Translate this page:
Please select your language to translate the article


You can just close the window to don't translate
Library
Your profile

Back to contents

Philosophy and Culture
Reference:

The cultural code of the Shtetl in Grigory Gorin's play "Memorial Prayer"

Kotliar Elena Romanovna

PhD in Art History

Associate Professor, Department of Visual and Decorative Art, Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University named after Fevzi Yakubov

295015, Russia, Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, lane. Educational, 8, room 337

allenkott@mail.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 
Zolotuhina Natal'ya Anatol'evna

PhD in Cultural Studies

Associate Professor, Department of Fine and Decorative Arts, State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University named after Fevzi Yakubov"

295015, Russia, Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, lane Educational, 8, office 337

allenkott@mail.ru
Zolotuhina Arina YUr'evna

lecturer, Department of Fine and Decorative Arts, State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University named after Fevzi Yakubov"

295015, Russia, Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, lane Academic, 8, room 337

allenkott@mail.ru

DOI:

10.7256/2454-0757.2024.3.69819

EDN:

LSNBIY

Received:

11-02-2024


Published:

26-03-2024


Abstract: The subject of our article is the identification of cultural codes of Eastern European shtetl towns in the play by Grigory Gorin "Memorial Prayer", the libretto of which was written by the author based on the works of the famous Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem. The author of the article describes the history and conditions of localization of Jewish culture in Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire, the peculiarities of its transformation, the tragic history of the Jewish theater in the first third of the twentieth century. After the disappearance of the towns and the disuse of the Yiddish language, the preservation of the history of the characteristic everyday and philosophical way of life of the shtetls became the goal of museum figures, historians, writers, playwrights, and artists. In the work, using the example of Tevye the milkman, his family and environment, characteristic images of the inhabitants of small towns, their habitat, types of thinking and actions are revealed.  The article uses the methods of historicism in the retrospective of the culture of Shtetl towns, the method of analysis in the identification of Shtetl archetypes, the method of synthesis in the generalization of a set of characteristic cultural codes. The main conclusions of the study are: 1. Eastern European Jewish shtetl towns are small urban-type settlements with a predominantly Jewish population, whose unique culture was determined by the Jewish faith, everyday and religious traditions, the Yiddish language, as well as the localization of residence in a small area. 2. During the period of large-scale social upheavals of the early twentieth century and the subsequent expansion beyond the boundaries of the towns, their unique culture became a mythologeme, the foundation for writers, artists, musicians, and theater figures who emerged from it. One of the milestones in the preservation of this culture was the Jewish theater GOSET, whose existence was tragically cut short in the middle of the twentieth century. 3. The play "Memorial Prayer", written by Grigory Gorin based on the works of Sholem Aleichem and staged at the Lenkom Theater by Mark Zakharov, became the quintessence of the characteristic images of the shtetl, and at the same time the revival of authentic Jewish culture. The author's special contribution is to highlight in the play the images-the archetypes of the Shtetl, which have become cultural markers, or codes of Jewish Yiddish culture.


Keywords:

Cultural code, shtetl, Judaism, Yiddish culture, a Jewish place, Sholom Aleichem, Grigory Israelevich Gorin, Memorial prayer, GOSET, Lenkom

This article is automatically translated.

One of the main goals of cultural science is to study the multifaceted essence of culture, the peculiarities of its determination, forms and types. Among these forms, national and ethnic self-identification, formed in the process of ontogeny and phylogeny, occupies a special place, including religion, moral, ethical and aesthetic norms, as well as the peculiarities of the semiotics of each ethnic group. Against the background of universal globalization and depersonalization of local groups, the issue of preserving ethnic identity becomes especially relevant [9].

The diversity of aspects of ethnic culture is manifested both verbally, through language, and through cultural texts expressed in other ways (visual, auditory, audio-visual), embodied in folk religious and ceremonial traditions, song, music, dance, fine and decorative arts. To identify both common features in pre-cultures or in the process of cultural convergence, as well as unique patterns of identity of each ethnic group, cultural anthropologists study the characteristics of each of the ethnocultures.

The famous Russian cultural critic, ethnogeographer and sociologist Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky (1822-1885) in his key work "Russia and Europe" (1869) identified a number of "cultural and historical types", the defining feature of which is religion. "Religion is the moral basis of any activity" [1, p. 157], "Religion was the most essential, dominant (almost exclusively) content of ancient (...) life, and (...) it also contains the predominant spiritual interest of ordinary (...) people" [1, p. 577]. It can be stated that ethnic identity before the processes of globalization of the twentieth century was historically based on religious dogmas. This idea was also expressed by other ethnographers, in particular, V. V. Stasov [13].

N. Y. Danilevsky put forward the idea of cultural unity based on the interaction and integration of cultural subjects: ethnic groups and civilizations. Danilevsky considered the totality of religion, science, art, and social development of local ethnic groups to be a cultural and historical type or civilization, the marker of unification of which was the kinship of languages. N. Ya. Danilevsky argued: "A civilization peculiar to each cultural and historical type only reaches completeness, diversity and richness when the ethnographic elements that make up it are diverse– when they, not being absorbed into one political whole, using independence, form a federation or a political system of states" [1, p. 113].

Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev introduced the term ecology of culture into scientific circulation, putting into it the idea of preserving the socio-cultural space through recognition of the intrinsic value of its constituent cultures, in particular, ethnic ones. "Morality is what turns the "population" into an orderly society, humbles national enmity, forces the "big" nations to take into account and respect the interests of the "small" (or rather, the small)" [5].

Symbolic systems are a part of ethnic identity, which are the subject of semiotics study. The foundations of semiology are contained in the works of the Swiss linguist and semiotic Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). He put forward the concept of a "two-sided sign" consisting of a word (signifier) and the meaning of a form (signified).  According to Saussure, the meaning of the sign may vary for different groups of people [12],[7].

