The story of the Jews of the Soviet Union is one of the great tragedies of history. From 1917 until 1991, one of the largest Jewish communities on earth was persecuted by a powerful Communist empire. Religious observance was attacked, and any semblance of traditional Jewish life uprooted. Countless Jews were among the millions of men and women murdered by the regime or sent to its Gulags.

The Soviet regime not only imprisoned millions of Jews behind its Iron Curtain, but tore generations of Soviet Jews away from their religion, tradition and history. Yet there are countless stories of Jewish determination and defiance: the Jewish soul could not be destroyed.

The history of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement is intertwined with this tragic and heroic epoch. The Sixth Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory, placed his life on the line for Soviet Jewry, as did his followers. Many of them spent decades in the Gulags, or paid the ultimate price.

This battle was carried on by his successor, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, who championed the plight of Soviet Jewry abroad while directing a network of underground activists within. This page gathers Chabad.org’s vast collection of writings and videos pertaining to Soviet Jewry into one place, even while much more remains to be uncovered.