He Smiled for the State - Then Mouths "They Will Kill Us"

A celebrated Yiddish poet in a Moscow hotel signals: “They are going to kill us”-how does a decorated Soviet colonel fall so far under Stalin? He Smiled for the State - Then Mouths "They Will Kill Us" In this episode, we follow the moments before and after a secret meeting in a monitored Moscow hotel room that changed one man’s fate. It traces the road from prestige and party loyalty to the perilous visibility that put him and his colleagues at risk. Person: Itzik Feffer Date: June 1949 (meeting); August 12, 1952 (execution) Location: Moscow; Lubyanka Building Role: Yiddish poet, Soviet colonel, Vice chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee Affiliation: Communist Party member since 1919; NKVD informer (handler: Leonid Raikhman) - Feffer returned to Moscow after months of detention, fed and made presentable by state doctors for a staged visit with a friend. - In a monitored hotel room he mouthed to his friend that “They are going to kill us” and urged him to speak out when he returned to America. - Feffer had been a high-profile cultural figure: nearly eighty volumes of Yiddish poetry, editor and representative for Yiddish literature, and seats in Soviet legislative bodies. - For years Feffer served as a secret informer for the NKVD, holding meetings with Lavrentiy Beria and reporting on colleagues in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. - The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee’s public prominence and overseas connections made it a focal point for state surveillance and internal reporting. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com. © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].