The American mathematician and philosopher Charles Sanders Pierce (1839-1914) laid the foundations of pragmatics, characterized signs, both artificial (letters) and natural (psychological reactions), from the point of view of logic. Pierce believed that the universe consists of logically constructed signs. According to his theory, a sign is anything that means a certain object. Signs that do not look like the signified object, adopted by a certain group of people, were called symbols by Charles Pierce [11].

Umberto Eco (1932-2016), a specialist in medieval semiotics, transformed the concept of a sign into a code, calling the message transmitted by a sign or a group of signs a text [14].

Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman (1922-1993), a Russian cultural critic and semioticist, put forward the theory of the semiosphere. According to Lotman, the unique integrity of the semiosphere is made up of the internal diversity of the texts of the constituent cultures [10]. In our article, the Shtetl (Jewish place) is considered as an example of the semiosphere.

The purpose of our research is to identify the cultural code of the Shtetl using the example of Grigory Gorin's work "Memorial Prayer".

The keycode is the key to understanding a certain picture of the world.

There are several definitions of the cultural code:

1. The cultural code as a symbolic structure;

2. Cultural code as a system of ordering (using) symbols;

3. The cultural code as a kind of correspondence between the signifier and the signified.

The functions of the cultural code are:

a) deciphering the meaning of individual phenomena (signs, texts, symbols) – in the absence of a code, the cultural text remains closed;

b) the relationship between the signifier (sign) and the signified (phenomenon, meaning, object).

The subject of our article is close to the concept of the S-code (semiotic code), put forward by U. Eco, according to which the representation of the Shtetl image occurs with the help of unique recognizable cultural patterns inherent in the local group of Ashkenazi Jews.

Ashkenazi Jews are an ethnic group whose religion is Talmudic Judaism. The term Ashkenaz, which has been found in Jewish sources since the tenth century, comes from the Hebrew name of medieval Germany. Ashkenazi Jews were Eastern European Jews from Germany who settled as a result of migrations across Poland and the Baltic States. The daily language of communication of the Ashkenazim was Yiddish, a German dialect, and the liturgical language was Hebrew (Hebrew) [2].

Jewish towns ("miastechko" (Polish) – "town"), or "shtetlach" (Yiddish), in Eastern Europe were small settlements with a predominant Jewish population. After the partitions of Poland, the Russian Empire inherited vast territories inhabited by about a million Jews. Catherine II restricted the areas in which Jews were allowed to live, marking the beginning of the "Jewish pale of settlement." The traditional way of life of the Jews, based on religious isolation, has formed a unique culture of the Shtetl. Since the reign of Alexander II, the pale of settlement has gradually begun to lose its rigid framework. Since 1859, Jewish merchants of the 1st guild were allowed to live in large cities, in 1861 the ban was lifted for Jews with higher education, the laws of 1865-1867 lifted the ban on Jewish doctors. Temporary residence was also allowed to persons enrolled in the craft workshop. As a result of these indulgences, a stratum of the Jewish intelligentsia was formed [8].

In order to preserve the origins of the Shtetl culture, Jewish enthusiasts created collections of Jewish antiquities and collected samples of artistic and musical folklore during ethnographic expeditions. In 1908, the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society was established under the leadership of Maxim (Maer-Khil) Moiseevich Vinaver (1862-1926), whose main activity was the collection of documents on the history of the Jews of Russia and Poland. In 1908-1913, a 16-volume Jewish Encyclopedia was published under the editorship of famous Jewish educators Baron David Horatievich Ginzburg (1857-1910), Lev Israelevich (Yehuda Leib Binyamin) Katzenelson (1847-1917), Avraham Yakovlevich Garkavi (1839-1919), Semyon Markovich (Shimon Meyerovich) Dubnov (1860-1941). Based on the collection of Jewish antiquities collected by Semyon Akimovich Ansky (Shlomo Aronovich Rappoport (1863-1920) in 1916, the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Museum was opened in Petrograd [6].

As a result of the large-scale events of the early twentieth century, the traditional life of the towns was destroyed, the pale of settlement was abolished, and young people rushed to large cities. The Shtetl became a "cultural reserve", the object of attention of the figures of the "new Jewish culture", who perceived it as their cultural "cradle". The development of a new national identity of progressive Jewry was also facilitated by the policy of root–building in the 1920s-1930s, within the framework of which national schools, clubs, evening universities, periodicals, and art associations appeared. From this period, fiction, songs, and theatrical productions in the Yiddish language began, previously considered colloquial jargon that was not worth attention. However, it was Yiddish that became the unifying factor and the main part of the cultural code of the Shtetl, expressing its uniqueness. Later, the culture of the towns began to be called Yiddish culture. The Jewish artistic association Kulturliga, including its theater studio under the leadership of writer and public figure Moses (Moshe) Ilyich Litvakov (1875-1938), made a great contribution to the preservation and development of the Jewish authentic Shtetl themes through a new plastic language in the spirit of the times.

The first Jewish theater troupes with productions in Yiddish were Literarishe Troupe ("literary troupe"), Farinigte Troupe ("united troupe") under the leadership of Avraham Yitzhak Kaminsky (1867-1918), the "Girshbein Troupe" under the leadership of Peretz Girshbein (1880-1948) and with the support of poet and writer Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873-1934), etc. In total, by 1912, there were 16 Jewish troupes operating in Russia, but their level was mainly amateur. The history of the Jewish professional theater, which became a bright and at the same time tragic milestone of Soviet Jewish culture, is certainly connected with the State Jewish Theater, abbreviated GOSET [4].

