Kushnirov, Aron Davidovich

Born Jan. 7, 1890; died Sept. 7, 1949. Soviet Jewish poet. Member of the CPSU (1942).

Kushnirov was born in the village of Boiarka (in present-day Kiev Oblast), the son of an office worker. He served in World War I (1914–18) and, as a volunteer for the Red Army, fought against the White Poles. He also took part in the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). Walls, Kushnirov’s first collection of poetry (1921), was imbued with revolutionary fervor. His lyrical narrative poem In Memoriam (1922) protests against the anti-Jewish pogroms organized by counterrevolutionary gangs. Kushnirov was one of the pioneers of Jewish proletarian literature. He wrote a collection of verses called Rage (1927) and a drama in verse called Hirsh Lekkert (1929; Russian translation by E. Bagritskii, 1930). He translated The Tale of Igor’s Campaign, into Yiddish. Kushnirov was awarded the Order of the Red Star and various medals.