SCHWARZ, SOLOMON

SCHWARZ, SOLOMON (1883–1973), Russian Social Democratic politician and historian. Born into an assimilated family in Vilna, Schwarz studied medicine, law, and economics at German and Russian universities. He was repeatedly arrested by the czarist authorities for his socialist and trade union activities. Following the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in February 1917, he was made head of the social insurance department of the Provisional Government's Ministry of Labor. After the Bolshevik seizure of power, Schwarz led the Menshevik opposition to the Bolsheviks until his arrest and imprisonment. He was allowed to leave Russia in 1922 and settled first in Germany, and after 1933, in France. While living in Germany and France he began his research on contemporary Russian history, much of which was published in Sotsialisticheskiy Vestnik. In 1940 Schwarz settled in the U.S., where he continued his research. He served as an adviser to the *American Jewish Committee, and the New School for Social Research, and was associated with the Russian Institute of Columbia University. In 1970 he settled in Jerusalem where he became an adviser on Soviet and Soviet-Jewish affairs at the Hebrew University. Schwarz was a recognized authority on social and economic conditions in the U.S.S.R. and the history of Soviet Jewry. He was one of the first to disclose that millions of Soviet citizens were subjected to forced labor in camps and prisons. After the death of Raphael *Abramowitz, Schwarz became the last editor of Sotsialisticheskiy Vestnik, but was compelled to cease publication because of a shortage of contributors and readers.

His writings include a number of works on general Russian affairs, among them Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture (with G. Bienstock and A. Yugow, 1944) and Labor in the Soviet Union (1951). His works on Jewish affairs include The Jews in the Soviet Union (1951) and Yevrei v Sovetskom Soyuze s nachala Vtoroy mirovoy voyny, 1939–1965 ("The Jews in the Soviet Union since the Beginning of World War ii," 1966), which became standard works; and Sovetskiy Soyuz i arabo-izrailskaya voyna 1967 goda ("The Soviet Union and the Arab-Israel War of 1967," 1969). He also wrote an important article on *Birobidzhan in Russian Jewry 1917–1967 (ed. by J. Frumkin et al. (1968), 342–95).