Jewish Women Writers in the Soviet Union

225 Pages·2011·1.375 MB·English

by  Rina Lapidus

Jewish Women Writers in the Soviet
Union
This book presents the lives and works of eleven Jewish women authors who
lived in the Soviet Union, and who wrote and published their works in Russian.
Their work includes poems, novels, memoirs and other writing. The book pro-
vides an overview of the life of each author, an overview of each author’s liter-
ary output and an assessment of each author’s often conflicted view of her
‘feminine self’ and of her ‘Jewish self’.
The book provides highly informative insights into what it was like to be a
Jewish woman in the Soviet Union, at a time when its large Jewish population
was threatened under Stalin’s prosecutions. The writers presented are: Alexandra
Brustein, Elizaveta Polonskaia, Raisa Bloch, Hanna Levina, Ol’ga Ziv, Yulia
Neiman, Rakhil’ Baumvol’, Margarita Alliger, Sarah Levina-Kul’neva, Sarah
Pogreb and Zinaida Mirkina.
Rina Lapidus is an Associate Professor in the Comparative Literature Depart-
ment, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.
Routledge Studies in the History of Russia and Eastern Europe
1 Modernizing Muscovy 7 Russian Military Intelligence in
Reform and Social Change in the War with Japan, 1904-05
Seventeenth-Century Russia Secret Operations on Land and
Edited by Jarmo Kotilaine and at Sea
Marshall Poe Evgeny Sergeev
2 The USA in the Making of the 8 Cossacks and the Russian
USSR Empire, 1598-1725
The Washington Conference, Manipulation, Rebellion and
1921-1922, and ‘Uninvited Expansion into Siberia
Russia’ Christoph Witzenrath
Paul Dukes
9 The Many Deaths of Tsar
3 Tiny Revolutions in Russia Nicholas II
Twentieth Century Soviet and Relics, Remains and the
Russian History in Anecdotes Romanovs
Bruce Adams Wendy Slater
4 The Russian General Staff and 10 Popular Religion in Russia
Asia, 1800-1917 ‘Double Belief’ and the Making
Alex Marshall of an Academic Myth
Stella Rock
5 Soviet Eastern Policy and
Turkey, 1920-1991 11 Eastern Christianity and the
Soviet Foreign Policy, Turkey Cold War, 1945-91
and Communism Edited by Lucian N. Leustean
Bülent Gökay
12 The Caucasus under Soviet Rule
6 The History of Siberia Alex Marshall
Igor V. Naumov
(Edited by David N. Collins)
13 Rural Women in the Soviet 14 Reassessing Cold War Europe
Union and Post-Soviet Russia Edited by Sari Autio-Sarasmo and
Liubov Denisova Katalin Miklóssy
Edited and translated by
Irina Mukhina

Jewish Women Writers in the
Soviet Union
Rina Lapidus
First published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2012 Rina Lapidus
The right of Rina Lapidus to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Lapidus, Rina.
Jewish women writers in the Soviet Union / Rina Lapidus.
p. cm. – (Routledge contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
(cloth : alk. paper) 1. Russian literature–Jewish authors–History and
criticism. 2. Russian literature–Women authors–History and criticism.
3. Jewish women–Soviet Union–Intellectual life. 4. Russian literature–
20th century–History and criticism. 5. Judaism and literature–Soviet
Union. I. Title.
PG2998.J4L36 2011
891.709'9287089924–dc22
2011004401
ISBN: 978-0-415-61762-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-208-80506-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
To my parents
my father Victor Iosifovich Lapidus,
of blessed memory
and
my mother Henrietta Arkadievna Lapidus,
may she enjoy a long life
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(cid:11)(cid:674)(cid:681)(cid:3)(cid:679)(cid:692)(cid:3)(cid:685)(cid:681)(cid:684)(cid:676)(cid:698)(cid:12)(cid:3)
Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark?
and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
(Psalm 88: 13)
Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: Jewish women writers in the Soviet Union and
the present study 1
1 Literature and the political regime in Russia 9
2 Alexandra Brushtein (1884–1968): the tears behind the smiles 20
3 Elizaveta Polonskaia (1890–1969): a concealed storm of
emotion 34
4 Raisa Bloch (1899–1943): a genius unaware of her talent 48
5 Hanna Levina (1900–1969): a Jewish communist fighter 62
6 Ol’ga Ziv (1904–1963): an unknown Jewish author 74
7 Yulia Neiman (1907–1994): brilliant philosopher and poetess 89
8 Rakhil’ Baumvol’ (1914–2000): the joy of creativity and
motherhood 106
9 Margarita Aliger (1915–1992): a Soviet poetess devoted
to Stalin 119
10 Sarah Levina-K ul’neva (1920–??): love story in the era
of Stalinist prosecutions 130
11 Sarah Pogreb (b. 1921): the history of silence 140