{{Short description|Russian writer, poet and literary translator}} {{Multiple issues| {{more citations needed|date=April 2014}} {{Expand Russian|topic=bio|date=April 2014}} }}
{{Infobox writer | name = Semyon Lipkin | image = Lisnyanskaya-30 5.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Lipkin and his wife, poet Inna Lisnyanskaya | birth_date = {{birth date|1911|9|6|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Odessa]], [[Russian Empire]] | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|3|31|1911|9|6|df=y}} | death_place = [[Peredelkino]], [[Russia]] | occupation = Poet, writer, soldier | period = 1911-2003 | genres = Poetry, fiction, memoir, translations | subject = World War II, History, Philosophy, Literature, Folklore, Jewish heritage, The Bible | movement = Neo-[[Acmeist poetry|Acmeism]] | notableworks = Kvadriga Memoirs, The Lieutenant Quartermaster (An epic poem) }}
'''Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin''' ({{langx|ru|Семён Израилевич Липкин}}) (6 September 1911 – 31 March 2003) was a [[Russians|Russian]] writer, poet, and [[literary translator]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rayfield |first=Donald |date=2013 |title=Review of After Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin; Regina Derieva: The Sum Total of Violations; Regina Derieva: Corinthian Copper |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24585306 |journal=Translation and Literature |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=133–137 |doi=10.3366/tal.2013.0106 |jstor=24585306 |issn=0968-1361|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Lipkin's work gained wider recognition after the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]]. He was supported by his wife, poet [[:ru:Лиснянская, Инна Львовна|Inna Lisnyanskaya]]. Lipkin was a close friend of [[Anna Akhmatova]], [[Joseph Brodsky]] and [[Alexander Solzhenitsyn]]. Lipkin's poetry explores themes of [[history]] and [[philosophy]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2003-05-13 |title=National voice unheard for decades |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/national-voice-unheard-for-decades-20030513-gdgr28.html |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}</ref>
His poems reference his [[Jewish]] [[Cultural heritage|heritage]] and the [[Bible]], and draw on his experiences in [[World War II]] and the [[Great Purge]]. Lipkin's opposition to the Soviet regime became public in 1979-1980 when he contributed to the uncensored almanac "[[Metropol'|Metropol]]." Subsequently, he and Lisnyanskaya left the [[Union of Soviet Writers]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Meyer |first=Ronald |date=2015-10-01 |title=Cold War Dress Code: Remembering Inna Lisnyanskaya |url=https://pen.org/cold-war-dress-code-remembering-inna-lisnyanskaya/ |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=PEN America |language=en}}</ref>
== Early years == Lipkin was born in [[Odessa]] to Israel and Rosalia Lipkin on September 6, 1911. He was of [[Jewish]] ethnicity.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315706474/chapters/10.4324/9781315706474-99|doi = 10.4324/9781315706474-99|chapter = Semyon Lipkin (1911–2003)|title = An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry|year = 2015|pages = 813–818|isbn = 9781315706474}}</ref> His father, a tailor,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Semyon Lipkin. 'Cardinal Points' literary journal |url=http://www.stosvet.net/12/lipkin/info.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905090048/http://www.stosvet.net/12/lipkin/info.html |archive-date=2019-09-05 |accessdate=November 28, 2019 |website=www.stosvet.net}}</ref> was active in the [[Mensheviks|Menshevik]] movement.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Shrayer|first=Maxim D.|title=Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature: An Anthology|date=2019-07-31|publisher=Academic Studies PRess|isbn=978-1-64469-152-6|language=en}}</ref> Lipkin's early education included Hebrew and Torah instruction.<ref name=":0" /> His education was interrupted by the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] and the [[Russian Civil War]]. In 1929 he moved to [[Moscow]], where he studied engineering and economics, graduating from the [[Moscow Power Engineering Institute|Moscow Engineering-Economic Institute]] in 1937. He also studied various languages, including [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Kalmyk Oirat|Kalmyk]], [[Kyrgyz language|Kirghiz]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], [[Tatar language|Tatar]], [[Tajik language|Tajik]] and [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]].
