Peretz Markish

Peretz Markish (born Dec. 7 [Nov. 25, Old Style], 1895, Polonnoye, Volhynia, Russian Empire [now Polonnye, Ukr.]—died Aug. 12, 1952, U.S.S.R.) was a Soviet Yiddish poet and novelist whose work extols Soviet Russia and mourns the destruction of European Jews in World War II.

Markish, the son of poor parents, served with the Russian army during World War I and later joined several other writers in producing modernist Yiddish poetry that championed the Russian Revolution of 1917. From 1918 he was part of a writers’ group in Kiev that included David Hofshteyn and Leyb Kvitko. After a series of pogroms occurred in Ukraine, he lived in Warsaw and in western Europe. While in Warsaw, he coedited the Expressionist literary anthology Khalyastre (1922; “The Gang”) with Uri Zvi Greenberg and Melech Ravitch. A second volume was published two years later in Paris. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1926.

Markish’s first poetry collection, Shveln (1919; “Thresholds”), published in Kiev, established his reputation. His poetry cycle Di kupe (1921; “The Mound”) was written in response to the Ukrainian pogroms of 1919–20. He nevertheless published a number of optimistic poems glorifying the communist regime; these include “Mayn dor” (1927; “My Generation”) and the epic Brider (1929; “Brothers”). His novel Dor oys, dor ayn (1929; “Generation After Generation”), about the genesis of revolution in a small Jewish town, was condemned for “Jewish chauvinism.” Awarded the Order of Lenin in 1939, he wrote several paeans to Joseph Stalin, including the 20,000-line epic poem Milkhome (1948; “War”). In 1948, during the liquidation of Yiddish writers in the Soviet Union, Markish was arrested, jailed, and tortured. He was shot along with many of his fellow writers in 1952.

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In homage to Markish and as a gesture toward restoring his reputation, the Soviet Union published his poetry in Russian translation in 1957. Several other works were published posthumously, including Yerushe (1959; “Heritage”), an incomplete epic poem, and the novel Trot fun doyres (“Footsteps of the Generations”), written in 1947–48 and published in 1966, chronicling the heroism of Polish Jews during World War II.