The forgotten name of the talented actor of the Birobidzhan State Jewish Theater named after L. Kaganovich (Moisei Yefimovich Zhelkover)

Gamalei Sof'ya Yur'evna ORCID: 0000-0001-6401-1663 PhD in History Department of State Legal Disciplines, Far Eastern Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation 680030, Russia, Khabarovsk, lane. Dzerzhinsky, 20, of. 45 s.u.gamaley@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

The difficult foreign policy situation that has arisen between the Russian Federation and other previously friendly states may lead to an aggravation of interethnic conflicts. That is why, as part of the implementation of the "Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation", it is necessary to turn to the historical experience of its implementation by the Soviet state in the 1920s and 1930s, when the Jewish Autonomous Region was created in the Far East as one of the options for solving the Jewish question. And although the reasons for the creation of this territorial unit in historiography are debatable, researchers such as F. N. Ryansky, A.M. Melikhov do not deny the presence of "political will" as the main factor in the construction of Birobidzhan ^{[1; 2]}. In addition, studying the features of the resettlement policy to the Far East, Y. V. Pikalov, N. N. Platunov, and I. V. Nam note the peaceful nature of the resettlement of Jews, when not methods of violence, but beliefs and propaganda were involved – the idea of building a separate territorial unit ^[3-5]. At the same time, none of the researchers denies the fact that in the 1930s, conditions for the qualitative development of Jewish culture were created in the new territory of the future Jewish Autonomous Region ^{[6; 7]}. Thus, simultaneously with the issuance of the Decree on the establishment of the EAO, the Jewish State Theater began its work in Birobidzhan. His activity was the subject of research by B. Kotlerman ^[8-14], V. S. Gurevich ^{[15; 16]} and E. I. Kudish ^[17]. However, while studying the history of the creation and creativity of the Jewish collective, the researchers did not pay due attention to the people who worked on the stage of this theater. Actors and directors who worked on the stage of the theater from the first days lived in the EAO and loved their city of Birobidzhan.

One of these people was the actor of the Birobidzhan State Jewish Theater, Moses Efimovich Zhelkover. His creative life began long before the formation of the Jewish Autonomous Region. However, the national policy of the Soviet government towards the Jewish people, the creation of the EAO, was met positively by Moses Efimovich, which is why he went to Birobidzhan as part of the first Jewish troupe and worked on its sidelines throughout the years of the theater's existence, until 1949.

The beginning of M. Zhelkovera's creative career

Moses Zhelkover was born in Poland into a poor Jewish family. Since childhood, he has felt his attraction to the theater. In his youth, Moses got acquainted with choristers from the local Warsaw Jewish collective and thus gained access behind the scenes. Later, around 1906, he managed to create his own small amateur band of enthusiasts like himself. Not having sufficient experience in stage productions, M. Zhelkover and his small troupe tried to simply copy what they saw on the stage of professional theaters and show it to the public (see: Gaiman, B. 30 years on stage // Birobidzhan Star. 1940. December 29. p. 4). Imitating adult actors of that time, young art lovers also traveled to nearby towns and, where they could, gave performances. They didn't have the money for these trips, so they got to the designated place one by one, as best they could. It is difficult to say how successful these productions were or whether they can be called a low-grade farce genre [18. C. 26], since no mention of these amateur performances has been preserved. But it is worth noting that the director of this amateur troupe was Moisei Efimovich Zhelkover.

It was only in 1910 that he managed to enter the professional Jewish theater of Rachelle. At first, he had to play the smallest roles, for a small reward. This is what forced the actor to work for a procurement worker and only occasionally attend rehearsals, and in the evenings participate in performances. It was these difficulties that testified to how difficult it was for a Jewish actor to achieve recognition in the pre-revolutionary period. Jewish groups have always existed, but because of the persecution of Jews, they were forced to play under the guise of a Jewish-German theater.

