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Shmuel Mikunis

Israeli communist politician (1903-1982)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ167194
Source-derived summary

Shmuel Mikunis (Hebrew: שמואל מיקוניס; 10 August 1903 – 20 May 1982) was an Israeli politician. He was a member of the Knesset for the Maki (1949–1969, 1972–1973) and Moked (1973–1974) parties.

Biography

Born to a Hasidic Jewish family in Polonne in the Russian Empire (today in Ukraine), Mikunis immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1921. He claimed two of his brothers remained in the Soviet Union and were murdered during Stalin's rule, though this isn’t confirmed. He attended a polytechnic in France, and was qualified as an engineer, working for the Shell Oil Company between 1933 and 1945.

Mikunis was a member of the Palestine Communist Party. He became secretary of its central committee in 1939. In 1944 he was elected to the Jewish community's Assembly of Representatives. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, he acted as an emissary to communist countries, seeking to acquire weapons. After Maki was established in 1948, Mikunis became its secretary and held this position until 1974.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Shmuel Mikunis” as israeli communist politician (1903-1982). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1903, 1982, 1949, 1969—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1903-08-10. The account is most persuasive where Shmuel, Mikunis and Israeli can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as israeli communist politician (1903-1982). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q167194. VIAF identifies the subject as 97400992. The Library of Congress control number is no96010202. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1903, 1982, 1949 and 1969.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Shmuel Mikunis”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Shmuel Mikunis primary sources, Shmuel Mikunis archive and Shmuel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shmuel Mikunis”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Shmuel Mikunis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.