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Oleksandr Lizen <\/b>(Isroel Lizenberg, 1911\u20132000) was a Ukrainian and Yiddish<\/span> writer.<\/span><\/p>\n Lizen was born in the village of Haidamaky, Volyn region, in 1911 and spent his teenage years in the town of Kupil. He took an active part in a Zionist organization Hashomer Hatzair. Eventually, in 1929, he was arrested for his Zionist activity, spent the next three years (1930\u20131933) in prison and three more in exile. After release, he lived in Kyiv. Lizen participated in World War II and, once the war ended, moved to Lviv. He graduated from the Trade and Economics Institute and worked as a senior accountant at the regional industrial enterprises. In 1988, Lizen organized the Sholom Aleichem Society of Jewish Culture in Lviv.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Lizen wrote short stories, novellas, and literary criticism in Ukrainian, Russian, and Yiddish. He debuted with Yiddish stories published in the Moscow magazine <\/span><\/i>Sovetish Heymland<\/span> in 1970. Afterwards, he published more essays, novels, novelettes, and poems. His writing describes the fates of the residents of Jewish towns in Ukraine, people\u2019s life in the times of war and peace. Oleksandr Lizen died in Lviv in 2000.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n The archive includes more than 1,440 units of storage: manuscripts of writings, reviews, letters, various documents (e.g., contracts with publishing houses) and other materials.<\/span><\/p>\n During the final years of Lizen\u2019s life, his books were rarely published. The 1990s were rather hard for Ukrainian publishers when it came to financial questions so they often did not accept his works precisely because of the lack of funds.<\/span><\/p>\n However, sometimes publishers would explain their refusals to print Lizen\u2019s works by alleging that they were \u201cunusual\u201d, not artistic enough and did not meet readers\u2019 contemporary demands. In reality, Lizen had his own recognisable style, impeccable command of the language (both Russian and Ukrainian), and his storylines and characters were known for their deep psychologism. Those refusals can be explained only by the censorship of Lizen\u2019s writings, which were definitely out of the context of the \u201cwild 90s\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n As a result, the archive has preserved Oleksandr Lizen\u2019s works that have not been published anywhere. This gives quite a lot of opportunities for any curious researcher. Some letters and reviews from editors and publishers with their rejections are also present in the archive. Therefore, it is possible to assess and analyse the arguments they used, of course, after getting familiar with the original writings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Prose<\/b>. Among the manuscripts, there are texts of 30 novels in Russian, Ukrainian, and Yiddish. Some of the works are in multiple versions or fragments. There are also examples of the same novels written in two languages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The manuscripts of the majority of novels (except for <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Alchemist<\/span><\/i>) are not dated. Therefore, determining the time of creation is another amusing task for potential researchers.<\/span><\/p>\n Novels: <\/b>This Sweet and Bitter Lotus<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>Geia<\/span><\/i> (Russian and Ukrainian), <\/span>Zeus Is Smiling<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>King\u2019s Daughter<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Lonely Mourners<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Keys of the Earth<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Alchemist<\/span><\/i> (1969\u20131973, Ukrainian), <\/span>Ladybug<\/span><\/i> \/<\/span>\u05d6\u05d5 \u05e7\u05d9\u05e2\u05dc\u05e2\/<\/span> (Yiddish), <\/span>Black Rose<\/span><\/i> \/<\/span>\u05e9\u05d5\u05d5 \u05e8 \u05e8\u05d5\u05d9\u05d6\/<\/span> (Yiddish), <\/span>Lotus<\/span><\/i> \/<\/span>\u05dc \u05d8\u05d5\u05e1\/<\/span> (Yiddish), <\/span>An Incident in a Shop<\/span><\/i> \/<\/span>\u05e6\u05d5\u05e4\u05dc \u05d0\u05d9 \u05d3\u05d9\u00a0 \u05e7\u05e8<\/span> Yiddish), <\/span>Living Star over the Dead Sea<\/span><\/i> \/<\/span>\u05d0 \u05dc\u05e2\u05d1\u05e2\u05d3\u05d9\u05e7\u05e2\u05e8 \u05e9\u05d8\u05e2\u05e8 \u05d0\u05d9\u05d1\u05e2\u05e8 \u05d0 \u05d8\u05d5\u05d9\u05d8<\/span>\/ (Yiddish, Russian, and Ukrainian), <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Idol<\/span><\/i> (Russian and Ukrainian), <\/span>Memories of Valentyna<\/span><\/i> (Ukrainian), <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Son of a Star<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>Those Who Bring Light<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>Some Benchyk<\/span><\/i> (Russian and Ukrainian), <\/span>Mourning Music<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>Lilac<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>Tree People <\/span><\/i>(Russian), <\/span>Memory Alarm Signal<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>Pavel\u2019s Tears<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>The Road Was Crying of Pain<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Esperanto Teacher<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Stars Are Near You<\/span><\/i> (Russian, Ukrainian), <\/span>Hide-and-Seek<\/span><\/i> (Ukrainian, translation from Yiddish), <\/span>The Sad Sigh<\/span><\/i> \/<\/span>\u05d8\u05e8\u05d5\u05d9\u05e2\u05e8\u05d9\u05e7 \u05d6\u05d9\u05e4\/ (Yiddish<\/span>), <\/span>Bar-Kokhba\u2019s Cave<\/span><\/i> \/<\/span>\u05d1\u05d0\u05e8 \u05e7 \u05db\u05d1\u05d0 \u05e1 \u05d4\u05d9\u05d9\u05dc<\/span>\/ (Yiddish),\u00a0 <\/span>Hava, the Mother of All Mothers<\/span><\/i> \/<\/span>\u05db\u05d0\u05d5\u05d5\u05e2\u00a0 \u2013 \u05d3\u05d9 \u05de\u05d5\u05d8\u05e2\u05e8 \u05e4\u05d5\u05d0\u05dc\u05e2 \u05de\u05d5\u05d8\u05e2\u05e8\u05e1\/ (Yiddish<\/span>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Short prose<\/b>. There are 390 manuscripts of short prose in the archive (in Yiddish, Russian, and Ukrainian). Most manuscripts are undated. The earliest dated short story is <\/span>Goose-Lazybobes-Honk-Honk!