ELYE
SAVIKOVSKI (1893-1959/1960)
He was born on an estate near the
town of Polyanka, Byelorussia. Until age
fourteen, he studied Jewish subject matter, thereafter secular subjects in private. He was living in Minsk, where in the 1920s he
was editorial secretary of Farn folk
(For the people) and manager of the information division of Shtern (Star) and Veker (Alarm). He debuted in
print with poetry in the weekly Erev
shabes (Sabbath eve) in Warsaw (1914) and Dos vort (The word) in St. Petersburg; and he went on to publish later
in the anthology Kep (Heads); also in
Der yunger pyoner (The young
pioneer), Shtern, Veker, Farn folk, and the anthology Af
di vegn (On the roads)—in Minsk.
Using the pen names Elisov and Savel, he published feature pieces and
notices. In book form: Farmestenish, lider (Competition, poems)
(Minsk, 1924), 64 pp.; Af di vegn (Minsk,
1924); Far yunge zinger, lider (For
young singers, songs) (Minsk, 1928), 33 pp.; Erdling, pyese in dray aktn—zeks bilder (Earthling, a play in three
acts and six scenes) (Minsk, 1928), 89 pp.; Papirene
toybn, kinder-pyese in tsvey stsenes (Paper doves, a children’s play in two
scenes) (Minsk, 1934), 34 pp. In the
latter half of the 1930s, his name disappeared, and it was assumed that he had
been repressed. After WWII he emerged in
the latter half of the 1950s in Minsk after having been rehabilitated and
released from the prisons and camps. He
published poetry in the Warsaw-based Folks-shtime
(Voice of the people). He died in Minsk.
Sources:
Zalmen Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 2; B.
Orshanski, in Tsaytshrift (Minsk) 5
(1931); Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim
yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet
Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index.
Benyomen Elis
[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. 254.]
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