NOKHUM SOLOVEY

NOKHUM SOLOVEY (1916-1941)

            He was a Yiddish prose author in Soviet Russia, about whom little is known.  He lived in Kharkov and Kiev.  He was the author of two books of stories: Pyonerisher broyz (Pioneer brewery) (Kharkov-Kiev: State publishers for national minorities of the USSR, 1933), 38 pp.; and Noveln (Novellas) (Kiev: State publishers for national minorities of the USSR, 1940), fourteen stories divided into three parts: “Amol iz geven” (It once was) about life before the revolution; “Di fon hot geflatert” (The banner fluttered) about the era of the revolution; and “Af eygener erd” (On one’s own terrain) about life in the Jewish colonies before the era of Soviet power.  Critics lauded this second volume, especially the stories “Rokhl” (Rachel), “Der letster briv” (The last letter), and “Dos negerl” (The black man).  He contributed work to the almanac Onheyb (Beginning) (Kiev: Ukrainian state publishers for national minorities, 1940), which featured works by young Ukrainian poets and prose writers.  With other authors, he compiled the reader Arbet un shaf, lernbukh farn tseytn klas (Work and workshop, textbook for the second class) (Minsk: Byelorussian state publishers, 1928), 234 pp.; and Oyftu, khrestomatye farn 2tn lernyor (Accomplishment, a reader for the second school year) (Moscow-Kharkov-Minsk: Central Publ., 1930), 129 pp.  At the start of WWII he volunteered to fight at the front and was killed soon thereafter.  Further biographical information concerning him remains unknown.

Sources: F. Altman, in Prolit (Kiev) (February 1932), p. 79 pp.; A. Beylin, Sovetishe literatur (Kiev) (October 1940), pp. 155-57; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index.

[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. 254-55.]