How a Legend became a Woman:

the Story of Rosa Kaganovich, Stalin’s Secret Wife

 

Alexandra Arkhipova

This lecture would be dedicated to the problem of mythological versions of the biographies of political leaders.

Roza Lasarevna (also Moseevna, or Mikhailovna) Kaganovich, mentioned in innumerous memoirs and court cases – a sister (daughter or niece) of Stalin’s powerful right hand Lasar Kaganovich, had never existed. Her biography emerged from folklore, false memoirs and speculations of certain historians. First rumors of Stalin’s “secret third wife” spread among Soviet diplomatic ranks during the late 30s. They basically transported an anti-Semitic idea: Lasar Kaganovich, a Jew, was the hidden, secret ruler of the Soviet Union, who controlled Stalin via his sister. Ironically, even the secret service of Nazi-Germany trusted this rumor and even offered a reward for information on the whereabouts of Roza Kaganovich. After WWII, this legend became even more popular and, in its last episode, Roza was killed during her attempt to assassinate Stalin for his last anti-Jewish campaign. In 1953-54, many soviet citizens were imprisoned for spreading this rumor. Roza’s story began its second life when emigrants brought this folklore to the West and, given understandable lack of verifiable and uncensored information from Russia, a number of historians mistook these rumors for true information.

Why is this story worthy of a researcher’s interest? It is an example of mythology (mis)informing history. Primary elements (rumors about Roza and anti-Semitic stereotypes) unite to form complex legends, which evolve according to the rules of folklore and finally produce a political ideology. Evidently, a myth attracts people more than real history.

 

Dr. Alexandra Arkhipova is Associate Professor at the Centre for Typological

and Semiotic Folklore Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities and

Senior Research Fellow at National Academy of Economics and State

management. Her main topics are folklore and anthropology of postsocialistic

societies. She authored the books Jokes about Stalin: Texts, Comments, Analysis

(2010, in Russian), Stirlitz went along the corridor: How we invent jokes (2013,

in Russian) and edited Fetish and taboo: Anthropology of Money in Russia

(2013).