NOKHUM SOLOVEY

NOKHUM SOLOVEY (1916-1941)

            He was a Yiddish prose author in Soviet Russia, about whom little is known, except that he lived in Kharkov and Kiev, was a journalist, and graduated from the Yiddish division of the Kharkov journalists technical school. At the start of WWII, he volunteered to fight at the front and was killed soon thereafter. He was the author of two books of stories: Pyonerisher broyz (Pioneer brewery) (Kharkov-Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1933), 38 pp.; and Noveln (Novellas) (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 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 one story 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 Publishers, 1930), 129 pp.

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.]