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Boris Slutsky | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Бори́с Слу́цкий |
| Born | (1919-05-07)7 May 1919 |
| Died | February 23, 1986(1986-02-23) (aged 66) |
| Occupation |
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| Language | Russian |
| Nationality | Soviet |
| Education |
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| Period | 20th century |
| Notable works | Memory The Poets of Israel |
| Relatives | Meir Amit (cousin) |
Boris Abramovich Slutsky (Russian:Бори́с Абра́мович Слу́цкий; 7 May 1919 – 23 February 1986) was aSoviet poet, translator,Great Patriotic War veteran, major, and member of theSoviet Union of Writers (1957).
Slutsky was born inSloviansk,Ukrainian SSR in 1919 to a Jewish family.[1] His father, Abram Naumovich Slutsky, was a junior official and his mother, Aleskandra Abramovna, was a music teacher. His father's family originated fromStarodub, in thePrincipality of Chernigov. Slutsky had a younger brother, Efim (Haim, 1922-1995), and a sister, Maria. His cousinMeir Amit was anIsraeli Military Intelligence director from 1962 to 1963 and aMossad director from 1963 to 1968.
Slutsky grew up inKharkov. He first attended alito (literary studio) at the KharkovPioneers Palace but left due to pressure from his father, who dismissed Russian poetry as a viable career.[2] In 1937, he entered theLaw Institute of Moscow,[1] and also studied at theMaxim Gorky Literature Institute from 1939 to 1941. In the autumn of 1939, he joined a group of young poets, including M. Kulchitzki,Pavel Kogan, S. Narovchatov, andDavid Samoilov, at the seminary ofIlya Selvinsky at the State Literary Publishing House,Goslitizdat. They called themselves "the Generation of 1940". Slutsky, however, was not exposed to theShoah poems Selvinsky and his peers were known for until theKhrushchev's Thaw of the late 1950s.[3] Slutsky became the only Russian poet to make the Holocaust a central focus of his writing.[4]
Between 1941–1945 he served in theRed Army as apolitruk of an infantry platoon. His war experiences are reflected in his poetry. After the war, he had the rank of major. In 1946, he lived on a small disability pension and began working as an editor and translator for a radio station.[5]
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Slutsky died on 23 February 1986 inTula, Russia.
Together withDavid Samoylov, Slutsky is representative of theWar generation of Russian poets and, due to the nature of his verse, is a crucial figure in the post-Stalin literary revival. His poetry is deliberately coarse, jagged, prosaic and conversational. It has a dry, polemic quality that perhaps reflects the poet's early training as a lawyer. He represented an opposing tendency to that of neo-romantic or neo-futuristic poets such asAndrey Voznesensky. In his works he approached Jewish themes, including material from the Jewish tradition aboutantisemitism (including in Soviet society) and theHolocaust.
As early as 1953–1954, prior to the20th Congress of CPSU, verses condemning the Stalinist regime were attributed to Slutsky. These were circulated in "Samizdat" in the 1950s and were published in an anthology in the West (inMunich) in 1961. Slutsky neither confirmed nor denied their authorship.
In 1956,Ilya Ehrenburg created a sensation by quoting a number of previously unpublished poems by Slutsky in an article. In 1957, Slutsky's first book of poetry,Memory, was published, containing many poems written much earlier.
Slutsky editedThe Poets of Israel, a landmark publication considered the first anthology of Israeli poetry, which was published in 1963.
He also translated the Yiddish poetry ofLeib Kvitko,Aron Vergelis,Shmuel Galkin, Asher Shvartsman, andJacob Sternberg to Russian.
