M. ALTSHULER

M[OYSHE] ALTSHULER (1887-1969)

He was born in Bobr, Molev (Mogilev) Province [now in Belarus].  He was a Soviet Yiddish linguist, writer, and translator.  Biographical information is lacking.  His works include: Gekasherte neshomes (vegn kheyder) (Koshered souls, on religious primary school) (Kharkov: Central Committee of the Communist Youth Association in Ukraine, 1922), 32 pp.; Hagode far gloyber un apikorsim (Haggadah for believers and heretics), two printings (Moscow, 1927), 24 pp.; F. s. s. r. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), a conversation on the train to be read in clubs and in the home (Moscow, n.d.), 64 pp.; Anti-religyezer lernbukh (Anti-religious reader) (Moscow, 1929), 239 pp.; a second “improved and complementary” printing of the same book was published by Emes in Moscow in 1932, entitled On a got (Without a God), 252 pp.; Vi azoy darf men firn antireligyeze propaganda (How to conduct anti-religious propaganda) (Moscow: Tsentr Publ., 1929), 24 pp.; Komsomolishe hagode (Communist Youth Haggadah) (Kharkov, 1930?), 18 pp.; Shabes, yomtev un roshkhoydesh (Sabbath, holiday, and beginning of the month) (Moscow: Emes, 1947), 86 pp.  In 1948 his book, Guf un neshome (Body and soul), was published.  He was a member of the editorial boards of Der apikoyres (The heretic) (Moscow, 1931-1935) and of Yunge gvardye (Young guard).  In 1934 he contributed to Emes (Truth) in Moscow and to Afn shprakhfront (On the language front), a collection, in Kiev (1935).  From Lenin’s works, he translated Ershte revolutsye, 1905-1907 (Pervaia Revoliutsiia, 1905-1907 = The first revolution, 1905-1907), vol. 1 (Moscow, 1925), 302 pp., vol. 2 (Moscow, 1927), 314 pp.; and Tsvey taktikes fun der sotsyal-demoktratikye un der demokratishe revolutsye ( = Two tactics in social democracy and the democratic revolution) (Moscow, 1940), 134 pp.

Sources: Sh. Dimantshteyn, Foreword to Altshuler’s Anti-religyezer lernbukh; N. Rubenshteyn, “Di bikher, produktsye af yidish in sov. farb. in 1932” (Books, produced in Yiddish in the USSR in 1932), Afn visnshaftlekhn front (On the scientific front) (Minsk, 1933).