Tag #147793 - Interview #78423 (Mikhail Plotkin )

One of the most striking impressions from my childhood was connected with Polish anti-Semitism during the Civil War [2]. When in 1920 the Soviet-Polish War [3] broke out, the Polish troops at first quickly moved across the territory of Belarus. Mother sent me to the village and arranged for me to stay with an old Jewish acquaintance. She thought it would be quieter there, but the Polish soldiers entered the village. I hid on the stove [4]. A Polish officer in beautiful uniform and konfederatka [black or colored square Polish hat] tore out a tuft of hair from a man’s beard, brought his fist to the man’s nose and said, ‘Well, kike! As many zlotys as you have hairs! Or I’ll knife you.’ Ever since then I distrusted Poles, though Stas Fialkovsky, a Pole, was my best friend since my student years.