Lev Kopelev
Lev Kopelev | |
|---|---|
Лев Копелев | |
dissident movement in the Soviet Union | |
| Spouse | Raisa Orlova |
Lev Zalmanovich (Zinovyevich) Kopelev (Russian: Лев Залма́нович (Зино́вьевич) Ко́пелев, German: Lew Sinowjewitsch Kopelew, 9 April 1912 – 18 June 1997) was a Soviet author and dissident.
Early life
Kopelev was born in Kyiv, then Russian Empire, to a middle-class Jewish family. In 1926, his family moved to Kharkiv. While a student at Kharkiv State University's philosophy faculty, Kopelev began writing in Russian and Ukrainian languages; some of his articles were published in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
An idealist
Career
Later, he worked as an editor of radio news broadcasts at a locomotive factory. In 1932, as a correspondent, Kopelev witnessed the
He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages in 1935 in the German language faculty, and, after 1938, he taught at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History where he earned a PhD.
When the
He was released in 1954 and in 1956 was rehabilitated. Still an optimist and believer in the ideals of communism, during the Khrushchev Thaw he restored his Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) membership. From 1957 to 1969 he taught in the Moscow Institute of Polygraphy and the Institute of History of Arts. It was Kopelev who approached Aleksandr Tvardovsky, editor of the top Soviet literary journal, the Novy Mir (New World) to urge publication of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
From 1968 onward Kopelev actively participated in the human rights and dissident movement. In 1968 he was fired from his job and expelled from the CPSU and the Writers' Union for signing protest letters against the persecution of dissidents, publicly supporting
Kopelev's books were distributed via samizdat (underground publishing), smuggled out of Russia and published in the West.
For his political activism and contacts with the West, he was deprived of the right to teach or be published in 1977.
Germany
As a scientist, Kopelev led a research project on the history of Russian-German cultural links at the University of Wuppertal. In 1980, while he was on a study trip to West Germany, his Soviet citizenship was revoked. After 1981 Kopelev was a professor at the University of Wuppertal.
Kopelev was an honorary PhD at the University of Cologne and a winner of many international awards. In 1990 Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev restored his Soviet citizenship.
Personal life
Kopelev was married for many years to Raisa Orlova, a Soviet specialist in American literature, who emigrated with him to Germany. Her memoirs were published in the United States in 1984.
Death
Lev Kopelev died in
References
- ^ New York Times Obituary 20 June 1997
- ^ Dobson, Christopher; Miller, John; Payne, Ronald (1980). The Cruellest Night. London: Arrow Books. p. 17.
Bibliography
- Books
- We lived in Moscow (Мы жили в Москве), 1974
- The Education of a True Believer, lit. And madest thyself an idol ("И сотворил себе кумира"), 1976
- To Be Preserved Forever ("Хранить вечно"), 1976
- Ease My Sorrows: A Memoir, lit. nourish my sorrows ("Утоли моя печали"), 1981
- No jail for thought, lit. about truth and tolerance ("О правде и терпимости"), 1982
- Holy Doctor Fyodor Petrovich ("Святой доктор Федор Петрович"), 1985
- Articles
- Kopelew, Lew (April 21, 1972). "Rilke in Rußland : Die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen russischer und deutscher Literatur sind jahrhundertealt" [Rilke in Russia: the interrelations between Russian and German literature are centuries old]. Die Zeit (in German).
- Kopelev, Lev (1977). "The lie can be defeated only by truth". In Meerson-Aksenov, Michail; Shragin, Boris (eds.). The political, social, and religious thought of Russian "samizdat" – an anthology. Belmont, MA: Nordland Publishing Company. p. 327. ISBN 0913124133.
- Kopelev, Lev (2013) [1978]. Памяти Александра Галича [In commemoration of Alexander Galich]. Kontinent (in Russian). 151.
- Kopelew, Lew (January 26, 1981). "Die Polen sind ein großartiges Volk : Der ausgebürgerte Sowjet-Schriftsteller Lew Kopelew über Dissidenten, die Sowjet-Union und Polen" [The Poles are a great people: the expatriate Soviet writer Lev Kopelew about dissidents, the Soviet Union and Poland]. Der Spiegel (in German): 112.
- Orlowa, Raissa; Kopelew, Lew (May 28, 1982). "Die Erinnerungen Pjotr Grigorenkos : Der Hauptheld ist die Wahrheit" [Memoirs by Pyotr Grigorenko: the main hero is the truth]. Die Zeit (in German).
Further reading
- Гофман, Ефим (2012). Лев Копелев: фронтовик, писатель, ученый, гражданин. Международная научная конференция [Lev Kopelev: soldier, writer, scientist and citizen. International Scientific Conference]. Znamya (in Russian) (8).
- "Lew Kopelew unter Druck" [Lew Kopelew under pressure]. Die Zeit (in German). February 8, 1980.
- "Lew Sinowjewitsch Kopelew". Der Spiegel (in German): 112. January 26, 1981.
- "Offener Brief von Willy Brandt an Lew Kopelew" [Open letter from Willy Brandt to Lew Kopelew]. Die Zeit (in German). January 30, 1981.
- Applebaum, Anne (2011). "Lev Kopelev". Gulag voices: an anthology. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 125–142. ISBN 978-0300153200.
- Drommert, Rene Von (June 9, 1989). "Zum Tode von Raissa Orlowa-Kopelew: Weltempfinden" [On the death of Raisa Orlova-Kopelev: world feeling]. Die Zeit (in German).