Fir teg

Fir teg (Yiddish: פיר טעג, 'Four Days') is a 1931 Yiddish language theatrical play written by M. Daniel.[1][2] The play was based on the 1930 novel Yulis by Daniel, which dealt with the real-life personality of Iulius Shimeliovich - a former member of Bund turned Bolshevik revolutionary.[1][3][4] Fir teg became the most popular of Daniel's works.[4] Fir teg was played at Yiddish state theatres across the Soviet Union for over three years.[4]

Background and Moscow premiere

Following the play Der toyber ('The Deaf', 1930) - which used Biblical and Jewish traditional themes - Soviet Yiddish playwrights were instructed to produce theatrical works that specifically dealt with Bolshevik revolutionary struggle and the Russian Civil War.[1][5] Fir teg was the first Yiddish play produced following this directive.[1] It premiered at the Moscow State Jewish Theatre on 7 November 1931, the fourteenth anniversary of the October Revolution.[3] The play was directed by Sergei Radlov and Solomon Mikhoels.[6] Mikhoels himself starred as the hero Iulius.[7][8] Isaac Rabinowitz was in charge of scenery and Leo Fulver wrote the music for the play.[6] Benjamin Zuskin portrayed the Polish revolutionary Stanislav Bronievsky.[3]

Plot

Fir teg evolves around the events of the siege by Polish legionnaires of the Vilna Soviet of Workers Deputies in early 1919.[1][4] Iulius is the central hero character.[1] The name 'Four Days' refers to the days that Bolsheviks in Vilna (Vilnius) waited for the arrival of the Red Army to aid them.[1] Within the Vilna Soviet, where most of the play is set, the Bolshevik characters debate with the nationalist socialist parties over the role of the Soviet.[5] The Bolsheviks are betrayed by the General Jewish Labour Bund and the Polish Socialist Party, allowing the counter-revolutionaries to take control of the city.[1] Faced with the betrayal of the other socialist parties, Iulius and other Bolshevik leaders chose to commit suicide rather than surrendering.[1]

Critical reception and later adaptations

Whilst the play was critically acclaimed as the archetype of Yiddish revolutionary plays, the final suicide scene provoked controversy.[1] Suicide was not the type of sacrifice that communist cultural movement would promote. Soviet critics argued that the revolution possesses no tragedy, solely heroism.[4] Veidlinger (in Bliss Eaton (2002)) argues that the final suicide scene invokes a Jewish historical motif, the mass suicide during the Siege of Masada.[1] However, apart from the usage of Yiddish language, there was no overt Jewish themes in the play.[1]

Fir teg was one of the main plays of the 1932-1933 season at the Artef theatre in New York City, directed by Benno Schneider.[9] A short review in The New York Times stated that "[t]he story is beautifully narrated and equally well portrayed."[9] In 1941 Fir teg was played for the first time in Vilnius, before the German attack on the city.[10]

References
  1. Katherine Bliss Eaton (2002). Enemies of the People: The Destruction of Soviet Literary, Theater, and Film Arts in the 1930s. Northwestern University Press. pp. 96–99. ISBN 978-0-8101-1769-3.
  2. Harry Butler Weber; George J. Gutsche (1981). "The" Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet Literatures: Including Non-Russian and Emigre Literatures. Criticism, literary: Russian - Drabkina, Elizaveta Yakovlevna. Academic International Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-87569-038-4.
  3. Ala Zuskin Perelman (24 March 2015). The Travels of Benjamin Zuskin. Syracuse University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-8156-5324-0.
  4. Cecil Roth. Encyclopaedia Judaica: A-Z. Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972. p. 1289
  5. Jonathan Frankel (19 May 2005). Dark Times, Dire Decisions: Jews and Communism. Oxford University Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-0-19-534613-8.
  6. ידישער טעאטער אין אייראָפע צווישן ביידע וועלט-מלחמות: סאָוועטן-פארבאנד, מערב-אייראָפע, באלטישע לענדער. אלוועלטלעכן יידישן קולטור-קאָנגרעס, 1968. p. 111
  7. RadioJai 96.3. Solomon Mikhoels, mucho más que un actor judío
  8. David Zolotnistky (29 August 2021). Sergei Radlov: The Shakespearian Fate of a Soviet Director. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-36073-4.
  9. Oxford Winter Symposium in Yiddish Language and Literature (1998). Politics of Yiddish: Studies in Language, Literature and Society. Rowman Altamira. pp. 139, 144. ISBN 978-0-7619-9025-3.
  10. Leyzer Ran. אש פון ירושלים ד׳ליטע. Wilner Farlag, 1959. p. 354
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