In 1911, Moses joined the troupe of Julis Adler and Lipkovsky, and thus began the nomadic life of the young actor. M. Zhelkover hoped to advance in the new team, so he constantly improved his talent, but instead of playing real roles, the entrepreneurs forced him to sing songs in low-grade plays. Such work burdened M. Zhelkover, but his love for the theater did not allow him to quit his profession. Therefore, a year later, once in Vilna, he joined the Genfer troupe, whose repertoire was more substantial and cultured. Here he is assigned such prominent roles as King Claudius in Hamlet (V. Shakespeare), de Santos in Uriel Acosta (K. Gutskov) and others. However, due to the outbreak of the First World War, the troupe broke up (see: Gaiman, B. 30 years on stage // Birobidzhan star. 1940. December 29, p. 4), Moses found himself out of work again. The period from 1914 to 1934 was one of the most difficult periods in his acting career. For almost 20 years, he has worked in various creative teams. Among the most successful in his work, the actor himself considered working in the troupe of the Jewish actress Esther-Rohl Kaminskaya, working in Ukraine. This group staged plays by Western European and Jewish writers. M. Zhelkover worked here for three years and gained a huge creative experience, which helped him strengthen himself as a professional. After the establishment of Soviet power, the actor worked in various Jewish troupes in the country.

In 1934, together with the first group of actors, he came to the educated Jewish Autonomous Region [17. P.23], in fact, he became one of the founders of the Birobidzhan State Theater, since, unlike young actors, he possessed a proper level of professionalism and could share the accumulated knowledge of the acting profession.

M. Zhelkover and the Jewish Theater of Birobidzhan

Over the years of working in the theater, the artist managed to find his second creative youth. Working with young people, according to him in an interview with the newspaper Birobidzhan Zvezda, he was getting younger himself. But as the eldest and one of the leading actors, it was he who played the leading roles in the theater's performances. He created the images of Menashe Vanderstraten in the play "Uriel Acosta", Avrom Ovadis in the play "The Ovadis Family" (see: Gaiman, B. 30 years on stage // Birobidzhan Star. 1940. December 29, p. 4). His game, as journalists noted in their articles, was characterized by genuine realism. It was for the high-quality performance of the artist's roles that the Jewish audience of Birobidzhan loved.

Naturally, the living conditions in the Soviet period stimulated the actor to engage not only in professional activities, but also in active social work. During the tour, M. Zhelkover, like all actors of the theater, actively helped amateur circles with professional advice, conducted conversations on topical topics of that period, for example, about the Constitution of 1937. And in 1940 he joined the ranks of the Bolshevik Party (see: Gaiman, B. 30 years on stage // Birobidzhan Star. 1940. December 29. p. 4).

The fact that Moses Zhelkover was known and loved in Birobidzhan is evidenced by the celebration organized in January 1941 in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the actor's stage activity.

The gift from the hero of the day was the play "Sender Blank", in which M. Zhelkover played the main role.

The works of Sholom Aleichem have always been an inexhaustible source for the Jewish Soviet theater. "Sender Blank" is one of the first novels of the writer. This truly dramatic work was originally created for the stage. No wonder we read in the subtitle to the chapters of this novel: "The curtain is raised and the comedy begins", "Here begins a real game in which actors can show all their art" (see: Miller B. Sender Blank // Birobidzhan star. 1940. May 5. p. 4).

And indeed, in this performance, the actors had every opportunity to fully reveal themselves. They didn't even have to come up with something of their own. The text of Sholom Aleichem was the best guide for them. Perhaps, therefore, it is difficult and easy to stage this work for any theater, since, on the one hand, this work must be shortened, which inevitably leads to the transformation of the novel into a play, on the other hand, the ease was that even with its reduction, the style of this work was preserved.

In the Birobidzhan dramatization, as the journalists of the Birobidzhan Star newspaper wrote, it could be seen that the director retained only the plotline of the novel. And the actors playing the main roles had to rely more on the broad characteristics given to the roles by the author. These are, first of all, Sender Blank, Rebekah, Osip Zemlya, to a lesser extent, Sender's wife Mia-Hai, Sonya, Mark.