The Yiddish Jewish Theater, originally called the State Jewish Chamber Theater (GOSEcT), was opened in 1918 in Petrograd, and since 1920 moved to Moscow. The theater was headed by director and playwright Alexei Mikhailovich Granovsky (real name Abram Mikhailovich Azarch, 1890-1937). At the same time as the theater, an artistic theater studio was opened with him, in which talented young actors studied. The theater staged plays based on the works of Jewish writers, such as the founder of Yiddish literature Mendele Moyher-Sforim (Sholem-Yakov Abramovich, 1836-1917), Sholom Aleichem (Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, 1859-1916) Sholom Ash (1880-1957), Pepper Davidovich Markish (1895-1952), and others, as well as plays on topical issues for that time of the theme. Thanks to the talented material and its subsequent dramatic processing in the libretto, for example, by the famous playwright Abraham Goldfaden (1840-1908), as well as the brilliant acting of the actors, many of Goset's performances became widely known, were covered in the press, and sold out. Among them are such famous plays as "Mazel-Tov" and "Tevye the Milkman" by Sholom Aleichem, "The God of Revenge" by Sh. Ash, "Night at the Old Market" by A.M. Granovsky, "Herschele Ostropoler" by M. Gershenzon. In addition to the Jewish ones, classical plays were also staged in the theater, for example, "King Lear".  The play of outstanding actors of his time, Solomon Mikhailovich Mikhoels (Shlomo Vovsi, 1890-1948) and Benjamin (Benjamin), brought special fame to the theater Lvovich Zuskin (1899-1952). GOSET's performances were vital, understandable for people from Shtetls, their characters were written off from traditional residents of small towns, imbued with grotesque, sparkling humor combined with dramatic background, causing an acute emotional reaction from the audience. The recognizable character of the shtetl was also recreated with the help of decorations, which were worked on by such famous artists as Robert Rafailovich Falk (1886-1958), Mark Zakharovich (Movsha Khatskelevich) Chagall (1887-1985), Alexander Grigoryevich Tyshler (1898-1980) [4]

At the same time as the State University in Moscow, another Jewish theater, Gabima, was functioning, created by Naum Lazarevich Tsemakh (1887-1939) in 1913 in Vilna, subsequently moved to Moscow and patronized by the founder of the Moscow Art Theater Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky (real name Alekseev, 1863-1938). The head of the theater studio "Gabima" was a student of K. S. Stanislavsky, Evgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov (1883-1992). The concept of "Gabima", in contrast to GOSET, consisted in staging performances in Hebrew, a liturgical, "sublime" language, unlike Yiddish, which was considered a "slang" spoken language. Due to the fact that Hebrew was understandable to a small number of people, many of the actions and plots in the performances were solved not through words, but with the help of pantomime, an imaginative and plastic acting language brought up by the Stanislavsky professional acting school. Among the productions of "Gabima" were the plays "The Primordial Ball" and "The Eternal Jew" by David Pinsky (1872-1959). However, the worldwide fame of "Gabima" was brought by the production of "Gadibuk" by Semyon Ansky, directed by E. V. Vakhtangov. Hana Rovina (1888-1980) became the performer of the main role of Leia, the artistic design of the play belonged to Nathan Isaevich Altman (1889-1970), the music was written by Julius (Yoel) Dmitrievich Engel (1868-1927) [4].

After a significant break in the Soviet era, when the national theater ceased to exist due to discrepancies with the general program of socialist realism, the theme of Sholom Aleichem's works was revived in the theater in 1989, when the play "Memorial Prayer" was written and staged [3] by Grigory Israelevich Gorin (real name Ofstein, 1940-2000). Grigory Gorin was a famous playwright, satirical writer, keenly sensitive to the word, whose ancestors also came from Eastern European towns, so it was not by chance that he managed to revive the memory of the shtetl, to recreate an ironic and dramatic picture from the life of the inhabitants of the town.

The play was first staged on the stage of the Lenkom Theater in 1989 by the artistic director of the theater, the famous director, actor, screenwriter Mark Anatolyevich Zakharov (1933-2019). The performance was met with great public interest, and in 1993 his famous TV version was released with the outstanding actor Evgeny Pavlovich Leonov (1926-1994) in the title role of Tevye the milkman. Later, the role of Tevye was also played by the equally famous actor Vladimir Alexandrovich Steklov (born 1948). The popularity of the play, thanks to the poignant, lively and understandable human history described in it, has not weakened to this day, it is staged on the stage of various theaters, from metropolitan to provincial.

Cultural patterns, or shtetl codes, are derived in the play from the very beginning, and the first of them is a description of the characteristic environment of the place in which the action takes place. In the monologue of the milkman Tevye, the village of Anatovka is described, in which Jews and Orthodox lived side by side for many years, "lived together, worked together, only each went to his own cemetery to die." The traditional area of life of an Eastern European town consisted of a central square, on which a synagogue was located, and sometimes a church, if there was a sufficient number of Orthodox population. The square was used as a market square on fair days, and in large towns it also housed a check-in (inn) for merchants who came to the fair.

The synagogue was not only a place for prayer, but also a "meeting house" where Jews gathered to discuss important issues related to community life, which included charity, ideological or property disputes, brit milah (circumcision), bar bat mitzvah (coming of age), chupa (weddings), burials. Traditional education was of great importance in the Shtetls: Jewish boys (and by the end of the 19th century, many girls also) attended a traditional heder school, where they studied writing, arithmetic, and also studied Scripture. The Talmud Torah, a place for studying sacred books, operated at the synagogue in large towns. There were also yeshivas – rabbinical schools in larger cities [9].

Traditional occupations in shtetls, due to the prohibition of Jews from owning and cultivating land, were crafts that were generally accepted by both Jews and Christians: milkman, baker, tailor, carpenter, water carrier, tinker, glazier, etc., as well as specific professions related to the observance of Jewish traditions: rabbi, soifer – copyist Torahs, moel – a man who performs circumcision, shamash – a synagogue attendant, melamed – a teacher in a heder, a butcher – a butcher who conducts painless slaughter of cattle, etc. Representatives of each profession, as a rule, inherited it from their parents, so a certain range of activities of the inhabitants of the towns was archetypal, almost the same for geographically different shtetls. In large shtetls, there were also professional communities – artels, whose members not only interacted in a common cause, but also built their own synagogues and solved community issues [2]. In the play "Memorial Prayer", however, a small place is shown in which each specialist was in the singular.

