• 1 See Sholem Aleichem, 1959–1961; 1971–1974; 1988–1990. A detailed comparative analysis of the three (...)

1Sholem Aleichem’s six-volume Collected Works, translated into Russian, underwent three editions in the post-Stalin Soviet Union, playing a unique role in engaging Soviet readers with Sholem Aleichem’s oeuvre as well as, to some extent, the overall Jewish heritage1. In this Collected Works, most of the Yiddish classic writer’s short stories are grouped into cycles titled Happy-Go-Lucky (Neunyvaiushchie), Kasrilevke (Kasrilovka), Monologues (Monologi), The Railroad Stories (Zheleznodorozhnye rasskazy), and Stories for Children (Rasskazy dlia detei). However, upon examining the various editions of the Collected Works, we observe that the composition of these cycles tends to differ. This leads to the question of who was responsible for composing the cycles—was it the author, or were they put together posthumously by the publishers, editors, and translators? In this paper, we analyze the emergence of the last of these cycles, the one that remained stable throughout all three editions, as it is an instructive case study. The controversial history of how the Stories for Children were compiled vividly illustrates the specificities of Sholem Aleichem’s creative work and the winding path his literary legacy took to reach the Russian reader.

• 2 Further information on the development of the Russian children’s literature between the second half (...)

2Russian children’s literature, having originated in the late Middle Ages, by the second half of the 19th century had already become firmly established in Russian culture. Gradually, the acceptance of the child as an individual led to the realization that books should not only educate young readers and give them models of proper behavior, but also entertain, provide aesthetic satisfaction, and improve their artistic taste. In Russia, magazines aimed at young readers became widespread, a community of professional writers for young audiences emerged, and major figures in Russian prose and poetry began to produce works for children. Texts that were originally written for adults were now considered to be “useful” and “entertaining” for young readers, such as Leo Tolstoy’s stories Childhood and Boyhood. Publishers and educators believed, not without reason, that children especially liked books that featured characters the same age as them.2

• 3 More on the emergence of children’s literature in Hebrew and Yiddish can be found in Shmeruk, 1984; (...)

3Similar processes among the Russian Jews occurred at a later stage and at a faster pace. It was only towards the end of the 19th century that Jewish intellectuals came up with the idea of creating a special “children’s literature” in both Hebrew and Yiddish. This was partly influenced by the emergence of proto-Zionist groups called Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) and later of political Zionism. From the 1890s onwards, proponents of this trend who were interested in promoting the Hebrew language began to establish the so called reformed kheders in cities and shtetls. These institutions were actually secular primary schools that disguised themselves as religious schools to circumvent the prohibition on secular education in the Western Krai and the Kingdom of Poland with any language of instruction rather than Russian. The emergence of the reformed kheders, where some classes were taught in Hebrew, created a need for Hebrew books suitable for children’s reading, both original and translated. As relevant materials were scarce, Jewish educators turned to the works of Yiddish writers who wrote about childhood, including Sholem Aleichem.3

• 4 See Sholem Aleichem, 1887. Here and elsewhere in this article, the titles of Sholem Aleichem’s work (...)

4Early in his writing career, Sholem Aleichem produced such a work, a story titled “The Penknife” (“Dos meserl”), which he published in 1887 as a separate brochure, paying for the publication himself.4 Years later, he wrote about the appearance of this text:

• 6 See more in the Khone Shmeruk’s notes to Sholem Aleichem, 1983, p. 19–23.

5The autobiographical context of “The Penknife” was indicated by the subtitle “A Minor, yet Sad Event from my Early Years” on the title page of the brochure. However, Sholem Aleichem did not intend to target children with his “sad event.” Suffice it to note that the first version of “The Penknife,” which differs significantly from the widely known later version, featured certain erotic motifs. At that time, the aspiring writer did not aim to educate or entertain younger generations. Instead, he wanted to provide a harsh critique of the traditional Jewish educational system, particularly the kheders.6 Until 1900, among the works he published, there was not a single one written explicitly for children.

