Metadata: M. S. Al’tman
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- The National Library of Russia
- Holding institution (official language):
- Российская национальная библиотека. Отдел рукописей
- Postal address:
- 91069, Russia, St. Petersburg, ul. Sadovaia, д. 18, main building
- Phone number:
- (812) 310-28-56
- Web address:
- http://www.nlr.ru
- Email:
- office@nlr.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 1440
- Title:
- M. S. Al’tman
- Title (official language):
- АЛЬТМАН М. С.
- Creator/accumulator:
- M. S. Al’tman
- Date(s):
- 1918/1986
- Language:
- Russian
- Yiddish
- Hebrew
- English
- Extent:
- 549 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- Both the fonds’ inventories contain materials pertaining to Jewish history and culture – first and foremost, the memoiristic and literary works of the collection creator, including manuscripts of an autobiography by M. S. Al’tman consisting of a narrative in verse and prose about his childhood years spent in the town of Ulla (Vitebsk province) and his studies in Kiev and Baku; and the separate memoiristic essays “Grandma Sarah” and “Meyukhes” (late 1970s-early 1980s); autograph manuscripts and typewritten copies of M. S. Al’tman’s journals from 1919-22, which contain information on the life of Jews in Kiev and Baku; autograph manuscripts of poems by M. S. Al’tman that contain biblical allusions, including “The Ass of Judea” (1922), “The Copper Serpent” (1948), “The Semantics of Names” (1963-75), “Lot’s Wife” (undated), and others; materials of other persons, including a collection of unpublished poems by Boris Slutskii (1958); M. S. Al’tman’s personal correspondence, including with his mother E. R. Al’tman (undated), F. M. Arenson (1956-57), A. I. Gerbstman (1978), and relatives and acquaintances from the United States (1970s-80s); etc.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Moisei Semenovich Al’tman (1896-1986) was a literary scholar who specialised in ancient literature, mythology, folklore, and the history and theory of literature; a doctor of philology, he became a professor at Leningrad State University in 1946. He received his elementary education in a cheder in the town of Ulla (Vitebsk province). From 1906-14 he studied at the Baku secondary school [gimnaziia]. In 1915 he enrolled in the Kiev University medical school; during his time as a student, he was involved in the anti-government movement, and published a revolutionary newspaper in Kiev. In 1917-19, he was active in the campaign to establish Soviet power in Ukraine, and wrote for the Chernigov Provincial Executive Committee Izvestiia [News]. In 1919, during an advance by White forces, he fled from Kiev to Baku, where in October of the following year, he enrolled at Azerbaijan State University in the history and philology department. His professor of classical philology was the poet Viacheslav Ivanov, who lectured at Baku University on Greek tragedy, the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, etc. At the same time, he studied Torah with the Baku Rabbi Meyukhes. In 1920, his poetry collection The Silver Lode was published in Baku. From 1921, he was secretary of the graphics department and an editor of the Caucasus branch of the Russian Telegraph Agency; and in 1920 he was dispatched to Iran as editor of the newspaper Krasnyi Iran [Red Iran]. He graduated from Azerbaijan State University in 1923. In 1929 he defended a thesis on “The Semantics of Proper Names in Homer” at Leningrad’s Institute for the Comparative Study of the Literatures and Languages of the West and East. In the 1930s he taught at various institutions of higher learning in Leningrad. In 1939 he defended his doctoral dissertation on “Survivals of the Clan System in Proper Names in Homer.” In 1942-44 he was in the gulag; he was officially exonerated in 1955. He was the author of approximately one hundred studies on the history of Russian and ancient literature, and translations from the classical languages.
- Access points: locations:
- Baku
- Kiev
- Russia
- Ulla
- United States
- Access points: persons/families:
- Al’tman, E. R.
- Al’tman, M. S. (Moisei Semenovich)
- Arenson, F. M.
- Gerbstman, A. I.
- Meyukhes
- Slutskii, B.
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds includes two inventories systematised according to the structural-chronological principle (op. 1) and alphabetically (op. 2).
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
