Young Jewish Poets Who Fell as Soviet Soldiers in the Second World War

Rina Lapidus is an Associate Professor in the Comparative Literature Department, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

This book is concerned with the work of twenty-four young Jewish poets who were killed, died of wounds, or were executed in captivity during their service in the Red Army in the Second World War. All were young, published poets, thoroughly assimilated into Soviet society whilst at the same time being rooted in Jewish culture and traditions. Their poetry was coloured by their backgrounds, by the constant threat of death, and also by the changes in literary taste which saw Soviet Realism favoured and encouraged and the poetry of the "Silver Age" of Russian literature frowned upon and discarded. The book surveys the poets' backgrounds, their lives, their poetry - and their deaths.

Introduction: Young Jewish Poets Who Fell as Soviet Soldiers in the Second World War 1. Jack Althausen (1907-1942): Communist Fanaticism against the Background 2. Vladimir Avruschenko: (1908-1941): Complex Poet and Communist Warrior 3. Buzi Olevsky (1908-1941): Learned Researcher of Yiddish Culture, Gifted Yiddish Writer and Poet 4. Motl Hartzman (1909-1941): Dreams of a Better Life which Never Came True 5: Elena Shirman (1908-1942): Nothing Sweeter than the Body of a Beloved Man 6. Leonid Vilkomir (1912-1942): Passionate Poetry of Work and Freedom 7. Henikh Shvedikh (1914-1942): the Harsh Destiny of the Jewish People and of One of Its Sons - a Jewish Poet 8. Aron Kopshtein (1915-1940): Death of Mother as a Life-Long Trauma 9. Leonid Shersher (1916-1942): Dreaming as a Philosophy of Life 10. Pavel Kogan (1918-1942): Poet of Romantic Adventures 11. Pinn Vintman (1918-1942): the Poetry of Death in War 12. Boris Smolensky (1921-1941): Mature Poetry of a Young Genius 13. Vsevolod Bagritzky (1922-1942): the World War Two as a Child's Game 14. Zachar Gorodissky (1923-1943): Poetry of Happy Expectations of Life 15. Leonid Rosenberg (1924-1944): Affection for Dear Mama as a Refuse from Death Conclusion: The Genre of "Death Poetry"