== Military career ==
Lipkin's military career began with the German invasion in June 1941, when he was enlisted as a war correspondent with the rank of [[senior lieutenant]] at the [[Baltic Fleet]] base in [[Kronstadt]]. He later served with the 110th Kalmyk cavalry division and the Volga River Flotilla at Stalingrad. He participated in the [[Battle of Stalingrad]] and reported on it.<ref name=":0" /> He received four military orders and several medals.
== Literary career ==
Lipkin published his first poem at 15, which was praised by [[Eduard Bagritsky]].<ref name=":0" /> However, the Soviet regime prevented him from publishing until his sixties. Wider recognition came when he was 70. His literary circle, which included [[Anna Akhmatova]] and [[Joseph Brodsky]], recognized his talent much earlier.
In the 1930s, Lipkin met influential figures like poets [[Osip Mandelstam]], [[Anna Akhmatova]], and [[Marina Tsvetayeva]], and prose writers [[Vasily Grossman]] and [[Andrey Platonov]], whom he described in his memoir [[Kvadriga]].
Lipkin was a renowned literary translator, often working from languages suppressed by [[Stalin]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=World Literature as a Communal Apartment: Semyon Lipkin's Ethics of Translational Difference |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262087893 |website=researchgate.net |pages=404}}</ref> He also immersed himself in the cultures of the languages he translated, including Abkhaz, Akkadian, Buryat, Dagestani, Karbardinian, Kalmyk, [[Kyrgyz language|Kirghiz]], Tatar, Tadjik-Farsi and [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Yvonne Green. Finding a Path. Translating Lipkin|url=http://www.stosvet.net/12/green/index.html|access-date=2021-02-18|website=Cardinal Points Journal}}</ref> He famously hid a [[Typescript (manuscript)|typescript]] of [[Vasily Grossman]]'s [[Life and Fate]] from the [[KGB]], initiating its journey to the West.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Grossman|first=Vasily|title=The Road: Stories, Journalism, and Essays|publisher=New York Review of Books|year=2010|isbn=978-1-59017-409-8|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Toker|first=Leona|title=Gulag Literature and the Literature of Nazi Camps: An Intercontexual Reading|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0-253-04351-1|location=Bloomington|pages=72}}</ref> Lipkin's translations and literary work earned him numerous accolades, including the title of Kalmykia National Poet (1967) and Hero of Kalmykia (2001).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Novel of S. Lipkin "Decade"; the Fate of Eastern Culture in the Soviet Culture and Historical Context – Student Theses – Higher School of Economics National Research University |url=https://www.hse.ru/en/edu/vkr/342824986 |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=www.hse.ru}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Semyon Lipkin (1911–2003) |date=2019-12-31 |work=Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature |pages=611–614 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781618117939-069 |access-date=2024-03-16 |publisher=Academic Studies Press|doi=10.1515/9781618117939-069 |isbn=978-1-61811-793-9 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
=== Poetry === {{ordered list|type=lower-alpha * ''Ochevidets'' [Eyewitness: poems of various years]. Elista: Kalmyk Book Publishers, 1967; 2nd Edition, 1974. * ''Vechnyi den’'' [Eternal Day]. Moscow: Sovetskii Pisatel, 1975. * ''Volia'' [Free Will]. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1981; Moscow: O.G.I., 2003. * ''Kochevoi Ogon’'' [A Nomadic Flame]. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1984. * ''Kartiny i golosa'' [Pictures and Voices]. London: Overseas Publications Interchange, 1986. * ''Lira. Stikhi raznyh let'' [Lyre. Verses of Various Years]. Moscow: Pravda, 1989. * ''Lunnyi svet. Stikhotvoreniya i poemy'' [Moonlight. Verses and Poems]. Moscow: Sovremennik, 1991. * ''Pis’mena. Stikhotvoreniya i poemy'' [Letters. Verses and Poems]. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia Literatura, 1991. * ''Pered zakhodom solntsa. Stikhi i perevody'' [Before the Sunset. Verses and Translations] Paris-Moscow-New York: Tretya Volna, 1995. * ''Posokh'' [Shepherd's Crook]. Moscow: CheRo, 1997. * ''Sobranie sochinenii v 4-kh tomakh'' [Collected works in 4 volumes]. Moscow: Vagrius, 1998. * ''Sem’ desyatiletii'' [Seven Decades]. Moscow: Vozvrashchenie, 2000. * ''Vmeste. Stikhi'' [Together, Verses. (Together with Inna Lisnianskaya)]. Moscow: Grail, Russkiy put’, 2000. * ''Ochevidets'' [Eyewitness: selected poems]. Moscow: Vremia, 2008. }}
