Riva Baliasnaia

Collection

Scope and content:: Housed in the fonds are literary manuscripts of Riva Baliasnaia: the long narrative poem The Matrosovs (1952), and several poems of hers translated into Russian (by R. Z. Zaslavskii, Yunna Morits, I. Ia. Zolotarevskii, and V. Korchagin); a review by Pavlo Tychyna of Riva Baliasnaia’s book Lyrics (1960), and by M. Karim of poems of hers published in Literaturnaia gazeta (1966); newspaper clippings (1995) containing M. Kanevskii’s recollections of Riva Baliasnaia’s time in prison camp, and her obituary (Literaturna Ukraina, 1980); family correspondence, including letters from Riva Baliasnaia in camp to her husband and son, and also a selection of letters from readers (1956); photographs; etc. The fonds also includes copies of materials from the investigative file on Riva Baliasnaia (minutes of interrogations, her arrest warrant, her rehabilitation certificate, etc.).

Archival history:: The Judaica Institute was established in Kyiv/Kiev in 1994 as a public non-profit organisation whose mission would be to study Jewish history and culture, as well as collect, study, and popularise materials pertaining to Ukraine’s Jewish heritage. The institute began to assemble an archive at the same time.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Jewish poet Riva Naumovna Baliasnaia (1910-80) was born in the town of Radomysl’ (Kiev province; now the city of Radomyshl’, Zhytomyr/Zhitomir region), and was raised in a children’s shelter. She studied at a factory school and at the literature department of the Kiev Pedagogical Institute (1930-34), and engaged in postgraduate studies at the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture (1934-35). From 1935-39 she worked as an editor at Glavlit and Ukrnatsmenizdat [the Ukrainian State National Minorities’ Publishing House]. After evacuating to Ufa during the Second World War, she worked as a cultural-educational worker [kul’trabotnik] for a cooperative and as a regional censorship official, and upon returning to Kiev, as an editor for the Radian’skaia shkola [Soviet School] publishing house (from 1945-52). She made her literary debut in 1928, and became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers of Ukraine in 1936. She wrote fifteen books in Yiddish, including In iberuf (Roll-Call, 1934); Likhtikhe stezhkes (Bright Paths, 1940); Goldener bleterfal (Golden Leaf-Fall, 1978). She was arrested on 6 May 1952 on the charge of counterrevolutionary activity and sentenced to ten years of correctional labour. She was freed on 17 December 1955 and rehabilitated 9 January 1956. She died in Kiev.

Access points: persons/families:: Baliasnaia, Riva; Kanevskii, M.; Karim, M.; Korchagin, V.; Morits, Yunna; Tychyna, Pavlo; Zaslavskii, R. Z.; Zolotarevskii, I. Ia.

Subject terms:: Correspondence; Law enforcement; Literature; Literature--Novels, poetry, and plays; Manuscripts; Newspaper clippings; Photographs

System of arrangement:: The fonds includes a single inventory comprised of two sections: 1) materials from the collection creator’s personal archive; 2) copies of documents pertaining to her from other archives.