B. MARSHAK

B. MARSHAK

            He was a Soviet Yiddish writer and translator. In the early 1920s, he contributed to the Kultur-lige (Culture league) in Kiev and to the cooperative publishing house of the same name. He was a member, 1932-1933, of the editorial collective for the Kiev children’s magazine, Oktyaberl (Little October). He wrote reviews of newly published books for: Der shtern (The star) in Kharkov, Proletarishe fon (Proletarian banner) in Kiev, and elsewhere, as well as his own stories for children. He translated Yiddish prose writers into Russian, such as: Sholem-Aleykhem’s Funem yarid (From the fair [in Russian: C yarmarki] (Kiev, 1933), Blondzhende shtern (Wandering stars [in Russian: Bluzhdaiushchie zvezdy]) (Kiev, 1936-1937), Ayznban-geshikhtes (Railway stories [in Russian: Zapiski kommivoi︠a︡zhera, v vagone zheleznoi dorogi (Notes of a commercial traveler, on the railways)]) (Kiev-Kharkov: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1936), and Motl peysi dem khazns (Motl Peysi the cantor’s son [in Russian: Mal'chik Motl]) (Moscow: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1939); A. Shekhtman, Gavriel boyar (Gabriel Boyar) (Kiev, 1939); Kh. Tabatshnikov, Der ershte shney (The first snow) (Kiev, 1939); F. Siso, Dertseylungen (Stories) (Kiev, 1940); and specific works by Hershl Polyanker, Hershl Orland, Itsik Kipnis, Nosn Zabare, Khayim Gildin, and other Yiddish writers. He also translated into Yiddish books into Russian, Ukrainian, German, and English, among them: Oskar Erdberg, Khinezishe noveln (Tales of Modern China) (Kharkov-Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1933), 188 pp.; Lev Rubinshteyn, Der shteg fun di samurayen (The way of the samurais [original: Tropa samuraev]) (Moscow: Emes, 1936), 172 pp.; Brothers Grimm, Mayselekh (Stories), “retold by O. Vedenski, Yiddish by B. Marshak” (Kharkov: Kinder farlag, 1936), 147 pp.; A. S. Novikov-Priboi, Tsusima (Tsushima) (Kharkov-Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1936), part 1, 428 pp.; A. Serafimovitsh (Popov), Der ayzerner shtrom (The iron current [original: Zheleznyi potok]) (Kiev, 1936), 269 pp.; Ilya Ehrenburg, Der tog der tsveyter (Day two [original: Den' vtoroi), a novel (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1936), 382 pp.; and Charles Dickens, Groyse oyszikhtn (Great Expectations) (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1939), 378 pp.; among others. He contributed a story to the anthology Heymland (Homeland), compiled by Perets Markish (Moscow, 1943), pp. 138-47. He was friendly with Yiddish writers, especially Perets Markish, whose novel Dor oys, dor ayn (Generation out, generation in), with a preface by Y. Nusimov, he translated into Russian (Moscow, 1930). His fate after 1943 in the face of the extermination of Yiddish writers in Soviet Russia remains unknown.

Sources: Oyfboy (New York) (January 1924); Oktyaberl (Kiev) (1932-1933); Sh. Shtern, in Yorbukh tsh"z (Yearbook, 1946/1947) (New York), p. 105; N. Rubinshteyn, Dos yidishe bukh in sovet-farband in 1933 un 1934 (The Yiddish book in the Soviet Union in 1933 and 1934) (Minsk, 1935); Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index.

Zaynvl Diamant

[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), pp. 234-35.]