• 7 See Shmeruk, 1984, p. 43–44. In particular, we learn about the refusal to publish “The Penknife” in (...)
• 8 Actually, as early as 1889, Sholem Aleichem’s friend and colleague, Mordkhe Spektor, a Yiddish pros (...)

6Meanwhile, in the mid-1890s, Yoshue Khone Rawnitzki, a writer, editor, publisher, and educator from Odessa, began collaborating with like-minded intellectuals to publish a series of books in Hebrew for young readers. He approached Sholem Aleichem with a proposal to include a translation of “The Penknife” in this series. After careful consideration, the writer declined the offer.7 It was at this point that he most likely realized that the initial version of “The Penknife” was not appropriate for young audiences. Then he decided to write stories specifically for Jewish children, and in their native language, Yiddish. This decision proved to be historic as, before Sholem Aleichem, there were hardly any such attempts in modern Yiddish fiction.8

• 9 See Sholem Aleichem, 1900b; 1900c; 1901a; 1901b; 1901c; 1901d.

7In the fall of 1900, Sholem Aleichem’s first work with the subtitle “A Story for Jewish Children” (“A mayse far yidishe kinder”) was published in the Warsaw-Krakow weekly Der yid (The Jew). It was a short story titled “The Flag” (“Di fon”). The editor’s note indicated that the author had publicly read the story for the holiday Sukes (Sukkot) at the first reformed kheder in Kiev. Thus, he established a direct line of communication with his young readers. It is not surprising in this regard that “The Flag” opens with a direct address: “Children, I will tell you a story about ...” In the subsequent months, Sholem Aleichem published five more texts with the same subtitle in the same weekly: “Hanukkah Money” (“Khanike-gelt”), “Visiting with King Ahasuerus” (“Baym kenig Akhashveyresh”), “Rabchik, a Jewish Dog” (“Rabtshik: a yidisher hunt”), “A Ruined Passover” (“A farshterter peysekh”), and “Lag B’omer” (“Legboymer”).9

• 10 See Sholem Aleichem, 1903a, vol. 1, p. 75–98. Sholem Aleichem’s preliminary drafts preserved in the (...)

8During the same period, the author began revising “The Penknife,” yet the new version appeared only two years later in the first volume of his first Collected Works in Yiddish, which were published in four volumes.10 The revised story bore the subtitle that the readers were already familiar with, “A Story for Jewish Children,” and, like “The Flag,” began with an address: “Listen, children, and I will tell you a story about ...” In addition, the story now included a didactic epigraph from the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not steal.” Sholem Aleichem seemed to share the common belief of his time that children’s literature should primarily encourage proper behavior.

• 11 See Sholem Aleichem, 1900a; 1902. In the first publication, the story “The Clock” had a simple subt (...)
• 12 See Sholem Aleichem, 1903c; 1904; 1905; 1906.

9The second volume of the same Collected Works was titled Stories for Jewish Children (Mayses far yidishe kinder) and included the six aforementioned stories from Der yid as well as two additional texts: “The Clock” (“Der zeyger”) and “Methuselah” (“Mesushelekh”), which had previously been published in the same weekly but were not specifically addressed to young readers.11 Over the years, Sholem Aleichem published four more stories with the author’s note “For Jewish Children” in various periodicals: “The Spinning-Top” (“Dos dreydl,” 1903), “The Passover Eve Exiles” (“Di erev-peysekhike emigratsye,” 1904), “Greens for Shevuos” (“Grins oyf shvues,” 1905, an early version with the “adult” subtitle from 1903), and “The Guest” (“Der oyrekh,” 1906).12

• 13 See Sholem Aleichem, 1909a.
• 14 See e. g. the cheap booklets with individual stories, Sholem Aleichem, 1909c; 1911a; 1914. The exce (...)