=== Prose === {{ordered list|type=lower-alpha * ''Stalingradsky korabl' '' [The Stalingrad Ship]. 1943. * ''Dekada'' [Decade]. 1983. * ''Stalingrad Vasiliya Grossmana'' [Stalingrad of Vasily Grossman], 1984. * ''Zhizn' i sud'ba Vasiliya Grossmana'' [Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman]. 1990. * ''Ugl' pylayuschiy ognyom'' [The Flaming Coal]. 1991. * ''Zapiski zhil'tsa'' [The Notes of a Lodger], 1992. * ''Vtoraya doroga'' [The Second Road], 1995. * ''Kvadriga'' [Quadriga], 1997. }}
=== Translations by Semyon Lipkin === {{See also|List of works translated by Semyon Lipkin}}
=== English translations of Semyon Lipkin’s work ===
* ''After Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin'', translation by [[Yvonne Green]]. London: Smith/Doorstop, 2011. *''Testimony from the Literary Memoirs of Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin'' translation by [[Yvonne Green]]. (Hendon Press, 2023) {{ISBN|978-1-739778-51-4}} *''A Close Reading of Fifty-three poems by Semyon Izrailevich Lipkin'' translation by [[Yvonne Green]].(Hendon Press, 2023) {{ISBN|978-1-739778-52-1}}
=== French translations of Semyon Lipkin’s work === * ''Le Destin de Vassili Grossman'' (L'Age d'Homme 1990) tr Alexis Berelowitch * ''L'histoire d'Alim Safarov, écrivain russe du Caucase'' (Dekada [Decade]). La Tour-d'Aigues: Editions de l'Aube, 2008.
== Friendship with Vasily Grossman ==
In 1961, the manuscript for [[Vasily Grossman]]'s [[Life and Fate]] was confiscated by the [[KGB]]. Semyon Lipkin hid a copy at his [[dacha]] and later gave it to [[:ru:Макарова, Елена Григорьевна|Elena Makarova]] and Sergei Makarov for safekeeping.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Popoff |first=Alexandra |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvd1c9fm |title=Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century |date=2019 |publisher=Yale University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctvd1c9fm |jstor=j.ctvd1c9fm |isbn=978-0-300-22278-4}}</ref> (Elena Makarova was Lipkin's stepdaughter, and Sergei Makarov her husband.)<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Gessen |first=Keith |date=2006-02-26 |title=Vasily Grossman's Path to Dissent |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/03/06/under-siege |access-date=2024-03-16 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref> In 1975, Lipkin enlisted [[Vladimir Voinovich]] and [[Andrey Sakharov]] to smuggle the manuscript to the West, leading to its publication in 1980. In 2013, Grossman's manuscript was released from the [[Russian State Archive of Literature and Art]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chandler |first=Robert |title=Vasily Grossman |url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/57426/vasily-grossman |access-date=2024-03-16 |website=www.prospectmagazine.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>
== Chronology of historical events impacting Lipkin and his writing == {{See also|Timeline of Semyon Lipkin's life and related historical events}}
==References== {{Reflist}} == External links == {{commons category-inline}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipkin, Semyon}} [[Category:1911 births]] [[Category:2003 deaths]] [[Category:Writers from Odesa]] [[Category:Jews from Odesa]] [[Category:Soviet poets]] [[Category:Soviet male writers]] [[Category:20th-century Russian male writers]] [[Category:Russian male poets]] [[Category:Soviet translators]] [[Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II]] [[Category:Soviet journalists]] [[Category:Soviet male journalists]] [[Category:20th-century Russian male journalists]] [[Category:20th-century Russian translators]] [[Category:20th-century Russian memoirists]]