In the center of the play is the greedy, rude rich man Sender Blank, whom Sholom Aleichem showed in all his guise back in the last century and managed to expose him with his scathing satirical word, thereby expressing the deepest popular hatred. The main character is surrounded by members of his family, they are closely connected with him. But these are not ties of kinship, family friendship – this is just an empty phrase, the only thing that connects them is money, the inheritance of Sender Blank. The dramatic action finds an appropriate balance in the production in that, in parallel with the environment of Sendar and his family, another environment is shown – the servants of Froika and the people of the kitchen. These two forces are opposed to each other.

The production of this performance was carried out by director M. I. Friedman. Like M. Zhelkover, Mikhail Fridman has worked in the theater since its foundation. The advantage of his directorial work in this play was that the action was not overloaded with any director's inventions. It really was a realistic performance, during which the viewer was completely captured by the action taking place on stage.

The main role in the play was played by the hero of the day and it was especially successful for him. In the image of Sender Blank, M. Zhelkover embodied natural colors for a realistic image of a rich man, whose motto is "Take care of the ruble, and you will be a man." He is a typical ruble man who, even on his deathbed, does not forget to ask the servant for 2 rubles. 40 kopecks. change. At the same time, in this role, the artist was able to avoid the slightest caricature, and it was in his natural game, journalists wrote, "this gorged bourgeois appears in all his ugliness as a hero of that era and of that society where such scenes were possible," about which Sholom Aleichem wrote in the novel "May God give more cheerful and more pleasant scenes in our lives" (see: Miller B. Sender Blank // Birobidzhan star. 1940. May 5. p. 4).

On December 29, 1940, the play was staged with the participation of the hero of the day in the title role. The audience warmly and cordially welcomed the actor's appearance on stage. After the second act, the celebration of the hero of the day took place. "He was welcomed by the commissioner of the Committee for Arts Affairs at the Regional Executive Committee of the EAO, Comrade. Gofung and Comrade. Etin – from the regional and city party organizations, Comrade. Sarashevsky from the regional executive committee, Comrade. Krasilnikova – from the Committee for Arts Affairs at the Regional Executive Committee and the All–Russian Theater Society, B. Miller - from the Birobidzhan Group of Writers, Comrade. Kolina – from the theater team" (Relimin B. Jubilee of actor M. Zhelkovera // Birobidzhan star. 1941. January 3. p. 4). The speakers congratulated M. Zhelkovera, presented addresses and gifts. In addition, the decision of the executive committee of the regional council of Workers' Deputies was announced at the evening on awarding M. Zhelkover with a diploma of the regional executive committee and awarding him a two-month salary, as well as providing him with a new apartment, which naturally testified to the recognition of the actor's merits to the Jewish autonomous region (Relimin B. Jubilee of actor M. Zhelkover // Birobidzhan Star. 1941. January 3. p. 4).

In addition, welcome telegrams from theater groups of artists and writers from Moscow, Odessa, Kiev, Minsk and other cities where Jewish theaters were located were read out at the evening. In the final part of the evening, the hero of the day made a speech in response. He warmly thanked the public of the region for the honor and promised to justify it in further work (Relimin B. Anniversary of actor M. Zhelkovera // Birobidzhan star. 1941. January 3. p. 4).

