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of their homes, businesses, and religious centers. Usually pogroms are accompanied by physical violence against the targeted people and even murder or massacre. The term has historically been used to denote extensive violence, either spontaneous or premeditated, against Jews. We don't know much about why Shmuel was targeted, but we can guess. As a successful Jewish businessman, his murder would send a message to others not to get so ambitious. Iosif recalls his father describing his grandfather's death with great sadness. The rioters went to Shmuel's restaurant on the plaza and destroyed everything. The family was hiding in the large basement, but in their haste to find shelter they had forgotten to take their dog. The terrified family huddled in their hiding place and listened to the destruction above them. Then they heard a sound that was unbearable: The rioters had found the family dog and were beating it to death. The beating was too much for Shlomo's sister Rachel, who made enough noise for the rioters to discover their hiding place. When they threatened to rape Rachel, Shmuel fearlessly cononted them. They beat him so badly that he never recovered om his injuries and died. For the rest of her life, Rachel blamed herself for her father's death. When Shmuel was killed, his business was at its peak. The business continued to thrive under the leadership of his wife, Inda. With the help of Shlomo, the business grew even more prosperous. Inda was well known in Gorodok and had the ear of town officials. Unlike most Jews, who had little or no eedom to travel, Inda was a merchant first guild and she had money, a combination that allowed her great scope. Inna recalls stories of Jews getting into trouble and her grandmother providing the bail money to get them out of jail. She would jump in her horse-drawn carriage and go to the town officials with the money. Her granddaughter When Shlomo was 36 years old, the First World War broke out. This war devastated Russia. Unprepared militarily and industrially, the country suffered demoralizing defeats, severe food shortages, and eventual economic collapse. By February of 1917, the nation's workers and soldiers had had enough. Riots broke out in St. Petersburg, known as Petrograd at that time. A provisional government attempted to govern the country but failed. Meanwhile, the communists (called Bolsheviks) gained support om the increasingly ustrated Soviets. On October 25, the communists, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, stormed the Winter Palace and took over the country. Within months, civil war broke out throughout Russia. For the next three years the country was devastated by civil strife, which finally came to an end in 1920 when the Bolsheviks emerged victorious. Lenin ruled over Russia until his death in 1924, the same year Iosif was born. In 1922, the Soviet Union (Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik,) was established. In English, its name was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Originally established by four Soviet Socialist Republics (Russia was the largest), the USSR grew to include 15 republics by 1956: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Aer the USSR's collapse in 1991, all became independent countries once more. Aer Lenin, the next dictator of the Soviet Union was Iosif Stalin. Upon rising to power in 1924, he immediately set the country on an incredibly brutal and self-destructive course. He suspended the New Economic Politic reforms. The economy was centralized and all economic policy was dictated om the top. Agricultural lands were collectivized, creating large, state-run farms. Industrial development was pushed along at breakneck speed, and production was almost entirely diverted om consumer products to capital equipment. Religion was violently repressed, and churches and synagogues were closed, destroyed, or converted for other uses. Stalin purged all opposition to himself within the party as well as all opposition to party policy within the country. By the end of the 1930s, the Soviet Union had become a country in which life was more strictly regulated than ever before. Experimentation had ended, and discipline was the rule of the day. The country consumed itself. All told, Stalin killed between 20 and 60 million people by purging non-supporters and engineering an artificial famine to control population. Shlomo and World War I Shlomo and World War I

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