ITSIK KIPNIS (December 12, 1896-April 16, 1974)
He was
born in Sloveshne (Slovechne), Zhitomir district, Volhynia. His father (Nokhum), a well-educated man and
a follower of the Jewish Enlightenment, a man with a flair for music, a lover
of violin playing, a tanner and son of a tanner by trade, had Itsik study in
religious elementary school until his bar mitzvah and with private tutors at
home. When he was eight, with short
breaks, he worked with his father and also in other tanneries in the town and
in the nearby environs. In the early
1920s, he was sent by his leather association to Kiev to pursue his
studies. There he befriended Dovid Hofshteyn,
joined a circle of Yiddish writers, and began publishing. He debuted in print in 1922 in the field of
children’s literature in the Kiev monthly journal Freyd (Happiness). The
simplicity and folkish quality of his style made him one of the finest
children’s writers in modern Yiddish literature. He published numerous children’s books,
original, adapted, and translated. After
the publication of his poetry collection Oksn
(Oxen) (Kiev: Vidervuks, 1923), 23 pp., he realized that prose was his genre. From the start he brought to Soviet Yiddish
literature his own distinctive style, an approach to the life events—with apparent
naïveté—with which his characters were endowed.
He made a great impact with his book Khadoshim
un teg, a khronik (Months and days, a chronicle) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1926),
249 pp. and drew the notice of readers and critics both in the Soviet Union and
abroad. It describes a Jewish life masterfully
and in his own innovative manner, with love for the simple common man. In the words of Zalmen Reyzen: “In the style
of the primitive, idyllic, Kipnis describes in his book the Ukrainian Jewish
shtetl, the war, the distant revolution, the terrifying pogroms. The tone vacillates between chronicle and
lyricism, and it is more a lyrical autobiographical story than a chronicle.” In a foreword to the book, Yitskhok Nusinov
took pains to justify Kipnis’s “non-proletarianism,” but he did not succeed in
protecting him. Leftist-disposed critics
attacked him because of the “apolitical and petit bourgeois nature” of his
lyricism and his idyllic sorrow. He was
frequently criticized because he defended himself against the factional
pressure on his writing, and several times he was expelled from the writers’
association. And, for many years
thereafter, this critique hung over his head.
Whenever at conferences and writers’ meetings, people were compelled to
invoke instances of “bourgeois nationalism” or “petit bourgeois-ism,” without
fail they brought up his name. He lived
with this persecution throughout his life.
With the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, Kipnis left Kiev with the
evacuation, returning with the liberation in 1944, and on the third anniversary
of the massacre at Babi Yar wrote a moving lament and call to national
revival—in Untervegns un andere
dertseylungen (Under way and other stories), pp. 347-52. In a Holocaust-related story of May 19, 1947,
entitled “On khokhmes, on kheshbones” (No calculations), he wrote: “We wish
that all Jews who are now waling about with a hearty, singing gait over the
street of Berlin should carry on their shoulders, side-by-side with their
medals and decorations, a small, beautiful star of David as well. He [Hitler] wanted everyone to see that this
is a Jew who suffered, was abused, and scorned by him. I feel as though everyone should see that I
am a Jew, and my Jewish and human worth is among all freedom-loving citizens
with nothing diminished.” (This citation
is taken from the version in Dos naye
velt [The new world] in Lodz; in Eynikeyt
[Unity] in Moscow, they cut out this passage.)
And for this he was expelled from the writers’ association. In late 1948 Kipnis was arrested and exiled
to camps. But, happily, Kipnis was not
broken physically or spiritually in the camps to which he was sent in the
North. After Stalin’s death and his rehabilitation,
he was freed in 1956, but for a time he was not allowed to reside in Kiev, and
so he lived in Boyarke. In 1958 he
received permission to return to Kiev.
