Lev Ozerov

Lev Ozerov, World War II

Lev Ozerov (Russian: Лев Адольфович Озеров) (August 10/23, 1914 – March 18, 1996) was a Jewish-Ukrainian Soviet poet born in Kiev. Ozerov was the professor of Literary Translation at the Literary Institute until his death. He was one of the first Jewish authors who wrote poems about Babi Yar along with Liudmila Titova and Leonid Pervomayskiy. He visited that place of martyrology of Ukrainian Jews in Kiev immediately after the liberation.[1] His famous epic "Babi Yar" first appeared in the октябрь (October) (ru) magazine March–April 1946 issue.[2][3] Ozerov served as poetry editor of October (октябрь) in 1946–1948,[note 1] one of the more important literary publications at the time.[4]

Originally Ozerov published under his own name Leo Goldberg, as well as pen-names Leo Berg and L Kornev. He wrote several books and numerous articles on Russian and Ukrainian poetry including on Anna Akhmatova among others. His "Poems of Anna Akhmatova" article published on June 23, 1959 in the Literaturnaya Gazeta, was the first review of her poetry after years of silence. Ozerov did much to preserve the creative heritage of poets of his own generation who perished in the years of Stalinist repressions. He died in Moscow.[5]

A first English edition of Ozerov's Portrait Without Frames (Портреты без рам, 1999), edited by Robert Chandler and Boris Dralyuk, is due to be published by Granta in 2018.[6]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Shrayer (2010), p.85; ibidem.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Natalia Kravchenko (August 22, 2011). "Lev Ozerov". Литературный дневник. Живой журнал Наталии Кравченко. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  2. 1 2 Maxim D. Shrayer (2010). "Poets Bearing Witness to the Shoah" (PDF). Boston College. p. 78 (Section II). Retrieved February 20, 2013.
  3. ↑ Original in Russian by Lev Ozerov (Oktyabr 3/4, 1946: pp. 160-163): "Фашисты и полицаи / Стоят у каждого дома, у каждого палисада. / Назад повернуть — не думай" From the following stanza: "Фашист ударил лопатой упрямо. / Земля стала мокрой," (Maxim D. Shrayer, 2010.)
  4. ↑ David Shneer (2011). "World War II and the Holocaust" (Google book preview). Through Soviet Jewish Eyes: Photography, War, and the Holocaust. Rutgers University Press. p. 134. ISBN 0813548845. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  5. ↑ "Лев Адольфович Озеров". Short bio with an audio recording. Дом-музей Марины Цветаевой (ДМЦ). 1995. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  6. ↑ London Review of Books, 21 January 2016, page 2
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, January 18, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.