to the fact that any anti-Jewish insinuations, which are very close to Nazi ones, are possible not only under totalitarian regimes. It appears that even independent Ukraine has some periodicals that are not confused by a bloody past of "Crimean" accusations. "Vecherniy Kiev" and "Krymskie Izvestiya" are ready to initiate new anti-Jewish actions a bloody reminder of which is traced from the late 40's of the previous century. Y.Shapoval considers absurd the statements about, as they claim, an existing connection between Crimean Tatars' deportation and a report on the establishment of a Jewish Republic in the Crimea. He pointed out that this expulsion was organized according to the State Defense Committee regulation. Tatars were deported as a result of accusations of their collaboration with the Nazis, to connect the process to the Jews means to violate the history".

Rafat Chubarov, the first deputy head of Medzhlis of Crimean Tatars, a people's deputy of Ukrainian parliament Verhovna Rada expressed his quite definite opinion as to this problem, "Attempts of some researchers to find some cause and consequence between Crimean Tatars' deportation of 1944 and JAC's proposal to establish a Jewish autonomy in Crimea do not stand to criticism.

In order to find true grounds for the deportation one should, first and foremost, refer to the state policy of the Russian empire as to the indigenous population of Crimea starting from the moment of its annexation in 1783.

A violent expulsion of Crimean Tatars from the peninsula was a constant phenomenon during the years of colonial rule in Russia. Bolsheviks proved to be assiduous adherents to the old regime regarding the policy of purposeful extermination of Crimean Tatars, as well as of other "unreliable" nations. It's sufficient to mention that only during the period of 1921-1922 more than 100,000 people died of the artificially provoked famine in Crimea. 80,000 among them were Crimean Tatars.

I am absolutely sure of the fact that Stalin never had in mind to establish a Jewish autonomy in Crimea. Not because he distrusted the Tatars. With the same degree of distrust he treated Soviet Jews as well. In Stalin's opinion, Crimea had to be inhabited by the people loyal to the regime".

Repressions against the country's nations were a constituent of Stalin's policy "to divide and rule". It's quite obvious that attempts to restore Stalin's accusations were intended at reaching the same goal.