SH. PALATNIK (PALATNIKOV)

SH. PALATNIK (PALATNIKOV)

            He was a Soviet writer, translator, and editor. He began his community activities with the Bund, later switching to the Labor Zionists onto whose central committee he was chosen. For a certain period of time, he was the editor responsible for the weekly newspaper Der komunistisher gedank (The Communist idea), published by his party in Kiev. With the liquidation meeting in Kiev in 1922, he switched to the Communist Party. He represented the Jewish section of the People’s Commissariat for Education in the Russian Soviet Republic. He was for a time editor of the Moscow journal Af di vegn tsu der nayer shul (On the roads to the new school) and served as a member of the editorial board of Der apikoyres (The heretic) (Moscow, 1931-1935). Of him, Hersh Smolyar noted that people said he was “an intelligent man, tactful, who expressed himself in a highly matter-of-fact manner at meetings of the main bureau of the Jewish section at the central committee on the condition of and issues facing Jewish school curricula in the Russian Republic. One would consult with him on educational matters.” No further biographical information is known.

In book form: Klasnkamf, khrestomatye tsu der geshikhte fun klasnkamf un fun der revolutsyonerer bavegung in rusland (Class struggle, a reader on the history of class struggle and of the revolutionary movement in Russia) (Moscow: Shul un bukh, 1928), 320 pp., with A. Brakhman and G. Tomsinski. His translations include: B. Borokhov, Unzer platform (Our platform) (Odessa: Dos naye lebn, 1918), 112 pp.; V. N. Fal'kner, Lomir zayn gezunt un shtark (Let’s be healthy and strong) (Moscow: Central People’s Publishers, USSR, 1927), 109 pp.; K. A. Timiriazev, Darvin un zayn lere (Darwin and his teachings) (Moscow: Shul un bukh, 1927), 91 pp.; G. Abezgauz and A. Protasov, Parteyisher alefbeys, lernbukh far farkirtste politishuln un far zelbstbildung (Party ABCs, textbook for abbreviate political school and for self-study) (Moscow: Central People’s Publishers, USSR, 1927).

Leyb Vaserman

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 424; and Chaim Beider, Leksikon fun yidishe shrayber in ratn-farband (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union), ed. Boris Sandler and Gennady Estraikh (New York: Congress for Jewish Culture, Inc., 2011), pp. 277-78.]