10And then came a weird development. In 1909, the Jubilee Committee was established in Warsaw to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sholem Aleichem’s literary career. As part of its activities, the committee issued a new edition of the four-volume Collected Works. Surprisingly, although the old matrixes were used for printing, all the addresses of the respective stories to the children now disappeared, i. e. both the subtitle for “The Penknife” in the first volume and the name of the second volume were missing.13 After that, during the writer’s lifetime, the stories originally intended for children will always be published without the former subtitle. This implied “by default” that they were now being published for the adults.14 This development is particularly striking given that it occurred during the first half of the 1910s, a period marked by the major rise of children’s literature in Yiddish. During this time, publishers in various cities of the Empire, including Warsaw, Vilna, Kiev, Kishinev, and Odessa, one after another began to publish Yiddish book series, collections, and magazines for young readers. It appears that the writer (on his own or under someone else’s influence) decided that his stories were not appropriate for young readers and needed to be abridged and adapted.

• 17 Many years later, in 1921, Shloyme Shreberk, a publisher from Vilna, one of the co-founders of the (...)

13It remains unclear which specific parts of the stories, deemed potentially inaccessible for young readers, the writer and his associates intended to omit. For reasons unknown, the publication of the proposed series never materialized.17

• 20 See Sholem Aleichem, 1910. The first volume was re-issued twice, amended, the second one went throu (...)

17Ultimately, the title Children of the “Pale” (Deti “cherty” in Russian) was selected. The same title was used for the second volume, that began with a chapter from an unfinished work about adolescent love “The Song of Songs” (“Shir hashirim”). Together, the two volumes contained, apart from the short novel about the orphaned boy Mottel and the excerpts from “The Song of Songs,” two dozen short stories. It is noteworthy, that the author, who was also the compiler, borrowed for the Russian edition only nine of the thirteen stories once written “for Jewish children.” The composition of these volumes, their title, and the author’s correspondence with the translator suggest that Sholem Aleichem intended to introduce the adult Russian audience to the life of Jewish children.20

• 22 See Sholem Aleichem, 1911b. Two years later, the volume was re-issued with corrections: “Geese” (“G (...)

20One year later, volume six of another multivolume publishing project, the Collected Works in Yiddish, was published in Warsaw. This project was dedicated to the abovementioned date, the 25th anniversary of Sholem Aleichem’s literary career, and was therefore entitled The Jubilee Edition (Yubileum-oysgabe). The volume was named Jewish Children (Yidishe kinder), but contained only two out of the initial thirteen “stories for Jewish children,” namely “The Spinning-Top” and “Greens for Shevuos.” This third version of the cycle, which was drastically different from the second one, Children of the “Pale,” included 15 pieces, with “The Song of Songs” among them. The presence of the work about love between a boy and a girl clearly indicated that the writer, as before, was attempting to introduce the adult audience to the life of Jewish children, even though this time the audience was Jewish rather than Russian.22

• 23 Kazdan, 1912, p. 22. In a separate note, the author of the article mentions cautiously, hinting at (...)

21However, not all Jewish cultural activists of the time regarded the adult reader as the only target audience of the cycle. An alternative view was presented in a long article by Khayim Shloyme Kazdan, a member of the Bund, an educator and advocate of schooling in Yiddish. In this article, he attempted “to the extent of his abilities, to make an assessment of the children’s stories by Sholem Aleichem from the standpoint of whether they are suitable reading material for the children in general and for being read by the teacher in class in particular.”23 Kazdan discussed both the stories from the Jewish Children volume and those left out but similar in their content.

• 24 Kazdan, 1912, p. 23.

