AGURSKY, SAMUEL

AGURSKY, SAMUEL (1884–c. 1948), Communist author. Agursky, who was born in Grodno, joined the Bund and fled Russia in 1905 because of his involvement in revolutionary activities. He eventually went to the United States and contributed to the Jewish anarchist press. He returned to Russia in 1917 and helped found the Jewish section of the Communist Party yevsektsiya . In 1919, when deputizing for S. Dimanstein , the commissar for Jewish affairs, Agursky issued an order closing the Jewish communal institutions. He wrote on the history of the Jewish labor movement and edited collections of historical and literary works. He disappeared at the time of the 1948 anti-Jewish purges. Agursky's writings include Der Yidisher Arbeter in der Komunistisher Bavegung, 1917–1925 ("The Jewish Worker in the Communist Movement, 1917–25," 1926); Di Yidishe Komisaryaten un di Yidishe Komunistishe   Sektsies, 1918–1921 ("The Jewish Commissariats and the Jewish Communist Sections, 1918–21," 1928). (Yehuda Slutsky)