# Lazar Zalkind

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{{Short description|Ukrainian economist and chess composer}}
{{Family name hatnote|Borisovich|Zalkind|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Lazar Borisovich Zalkind
| image              = Lazar Zalkind.jpg
| caption            = Lazar Zalkind in 1928
| birth_date         = 14 January 1886 [O.S. 2 January]
| birth_place        = [Kharkov](/source/Kharkiv), Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire
| death_date         = 25 June 1945 (aged 59)
| death_place        = [Komsomolsk-on-Amur](/source/Komsomolsk-on-Amur), Soviet Union
| occupation         = Economist, chess composer
}}

'''Lazar Borisovich Zalkind''' ({{langx|ru|Лазарь Борисович Залкинд}}; {{OldStyleDateNY|14 January 1886|2 January}} – 25 June 1945<ref name=encyclopedia>{{cite book |last=Berdichevsky |first=Igor |title=Шахматная еврейская энциклопедия |language=ru |trans-title=Jewish Chess Encyclopedia |page=97 |year=2016 |publisher=Russian Chess House |location=Moscow |isbn=978-5-94693-503-6}}</ref>) was a Ukrainian [economist](/source/economist) and [chess composer](/source/chess_composer).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishgen.org/BELARUS/rje_z.htm |title=Russian Jewish Encyclopedia: Surnames starting with the letter Z |last1=Charny |first1=Josif |last2=Charny |first2=Vitaly |website=Belarus SIG |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403032244/https://www.jewishgen.org/BELARUS/rje_z.htm |archive-date=3 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blog.chess.com/batgirl/art-for-arts-sake---not |title = Art for Art's Sake - not! |website=[Chess.com](/source/Chess.com) |date=20 October 2007 |access-date=9 May 2023}}</ref>

Born in Kharkov in 1886, Zalkind's family moved to [Kostroma](/source/Kostroma) when he was a child. He joined the [Russian Social Democratic Labour Party](/source/Russian_Social_Democratic_Labour_Party) in 1903. He studied economics at [Imperial Moscow University](/source/Imperial_Moscow_University) and worked as an assistant professor there after completing his degree. He was baptized when he married N. V. Andreeva in 1909. He continued his career as an economist at the [People's Commissariat of Trade](/source/Ministry_of_Foreign_Trade_(Soviet_Union)), where he was promoted to head of the accounting and statistical sector by the late 1920s.<ref name=Grodzensky>{{cite book |title=The Lubyanka Gambit |pages=30–54 |publisher=Elk and Ruby |year=2022 |isbn=978-5604177006}}</ref>

Zalkind became interested in chess when he was fifteen. He published his first [chess composition](/source/chess_composition) in 1903, and soon established himself as a leading chess composer in Russia during the 1910s and 1920s.<ref name=Grodzensky/> He created more than 500 compositions, and edited the problem columns in the magazines {{ill|Shakhmatny Vestnik|ru|Шахматный вестник|italic=y}} (1913–1916) and ''Shakhmaty'' (1922–1929).<ref name=encyclopedia/> From 1926, he headed the Society of Chess Problems and Studies Fans of the [All-Union Chess Section](/source/USSR_Chess_Federation).<ref name=Grodzensky/>

In 1930, Zalkind was arrested for his role in a supposed plot to infiltrate the Bolshevik government with pro-Mensheviks. He was convicted in the [1931 Menshevik Trial](/source/1931_Menshevik_Trial) and sentenced to eight years in the {{ill|Verkneuralsk political isolator|lt=OGPU political prison|ru|Верхнеуральский политизолятор}} in [Verkhneuralsk](/source/Verkhneuralsk). He then spent five more years at a labour camp in [Komsomolsk-on-Amur](/source/Komsomolsk-on-Amur). He was finally released in 1943, but was not permitted to leave Komsomolsk. At that point he learned that his 18-year-old son Boris had died on the [Eastern Front](/source/Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)).<ref name=encyclopedia/>

Zalkind died of a [heart attack](/source/heart_attack) in 1945. He was posthumously [rehabilitated](/source/Rehabilitation_(Soviet)).<ref name=encyclopedia/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [https://www.arves.org/arves/index.php/nl/halloffame/516-zalkind-l A selection of Zalkind's studies] by ARVES, the Dutch-Flemish Association for Endgame Study

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zalkind, Lazar}}
Category:1886 births
Category:1945 deaths
Category:Writers from Kharkiv
Category:People from Kharkovsky Uyezd
Category:Ukrainian Jews
Category:Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members
Category:Mensheviks
Category:Ukrainian chess players
Category:Jewish chess players
Category:Jewish socialists
Category:Chess composers
Category:Imperial Moscow University alumni
Category:Academic staff of Imperial Moscow University
Category:1931 Menshevik Trial
Category:Ukrainian Gulag detainees
Category:Soviet rehabilitations

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lazar Zalkind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazar_Zalkind) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazar_Zalkind?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.