22On the one hand, Kazdan was adamantly against offering a few texts, e.g., “A Lost Lag B’omer” (“A farshpilter legboymer”) and “Bandits” (“Gazlonim”), to young readers “because of their themes being unaesthetic.” Overall, the educator was troubled by the fact that many works by Sholem Aleichem depicted the negative and ugly features of the traditional kheder. He insisted that even though it was acceptable to make children aware of them, “it should be done in an extremely tactful and reserved way, which, unfortunately, is not always to be found in the stories from Sholem Aleichem’s kheder cycle.”24

• 28 For more details, see Fishman, 2005, p. 33–47 and 56–58.

27Such demand for Sholem Aleichem’s children’s works, and such close attention they received from Jewish teachers, as well as the idea of creating a series of brochures with his stories adapted “specially for children,” reflected major social trends in the years following the First Russian Revolution. This included a change in attitude among the majority of Jewish intellectuals towards the “Jargon,” their newfound belief in the value of Yiddish culture, and the onset of the struggle for school-level education in students’ native tongue as a major goal of the political agenda of the Bund and other Jewish Socialist parties.28

• 29 See Sholem Aleichem, 1918.

30The compiler gave volumes 8 and 9 of The Folks-Fond Edition the name that the author had given to the cycle in its original version, Stories for Jewish Children. Indeed, the volumes contain almost all of these initial stories, twelve out of thirteen. Yet Berkowitz had arbitrarily added twelve more texts, including those that Sholem Aleichem had never included into any of the three authorized versions of the cycle, i. e. “Pesele, Rebe’s Daughter” (“Pesele dem rebns”), “Creature” (“Bashefenish”), “The Littlest of Kings” (“Der yingster fun di mlokhim”), “Kapparot” (“Kapores”), “The Pair” (“Dos porfolk”). Strange as it might seem, though, the two volumes failed to accommodate the stories “The Guest,” “Bandits,” “Three Little Heads,” “The Dead Esrog” (“A toyter esreg”), “Passover in a Village” (“A peysekh in dorf”), “Getzel” (“Getsl”) that were to be found in certain versions of the cycle.29

• 30 More on the formation of the composition of ten miniatures “Flowers,” originally created by Sholem (...)

31Most probably, Berkowitz, as compiler, was primarily concerned with harmonizing the overall structure of Collected Works and found certain texts more suitable for the other volumes, while some didn’t seem to fit anywhere, so he proclaimed them “for children” on purely formal grounds. For instance, the short stories “Kapparot” and “The Pair,” which contained rich political allegories, were by no means intended for a young audience, but they did feature animals (chicken, ducks, geese, and turkeys). So apparently Berkowitz believed that “life of the animals” was an appropriate “theme for children.” A similar case: the composition of ten lyrical and philosophical miniatures under the title “Flowers” (“Blumen”) was also hardly intended for children, but the misleading “young reader” subtitle, “Ten Little Fairy Tales” (“Tsen kleyne mayselekh”), led Berkowitz to include them.30 No doubt that haste also played a role in his decisions, as he had to prepare a monumental multivolume edition almost single-handedly in just a few years.

• 31 See Sholem Aleichem, 1926.

33Soviet editions have made a major contribution to the history of the transformations of the cycle. As early as the mid-1920s, a collection in Yiddish called Stories for Children (Mayses far kinder) was published in the USSR to mark the tenth anniversary of Sholem Aleichem’s death. A peculiar trait of the post-revolutionary period, when “proletarian internationalism” was proclaimed the basis of a new society, is quite noteworthy: judging by the name, the Yiddish edition was intended not for Jewish children, but for children in general. The collection featured ten stories, including “Kapparot” and “The Pair.” Berkowitz’s choices also had an impact in this case.31

• 32 See Sholem Aleichem, 1937a.

35In 1935–1941, a major Yiddish edition of Sholem Aleichem’s works was issued by the Moscow publishing house Der emes, a 15-volume Selected Works (Oysgeveylte verk), including a separate volume Stories for Jewish Children (Mayses far yidishe kinder). The editor of the volume, Rivke Rubin, a literary scholar, selected eighteen short stories, including “Kapparot.”32

• 33 See Sholem Aleichem, 1937b; 1939.

