Les gardiens yiddish du léninisme The Yiddish Custodians of Leninism: Polish Communist Veterans Settle Scores with the Past

From the mid-1950s onward, “Lenin,” “Leninism” and “restoration of Leninist norms” were invocations reiterated by communists in many countries in an attempt to draw a line between their utopian beliefs and the Soviet reality. Yiddish-speaking Polish communists, who are in the center of this article, also viewed the 1920s as a highpoint of the Leninist approach to the nationalities problems, whereas Stalinist “deviations” from Leninism spelt doom for Jewish culture in the Soviet Union. Adoration of Lenin and Leninism remained an important part of their selves even when they were forced to live in emigration.