[1][2] The play was based on the 1930 novel Yulis by Daniel, which dealt with the real-life personality of Iulius Shimeliovich [ru] - a former member of Bund turned Bolshevik revolutionary.
[4] Following the play Der toyber ('The Deaf', 1930) - which used Biblical and Jewish traditional themes - Soviet Yiddish playwrights were instructed to produce theatrical works that specifically dealt with Bolshevik revolutionary struggle and the Russian Civil War.
[3] Fir teg evolves around the events of the siege by Polish legionnaires of the Vilna Soviet of Workers Deputies in early 1919.
[5] The Bolsheviks are betrayed by the General Jewish Labour Bund and the Polish Socialist Party, allowing the counter-revolutionaries to take control of the city.
[1] Fir teg was one of the main plays of the 1932-1933 season at the Artef theatre in New York City, directed by Benno Schneider.