From
1922 he was contributing to: Shtrom
(Current) in Moscow; both anthologies of Barg
aroyf (Uphill) in Kiev (1922, 1923); Kiev’s Komfon (Communist banner); Di
royte velt (The red world) and Shtern
(Star) in Kharkov; Ukrayine (Ukraine)
(Kiev, 1926); Lenin un di kinder, kinstlerishe zamlung far kinder (Lenin
and the children, artistic collection for children) (Kharkov-Kiev, 1934); Almanakh, fun yidishe sovetishe shrayber tsum alfarbandishn
shrayber-tsuzamenfor (Almanac,
from Soviet Jewish writers to the all-Soviet conference of writers)
(Kharkov, 1934), appearing in the journal Farmest
(Competition) 5-6; Sovetishe literatur
(Soviet literature); and other Soviet publications. His stories were also published in various
periodicals outside the USSR, such as: Literarishe
bleter (Literary leaves) and Khalyastre
(The gang) in Warsaw; Frayhayt
(Freedom) and Morgn-frayhayt (Morning
freedom) in New York; and elsewhere. His
last work, published while he was still living, entitled “Amol iz geven a
meylekh” (There was once a king), was published in Yidishe kultur (Jewish culture) (New York) 6, 7 (1973), 2, 4
(1974). He translated a series of
general works, mostly of children’s literature, such as: Ernest Thompson Seton,
Di kleyninke proim oder a mayse (The
little savages or a story [original: Two
Little Savages]) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1925), 223 pp.; Jack London, Bek (Goats [original: Call of the Wild]) (Kiev: Kultur-lige,
1925), 94 pp.; Arturo Carotti, Nina un
tshiko kegn di fashistn (Nina and Chico against the fascists) (Kiev:
Kultur-lige, 1925), 130 pp.; Émile Zola, Dos
geviser (The flood [original: L’Inondation])
(Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1925), 30 pp.; Fridtjof
Nansen, In nakht un ayz (In night and
ice) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1925), 62 pp.; Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Fedke khalemitnik (Fedko the
troublemaker [original: Fedko-khalamydnyk])
(Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1926), 41 pp.; A. Kuprin, Der vayser pudel (The white poodle [original: Belyi pudel’]) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1926), 52 pp.; D. Grigorovich, Dos gumene ingele (The rubber boy
[original: Guttaperchevyi malʼchik]) (Kiev:
Kultur-lige, 1927), 64 pp.; M. N. Pokrovsky, 1905 (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1927), 62 pp.; V. Dmitriev, Mayna vira (Majna-Vira) and E.
Yakhontov, Khabarda (Forward!) (Kiev:
Kultur-lige, 1927), 66 pp.; Charles Dickens, David koperfield (David Copperfield) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1928), 340
pp.; Mark Twain, Hoklberi fin un zayne
avantyures (Huckleberry Finn and his adventures) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1929),
349 pp.; Ostap Vyshnia, Shmeykhlen (Smiles
[original: Usmishki]) (Kharkov:
Ukrainian State Publ., 1929), 259 pp.; Anton Chekhov, Shlofn vilt zikh (I want to sleep [original: Spat khochetsya]) (Kharkov: State
Publ., 1930s), 31 pp.; Kuzma Garbunov, Dos
ayz geyt, roman (The thaw, a novel [original: Ledolom]) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930), 287 pp.; L. Vepritskaia, Tob ivanovitsh in kinder-gortn (Tob
Ivanovich in kindergarten [original: Tiab
Ivanovich u ditiachomu sadku]) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930), 26 pp.; Yakov
Kal’nitskii, Khushi (Khushi) (Kiev:
Kultur-lige, 1930), 47 pp.; S. Bogdanovich, Pyoter
kropotkin (Pyotr Kropotkin) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930), 163 pp.; V. Bianco, Afn groysn yam-veg (On the great route)
(Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930), 71 pp.; Menukhe Bruk, Draytsn undzere (Our thirteen) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930), 71 pp.;
Nikolai Oleynikov, A vunderlekher yontev
(A wonderful holiday) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930), 16 pp.; and Oleinikov, Tankes azelkhe, ober shlitlekh avelkhe
(Such tanks, but such sleds [original: Tanki
i sanki]) (Kiev: Kultur lige, 1930), 19 pp.; V. Shklovsky, Gardi der tsveyter (Gardi II) (Kiev:
Kultur-lige, 1930), 19 pp.; Miguel de Cervantes, Don kikhot, zayne aventyures, un alts, vos mit im hot pasirt (Don
Quixote, his adventures and all that happened to him) (Kiev: Kultur-lige,
1930), 413 pp.; A. Serafimovich, Af der
ayznban (On the train) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930), 39 pp.; Serafimovich, Der tsunoyfshliser (The interlacer)
(Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930), 31 pp.; Feliks Kon, Unter der fon fun revolutsye (Under the banner of revolution
[original: Pod znamenem revoliutsii,
vospominaniia (Under the banner of revolution, memoirs)]) (Kharkov: Ukrainian state publishers for national
minorities, 1933), 196 pp.; Daniel Defoe, Robinzon kruzo, zayn lebn un
ale modne umgeherṭe pasirungen, ṿos hobn zikh miṭ im geṭrofn (Robinson
Crusoe, his life and all the strange surprising adventures that befell him) (Kharkov:
Ukrainian state publishers for national
minorities, 1935), 245 pp.; Aleksei Ivanovich Lebedev, Tsum ayzin harts fun der arktik (To the
frozen heart of the Arctic [original: K ledianomu
serdtsu Arktiki]) (Kiev: USSR state
publishers for national minorities, 1936), 347 pp.; Jules Verne, Dem kapitan grants kinder (Captain
Grant’s children [original: Enfants du
capitaine Grant]) (Kharkov-Odessa: Kinder-farlag, 1937), 639 pp.; François Rabelais, Gargantyua un pantagriel (Gargantua and Pantagruel [original: La vie de Gargantua et de
Pantagruel] (Kiev: USSR state
publishers for national minorities, 1940), 290 pp. We have no bibliographic information for
Kipnis’s translation of Panait Istrati’s Mayne
vanderungen (My wanderings).
His work
also appeared in: Yugnt (Youth); Shlakhtn (Battles)
(Kharkov-Kiev, 1932); Komsomolye (Communist Youth) (Kiev,
1938); Af naye vegn (On new roads)
(New York, 1949); Lo amut ki eḥye (I shall not die but live on) (Merḥavya, 1957); Dertseylungen fun yidishe sovetishe shrayber
(Stories by Soviet Yiddish writers) (Moscow, 1969).
His own
works, children’s stories: Mayselekh far
kleyne kinder (Stories for small children) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1922), 58
pp.; Hoyf khaveyrim (Courtyard
friends) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1923), 12 pp.; Hinde
un hershele (Hinde and Hershele) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1923), 12 pp.; Mayselekh (Stories) (Kiev: Kultur-lige,
1923), 16 pp.; Dos pantofele (The
little slipper) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1923), 12 pp.; A ber iz gefloygn (A bear was flying) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1923), 37
pp.; Di farshterte khasene, kinder pyese
in eyn akt (The spoiled wedding, a children’s play in one act) (Kiev:
Kultur-lige, 1924), 18 pp.; Rusishe
mayselekh (Russian tales) (Kiev: Sorabkop, 1924), 50 pp.; Mayselakh (Stories) (Kiev: Kultur-lige,
1924 [should be date: 1927]), 69 pp.; O
a. (OA) (Minsk: Central Publ., 1929), 23 pp.; Undzer meydele lane (Our girl Lana) (Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1929), 35
pp.; In klem (In a predicament)
(Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1929), 35 pp.; Tateshi,
tateshi un andere mayselekh (Daddy, daddy, and other stories) (Minsk:
