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Grigori
Gershuni
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This introductory paragraph about Grigori Gershuni was written by Ann
Rabinowitz.
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Sometimes, I find interesting stories about our Kupiskis families and I
try and pass them onto you. This one is about Gersh Isakov-Itskov
Gershuni aka Grigori Andreevich Gershuni who was born August 29, 1870, the
son of Sholom-Josel and Tauba Gershuni. He was a pharmacist, but
that is not what he has gone down in history for.
He was known as one of the great Russian Revolutionaries who was a
founding member of the Workers' Party for the Political Liberation
of Russia. Later, he helped to found the Socialist Workers Party and the
SR Combat Organization. He went onto bigger and better things which
culminated in his imprisonment for life in Akatui, Manchuria, in the
summer of 1906.
It is Gershuni's escape from prison and his reappearance in San Francisco
and beyond which is remarkable. His story was written up in a
popular magazine of the time,
The American
Monthly Review Of Reviews, An International Magazine, edited by Albert
Shaw, Volume 34, 1904, under the title "Thrilling Escape
of a Russian Revolutionist".
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It was said that he
escaped in a barrel of sauerkraut which was a unique means of hiding
oneself. He lived another two years after his escape, until March
29, 1908, when he died of tuberculosis in Zurich, Switzerland, bringing an
untimely end to his amazing career.
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This article is courtesy of Google
Books. |
Minsk,
ir va-em
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There is a
fair amount of information about Grigori in the Minsk Yizkor Book, Minsk,
Jewish Mother-City, a Memorial Anthology, edited by Shlomo Even-Shushan,
published in: Jerusalem, 1975-85, located on the
JewishGen
Yizkor Book Project.
There appears to be
an entire chapter about him but it is not yet translated. Below is
a paragraph which mentions Grigori in passing but throws some light on
his personality before his revolutionary days.
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During my time, there
were classes for the public in Russian, under license from the
government, of course. The vast majority of the lecturers were Jewish.
These were public lectures in Russian, accompanied, already in those
days, with a type of enchantment, and much experience. One of the
lecturers was Gregory Gershuny, the well-known social
revolutionary (his brother was a nose and throat doctor in Minsk). He
was a chemist. I did not miss even one of his lectures. He was a
wonderful lecturer with a clear style, understandable by everybody. He
accompanied his words with many demonstrations. I recall these
demonstrations: he had two flasks in his hand with white liquid in
each. He mixed the liquids and – wonder of wonders – they turned
red! Any inclination that I have towards the sciences comes not only
from my grandfather of blessed memory, who was as they say in the
Talmud “someone occupied in these matters”, but also from the
lectures of Gershuni. Nobody in Minsk knew that before us was a person
who would later become famous as one of the heads of the social
revolutionaries who utilized terror against the heads of the Czarist
government. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted
to life imprisonment. He escaped the deportation by hiding in a
container of cabbage, and arrived in the United States.
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| From
"Minsk
at the Turn of the Century,"
by David Zakai, translated by Jerrold Landau |
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