Semyon Dimanstein

Who was Semyon Dimanstein?

Semyon Dimanstein was a Soviet state activist, publisher, theorist of national issues in the USSR, and one of the founders of the Soviet Oriental studies. He was considered by the Soviet regime to be a representative of Soviet Jews.

Dimanstein was born in Sebezh, Pskov oblast in a Litvak family of a trader. He studied in a Chabad yeshiva where eighteen-year Semyon was ordained as a rabbi. He suffered from poverty and homelessness, and gradually abandoned his religious upbringing in favor of revolutionary activities.