Der Nister's Soviet Years
Yiddish Writer As Witness to the People

Mikhail Krutikov (Author)

9780253041869

Hardback, published 24 April 2019

312 pages, 5 black & white
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.599 kg

"Mikhail Krutikov's book on Der Nister will serve an important function, offering a strong, well-researched, and well-organized analysis of six significant periods in Der Nister's writing. I expect it to inspire a great many new readers of Der Nister, inside and outside of academia."—Amelia M. Glaser, author of Jews and Ukrainians in Russia's Literary Borderlands: From the Shtetl Fair to the Petersburg Bookshop
"Among Soviet Yiddish writers, Der Nister occupies a unique place in literary history. Mikhail Krutikov's meticulous analysis follows the transformation of the writer under the pressure of the Soviet ideological environment."—Gennady Estraikh, author of Yiddish in the Cold War
"Krutikov's book is the most definitive and accessible work in English to date on Der Nister and his monumental novel The Family Mashber. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice
"I think that Der Nister would have really liked Krutikov's book. It gives justice to Der Nister without making him into a saint, villain, or a misguided idealist, but instead sees him as a writer searching for his path..."—Anna Shternshis, AJS REVIEW

In Der Nister's Soviet Years, author Mikhail Krutikov focuses on the second half of the dramatic writing career of Soviet Yiddish writer Der Nister, pen name of Pinhas Kahanovich (1884–1950). Krutikov follows Der Nister's painful but ultimately successful literary transformation from his symbolist roots to social realism under severe ideological pressure from Soviet critics and authorities. This volume reveals how profoundly Der Nister was affected by the destruction of Jewish life during WWII and his own personal misfortunes. While Der Nister was writing a history of his generation, he was arrested for anti-government activities and died tragically from a botched surgery in the Gulag. Krutikov illustrates why Der Nister's work is so important to understandings of Soviet literature, the Russian Revolution, and the catastrophic demise of the Jewish community under Stalin.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. 1929: The Year of the Great Turn and the End of Symbolism
2. From Symbolism to Reality: Space, Politics and Self in Hoyptshtet
3. The 1930s in Children's Poetry
4. The Generation of 1905
5. Text and Context of The Family Mashber
6. The Last Decade, 1939–1949: Revealing "The Hidden"
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index