Assassination of Solomon Mikhoels: About the problem of authenticity and reliability of the historical primary sources

Abstract

There is a great deal of debate among researchers of the late Stalin era about whether there are good reasons to believe that Stalin decided to kill the Jewish leader Solomon Mikhoels, which was a famous Soviet actor at the time, artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theater (“GOSET”) and head of the “Jewish Anti-fascist Committee”. This article provides an overview of this debate and the variety of the research strategies currently in use. Particular attention to the critical analysis of the origin of documents is given; on the basis of which researchers draw controversial generalizing conclusions. It is concluded that a number of historical sources related have been are unreliable and there is no source-study evidence for their legitimate origin. In this regard, the question was raised about the new research of the scientific problem of the assassination of Solomon Mikhoels. An extensive bibliography, characteristics of sources and historiography of the issue under consideration are presented.