“I Request Permission to Leave”

The J-Doc digital archive contains a case file from the archives of the Soviet security services that reads like a political detective story and reveals the specifics of underground work carried out by youth Zionist organisations in the USSR.

On 2 September 1924, the OGPU of Podolia Governorate in the Ukrainian SSR arrested a young man who, at the time of his detention, gave his name as Zeilik Rudin. Only during the third interrogation did the accused admit that the documents did not belong to him, and that his real name was Israel (Srul) Shmulevich Solodar. He also stated that he was a member of the Organisation of Zionist Youth and HeHalutz.

During the investigation of the Solodar-Rudin case, it emerged that Zeilik Rudin — the name Solodar had been using — was also a real person, a member of the Bratslav Zionist group. According to the investigators, Rudin had voluntarily handed his documents over to Solodar.

Judging by the case materials, Israel Solodar was a courageous man and a committed Zionist. He lived under false documents, escaped after his first detention by deceiving a guard who had fallen asleep, and concealed his real name during interrogations for eight days.

After admitting his real identity, he did not hesitate to call himself a “political Zionist” and refused to disclose the names of his comrades, so as not to become a “provocateur.” Immediately after the final interrogation, in which he gave his real name, Solodar wrote a statement requesting permission to leave “from here” for Palestine.

In May 1925, Solodar’s case was closed, and he himself was expelled to Palestine.

You can read this case file, the original OGPU interrogation records, and other documents in the J-Doc digital archive.