---
title: Aleksandr Shcherbakov
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/aleksandr-shcherbakov/
description: 3 verified quotes from Aleksandr Shcherbakov, Secretary of the Central Committee and head of the Moscow party organisation; head of the Main Political…
section: FRAME
---

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[Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · Soviet Union

# Aleksandr Shcherbakov

Secretary of the Central Committee and head of the Moscow party organisation; head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army and of the Sovinformburo, 1942-1945 · Soviet Union

On the regime page: [Soviet Union under Stalin](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/soviet-union/#aleksandr-shcherbakov)

3 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=aleksandr-shcherbakov).

1. > “Inadvisable at this present time. Let the Jewish writers work for Moscow newspapers.” — English: Laura Esther Wolfson, in Stalin's Secret Pogrom (Yale University Press, 2001). Original-language text not found. — July 1941 · Private-remark · Moscow, handwritten note on a petition to the Sovinformburo Verified (secondary source) — Markish, Bergelson, Kvitko and other Yiddish writers wrote to the Sovinformburo on 18 July 1941. Rubenstein says Shcherbakov, then director of the bureau, dismissed the idea; he accepted a similar proposal in September 1941 and the newspaper Eynikayt began to appear in 1942. — Shcherbakov's handwritten note on the letter of 18 July 1941 from Yiddish writers asking the Sovinformburo to establish a Yiddish newspaper, quoted in Joshua Rubenstein, "Introduction", in Joshua Rubenstein and Vladimir P. Naumov (eds.), Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, trans. Laura Esther Wolfson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 11 [Source](https://epdf.pub/stalins-secret-pogrom-the-postwar-inquisition-of-the-jewish-anti-fascist-committ.html)
2. > “Mekhlis is coming off the list. He's a general; let him go on fighting. Ehrenburg is coming off the list. He writes well and writes every day. Impossible to send him. Markish is coming off the list. He's muddle-headed and hysterical; he doesn't know what's going to come out of his mouth two minutes from now. And then there is Epshteyn.” — English: Laura Esther Wolfson, in Stalin's Secret Pogrom (Yale University Press, 2001). Original-language text not found. — 1943 · Private-remark · Moscow, telephone call to Lozovsky in Kuibyshev Verified (secondary source) — Lozovsky told the court that Shcherbakov went through the list of candidates for a Soviet delegation to the United States of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. The delegation of Mikhoels and Fefer travelled in 1943. Lozovsky was testifying at his own trial. — Shcherbakov's words on a telephone call to Solomon Lozovsky, early 1943, as recounted by Lozovsky in his testimony of May 1952, in Joshua Rubenstein and Vladimir P. Naumov (eds.), Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, trans. Laura Esther Wolfson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 253 [Source](https://epdf.pub/stalins-secret-pogrom-the-postwar-inquisition-of-the-jewish-anti-fascist-committ.html)
3. > “We absolutely have to have one person in the delegation who isn't a party member.” — English: Laura Esther Wolfson, in Stalin's Secret Pogrom (Yale University Press, 2001). Original-language text not found. — 1943 · Private-remark · Moscow, telephone call to Lozovsky in Kuibyshev Verified (secondary source) — Said, according to Lozovsky, when the delegation list for the United States was being decided. Mikhoels, the theatre director, was then chosen as the delegate who was not a party member. — Shcherbakov's words on a telephone call to Solomon Lozovsky, early 1943, as recounted by Lozovsky in his testimony of May 1952, in Joshua Rubenstein and Vladimir P. Naumov (eds.), Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, trans. Laura Esther Wolfson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 253 [Source](https://epdf.pub/stalins-secret-pogrom-the-postwar-inquisition-of-the-jewish-anti-fascist-committ.html)