36An extensive collection called Stories for Adults and Children (Rasskazy dlya vzroslykh i detei), published twice by Ukrgosnatsmenizdat (State Publisher for the Ethnic Minorities of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), stands out amid a plethora of prewar editions of Sholem Aleichem in Russian. As the title suggests, David Volkenshtein, its compiler and translator, targeted an audience of all ages. His version of the cycle is quite different from Berkowitz’s, and includes, for instance, “The Song of Songs,” a story with the author’s definition of the genre, which can be translated as both a “youth novel” and a “youthful love.”33

• 34 See Sholem Aleichem, 1940.
• 35 See Sholem Aleichem, 1954.

37On the eve of the war between Nazi Germany and the USSR, the primary Soviet publisher of books for young readers joined the process of promoting the works of Sholem Aleichem. A collection of eight short stories, produced by Detizdat (an abbreviation for The Children’s Publishing House), was intended, according to special marking, “for older children” (meaning ages 11 to 17).34 Nearly fifteen years later, the same publisher, renamed Detgiz (an abbreviation for The Children’s State Publishing House), would play an emblematic role in the history of Soviet Jewish culture. After Stalin’s anti-Jewish repressive campaigns in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when the last Jewish schools, theaters, newspapers and magazines were liquidated in the Soviet Union, and the publication of books in Yiddish or translated from Yiddish ceased, The Adventures of Mottel the Cantor’s Son, issued by Detgiz in December 1954, just a year and a half after Stalin’s death, would be the first sign of the revised “Jewish policy” of the Communist regime.35

• 36 See Sholem Aleichem, 1959–1961, vol. 5, p. 339–643; 1971–1974, vol. 3, p. 163–438; 1988–1980, vol.  (...)

38In conclusion, let’s return to Sholem Aleichem’s six-volume Collected Works in Russian. As previously mentioned, this impressive corpus of the writer’s texts was published three times, and each time it included the section “Stories for Children” (“Rasskazy dlia detei”), compiled in the late 1950s or early 1960s by Rivke Rubin, who had earlier put together the Stories for Jewish Children volume as part of the Selected Works in Yiddish in the 1930s.36

• 38 Similar to Berkowitz's The Folks-fond Edition, the 6-volume Russian edition also excludes the two s (...)

40With this understanding in mind, i. e. that, for the writer, the child is more of an object, yet an addressee as well, Rubin put together a new version of the cycle, including a couple of dozen texts and slightly expanding the boundaries outlined by Berkowitz.38 She partially used previously published translations, yet most of the works selected were translated into Russian anew, especially for the six-volume Collected Works, apparently because the compiler deemed the quality of the earlier translations unacceptable. Both experienced translators, Mikhail Shambadal, Yakov Slonim, Lev Yudkevich, and a beginner, Maria Leshchinsky, contributed to this work. Rubin and her daughter, the Russian poet Elena Akselrod, also translated some of the stories.

• 39 See Sholem Aleichem, 1959–1961, vol. 5, p. 631; 1971–1974, vol. 3, p. 428; 1988–1990, vol. 4, p. 40 (...)

41Naturally, ideological barriers remained in place. The six-volume editions omit the aforementioned “harmful” stories, “Lag B’omer” and “The First Commune.” The editors also rejected “The Guest,” “Elijah the Prophet” (”Elye hanove”), and “Kapparot,” arguably because they are filled with details of Jewish religious life even more that the other stories in the cycle. Meanwhile, the story “Esther” (“Ester”), translated by David Volkenshtein before World War II, is included, although the editors had to censor it. Unlike previous Soviet-era publications, the mention of Theodor Herzl is omitted, depriving readers of an important aspect of the character’s personality, his Zionist sympathies.39 Khrushchev's anti-religious campaign and the intensification of the fight against Zionism in the USSR could not but affect the Collected Works of the Yiddish classic writer, including the “children’s cycle.”