The play depicts the images of a rebbe (rabbi) and a priest (priest): "wise people were, they knew the answers to all questions." The image of a rabbi who finds answers to all questions that arise in Scripture, from ideological to everyday life, is not accidental. For a Jew, the rabbi himself was not considered endowed with holiness, but the general reverence for scholarship implied great respect for people who studied the Torah and Talmud, which, according to Jews, contain the immutable truth. Rabbis were specially trained in the techniques of analysis and synthesis in relation to the texts of the holy books in yeshivas: Thus, Pilpul's dialectical method consisted in searching for contradictions in the texts of Scripture and their subsequent logical explanation [9].

Mandatory for any settlement, be it a Jewish town or an Orthodox village, was the figure of a constable – a representative of the local government. "There was also a policeman in the village. One for all! Because people's faith may be different, but the power is the same!" The sergeant, on the one hand, uses his position: "Men! Whose goose is running unattended, Orthodox or Jewish?".. "Yours, Your Honor!" [3]. However, when a pogrom occurs, and later, when Tevye accompanies Pepper and Godl into exile, the sergeant feels sorry for their family, takes warm sheepskin coats and food for them on the road.

The images of the main character, Tevye the milkman, and his wife Golda represent ordinary people who are traditional for Shtetls, spending their days at work, but gifted with subtle worldly wisdom, a deep understanding of the meanings of life that they see in a traditional Jewish family, mutual support, love, raising daughters, as well as in daily work. "And he had five daughters, two cows and one horse, so old that it could only carry a cart down the mountain. And when the road went uphill, Tevye harnessed himself to the cart, and then he even took off his hat, and from the outside it was already difficult to understand who was walking – a Jew or an Orthodox. And what difference does it make if a person drags his cart with the last of his strength..." [3].

Adherence to the long-standing communal Jewish traditions is an unshakable rule for them, the foundation on which their whole life rests. Tevye says: "I am a Russian man of Jewish origin, of the Jewish faith."[3] For him, the inviolable tradition, a tribute to the continuity of the ancestors, was the veneration of the Sabbath, evening prayer and a meal with his family. Tevye also mentions the ancestors whose graves are located in the cemetery, the oak tree planted by his father, the roots from which he himself came out, both religious and philosophical, and everyday objects, which together constitute a microcosm of Jewish parochial life. At the same time, Tevye realizes the importance of work for the sustenance of the family, but does not put wealth first, he does it for the sake of his daughters, whom he wishes a better life. Tevye quotes Scripture: "... and rich gold coins do not swallow, and poor stones do not eat..." [3]. The image of Tevye is a traditional, code archetype of the Jewish artisan, a resident of the Shtetl, sincere in his wise simplicity.

The image of Golda represents the code of aidisha-mama (Jewish mother), the guardian of the family, a woman with an indomitable core, doing everything in her power for her husband and children. At the same time, Golda is sharp-tongued, able to stand up for herself and her family, and at the same time, she always listens to the opinions and desires of her husband and daughters, that is, understands them, even when their opinions do not coincide with her own. Feminine wisdom combined with strong character and simplicity make this image especially attractive. An interesting point is that Golda is engaged in folk medicine, practicing spells against diseases, which was also the archaic purpose of a woman. However, her more modern, literate daughters are skeptical about this activity. The climactic scene, demonstrating Golda's dedication, is the moment when, being terminally ill, she dies, mentally transferring her soul to her granddaughter, who is being born, named later in her honor. Thus, family traditions, the precepts of the ancestors are revived in a new life.

The image of Menachem Mendl, a relative of Tevye, derived in the play, differs in a completely different character, however, also typical for shtetls. Menachem-Mendl is a pronounced sanguine man, dressed in urban fashion, who traveled outside of Anatovka and was in large cities. He is an entrepreneur by nature, engaged in a variety of activities: he was an insurance agent, engaged in fraud on the stock exchange, for which he was imprisoned, and later decided to become a shadkhon (matchmaker). It should be noted that for all his energy, Menachem does not bring any business to mind, he lacks the necessary knowledge and skill, but failures do not affect his optimistic view of the future.

In contrast to Menachem, the image of the butcher Lazer is an example of a wealthy Jew, rude, not distinguished by flexibility of mind, but who managed to make a profit from his business. Lazer has a good house and prosperity, so when Menachem-Mendl woos Tevye's eldest daughter, Zeitl, for him, Tevye, guided by concern for his daughter's future, agrees. However, the play describes another archetypal theme of different worldviews of fathers and children, and by the time the play is set (obviously, this is the beginning of the twentieth century), the father and mother can no longer completely control the future of children. So, Zeitl does not agree with his father's will and marries a poor tailor Motl, a simple craftsman like Tevye himself. The drama of the situation for parents, and at the same time their wisdom consists in understanding and making decisions of children who differ from the parental worldview. If in the situation with Zeitl and Motl the question concerned only material prosperity, then the events described below related to Tevye's daughters, Godl and Khava, hurt Tevye and Golda's heart. It is significant that, despite the refusal, Lazer does not harbor a grudge against Tevye and Zeitl, he, like the other characters in the play, is generous.