Central Publ., 1929), 49 pp.; S’kert zikh
a velt (The world turns) (Minsk: State Publ., 1929), 44 pp.; Ot ver mir iz haynt gefeln (Whom do I
like today), poetry (Moscow-Minsk: Central Publ., 1930), 41 pp.; Dodl un shay-khali (Dodl and
Shay-Khali), a poem (Moscow: Central Publ., 1930), 13 pp.; Mayselekh (Moscow: Central Publ., 1930), 23 pp.; Shtendik greyt, a gegramte poeme far kinder
(Always prepared, a rhymed poem for children) (Moscow: Central Publ., 1930), 26
pp.; Buru-muru, mayselekh far kleyne
kinderlekh (Buru-Muru, stories for little children) (Kharkov-Odessa: Kinder-farlag,
1935), 17 pp.; A nomen vet shoyn zayn
(A name will be there) (Kharkov-Odessa: Kinder-farlag, 1935), 28 pp.; Freyd, dertseylungen far kinder
(Happiness, stories for children) (Minsk: State Publ., 1935), 86 pp.; A sheyne ordenung (A lovely arrangement)
(Moscow: Emes, 1936), 31 pp.; Durovs shul
(Durov’s school), a poem (Moscow: Emes, 1937), 16 pp.; Kleyne dertseylungen (Short stories) (Kiev: Ukrainian state
publishers for national minorities, 1937), 30 pp.; Az der zeyde iz geshlofn (When Grandfather slept) (Kiev: Ukrainian state publishers for national
minorities, 1938), 28 pp.; Yung un alt
(Young and old) (Odessa: Kinder-farlag, 1938), 81 pp.; Tsip, tsip, bobinke (Little, little, grandma) (Kiev: Ukrainian
state publishers for national minorities, 1938), 72 pp.; Ver es lakht der letster (Who laughs last) (Moscow: Emes, 1939), 23
pp.; Der ershter trot (The first
step) (Kiev: Ukrainian state publishers for national minorities, 1939), 148
pp.; Kleyn un groys (Little and big)
(Kiev: Ukrainian state publishers for national minorities, 1939), 174 pp.; Far di kleyne kindervegs (For the little
children’s ways) (Moscow: Emes, 1940), 43 pp.; Tog un tog (Day and day) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1980), 438 pp.
Other
writings:
Oksn (see above);
Khadoshim un teg, a khronik (see above);
Mayses un dertseylungen (Tales and
stories) (Kharkov: State Publ., 1929), 328 pp.;
Dertseylungen (Stories) (Kharkov: State Publ., 1930), 166 pp.;
Zelik der radist un andere dertseylungen
(Zelik the radio operator and other stories) (Moscow: Emes, 1933), 72 pp.;
Khoreve nestn (Nests destroyed)
(Kharkov-Kiev: USSR
state publishers
for national minorities, 1933), 54 pp.; 12
dertseylungen (1922-1932) (Twelve stories, 1922-1932) (Kharkov-Kiev:
USSR
state publishers for national minorities, 1933),
208 pp.; A land vos shaynt far der
gantser velt (A land that shines before the entire world) (Kiev, 1937), 10
pp.; A kaylekhdik yor, dertseylungen
(A circular year, stories) (Moscow: Emes, 1938), 41 pp.; Khane-rive geyt a tants, pyese in dray aktn (Khane-Rive goes to
dance, a play in three acts) (Moscow: Emes, 1939), 61 pp.; Fun di yunge yorn (Of youthful years) (Kiev: USSR
state publishers for national minorities, 1939),
173 pp.; Di shtub (The house), a
novel in three parts (Kiev, 1939), 244 pp.; Tsum
nayem lebn (To a new life), stories (Kiev: State Publ., 1940), 137 pp.; Di tsayt geyt, bilder un dertseylungen
(Time goes by, images and stories) (Kiev: USSR
state publishers
for national minorities, 1940), 286 pp.; Tsum
lebn, dertseylungen (To life, stories) (Moscow: Sovetski pisatel, 1969),
294 pp.; Untervegs un andere
dertseylungen (Under way and other stories)
(New York: IKUF,
1960), 352 pp.; Mayn shtetele sloveshne
(My small town, Slovechne) (Tel Aviv: Perets Publ., 1971), 465 pp. (In
accordance with the wishes of the author, revisions were made in this
publication, and several chapters were added from the first, unpublished
variant of
Afn vihon [In the pasture],
of which small fragments were published in
Royte
velt [Red world] in 1927.)
