KHAYIM
MALAMUD (KHAIM MELAMUD) (September 15, 1907-1993)
He was born in the town of
Khashtshevate (Khoshchevatoye), Ukraine.
From his early childhood, he worked in the fields and in a sugar
factory. In 1927 he settled with his
family in the ethnic Jewish district under the Soviets in Nay-Zlatopol, where
he work the land on a collected farm and chaired a village soviet. He began publishing in 1930. In 1935 he served as provisional editor of Kolvirt-shtern (Collective farm star),
organ of the Nay-Zlatopol district party committee, district executive
committee, and district collective farm association, which was published every
other day in Nay-Zlatopol, Kiev region, Ukraine (1931-1935). He published stories, sketches, and correspondence
pieces in Yiddish newspapers. Before
WWII he published three volumes of stories and essays, the main theme of which
was Jewish village life, its people, and the destinies of agricultural workers
in the years of collectivization. During
WWII he served in the Red Army and took party in the fighting against the
Germans. He was demobilized at the rank
of captain and settled with his family in Czernowitz. From the 1940s he contributed stories and
chapters of novels to the almanac Heymland
(Homeland) and the newspaper Eynikeyt
(Unity) in Moscow; for a time he was the latter’s correspondent in Birobidzhan. In 1948 he placed chapters of a novel in the
almanac Birobidzhan. When the newspaper ceased publication, he
returned to Czernowitz. From 1961 he was
a member of the editorial collective of Sovetish
heymland (Soviet homeland) in Moscow, and he also published stories and
novels therein over the course of many years, such as in issues 2 (1961) and 3
(1962). These included: “Yunge yorn”
(Young years), “Kalts un varems” (Cold and warm), “Tsvishn dnyester un prut”
(Between the Dniester and the Prut), “Di teg mit di nekht” (Days and nights), “Azoy
geyt di velt” (So goes the world), “\and “Arum di fir verbes” (Around the four
willows), among others. He was the
author of: Antireligyeze arbet in shul
(Anti-religious work in school), practice and teaching methods (Kharkov:
Central Publishers, 1930), 34 pp.; Bliyendike
akatsyes (Blooming acacias), a novel (Kiev, 1938), 188 pp.; Aron kisler, fartseykhenungen vegn dem brigadir-ordentreger (Aron Kisler, notes
on the decorated brigadier) (Kiev, 1939), 25 pp.; Banayte erd (Renewed soil) (Kiev, 1939), 42 pp. + 2 pp.; Der veg tsum lebn (The road to life)
(Kiev, 1939), 26 pp. + 2 pp.; Erd
(Earth), “a novel of the wanderings of Jewish laborers on the land allocations
in Kherson region” (Moscow: Der Emes, 1948), 344 pp.; Varem ash (Warm ashes), a novel and stories (Moscow: Sovetski
pisatel, 1978), 509 pp.; Umfargeslekhs
(Unforgettable) (Moscow: Sovetski pisatel, 1986), 373 pp. Together with the Ukrainian writer Mykola
Burbak, he worked (1960-1961) on a book entitled Af yener zayt prut (On the other side of the Prut [River]), which
depicted the struggle of both Jewish and Gentile Communists in Sadigura in earlier
times.
Sources:
N. Mayzil, Dos yidishe shafn un der
yidisher arbeter in sovetn-farband (Jewish creation and the Yiddish writer in the Soviet Union) (New York, 1959), pp. 132, 278; R. Kahir, in Morgn-frayhayt (New York) (October 18,
1959); Y. Burg, in Morgn-frayhayt
(August 25, 1961); Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim
yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet
Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; A. Holdes, “Vu shlogt der
doyfek” (Where does the pulse beat), Sovetish
heymland (Moscow) 2 (1962).
Zaynvl Diamant
[Additional
information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon
fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New
York, 1986), col. 361; 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), p. 242.]
Do you un os if one of his books has already been translated??
ReplyDeleteI don't think so.
ReplyDelete