Leyb (Lev) Kvitko

Among the prominent Jewish intelligentsia figures who were executed by Stalin as members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), Leyb (Lev) Kvitko (1890-1952) occupies a unique place. Hersh (Hirsh) Remenik, a renowned Jewish and Yiddish literary critic, described Kvitko’s work as follows (by “Jewish writers” Remenik meant those who wrote in Yiddish):

“Of all the Jewish writers, Leyb Kvitko is perhaps the best known to the general Soviet readership and in the entire Soviet literature. This fame came to him mainly because of his children’s poems (…) 

Of course, Jewish Soviet poetry may feel proud of the fact that it has given the general literature such a great artist. But this fame and recognition of Kvitko’s talent as a children’s poet also has a downside: while praising Kvitko as a children’s poet, his readers often forget that his mastery is not limited to children’s poetry (…)

Truth to be told, Kvitko appeared as a literary figure primarily as a great artist of folk literature rather than a children’s poet. Of course, this includes children’s literature as well, but not limited to and by it… “