• Review: The Family Mashber—Lost in Translation

The Family Mashber, the famous novel by Yiddish writer Der Nister (1884–1950), was recently published in Russian translation as a part of the ambitious book series, The Prose of Jewish Life. The basis for this publication was a manuscript found in the archive of Mikhail Shambadal (1891–1964), one of the most prominent Soviet translators of Yiddish prose into Russian. Surprisingly, Shambadal’s translation of Der Nister’s magnum opus, unlike his classic translations of Sholem Aleichem’s works, is far from being accurate and expressive. This magazine’s reviewer gives numerous examples of the faults in Shambadal’s translation and analyzes the general problems of translating Yiddish modernist writers into Russian.

• Synopses: The Bitter “Divine Comedy” of Chaim Soutine

This brief review presents the first Russian-language monograph about Chaim Soutine (1893–1943), an artist who was born in the small Jewish shtetl of Smilovichi near Minsk and spent most of his life in France.

• Overview: Several Russian Magazines Publish Special “Jewish” Issues

Two polemical articles consider the special “Jewish” issues published by three magazines—Antiquarian (Kiev), Bulletin of the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts (Kharkov), and Diasporas (Moscow)—and discuss the limitations and defects of their style and content.

• Publishers and Publishing Projects: Vozvraschenie Association

In 1963, the association of former GULAG prisoners was first founded in Moscow. In 1990, it was officially registered as Vozvraschenie (Return) Moscow Historical and Literary Association. Now, Vozvraschenie is the only single-purpose publishing house in Russia that publishes literature specifically on totalitarian regimes. Brief information about the Association’s activities is followed by a selected bibliography of its publications.

• Jewish Calendar of Significant Dates: May–June 2010

• Bibliography: 70 New Books