Seventy years ago — on August 12, 1952 — Soviet authorities executed a group of thirteen Jewish writers and intellectuals, among them the poets Peretz Markish and Dovid Hofshteyn. Known as the “Night of the Murdered Poets,” the event is infamous not only for its contribution to Stalin’s bloody legacy but also because many of the executed had been enthusiastic communists and leading opponents of fascism during World War II, helping the Soviet Union prevail against Nazi Germany.

In her book Songs in Dark Times: Yiddish Poetry from Scottsboro to Palestine, Amelia Glaser tells the story of Communist Party–aligned Jewish poets in the decades prior to that dark episode. Focusing on these poets’ avowed commitment to proletarian internationalism, Glaser shows how they used poetry, Jewish history, and the Yiddish language to promote solidarity among groups in different parts of the world struggling against oppression.

For insights into the internationalist poetry and politics of these left-wing Yiddish writers and their continuing relevance to current events, Jacobin interviewed Glaser.