The image of the revolutionary student Perchik is an example of a new code, formed in the European manner of a Jew who rejects the foundations of traditional Jewish life. The foundations of secular Jewish education were laid by the Jewish Enlightenment – Haskalah, when young Jewish youths began, against the will of their parents, to gradually leave the towns and enter universities. Pepper's late father kept a tobacco shop in Anatovka, but he did not smoke himself and, out of his sincerity, did not advise others, as a result of which his business did not become profitable. His son perceives the new revolutionary ideas of universal equality with the same sincerity, participates in revolutionary riots, for which he becomes persecuted by the law. After meeting Pepper at Tevye's house with his second daughter, Godl, feelings arise between them, and Godl goes into exile with Pepper to Siberia. Of course, this was a blow for Tevye and Golda, this was not the fate they wanted for their daughter. However, they come to terms with this turn of fate, releasing their daughter into the unknown. Golda sadly replies to Tevye: "What can I say? She has her own character, will she listen to me? We need to pack warm clothes!" [3].

However, the biggest blow for Tevye was the apostasy of the third daughter, Hava, who, having fallen in love with the Christian Fedor, marries him, having converted to Christianity. This means for Tevye a complete collapse, the loss of his daughter, akin to her death. He renounces his daughter, intending to serve a memorial prayer for her. However, the father's heart, filled with love, still encourages Tevye to worry about his daughter, he secretly inquires about her well-being. Tevye's reconciliation with his daughter occurs when the Jews are evicted from Anatovka, and Hava and her husband also decide to leave with their father and sisters, despite the fact that the eviction does not concern the crosses. In this situation, the sergeant who brought the royal decree of eviction is not at all happy about this and sympathizes with the Jews. It is also interesting the revelation of Stepan the carpenter, who previously confessed his former love for Golda, and said that previously such an alliance between a Christian and a Jew was impossible, but today the young go their own way. Thus, along with the revolutionary Pepper, the image of Hava represents the code of a new Jewish youth who goes against the precepts of their ancestors, which is always painful for both sides, however, both parents and children love each other, and this love helps parents accept differences in the worldview of children, putting their well-being and happiness first.

The speech of Tevye and other Jews contains another shtetl code: it is a characteristic ironically figurative, allegorical manner of utterance, in fact, partially tracing paper from expressions in Yiddish, but with the expansion of the use of the Russian language by Jews, the same manner begins to be recognizable by other Russian-speaking people. For example, Tevye says: "... however, God, what am I telling you about the Holy Scriptures? Who of us read, and who dictated?" [3]; Pepper: "I come from the village, Reb Tevye, where many questions are asked and answered with a question" [3]; Golda –Menachem: "How does a poor woman know what such a successful businessman does? Probably selling air or last year's snow. I saw your wife, her eyes were filled with tears – probably from happiness" [3]; Menachem is a matchmaker: "I found him an option in Berdichev, from a good family, she, however, limps a little, but there is charm in this too - she will not run away to the side..." [3].

The last code of the shtetl, displayed in the play, is the image of an empty town, boarded up windows of the Tevye house, and persecuted Jews going on an eternal journey far from the Promised Land. It is a sad picture of saying goodbye to their native places, the land of their ancestors, scattering, when the only thing people hold on to is their closest family members. The history of the Shtetls actually leads to their gradual disappearance, with the relocation of Jewish youth to other cities and countries. The Shtetl, as a sacral household microcosm, remains only in the memory of the people who came out of it, being a cultural foundation reproduced in literature, painting, music, and theater. It is in this form that the memory of the shtetl has reached our days [9].

The greatest humanism attaches special importance to the play and its characters, which applies to all the main characters, regardless of their social status, worldview and occupation. Love, kindness, sincerity, erasing all external boundaries, sparkling humor and light sadness of the inhabitants of the shtetl is a distinctive feature of the work of Sholom Aleichem, and the brilliant play by Grigory Gorin "Memorial Prayer" based on his motives.

Conclusions. Thus, after conducting a study, we can draw the following conclusions.

Shtetl-Jewish towns in the pale of settlement were distinguished by a special sacral household culture associated with the traditions of Judaism and the centuries-old compact residence of the Jewish population, whose spoken language was Yiddish. Subsequently, this culture was called "Yiddish".  Since the time of the Jewish Enlightenment, as well as social upheavals at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries, young people have been leaving the towns and they are gradually falling into desolation. Preserving the origins and cultural foundation of the shtetls, from which many outstanding figures of science, literature and art emerged, has become an urgent task, to which writers, artists, musicians, and theater figures have made a great contribution. Thus, the play by G. Gorin "Memorial Prayer", written based on the works of Sholem Aleichem, is not only an outstanding example of a work of art, emphasized by the excellent performance of the actors, but also the quintessence of the cultural codes of the bygone shtetl, it is:

1. The code of the sacred household environment of a place with characteristic components (synagogue, residential buildings, heder, market, cemetery);

2. Codes of characteristic representatives of traditional shtetls (rabbi, Jewish artisan, wealthy Jew, Jewish entrepreneur, Jewish scientist, Jewish woman-"aidishe mama");

3. Codes of the "new Jewry" (Jewish student, Jewish revolutionary, Jewish outcast);

4. The code of the Yiddish language and the tracing paper removed from it - a characteristic ironic parochial speech;

5. The code of the eternal journey of the Jews far from the Promised Land. 

Thanks to the unique figurative and artistic language and deep knowledge of the material by the author, our contemporaries can also feel the special world of the Eastern European shtetl, which indicates continuous cultural continuity, which is the basis of positive interethnic discourse.

