Begin, Menachem

He was born in the family of the secretary of the Brest-Lithuanian Jewish community, one of the first in the city to join Zionism . He graduated from the Jewish religious school in Brest-Litovsk , then from the state gymnasium ( 1931 ) and entered the Faculty of Law of the University of Warsaw , which he graduated in 1935 with a master's degree in law (later, legal skills were characteristic of him as a politician). Being a Zionist by family tradition, Begin from the age of 10 is a member of the children's (scout) Zionist organization “ Hashomer-Hatsair ”. At 16, he adjoins the radical wing of the movement, " revisionist Zionism ", carried away by the speeches of its founder Zeev Zhabotinsky . Begin joins the Beitar youth revisionist organization. “In Beitar, I was conquered by a single, integral Zionism, the Country of Israel, the Jewish state soon, today,” he wrote later. He quickly makes a career, turning first into the head of the Brest branch and one of the 9 senior "officers" Beitar, and then (March 1939) was appointed the Jabotinsky general leader ("commandant") of the Beitar in Poland. “This guy will go far,” Jabotinsky said about him. At the same time, Begin himself showed extreme radicalism. , speaking from extreme positions against Jabotinsky himself (whom he always considered his teacher). In 1939 he was sentenced to 6 weeks in prison for organizing a protest demonstration in front of the British Embassy. Having become the leader of Beitar, Begin immediately begins to form cells of the организацииtsel ’combat organization ( Irgun ) and at the same time tries to organize mass exits of Polish Jews to Palestine. With the German attack on Poland, Begin offers the Polish government to form part of the Beitarians, but is refused. When the Germans approached Warsaw, he fled to Vilnius (subsequently his whole family would be killed by the Germans in 1941 ). In 1940, Begin was arrested in Vilnius by the Soviet authorities and sentenced to 8 years in the camps as an agent of British imperialism and a socially dangerous element . In 1941 he was released from the camp on the river. Pechora, as a Polish citizen, joined the Anders army , which soon ended up in Palestine. In 1943 he leaves the Anders army and devotes himself completely to the struggle for the creation of a Jewish state.

In December 1943 , Begin became the head of the underground organization Irgun , and in this capacity proclaimed an uprising against the English mandate, launching attacks and terrorist attacks against British troops, authorities and institutions (the most famous of them was the explosion of the English headquarters in the Tsar hotel in Jerusalem David " ). The British appointed a reward of 10 thousand pounds (30 thousand dollars) for his head.

Subsequently, in an interview to the remark that he, like Yasser Arafat , is a terrorist, Begin replied: “I am a terrorist, and he is a gangster!” ^[one]

In 1944 and 1948 (see the Altalena case ), situations arose twice when Irgun was on the verge of armed clashes with Hagana (an underground armed organization subordinate to the leadership of the Zionist Federation); both times, only Begin’s direct ban on actions against Jews saved the Zionists from civil war.

Begin is an active participant in the War of Independence of Israel .

In 1948 , after the creation of the State of Israel, Irgun self-dissolved and joined the Israel Defense Forces . On the basis of Irgun, Begin creates the Herut (Freedom) party and, as its leader, becomes the leader of the right-wing opposition in the Knesset . In the elections to the Knesset of the 1st convocation on January 25, 1949 , Herut received 11.5% of the vote ^[2] .

According to its program, Herut continued the traditions of revisionism , combining commitment to the idea of Eretz Yisrael (the party’s official anthem, to the verses of Z. Zhabotinsky , included the words “Two shores near the Jordan - and both of us!” ^[3] ) and pressure on Arab neighbors ), with a right-liberal economic program, and sharply opposing the socialist leadership of the country.

In 1952 , diplomatic relations were established with the Federal Republic of Germany and agreements on reparations were signed (the German government paid monetary compensation to Jews who suffered in World War II ). Herut actively opposed “forgiving the enemy,” and Begin led mass anti-government protests. From that moment on, the steady growth of Herut’s popularity began, and in the 1961 elections the party’s representation increased to 17 seats ^[3] . At the rallies, Begin condemned those "who sell the blood of our brothers, our fathers and mothers . " During these actions, he led a demonstration that tried to forcefully break into the Knesset building and broke glass in it with stones; for this he was suspended for three months from meetings. )

On the eve of the Six-Day War of 1967 , when the situation required the consolidation of all national forces, Begin first entered the government (as a minister without a portfolio), and remained in office until 1970. After the creation of the right bloc in 1973 , the Likud led this bloc and as a result his victory in the elections in 1977 formed the first in the history of Israel right-wing (not socialist) government.

