GERSHON FRIDMAN

GERSHON FRIDMAN (1892-July 18, 1962)

            He was a translator, born in Minsk, Byelorussia. Until 1919 he was a member of the Bund and a contributor to and a member of the editorial board of the Bundist Der veker (The alarm) (1917-1918). He later became a Communist and was an internal member of the editorial board of Oktyabr (October) in Minsk (1924-1937). In additional to original articles, he published there translations from Russian and Byelorussian literature. He was purged during the mass arrests in 1937 and expelled from the party and exiled. In 1951 he was amnestied, and he returned from exile and settled in Minsk, where he published in the Byelorussian press, as well as in Warsaw’s Folks-shtime (Voice of the people). New translations (from Russian) in book form include: Vladimir Arsenyev, Dersu uzala (Minsk: Byelorussian State Publishers, 1935), 348 pp. He died in Minsk.

Sources: A. Holdes, in Zay greyt (Get ready) (Kharkov) 58 (1935); Dos yidishe bukh in sovetnfarband (The Yiddish book in the Soviet Union) (1935), see index; N. Mayzil, Dos yidishe shafn un der yidisher shrayber in sovetn-farband (Jewish creation and the Jewish writer in the Soviet Union) (New York, 1959), p. 129; Folksshtime (Warsaw) (July 27, 1962).

Khayim Leyb Fuks

[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. 299.]