Pyatigorskaya, Anyuta
1893–February 1943
She was a poet and prose writer, born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. Her grandfather and father descended from the Caucasus Jews who had been driven from the Caucasus region. Both parents were teachers. ,She grew up in an assimilated family of intellectuals. At age sixteen she graduated with a medal from the Zhytomyr state high school. She worked in the Jewish craft school in Russian.
She initially wrote Russian poetry at age nineteen. She learned Yiddish, studied Yiddish literature, and began to write in the language.
She taught Yiddish in the Jewish schools of Zhytomyr, Kiev, and Malakhovka (near Moscow).
In 1915 she debuted in print with children’s stories in Grininke Beymelekh (Little Green Trees) in Vilna. In 1925 she published her first Yiddish poem in Di Royte Velt (The Red World) in Kharkov. She placed work in the Soviet Yiddish publications: Yunge Gvardye (Young Guard), Yidish Poyer (Jewish Peasant), Shtern (Star), and Prolit (Proletarian Literature), among other serials. Also, in such anthologies as the following: Far der Bine (For the Stage), Almanakh fun di Yidishe Shrayber af Ukraine (Almanac of Yiddish Writers in Ukraine) (1926), and Shlakht (Battles). Her work is included in Ezra Korman’s Yidishe dikhterins (Yiddish poetesses) (Chicago: L. M. Shteyn, 1928).
In the years just before WWII, she lived in Leningrad, worked as a teacher, actively took part in literary life, and visited Birobidzhan. She lived through the first two besieged winters in Leningrad. Thereafter, she was evacuated, extremely ill and emaciated, to the town of Zlatoust in the Ural Mountains where she died soon afterward.
In book form: In Gang, Lider (In Progress, Poetry) (Kiev: Kultur-Lige, 1930), 78 pp.; Breyt iz Mayn Land (My Country is Wide), poetry (Kharkov: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1934), 55 pp.; Af der Vakh (On Guard), stories (Kiev: Ukrainian State Publishers for National Minorities, 1935), 32 pp.; In Oyfshtayg, Lider (In Ascent, Poetry) (Moscow: Emes, 1940), 63 pp.
Sources: Ezra Korman, Yidishe Dikhterins (Yiddish Poetesses) (Chicago, 1928), pp. 325, 330, 351; A. Druker, in Shpanye in der Yidish-Sovetisher Literatur (Spain in Soviet Yiddish literature) (Kiev, February 1938)?; N. Y. Gotlib, Sovetishe Shrayber (Soviet Writers) (Montreal, 1945); Nakhmen Mayzil, Dos Yidishe Shafn un der Yidisher Shrayber in Sovetnfarband (Jewish Creation and the Jewish Worker in the Soviet Union) (New York, 1959); Chone Shmeruk, comp., Pirsumim yehudiim babrit-hamoatsot, 1917-1961 (Jewish Publications in the Soviet Union, 1917-1961) (Jerusalem, 1961).
Correction of the year of publication in Almanakh fun di Yidishe shrayber. Instead of 1926 should be 1929. Full title is:
Almanakh VUSPP [Alukrainishe asotsyatsye fun proletarishe shrayber: yidishe sektsye] (Almanac of Yiddish proletarian writers of Ukraine)/ kinstlerishe formirung - kinstler B. Blank un M. Fradkin.- Kharkov: Tsentrfarlag, 1929.- 363, [4] pp., ill., initials.
אלמאנאך װוספפ (אלאוקראינישע אסאציאציע פון פראלעטארישע שרײבער) : אידישע סעקציע
קינסטלערישע פארמירונג - קינסטלער ב. בלאנק און מ. פראדקין
Artists: Бланк, Бер Пинхусович = Бланк, Борис Павлович (1897-1957) and Фрадкин, Моисей Залманович = Фрадкин, Михаил Зиновьевич (1904-1974).
ANYUTA PYATIGORSKAYA's two poems "Vaytmizrekhdike serenade" (Far Eastern Serenade) and "Mizrekh un mayrev" (East and West) were published in the anthology "Birobidzhan - a kant a vayter un noenter: verk fun sovetishe yidishe shrayber" (Birobidzhan - a land far and near: works of the Soviet Yiddish writers) /red. Aron Vergelis.- Moskve: Sovetski pisatel, 1984.- 540 [4] pp.
ביראבידזשאן - א קאנט א װײטער און נאענטער: װערק פון סאװעטישע ײדישע שרײבער
אונטער דער רעדאקציע פונ ארן װערגעליס
אנע פיאטיגארסקע. װײטמיזרעכדיקע סערענאדע; מיזרעך און מײרעװ
ANYUTA PYATIGORSKAYA's recollection about her 2 meetings with Osher Shvartsman "Tsvey bagegenishn" was published in "Osher Shvartsman: zamlung gevidmet dem 20 yortog fun zayn heldishn toyt" (Osher Shvatsman: the collection dedicated to the 20th anniversary of his heroic death) unter der redaktsye fun A. Kushnirov.- Moskve: Melukhe farlag der Emes, 1940.- 138, [2] pp.
אשער שװארצמאנ: זאמלונג געװידמעט דעמ 20 יארטאג פונ זײנ העלדישנ טױט
אונטער דער רעדאקציע פונ א. קושניראװ
א. פיאטיגארסקע. צװײ באגעגענישנ
ANYUTA PYATIGORSKAYA translated from Russian into Yiddish S. Grigoriev's Vayse soyne (Белый враг=White enemy).- Kiev: Kooperativer farlag "Kultur-Lige", 1930.- 72 pp.
דער װײסער סױנע
ס. גריגאריעװ; יידיש - א. פיאטיגארסקע
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