L. PRUSTMAN

L. PRUSTMAN (b. 1895?)

            He was a Soviet Yiddish prose writer, teacher, and translator of popular scientific and school textbooks into Yiddish for children and young people. He was among the first workers involved in Yiddish publications in Ukraine. He published in such Soviet organs as: Komunistishe fon (Communist banner), Komunistishe velt (Communist world), and Emes (Truth). His first published booklet was: A naye parnose (A new living), a story (Kharkov: Pedagogisher Publishers, 1919), 16 pp., a pamphlet in the series “Literarishe biblyotek far der yugnt” (Literary library for youth). He wrote no further works of literature, and switched completely to current events work and educational literature. From 1924 he was a contributor to the commission that, under the editorship of Yisroel Yakhinson, prepared materials for workers’ schools; and he was the co-author, with Moyshe Maydanski, of Lenins ruf, leyen-bukh far likpinktn (Lenin’s call, a textbook for illiteracy liquidation stations), (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1925), 74 pp., second and third editions (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1928, 1929). Together with Y. Burtyanski, Y. Grinberg, B. Dvorkin, Y. Yakhinson, and L. Shtshupak, he compiled: Arbet-bukh af naturvisnshaft un geografye (Workbook for natural science and geography), part 1, for the teacher, guide to methods and techniques, natural science terminology, and a list of literature (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1926), 103 pp.; and with the same title, part 2, materials of the industry, weights and measures, construction materials, gasses, heating, fires, temperature measurements, and caloric measurements (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1927), 163 pp. He translated from Russian: Y. B. Ignatiev and S. Lebediev, Bashtimer fun beymer un mistgrozn (Designations of trees and weeds) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1926), 43 pp.; G. A. Dzhalov, Hant-bukh far kornflantsers (Handbook for grain plants), with L. Shtshupak (Kharkov, 1932), 91 pp.; A. Pidgrushina, Vos dertsaylt undz di erd vegn der geshikhte un antviklung fun lebn (What the earth tells us about the history and development of life) (Kharkov, 1932), 160 pp.; B. Vsesvyatski, Botanik (Botany), a textbook for middle school, school years 5-6 (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1933), 175 pp.; M. Tsoyzmer, Zoologye (Zoology), with Z. Skuditski and L. Shtshupak (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1933), 237 pp., with drawings. Since 1937 there has been no further information about him.

Sources: Kh. F., in Tsukunft (New York) (January 1919); Biblyografishe yorbikher fun yivo (Bibliographic yearbooks from YIVO) (Warsaw, 1928), see index; A. Vilenkin, in Shtern (Kharkov) 276 (1933); N. Rubinshteyn, Dos yidishe bukh in sovetnfarband in 1932 (The Yiddish book in the Soviet Union in 1932) (Minsk, 1933), see index.

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 434; 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. 286.]