As Prime Minister, he carried out a decisive program of economic liberalization (the so-called “October Economic Revolution” of 1977 ); In addition, he actively implemented a program to reduce the social gap between European Jews (Ashkenazi) and Jews who came from eastern countries (Sephardim), having developed a large-scale program to raise the living and cultural standards of Eastern Jews. Begin’s “economic coup” turned out to be more than controversial, since too rapid privatization of the economy led to a loss of control over it and inflation (130% - 1980), which forced Begin to partially backtrack. However, Begin’s re-election in 1981 indicates that, on the whole, Israeli society was satisfied with its policies. In the field of foreign policy, Begin advocated maintaining the presence of Israel in the disputed territories (Judea and Samaria), but at the same time for a peaceful settlement with Egypt by returning the Sinai Peninsula to it. Soon after coming to power, he initiates negotiations with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat , which ended with the signing of the Camp David Accords in September 1978 , which successfully implemented this program (a full-scale peace treaty was signed on the lawn in front of the White House on March 26, 1979 ). For this Begin, along with Sadat, received the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1981 , by order of Begin, Israeli aircraft destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor , thus depriving Saddam Hussein of the opportunity to get an atomic bomb. Begin believed that peace with Egypt would free Israel's hands to completely destroy the PLO, and to this end, he began the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 ( Operation Peace for Galilee ). However, heavy losses in Lebanon, a split in society in relation to the Lebanese war against the backdrop of the Kahan Commission report and the death of his wife lead to a nervous breakdown, which resulted in his resignation on September 15, 1983 .

Last years he lived, moving away from all public activities, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv , where he died. He was buried on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem , next to the members of the Irgun executed by the British. His funeral, which was not official, nevertheless gathered thousands of people.

The historian M. Kheifits describes Begin as follows: "Begin was a modest European man, well-mannered, restrained." He was considered an excellent orator and polemicist; opponents called him a "demagogue." He was fluent in nine languages ​​and generally had linguistic abilities: in the gymnasium, Latin was one of his favorite subjects. Those who knew him personally noted his particular elegance and gentlemanhood (for example, he went in a suit and tie even in the most intense heat). Even when arrested in 1940, Begin went to jail, not forgetting to clean his shoes and tie a tie. At the same time he was, as indicated, modest, willingly communicated with "ordinary people." The case of the last months of his premiership is known: the mother of a soldier who went missing in Lebanon came to see him. In Begin’s office, a woman had a hysterical seizure. Although Begin had an appointment with a prominent Washington official, he refused to leave the woman until she calmed down.

Begin is the author of articles and three books of a memoir character:

• “Uprising” (about the underground struggle “Irgun”, 1950 , Russian translation T.-A., 1976);
• "In the White Nights" ( 1953 , about the Soviet prison and camp; Russian translation T.-A. 1978 , Jer.-M., 1991 ; M., 1993 ):
• "Underground: essays and documents" (4 vols., 1959-61).

The book “In the White Nights”, completed a month before Stalin’s death, ends with a curious prediction of the fate awaiting the USSR after the death of the dictator: Begin rejects both the opinion that the USSR will fall apart, and the opinion that everything will remain the same, but believes that the struggle between the successors of Stalin, as well as the increase in the centrifugal aspirations of minorities, can eventually lead to internal transformations in the Soviet empire.

On October 29, 2013, a bust of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Israeli Prime Minister in 1977-1983, Menachem Begin, was installed in Brest . The bust is set not far from the house, which once housed the school where he studied. Worked on the monument: the Lenin Prize winner of the USSR, the chairman of the Union of Belarusian Jewish Public Associations and Communities, architect Leonid Levin, the author of the sketch projects Alesya Gurshchenkova, the chief architect of Brest Oleg Lyashuk and the architect Konstantin Selikhanov (Minsk) ^{[4] [5]} .

On the river bank in the city of Pechora , Komi Republic, there is a memorial plate to Menachem Begin, as a Gulag prisoner and builder of a bridge across the Pechora River. The memorial, established by the initiative group in 2013 , was repeatedly attacked by vandals ^{[6] [7]} , after which it was rebuilt ^[8] .

• Menachem Begin Memory Center

• Yosef Ahimeir. Menachem Begin (inaccessible link)
• Begin Menachem - an article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia
• The triumph and tragedy of Menachem Begin Link checked 12.25.2006.
• Mark Bunny’s book “Begin's Life”
• Interview with Dan Meridor, Secretary of the Begin Government (inaccessible link)
• M. Begin “In the White Nights”
• Menahem Begin Memorial Page Knesset Memorial Page
• an article in the newspaper " Evening Brest " dated June 28, 2013, "What and Where to Begin's Bust" about the future monument of M. Begin in Brest
• Power and Politics: Breaking Begin, By ELLIOT JAGER Mar 6, 2007 (link not available)