1. The actor kept this promise. The period 1941-1945 was difficult for the entire Soviet country. In the conditions of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, some theater groups were closed. For example, the Russian troupe that existed at the Kaganovich Jewish State Theater was liquidated. But the theater itself continued its work. In the new conditions, literary works dedicated to the exploits of the people during the war appeared. One of these works is the play by the Birobidzhan writer G. Rabinkov "In the Mountains of Crimea", in which the author revealed the theme of the struggle of the Jewish people against fascism. It was this play that the staff of the Jewish theater decided to stage in 1943, one of the roles in which (the head of the partisan detachment) was played by M. Zhelkover. The plot of the play is simple: ordinary people of different nationalities live on the territory of Crimea, they live together. However, the war begins, young people go to the front, women and old people work for the front, but the enemy is close, and the Jews go to the mountains, organize a partisan detachment and begin to actively fight the occupiers. The play was distinguished by the colorfulness of many figures created by the author, the individualized language of the characters, the skillful use of humor, which helps in places to defuse the heavy, oppressive atmosphere of the mortal danger hanging over the characters. Director Ya.I. Rosenfeld faced a difficult task – to create the first play about the participation of Jews in the battles for the Motherland, while revealing the national identity of the characters of the participants in this struggle, to create a Jewish national play about the Patriotic War. And the director, according to journalists, succeeded, which was naturally facilitated by the successful performance of the actors, including the image of the head of the Daikhes partisan detachment, played by M. Zhelkover. He managed to create a convincing external drawing of the role. Although the journalists of the Birobidzhan Zvezda newspaper wrote, the artist M. Zhelkover did not fully use his capabilities. So, for example, the question remained unclear in the course of the performance, by virtue of which internal qualities he, and not anyone else, is the head of the partisan detachment. Under the well-portrayed external calmness, the actor lacked the inner excitement that could captivate the viewer, make them believe in the power of his inner image (Ritter D. In the mountains of Crimea // Birobidzhan star. 1943. June 29. p. 3).

The performance itself, despite its shortcomings, was warmly received by the audience, as well as other performances staged by the team during these years, such as "Poor, but fun", "Life Lesson".

The Jewish band met the end of the Great Patriotic War on tour in Kazakhstan. Upon his return, the theater continued its work, actor Moses Zhelkover still worked in its team. During the period 1945-1949, the artist played in many new productions: "The Island of Peace" (E. Petrov), "Red Tie" (S. Mikhalkov), "Moscow Character" (A. Safronov), as well as in the newly included in the repertoire – "Uprising in the Ghetto" (P. Markish), "200,000" (Sholom Aleichem).

However, in the late 1940s, the national policy of the Soviet state towards the Jewish people changed. As a result, the closure of Jewish state theaters begins in the USSR (State Archive of the Jewish Autonomous Region (GAEAO). F. 1-P. Op. 1. d. 296. L.5).

So, on October 22, 1949, the decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 2835 "On the liquidation of the Birobidzhan State Jewish Theater named after Kaganovich." In December 1949, in the courtyard of the regional library named after The works of repressed Jewish writers were destroyed by Sholom Aleichem: D. Bergelson, L. Kvitko, D. Hofstein, P. Markish. At the same time, other documents telling about the creation of a unique territorial unit – the Jewish Autonomous Region (GAEAO. F. 148. Op. 1. d. 20. l. 3; 7) were destroyed.

Conclusion

After the closure of the theater, the fate of many actors and directors ended tragically. Many prominent figures of Birobidzhan – writers, poets, actors, journalists were arrested. For example, M. Zhelkovera's colleague, Fayvish Lvovich Arones, was subjected to repression. At the same time, some theater actors, such as E. L. Gelfand, I.M. Kolin (Gross), were able to leave the Far East and work in other creative teams of the country. Their path has already been the subject of our research in separate articles ^{[19; 20]}.

But it was not possible to find out how the life of Moses Zhelkover turned out after the closure of the Jewish theater, as well as information that he was subjected to repression. The archival materials of the foundation 148 of the State Archive of the EAO reflect the history of the L. Kaganovich Jewish State Theater, and it mentions only the lists of theater employees. Their biography can be recreated only by contacting the regional press, the materials of which we used in this work. However, information about the actors and directors of the Birobidzhan theater can be found in the personal funds of the archive, permission to work with which can only be obtained with the consent of the actor's remaining relatives. It is the further search for the actor's relatives, as well as materials from the memoirs of his colleagues, to clarify certain facts of his biography, as well as to analyze his activities after the liquidation of BIRGOSET, that is a promising project for our further scientific work.

Thus, the life of Moses Zhelkover, who worked for 15 years at the Jewish State Theater in Birobidzhan, linking his fate with the EAO, shows how unique people lived and worked in the Far East, how they developed their region, their culture. Their biographies reflected the peculiarities of the cultural and national policy of the Soviet state. And through the prism of their work, it is possible to study the actual problems facing the Soviet country during the period under study. This explains the interest in the life and work of people who have contributed to the development of culture, who can become an example for modern youth.