“Just as an aroma,” noted Dovid Bergelson, “reminds
you that there is no comparable, similar one that you might have sensed, so the
book
Khadoshim un teg reminds you in
its fundamental tone of a comparably rare and great book.
For a moment you will not believe your own
eyes—so successful is the internal voice of this book to the voice of a beloved
and heartfelt acquaintance.
His name is:
Motl Peysi the cantor’s son.”
“Without a
doubt,” wrote Meyer Viner, “Kipnis is…one of the most talented and strongest
writers of Soviet Yiddish prose.
There
are here points and pages of masterful [writing].
In certain artistic details, for example, for
intimate lyricism—which for him is bound to a thoroughgoing method of realistic
description—and for intensity, immediacy, and originality in painting of mood
and genre (people, animals, landscape, items, conditions of nature, and the
like)—he has assumed an independent place in Soviet Yiddish literature.”
“If in
Khadoshim
un teg one can with more or less justification (more less than more) speak
of an influence from Sholem-Aleichem on Kipnis,” noted Shloyme Bikl, “then in
Untervegns (Under way) this is vivid and
clear, as Dovid Bergelson, the author of
Nokh
alemen (When
all is said and done) [Vilna, 1913] and Opgang
(Sewage) [Kiev, 1920], has not had such a writerly close and devoted a pupil as
Itsik Kipnis…. It is entirely possible
that Bergelson’s healthy critical sensibility aroused in Kipnis’s manner of
writing at the time the Bergelson scent, and Kipnis thus became fond of him,
and he was extravagant with praise.”
Kipnis often wrote and demonstratively in the years following his
release from the Gulag and detention as Yitskhok. He died in Kiev.

Sources: Zalmen
Reyzen, Leksikon, vol. 3; Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish publications
in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961), see index; Aleksander
Pomerants, Di sovetishe haruge malkhes
(The [Jewish writers] murdered by the Soviet government) (Buenos Aires, 1961),
pp. 17-18, 491; Dovid Bergelson, in Frayhayt
(New York) (March 27, 1927); Bergelson, in Literarishe
bleter (Warsaw) 29 (1929); Yashe Bronshteyn, Atake (Attack) (Moscow-Minsk, 1931), pp. 306-18; Meyer Viner,
foreword to Kipnis, 12 dertseylungen
(Twelve stories) (Kharkov-Kiev:
USSR state publishers for national minorities, 1933); Literarish-kritishe etyudn (Literary
critical studies) (Kiev, 1940); Shmuel Niger, Yidishe shrayber in sovet-rusland (Yiddish writers in Soviet
Russia) (New York, 1958), pp. 132-38; Nakhmen Mayzil, introduction to Kipnis, Untervegns (New York: IKUF, 1960); Yidishe shriftn (Warsaw) 3 (1962); Shloyme
Belis, Portretn un problemen
(Portraits and problems) (Warsaw: Yidish bukh, 1964), pp. 95-107; Shloyme Bikl,
Shrayber fun mayn dor (Writers of my generation), vol. 2 (Tel Aviv, 1965); Ester
Rozental-Shnayderman, in Di goldene keyt
(Tel Aviv) 61 (1967); A. Gilboa, in Moznaim
(Tel Aviv) (April-May 1968); Gitl Mayzil, introduction to Kipnis, Mayn shtetele sloveshne (My small town, Slovechne) (Tel Aviv: Perets
Publ., 1971); B. Grin, in Morgn-frayhayt
(New York) (June 2, 1974); Dovid Sfard, in Yisroel-shtime
(Tel Aviv) (June 12, 1974); M. Ḥizkuni
(Moyshe Shtarkman), in Hadoar (New
York) (Sivan 3 [= May 24], 1974); M. Altshuler, Yahadut berit-hamoatsot baaspaklarya shel itonut yidish bepolin,
bibliyografya 1945-1970 (The Jews of the Soviet Union from the perspective
of the Yiddish press in Poland, bibliography) (Jerusalem, 1974/1975), pp. 163-64.
Dr. Eugene Orenstein
[Additional information from: Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers
(Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), cols. 483-84;
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. 335-37.]