References
1. Danilevsky, V. Ya. (2011). Russia and Europe. A look at the cultural and political relations of the Slavic world to the Germanic-Romance. Moscow: Institute of Russian Civilization.
2Jews. (2018). Moscow: Nauka.
3. Gorin, G. I. (2024). Memorial prayer. Moscow: FTM Agency, Ltd.
4. Ivanov, V. V. (2007). GOSET: politics and art. 1919-1928. Moscow: Russian Academy of Theatrical Arts – GITIS.
5. Likhachev, D. S. (2006). Favorites: Thoughts on life, history, culture. Moscow: Russian Cultural Foundation.
6. Kanzedikas, A. (2001). Album of Jewish artistic antiquity by Semyon Ansky. Moscow: Bridges of Culture.
7. Kassirer, E. (2002). Philosophy of symbolic forms. St. Petersburg: University Book. Vol. 2.
8. Kozlov, S. Ya. (2000). Judaism in Russia: History and modernity. Research on applied and urgent Ethnology, 137, 3–27. Moscow: IEA RAS.
9. Kotlyar, E. R. (2015). Craft and Torah: sources, types and repertoire of Jewish traditional art. Collection of the Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts. Kemerovo: KemGUKI, 31, 68-76.
10. Lotman, Yu. M. (2000). Semiosphere. St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo-SPb.
11. Pierce, Ch. S. (2001). Principles of philosophy. St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Philosophical Society. Vol. II.
12. Saussure, F. de. (1977). Course of general linguistics. Proceedings on linguistics. Moscow: Progress.
13. Stasov, V. V. (1872). Russian folk ornament. Issue 1. Sewing, fabrics, lace. St. Petersburg: Society for the Encouragement of Artists.
14. Eco, U. (2022). Art and beauty in medieval aesthetics. Moscow: AST.

