Samuil Galkin

Born Nov. 23 (Dec. 5), 1897, in Rogachev, Byelorussian SSR; died Sept. 21, 1960, in Moscow. Jewish Soviet poet and playwright. Born into the family of an office worker.

Galkin began publishing in 1920. His first collection of poetry was issued in 1922. The main theme of his collections Pain and Courage (1929), For a New Foundation (1922), and Contact (1935) is the departure of Jewish people from an old way of life and their participation in the construction of the new socialist society. Galkin’s lyric poetry is full of faith in the future and enthusiasm for life (the collection Poems, 1939, for example). Patriotic poetry about the Great Patriotic War is part of his collection Earthly Routes (1948). The collection Tree of Life asserts the poet’s faith in the triumph of Communist ideas and international humanism. His plays Bar-Kokhba (1939), Sulamif (1940), and The Soul That Sings were presented in Soviet Jewish theaters. The tragedy Uprising in the Ghetto (For Life, 1947) depicts the heroic uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto against the fascist occupiers. Galkin received two orders as well as medals.