On August 12, 1952, 13 Jewish writers, artists, journalists, and scientists were executed in Moscow's Lubyanka prison by firing squad, a crime known as the Night of the Murdered Poets.

The Night of the Murdered Poets refers to the tragic events of August 12, 1952, when 13 members of the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were executed for fabricated crimes, leading to a commemoration that has parallels with Tisha B'Av in a sector of Yiddish-speaking, socialist American Jews.