David Bergelson

David Bergelson
David Bergelson

David (or Dovid) Bergelson (דוד בערגעלסאָן) (August 12, 1884 – August 12, 1952) was a Yiddish language writer. Ukrainian-born, he lived for a time in Berlin, Germany. He moved back to the Soviet Union when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. He was ultimately executed during antisemitic campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans".

Contents

Biography

Born in the Ukrainian shtetl of Okhrimovo (also known as Okhrimovka, now Sarny), near Uman, he first became known as a writer in the wake of the failed Russian Revolution of 1905. From a Hasidic background, but having received both religious and secular education, much of his writing is reminiscent of Anton Chekhov: stories of "largely secular, frustrated young people…, ineffectual intellectuals…",[1] frustrated by the provincial shtetl life. Writing at first in Hebrew and Russian, he only met success when he turned to his native Yiddish; his first successful book was Arum Vokzal (At the Depot) a novella, published at his own expense in 1909 in Warsaw.

In 1917, he founded the avant garde Jidishe Kultur Lige (Yiddish Culture League) in Kiev. In spring 1921 he moved to Berlin, which would be his base throughout the years of the Weimar Republic, although he traveled extensively through Europe and also visited the United States. According to J. Hoberman, he was "the best-known (and certainly the best-paid) Russian Yiddish writer of the 1920s"[2]. Until the mid-1920s he wrote for the New York City-based Yiddish-language newspaper The Forward.

His 1926 essay "Three Centers" expressed a belief that the Soviet Union (where Yiddish language and literature were then receiving official patronage) had eclipsed the assimilationist United States and backwards Poland as the great future locus of Yiddish literature. He began writing for the Communist Yiddish press in both New York (Morgn Frayhayt) and Moscow (Emes), and moved to the Soviet Union in 1933, around the time the Nazis came to power in Germany.

He was positively impressed with the Jewish Autonomous Republic of Birobidzhan, and participated in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee during World War II. However, like many Jewish writers, he was a target antisemitic campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans". Arrested in January 1949, he was tried secretly and executed by a firing squad in the event known as the Night of the Murdered Poets on August 12–13, 1952. After Stalin's death, he was posthumously rehabilitated, and his complete works were published in the Soviet Union in 1961.

Works

The following is a partial list of Bergelson's works.

  • Arum Vokzal (At the Depot, novella, 1909)
  • Departing (novella, 1913)
  • Nokh Alemen; title variously translated as When All Is Said and Done (1977 English-language title) or The End of Everything.
  • Divine Justice (novel, 1925)
  • "Three Centers" (essay, 1926)
  • Storm Days (short stories, 1928)
  • Baym Dnieper (At the Dnieper, novel, 1932)
  • The Jewish Autonomous Region (pamphlet published by the Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow)
  • Naye Dertseylungen (New Stories, war stories, 1947)

Translations into English

  • When All Is Said and Done, translated, and introduced by Bernard Martin. Ohio University Press: Athens, 1977. ISBN 0-8214-0360-5.
  • The Stories of David Bergelson: Yiddish Short Fiction from Russia (two short stories and a novella), translated and introduced by Golda Werman, foreword by Aharon Appelfeld. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8156-2712-2.
  • Descent, translated and introduced by Joseph Sherman. Modern Language Association of America: New York, 1999. ISBN 0-87352-788-7.
  • Shadows of Berlin: the Berlin stories of Dovid Bergelson (seven short stories and a satirical sketch from The Forward), translated by Joachim Neugroschel. City Lights Books: San Francisco, June 2005. ISBN 0-87286-444-8.

Notes

  • ^ Hoberman, 34.
  • ^ Hoberman, 36.

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • David Bergelson — David (ou Dovid) Bergelson (דוד בערגעלסאָן) (12 août 1884 12 août 1952) est un écrivain de langue yiddish. Né en Ukraine, il vécut à Berlin (Allemagne), jusqu à l arrivée au pouvoir d Hitler. Il décida alors de retourner en …   Wikipédia en Français

  • David Bergelson — (auch: Dovid Bergelson oder David Bergelsohn; * 12. August 1884 in Ochrimowo, Russland, Gouvernement Kiew, heute Sarny, Ukraine; † 12. oder 13. August 1952) war jiddischer Romancier realistisch sozia …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • BERGELSON, DAVID — (1884–1952), Russian Yiddish writer. Born in Okhrimovo (Sarna), near Uman, in the Ukraine, Bergelson was the son of a pious Talner ḥasid and prominent lumber and grain merchant, who died when Bergelson was only nine; his mother died five years… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Bergelson — ist der Name folgender Personen David Bergelson (1884–1952), russischer Schriftsteller Vitaly Bergelson (* 1950), russischer Mathematiker Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung zur Unterscheidung mehrerer mit demselben Wort bezeichneter Begriff …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • David Frishman — David Frishman, né en 1859 en Pologne, et décédé en 1922, est un poète, essayiste, conteur, critique et journaliste, un des premiers écrivains majeurs de la littérature hébraïque moderne. Sommaire 1 Biographie 2 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Bergelson, David — (1884–1952)    Russian Yiddish writer. Bergelson grew up in the Ukraine, and in his early fiction, such as the novel Noch Alemen (1913), made a reputation for a sensitive portrayal of the Russian Jewish communities. After he settled in Moscow in… …   Who’s Who in Jewish History after the period of the Old Testament

  • Bergelson — Bẹrgelson,   David, jiddischer Schriftsteller, * Ochrimowo (Ukraine) 12. 8. 1884, ✝ Moskau 12. 8. 1952; fiel einer stalinistischen Säuberungsaktion zum Opfer; beschrieb in Romanen, Erzählungen und Dramen die Welt des Ostjudentums und… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Bergelson, David — (1884 1952)    Ukrainian writer. He initially wrote in Russian and Hebrew but later published Yiddish novels, plays and stories. His works depict Russian Jewish urban life in the early 20th century. After living in Berlin for 11 years, he… …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

  • HOFSTEIN, DAVID — (1889–1952), Yiddish poet. Born in the Ukraine, he had a traditional Jewish education and began to write in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, and Ukrainian. However, after the 1917 Revolution he wrote only in Yiddish, contributing to various publications …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Yiddish literature — Introduction       the body of written works produced in the Yiddish language of Ashkenazic (Ashkenazi) Jewry (central and eastern European Jews and their descendants).       Yiddish literature culminated in the period from 1864 to 1939, inspired …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”