Young Jewish Poets Who Fell as Soviet Soldiers in the Second World War

This book is concerned with the work of twenty-four young Jewish poets who were killed, died of wounds, or were executed in captivity during their service in the Red Army in the Second World War. All were young, published poets, thoroughly assimilated into Soviet society whilst at the same time being rooted in Jewish culture and traditions. Their poetry was coloured by their backgrounds, by the constant threat of death, and also by the changes in literary taste which saw Soviet Realism favoured and encouraged and the poetry of the "Silver Age" of Russian literature frowned upon and discarded. The book surveys the poets' backgrounds, their lives, their poetry - and their deaths.