SHMUEL KLITENIK

SHMUEL KLITENIK (1904-1940)

            He was a literary critic, journalist, and teacher, born in Ukraine. He lived in Moscow. He was a student at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute in the 1930s, and he worked as a manager of the cultural division of Der emes (The truth). In 1936 he moved to Birobidzhan where he served as editor of the journal Forpost (Outpost)—in it he published articles, among them a lengthy work entitled “Problemen fun der kinstlerisher literatur in birobidzhan” (Problems with artistic literature in Birobidzhan). He was arrested in 1937 and died somewhere in the Soviet Russia; his subsequent fate remains unknown. He wrote pedagogical and literary-critical articles in: Der emes, Prolit (Proletarian literature) in 1931, Farmest (Competition) in 1935, and other serials. He adapted school editions of literary works or composed prefaces to them: M. Daniel, Yulis, Afn shvel (Yulis; At the threshold) (Moscow: Emes, 1933); Y. M. Vaysenberg (Weissenberg), A shtetl (A town) (Moscow: Emes, 1933); Dovid Pinski, Dertseylungen (Stories) (Moscow: Emes, 1933); Sholem-Aleichem, Oysgeveylte verk (Selected works), preface to vol. 12 (Moscow: Emes, 1937).

His own books include: Di kultur-arbet tsvishn di yidishe arbetndike inem ratnfarband (The cultural work among the Jewish laborers in the Soviet Union) (Moscow-Minsk: Central People’s Publishers, USSR, 1931), 29 pp.; Maksim gorki, zamlbukh fun marksistisher kritik (Maxim Gorky, anthology of Marxist criticism), with Milye Vortman (Moscow: Emes, 1932), 109 pp.; Tsu der metodologye funem literatur-limed in shul, kritisher iberzikht (On the methodology of the subject of literature in school, critical overview), with M. Vortman (Kharkov-Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1933), 53 pp.; Verk un shrayber, zamlung fun kritishe artiklen (Works and writers, anthology of critical articles) (Moscow: Emes, 1935), 175 pp.—concerning the writings of Dovid Bergelson, Sholem Asch, Dovid Pinski, Note Lurye, Shmuel-Nisn Godiner, M. Daniel, Buzi Olyevski, Oskar Strelits, and Berl Erkes; Mendele moykher sforim, tsu zayn hundertstn geburtstog, 1836-1936 (Mendele Moykher-Sforim, on his 100^th birthday, 1836-1936) (Moscow: Emes, 1936), 110 pp.

Sources: Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; Khatskl Dunets, Di iberdikhtung-teorye fun kh. litvakov (The poetic theory of Comrade Litvakov), vol. 1 (Minsk, 1931), p. 82; Sovetish heymland (Moscow) 4 (1964); Y. Rabin, in Folks-shtime (Warsaw) (May 5, 1964); Yeshurin archive, YIVO (New York).

Dr. Avrom Grinboym

[Additional information from: 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), p. 340.]