<\/span><\/i> (1948).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Oleksandr Lizen was a master of short prose. He often determined the genres of his writings himself, understanding that the author\u2019s genre definition could influence the reader\u2019s perception. Such traditional genres as novelettes, stories, and humorous tales are not the only ones that we can find among the author\u2019s definitions; there are also ballads, etudes, fantasies, parables, and short fairy tales.<\/span><\/p>\n Poems.<\/b> There are 152 Lizen\u2019s poetical works in Russian, Yiddish, and Ukrainian.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dramatic works.<\/b> Lizen\u2019s dramatic poem <\/span>Requiem<\/span><\/i> (undated) is worth particular attention. The writer dedicated it to the suffering of the Jewish people. There are different versions of the poem in Yiddish, Russian, and Ukrainian.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Other dramatic writings (five plays are undated) are <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Fate. The Cup<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>Fire Extinguisher<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>In an Abandoned Quarry<\/span><\/i> (Russian), <\/span>Do You Hear the Ringing<\/span><\/i> (Russian), and <\/span>She-Eagle<\/span><\/i> (Russian).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Oleksandr Lizen\u2019s <\/span>journalistic materials<\/b> are of considerable value for the researchers of Ukrainian journalism of the last decades of the twentieth century. The archive contains articles, essays, and interviews (more than 100 journalistic works of 1978 1998 in Yiddish, Russian and Ukrainian). Oleksandr Lizen\u2019s writings of this kind were published in newspapers such as <\/span>Narodna Volia<\/span><\/i> [People\u2019s Will], <\/span>Literaturna Ukraina<\/span><\/i> [Literary Ukraine], <\/span>Literaturnyi Lviv<\/span><\/i> [Literary Lviv], <\/span>Yevreiskii Kamerton<\/span><\/i> [Jewish Tuning Fork], <\/span>Birobidzhaner Shtern<\/span><\/i> [Birobidzhan Star], <\/span>Nedilia<\/span><\/i> [Sunday], etc.<\/span><\/p>\n Correspondence<\/b>. The archive stores the originals of about 530 letters. Among them, there are 205 letters addressed to Oleksandr Lizen during the period from 1961 to 1999. Some of the well-known senders are the writers Pavlo Zahrebelny, Roman Lubkivskiy, Oles Poshyvailo, and the publisher Dmytro Bukhanenko.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Twenty-five letters from Dmytro Tyshchenko, written in the 1990s, may be of interest to Yiddish specialists. Tyshchenko is a Germanic philologist with a specialisation in the Yiddish language, who compiled several Yiddish-Russian and Yiddish-Ukrainian dictionaries. During the 1990s, he actively communicated with Oleksandr Lizen via letters, discussing the issues related to his work on the dictionary among other things.<\/span><\/p>\n Two hundred seventy-seven documents are the typewriter copies of the letters Oleksandr Lizen sent to his friends, relatives, colleagues, writers, editors, and publishers in 1964\u20131999. Among the recipients, there were the writers Veniamin Kaverin, Rostyslav Bratun, Liubomyr Dmyterko, Borys Oliinyk, and Petro Perebyinis, the editor of <\/span>Birobidzhaner Shtern<\/span><\/i> Boris Miller, and the journalist Alexei Adzhubei.<\/span><\/p>\n Since the envelopes with addresses and names of the addressees are absent, there is a problem with identifying those to whom Oleksandr Lizen wrote. Mostly, there are only first names and patronymics (i.e., \u201cVadym Petrovych\u201d or \u201cInna Andriivna\u201d). This brings forward another subject of research: identifying the addressees and determining Lizen\u2019s circle of communication. Some persons, however, are easy to identify. For instance, \u201cDmytro Volodymyrovych\u201d is most likely to be the aforementioned philologist Dmytro Tyshchenko.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The rest of the letters concern the writer\u2019s wife, Hanna Lizenberg (nee Tsapei, 1915\u20132006). She was born to a Ukrainian family, which was closely connected to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). In the 1990s, she published her works in the Lviv press and was known for an active engagement in civil activity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hanna Lizenberg\u2019s materials held in the archive are printed copies of her articles (1993\u20131997), correspondence (particularly three letters from the UPA messenger \u201cOrolia\u201d and a letter from Hanna to the Head of the Ukrainian UPA Brotherhood). Her memoirs named <\/span>What Is the Fate of a Human?<\/span><\/i> are incredibly interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n Hanna Lizenberg\u2019s documents can be interesting for those who study the history of women\u2019s and Ukrainian liberation movements in Western Ukraine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Inventory of the archive Oleksandr Lizen (Isroel Lizenberg, 1911\u20132000) was a Ukrainian and Yiddish writer. Lizen was born in the village of Haidamaky, Volyn region, in 1911 and spent his teenage years in the town of Kupil. He took an active part in a Zionist organization Hashomer Hatzair. Eventually, in 1929, he was arrested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":17934,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18007","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"http:\/\/judaicacenter.kyiv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Zavitok.png\")
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