First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

In the journal Philosophy and Culture, the author presented his article "The Cultural code of the Shtetl in the play by Grigory Gorin "Memorial Prayer"", which examines the specifics of the transmission of ethnocultural patterns by artistic means of expression. The author proceeds in studying this issue from the fact that the diversity of aspects of ethnic culture is manifested both verbally, through language, and through cultural texts expressed in other ways (visual, auditory, audio-visual), embodied in folk religious and ceremonial traditions, song, music, dance, visual and decorative arts art. The relevance of this issue is due to the need to search for and develop mechanisms for preserving ethnic and cultural identity against the background of universal globalization and blurring of boundaries. The theoretical basis of the study was the works of such world-famous researchers as Y.M. Lotman, N.Y. Danilevsky, D.S. Likhachev, U. Eco, E. Kassirer, etc. The empirical material was the works of art and theatrical productions created by representatives of the Jewish people during the twentieth century. The methodological basis of the study was an integrated approach containing historical, socio-cultural, semiotic, comparative and artistic analysis. The purpose of this study is to identify the cultural code of the Shtetl using the example of Grigory Gorin's work "Memorial Prayer". Having conducted a bibliographic analysis of the studied issues, the author notes that interest in the artistic side of the Jewish tradition arose at the end of the XIX century, when, as a result of urbanization and the desire of young people to cities, towns, shtetls began to fall into disrepair. The ethnographic expeditions undertaken in order to preserve the cultural heritage, led by ethnographers, marked the beginning not only of ethnographic collections of Jewish antiquities, samples of artistic and musical folklore, but also the creation of Jewish art associations. In order to preserve the origins of the Shtetl culture, Jewish enthusiasts created collections of Jewish antiquities and collected samples of artistic and musical folklore during ethnographic expeditions. By the author based on the works of W. Eco and Yu.M. Lotman, A.Ya. Flier and other prominent Russian cultural scientists present an analysis of the theory of cultural text, as well as the unified mechanism of semiotic space in the context of culture. The author also defines the essence of the concept of "cultural code", gives its definitions and functions. The author notes the role of the policy of korenization of the 1920s–1930s, which contributed to the development of a new national identity of progressive Jewry. As a result of its implementation, national schools, clubs, evening universities, periodicals, and art associations appeared. From this period, fiction, songs, and theatrical productions in the Yiddish language began, previously considered colloquial jargon that was not worth attention. The author defines the national language (Yiddish) as a unifying factor and the main part of the cultural code of the Shtetl, expressing its uniqueness. The author pays special attention to the analysis of Grigory Gorin's play "Memorial Prayer" as a concentration of the main cultural patterns of the Jewish people. He analyzed in detail such cultural codes of the shtetl as the characteristic environment of the place in which the action takes place, the synagogue, the traditional occupations of Jews in shtetls, the images of the rabbi, family relationships. Unfortunately, in the end, the author does not present a conclusion on the conducted research, which should contain all the key provisions of the presented material. It seems that the author in his material touched upon relevant and interesting issues for modern socio-humanitarian knowledge, choosing a topic for analysis, consideration of which in scientific research discourse will entail certain changes in the established approaches and directions of analysis of the problem addressed in the presented article. The results obtained allow us to assert that the study of the peculiarities of the formation of a single cultural code of a separate monoconfessional ethnic group and its representation in the samples of artistic culture is of undoubted theoretical and practical cultural interest and can serve as a source of further research. The material presented in the work has a clear, logically structured structure that contributes to a more complete assimilation of the material. An adequate choice of methodological base also contributes to this. The bibliographic list consists of 14 sources, which seems sufficient for the generalization and analysis of scientific discourse on the subject under study. It can be said that the author fulfilled his goal, obtained certain scientific results, and showed deep knowledge of the studied issues. It should be stated that the article may be of interest to readers and deserves to be published in a reputable scientific publication after the specified flaw has been eliminated.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the study in the article submitted for publication in the journal Philosophy and Culture, as reflected by the author in the title ("The cultural code of the Shtetl in Grigory Gorin's play "Memorial Prayer"), is the cultural code of the shtetl, considered in (the object) of Grigory Gorin's play "Memorial Prayer" based on the concept of the S-code (semiotic code) by W. Eco, "according to which the representation of the Shtetl image occurs with the help of unique recognizable cultural patterns inherent in the local group of Ashkenazi Jews." At the same time, in order to reveal the substantive side of the subject of the study, the author goes beyond the designated object, covering the socio-cultural origins of the formation of cultural patterns of Ashkenazi Jews. As a result, as an object of research, the article presents the localized socio-cultural process of forming the ethnocultural S-code of the shtetl, which resulted in its penetration into the images of the play and performance by Grigory Gorin. Actually, the socio-cultural interpretation of the historical process based on the methodological synthesis of the concepts of semiosis (Ch. Pierce, F. de Saussure, Y. M. Lotman, U. Eco), historical and cultural types (N. Ya. Danilevsky) and the ecology of culture (D. S. Likhachev), peculiar, in particular, to E. R. Kotlyar and the Crimean cultural school, is a cultural and philosophical component of the subject of the article, justifying its publication in the journal "Philosophy and Culture". The sociocultural approach in this case forms a culturological interdisciplinary field of systematization of socio-philosophical, sociological, cultural-anthropological and ethnographic knowledge. Attention is drawn to the detailed explanation by the author for the reader of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study, the historical and cultural context of the formation of the content of the S-code of the shtetl, including a brief excursion into the history of the Jewish theater and directly the performance of G. Gorin: the first half of the article is devoted to the consistent disclosure of these essential methodological aspects. In the main part of the article, the author briefly reveals the features of the figurative sphere of the play and performance by G. Gorin, through which the following are encoded: the spatial code of the sacred household environment of the shtetl (shtetl) "with characteristic components (synagogue, residential buildings, heder, market, cemetery)"; the composite code of the resident of the shtetl" (rabbi, Jewish craftsman, a wealthy Jew, a Jewish entrepreneur, a Jewish scientist, a Jewish woman-"aidishe mama")"; the code of "new Jewry" (a Jewish student, a Jewish revolutionary, a Jewish outcast)"; a unique code of the parochial attitude to the language: local features of the "Yiddish language and the tracing paper removed from it – a characteristic ironic parochial speech"; and the ethno-code of the "eternal journey of the Jews far from the Promised Land." The author demonstrated how the elements of historical eventfulness in the work of G. Gorin acquire a timeless symbolic meaning of the dialogue of the shtetl (shtetl) with the surrounding changing reality, which results in a special set of ethical and aesthetic norms of localized ethnoculture. It is noteworthy that religion, postulated by a number of theorists (N. Y. Danilevsky, A. Toynbee, etc.) as a civilizational foundation, becomes only one of the external factors of an ethnocultural community that overcomes dogmatic (conservative) stereotypes in its development: "we lived together, worked together, only went to our own cemetery to die", "... and from the outside it was already difficult to understand who was coming – a Jew or an Orthodox. And what difference does it make if a person drags his cart with the last of his strength..." Thus, the subject of the study is considered by the author at a high theoretical level. The final conclusions, although presented briefly, are well-founded, and the article is worthy of publication in the journal Philosophy and Culture. The methodology of the research, to which the author, as already noted, paid considerable attention, is based on the methodological synthesis of semiosis concepts (ch. Pierce, F. de Saussure, Y. M. Lotman, U. Eco), historical and cultural types (N. Y. Danilevsky) and the ecology of culture (D. S. Likhachev). Despite the fact that when formalizing the program in the introductory part of the research article, the logical relationship of specific tasks to be solved with specific scientific methods is not disclosed, among which the general theoretical method of interpreting (decoding) the S-code of the shtetl remains the leading one, the sequence of presentation of the material demonstrates a productive complementarity of socio-philosophical, historical and semiotic methods. The reviewer also draws attention to the fact that within the framework of typologizing the semiotic elements of the S-code of the shtetl, the author resorts to cultural attribution of individual artifacts of intangible culture, to a method that, according to A. Ya. Flier, remains widely used, but due to a number of circumstances insufficiently reflected. The author justifiably explains the relevance of the topic by the fact that the study of the multifaceted essence of culture, the peculiarities of its determination, forms and types is one of the main goals of cultural science. The reviewer, for his part, agreeing with the author's arguments in favor of the relevance of the topic, emphasizes that the growth of national consciousness of the peoples of Russia, which has found expression in recent decades in national unity in the interests of strengthening state sovereignty, is largely due to systematic cultural attention to the origins of ethnocultural identity, on the basis of integration of which into the general multidimensional civilizational field of Russian culture is being built mutual understanding and mutual respect of local cultures. The scientific novelty of the article, expressed in the author's analysis of the S-code of the shtetl in G. Gorin's play "Memorial Prayer", is beyond doubt. Although, according to the reviewer, a brief conclusion could be strengthened by a final generalization revealing the degree of scientific novelty of the achieved result in the context of the work of colleagues over the past 3-5 years. The style of the text is generally scientific, although there are some inaccuracies that require additional literary proofreading (for example, "The diversity of aspects of ethnic culture is manifested both verbally, through language...", "... Danilevsky put forward the idea of cultural unity based on ...", "According to Saussure...", etc.), attention should also be paid for the general design style, dashes of the general quotation mark style ("paws" ("") are used exclusively inside the "Christmas trees" ("") according to the requirements of the editorial board. The structure of the article corresponds to the logic of presenting the results of scientific research, although, as noted above, the content of the final conclusion, in the opinion of the reviewer, should be strengthened by generalization and, possibly, by revealing the prospects for further study of the topic. The reviewer also draws attention to the fact that to highlight in detail the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study, the author completely ignored the need to assess the degree of study of the topic, although it is a field of systematic research constantly replenished with new literature both in Russia and abroad. The bibliography, taking into account the author's reliance on empirical material (the play by G. I. Gorin), generally reveals the problematic field of research at the minimum acceptable level (there is no domestic and foreign literature for the last 3-5 years). The reviewer draws the author's attention to the fact that in this regard he misses two important points for increasing the scientific value of the publication: 1) for a wide range of readers, the scientific novelty of the research is not obvious (it can be evaluated only by narrow specialists); 2) the author does not use the opportunity to place the results of his research in a broader context of theoretical discussions, including foreign colleagues. If, during revision, the author strengthens not only the conclusion, but also at least briefly touches on the works of Russian and foreign colleagues over the past 3-5 years, this will significantly enhance the values of the article. The appeal to the opponents is not presented in the form of open discussions, although the author's approach makes a small contribution to them. In general, all references to the work of colleagues are correct. The article is of interest to the readership of the journal "Philosophy and Culture" and after a little revision can be recommended for publication.

