The Moscow State Jewish Theater, also known by its acronym GOSET, was a Yiddish theater company established in 1919 and later shut down in 1948 by the Soviet authorities.
The theater originated before the Bolshevik revolution as the Jewish Theater Workshop directed by Alexander Granovsky, and in 1918 it attracted Solomon Mikhoels who became the leading actor and, ten years after his coming on board, its director.
The design of GOSET’s foyer was by Marc Chagall.
In January 1948, Mikhoels was murdered by the MVD (the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs) and his death was made to look like a car accident. Months later the theater was shut down, and the members of the Jewish Anti–Fascist Committee (also headed by Mikhoels) were arrested. At least thirteen prominent Soviet Yiddish writers were executed on August 12, 1952 in the saga known as “The Night of the Murdered Poets.”