KOL'TSOV, MIKHAIL

KOL'TSOV, MIKHAIL (pseudonym of Mikhail Yefimovich Fridland; 1898–1940), Soviet publicist and social activist. Kol'tsov was born in Kiev and in 1915 he entered the Petrograd Psychoneurological Institute. He took part in the February and October Revolutions in Petrograd (1917) and in the Civil War, the subject of a series of sketches in his books Petlyurovshcina ("The Petlyura Terror," 1922), Sotvrorenie mia ("Creation of the World," 1928), and others. In 1920 he began working in Moscow in the press department of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. From 1922 he worked for Pravda, publishing almost daily a topical feuilleton on domestic and foreign policy. His keen observation, inexhaustible humor, and biting sarcasm, as well as the ability to manipulate facts, together with a keen political sensitivity allowed Kol'tsov to follow every fluctuation of Soviet policy, thanks to which he became one of the most authoritative and popular Soviet journalists of the 1920s and 1930s. Enjoying the confidence and support of the "authorities," he was editor of the journal Ogoniok, which he founded in 1923, editor of the satirical journals Chudak (1928–30) and Krokodil (1934–38), co-editor (with Maxim Gorky) of the journal Za rubezhom (1932–38); member of the editorial board of Pravda; he headed the cooperative publishing house of the Ogoniok society (1926–31), the journal and newspaper association (1931–38), the foreign commission of the Union of Writers (1934–38), and represented the Soviet Union at international congresses of writers (Paris, 1935; Madrid and Valencia, 1937, when he headed the Soviet delegation). In 1936, when the Spanish Civil War broke out, Kol'tsov became not only Pravda correspondent there (his articles were included in his book Ispanskiy dnevnik ("Spanish Diary," 1938), but also political adviser – with a direct link to Stalin – to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Spain and the Republican government. In the latter role Kol'tsov is depicted under the name Karkov in Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). In November 1937 he was called back to Moscow and awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In 1938 he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. and deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation (RSFSR), but in December of the same year he was arrested. He was shot to death in Lefortovo prison in Moscow in 1940, and was rehabilitated in 1954. Jointly with A. Barginym, Kol'tsov wrote the propaganda brochure Sud'ba evreyskikh mass v Sovetskom soyuze ("The Fate of the Jewish Masses in the Soviet Union," 1924). From 1927 to 1937 he was a member of the editorial board of the monthly of the OZET society, Tribuna evreyskoy sovetskoy obshchestvennosti. Kol'tsov's brother, BORIS EFIMOVICH EFIMOV (1900– ), caricaturist, corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the U.S.S.R. (1954), People's Artist of the U.S.S.R. (1967). In 1922 he began working for Pravda and Izvestia, and the magazine Krokodil. In 1966 he became editor-in-chief of the Agitplakat organization. He was awarded the Stalin Prize (1950, 1951) and the State Prize (1972). He created cartoons on international themes (often with considerable satirical commentary and explanatory captions). In depicting Jewish political figures out of favor with the Soviet rulers or in cartoons critical of Israel and Zionism, he grotesquely exaggerated so-called Jewish national features. (Mark Kipnis / The Shorter Jewish Encyclopaedia in Russian) KOMARNO KOMARNO (Slovak Komárno; Hung. Komárom; Ger. Ko-morn), fortress town in S. Slovakia. Until 1992 Czechoslovak Republic, since 1993 Slovak Republic. The Trianon peace treaty (1920) divided Komárno between Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The Jewish community of Komárno was considered one of the oldest in the Danube region, as traditionally there were Jews in the town at the Magyar conquest (end of the ninth century). In 1440 and 1583 Jews worked as Ottoman agents; in 1600 they were moneylenders. In 1788 there was a case of blood libel. In 1791 there were 250 Jews, who were permitted to form a congregation. In 1803 the first synagogue was built. In 1851 Jewish entrepreneurship was liberalized, thanks to a royal order permitting Jews to join guilds. During the Hungarian revolution of 1848/49, many Jews joined the Magyar army. A subsequent cholera epidemic claimed many lives. In 1848, a fire destroyed the Jewish communal buildings, including the archive. In an effort to rebuild, the community created a cemetery in 1858 and built a synagogue in 1863. In 1890 there were 1,925 Jews; in 1900, there were 2,296. In 1895 the community built an edifice for social activities. There was a matzah bakery, a ḥevra kaddisha, a women's club, Bikkur Ḥolim organizations to help the sick, an Ahavat Achim social circle, and a youth club. The community split following the Jewish Congress of 1868, the majority choosing the neolog path. In 1889 an Orthodox congregation was established; it built a synagogue in 1907. Another small synagogue was built in 1896, together with a building for orphans and the needy. This synagogue served the congregation into the 21st century. During World War I, many enlisted in the army. The riots and looting that characterized the end of the war in Slovakia did not take place in Komárno; however, the city was a battleground for the Hungarian Commune of 1919. Following the Trianon treaty, the southern part of the Danube coast became Hungarian, and in it some 25 Jewish families. (During the Hungarian conquest   of 1938–1945, Komárno and its congregation were united.) The Czechoslovak period was quiet. Several Zionist movements were active in the city, including Hashomer (later Ha-Shomer ha-Ẓa'ir), Maccabee ha-Ẓa'ir, a Zionist branch, and Young Agudat Israel. In 1930 the community built a house for social institutions. The Orthodox congregation had a small yeshivah. In November 1938 southern Slovakia came under Hungarian rule, including Komárno. The anti-Jewish legislation, already in existence in Hungary, was applied to the conquered territory as well. In Komárno, Jews were forced to leave certain streets; in January 1942, they were forbidden to work. On March 19, 1944, German troops entered Hungary. Along with them were local collaborators, the infamous gendarmerie, and a unit of Nyilas (arrow cross fascist party ) from Szabolcs. A part of Komárno was made into a ghetto, where the Jews were forced to live. On June 12–16, the inhabitants of the ghetto, as well as neighboring Jews, were deported. The director of the Komárno city museum, witnessing the desecration of the three synagogues, gathered 12 Torah scrolls and other ritual items and hid them in the museum. After the war, he returned the sacred items to the Jewish congregation. On October 15, 1944, the Nyilas party took Hungary by force. In Komárno the Szabolcs unit was responsible for many outrages. After the war, some were caught and put on trial. On September 26, 1945, some 114 Nyilas victims were buried in a mass grave in the Jewish cemetery. In 1947 there were 314 Jews in Komárno. The community tried to rebuild its religious life and the public buildings. In March 1948, a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust was erected. In 1949–50, 343 Jews immigrated, most to Israel. Those who were left, and those who moved to Komárno, preserved religious life. The depleted community was forced to sell its land. In 1972 a large part of the cemetery was expropriated to build a highway. In 1990 there were 45 Jews in the city. The tombstones and memorials of defunct neighboring villages and congregations were deposited in the local cemetery. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: MHJ, indices, S.V. Comoronium; A. Schnitzer, Juedische Kulturbilder (1904), 172–224; Magyar Zsidó Lexikon (1929), 498; R. Iltis (ed.), Die aussaeen unter Traenen… (1959), 152–6; M. Lányi and B.H. Propperné, Szlovenszkói zsidó hitközségek története (1933), 280–1. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Bàrkàny-L. Dojč, Židovské náboženské obce na Slovensku (1991), 167–71; F. Raab, A komáromi zsidoság krónikája (1989). (Meir Lamed / Yeshayahu Jelinek (2nd ed.)