%0 Book
%T David Bergelson: from modernism to socialist realism; [... papers presented at the Sixth Mendel Friedman Conference in Yiddish, held on 23 - 24 August 2005 at Yarnton Manor, under the joint auspices of the European Humanities Research Centre, University of Oxford ...]
%E Sherman, Joseph
%S Studies in Yiddish 6
%D 2007
%7 1. publ.
%I Legenda, Modern Humanities Research Assoc. and Maney Publ.
%C London
%@ 9781905981120
%G English
%F 1611572061
%O ed. by Joseph Sherman ...
%O Includes bibliographical references and index. - Formerly CIP
%X "Among the finest prose stylists in Yiddish literature, David Bergelson (1884-1952) was caught up in many of the twentieth century's most defining events. In 1909 he emerged as a pioneer of modernist prose, observing the slow decay of the Tsarist empire. In 1917 he welcomed the Revolution, but the bloodshed of the ensuing Civil War and the dogmatism of the Bolsheviks drove him to emigration. For more than a decade (1921-1934), he lived in Weimar Germany, travelling extensively in Europe and the United States. Shocked by the Wall Street Crash of 1929, disheartened by the decline of Yiddish culture in the West, and inspired by Soviet promises to create a Jewish republic, Bergelson became a Communist sympathiser and moved towards socialist realism. Returning to the Soviet Union after Hitler's rise to power, Bergelson flourished in a state-sponsored cultural environment in which his work was widely read both in Yiddish and in Russian translation. After Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Bergelson became a prominent member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, writing extensively about the Holocaust. In the paranoia of the Cold War years, the Stalinist regime accused him of anti-Soviet activities and, after a secret military trial he was executed on 12 August 1952, his 68th birthday.
%L 839.133
%K Criticism and interpretation
%K David
%K 1884-1952
%K Authors, Yiddish
%K Russia
%K Biography
%9 Text
%9 Konferenzschrift-2005-Oxford
%9 Aufsatzsammlung
%9 Bibliografie
%9 Konferenzschrift