Third Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the research in the presented article is the cultural code of the shtetl in Grigory Gorin's play "Memorial Prayer". The descriptive method, the historical method, the method of categorization, and the method of analysis were used as the methodology of the subject area of research in this article. The relevance of the article is beyond doubt, since one of the main goals of cultural science is to study the multifaceted essence of culture, the peculiarities of its determination, forms and types. Among these forms, national and ethnic self-identification, formed in the process of ontogeny and phylogeny, occupies a special place, including religion, moral, ethical and aesthetic norms, as well as the peculiarities of the semiotics of each ethnic group. Against the background of universal globalization and depersonalization of local groups, the issue of preserving ethnic identity becomes especially relevant. The diversity of aspects of ethnic culture is manifested both verbally, through language, and through cultural texts expressed in other ways (visual, auditory, audio-visual), embodied in folk religious and ceremonial traditions, song, music, dance, fine and decorative arts. To identify both common features in pre-cultures or in the process of cultural convergence, as well as unique patterns of identity of each ethnic group, cultural anthropologists study the characteristics of each of the ethnocultures. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the identification of a detailed description of the cultural code of the shtetl on the example of the work of Grigory Gorin "Memorial Prayer". The article is written in the language of scientific style with the competent use in the text of the study of the presentation of various positions of scientists to the problem under study and the application of scientific terminology and definitions. The structure is designed taking into account the basic requirements for writing scientific articles, in the structure of this study such elements as introduction, main part, conclusion and bibliography can be distinguished. The content of the article reflects its structure. Especially valuable in the content of the study is the author's statement that cultural patterns, or shtetl codes, are derived in the play "Memorial Prayer" from the very beginning, and the first of them is a description of the characteristic environment of the place in which the action takes place. In the monologue of the milkman Tevye, the village of Anatovka is described, in which Jews and Orthodox lived side by side for many years, "lived together, worked together, only each went to his own cemetery to die." The traditional area of life of an Eastern European town consisted of a central square, on which a synagogue was located, and sometimes a church, if there was a sufficient number of Orthodox population. The square was used as a market square on fair days, and in large towns it also housed a check-in (inn) for merchants who came to the fair. The synagogue was not only a place for prayer, but also a "meeting house" where Jews gathered to discuss important issues related to community life, which included charity, ideological or property disputes, brit milah (circumcision), bar bat mitzvah (coming of age), chuppah (weddings), burials. Traditional education was of great importance in the Shtetls: Jewish boys (and by the end of the 19th century, many girls also) attended a traditional heder school, where they studied writing, arithmetic, and also studied Scripture. The Talmud Torah, a place for studying sacred books, operated at the synagogue in large towns. The author's analysis of the images derived in the play as shtetl codes presented in the article is also interesting. The bibliography contains 14 sources, including domestic periodicals and non-periodicals. The article describes various positions and points of view of well-known scientists characterizing approaches and diverse aspects to understanding ethnic culture, ethnic identity, cultural ecology, cultural unity, cultural code, and also contains an appeal to various scientific works and sources devoted to this topic, which is included in the circle of scientific interests of researchers dealing with this issue in our country and other countries. The presented study contains conclusions concerning the subject area of the study. In particular, it is noted that the Shtetl-Jewish towns in the pale of settlement were distinguished by a special sacral household culture associated with the traditions of Judaism and the centuries-old compact residence of the Jewish population, whose spoken language was Yiddish. Subsequently, this culture was called "Yiddish". Since the time of the Jewish Enlightenment, as well as social upheavals at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries, young people have been leaving the towns and they are gradually falling into desolation. Preserving the origins and cultural foundation of the shtetls, from which many outstanding figures of science, literature and art emerged, has become an urgent task, to which writers, artists, musicians, and theater figures have made a great contribution. So, the play by G. Gorin "Memorial Prayer", written based on the works of Sholom Aleichem, is not only an outstanding example of a work of art, emphasized by the excellent performance of the actors, but also the quintessence of the cultural codes of the bygone shtetl, it is: 1. The code of the sacred household environment of a place with characteristic components (synagogue, residential buildings, heder, market, cemetery); 2. Codes of characteristic representatives of traditional shtetls (rabbi, Jewish artisan, wealthy Jew, Jewish entrepreneur, Jewish scientist, Jewish woman-"aidishe mama"); 3. The codes of the "new Jewry" (a Jewish student, a Jewish revolutionary, a Jew); 4. The code of the Yiddish language and the tracing paper removed from it - a characteristic ironic parochial speech; 5. The code of the eternal journey of Jews far from the Promised Land. Thanks to the unique figurative and artistic language and deep knowledge of the material by the author of the work, our contemporaries can also feel the special world of the Eastern European shtetl, which indicates continuous cultural continuity, which is the basis of positive interethnic discourse. The materials of this study are intended for a wide range of readers, they can be interesting and used by scientists for scientific purposes, teaching staff in the educational process, management and employees of ministries and departments responsible for culture and art, workers in the field of culture and art, cultural scientists, art historians, analysts and experts. As disadvantages of this study, it should be noted that the article did not clearly define and highlight its structural elements, such as introduction, relevance, research methodology, research results and discussion of their results, conclusion, although they are undoubtedly traced in its content, however, they are not separately indicated by the appropriate headings. To visually demonstrate the subject of the study, it would be possible to add drawings to the text of the article. When making a bibliography, it is necessary to pay attention to the requirements of the current GOST. These shortcomings do not reduce the high scientific significance of the study itself, but rather relate to the design of the text of the article. It is recommended to publish the article.