Yakov Yakovlevich Etinger (; ; August 12, 1929 – August 5, 2014) was a Russian

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

, essayist, historian and political activist.

Biography

Etinger was born as Yakov Lazarevich Siterman () in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

to Lazar and Vera Sitermans, who perished in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. The boy was saved by his nanny Marina Kharetskaya (who was named a

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

in 1997). He was adopted by the physician

Yakov Gilyarievich Etinger Yakov Gilyarievich Etinger (; 22 December 1887 – 2 March 1951) was a Soviet medical doctor. He was one of the accused in the Doctor's Plot in 1952-1953, an alleged Zionist plot to kill off the Soviet leadership. Dr. Etinger was tortured by ...

and took his family name and

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

. During the

Doctors' Plot The "doctors' plot" () was a Soviet state-sponsored anti-intellectual and anti-cosmopolitan campaign based on a conspiracy theory that alleged an anti-Soviet cabal of prominent medical specialists, including some of Jewish ethnicity, intend ...

affair, his foster parents were arrested and his father died in prison. Yakov was also arrested in 1950 and sentenced to 10 years in a

gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see British and American spelling differences, spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are unfree labour, forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have ...

as the result of a false accusation of

anti-Sovietism Anti-Sovietism or anti-Soviet sentiment are activities that were actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union. Three common uses of the term include the following: * Anti-Sovietism in inter ...

. He was exonerated in 1954. He died at the age of 84 on August 6, 2014.

Scholarly activity

From 1956 to 1989 he worked in the

Institute of World Economy and International Relations The Institute of World Economy and International Relations (), or IMEMO, is an independent research institute based in Moscow, Russia. In August 2015 the Institute has changed its name to the Primakov Institute of World Economy and Internationa ...

, starting as librarian and ending as principal research fellow, becoming one of the leading Soviet scholars of

African studies African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's History of Africa, history (pre-colonial, Colonisation of Af ...

Political activity

In 1988 he was the member of the organizing committee of the

Memorial Society Memorial ( rus, Мемориал, p=mʲɪmərʲɪˈaɫ) is an international human rights organisation founded in Russia during the fall of the Soviet Union to study and examine the human rights violations and other crimes committed under Josep ...

Literary work

In the 1990s Yakov Etinger published many works about

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

Soviet political repressions Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, tens of millions of people suffered political repression, which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution. It culminated during the Stalin era, then declined, but it continued to exist ...

and

antisemitism in the Soviet Union The February Revolution in Russia officially ended a centuries-old regime of antisemitism in the Russian Empire, legally abolishing the Pale of Settlement. However, the previous legacy of antisemitism was continued and furthered by the Soviet s ...

, both in Russia and abroad.

References

External links

*
The fate of two Etingers

1929 births 2014 deaths Writers from Minsk Belarusian Jews Russian sociologists 20th-century Russian historians Russian political scientists Moscow State University alumni Academic staff of Moscow State University {{Russia-academic-bio-stub