Aron Vergelis

Vergelis, Aron Alterovich 

Born May 7, 1918, in Liubar, now in Zhitomir Oblast. Soviet Jewish poet. Member of the CPSU since 1955.

Vergelis graduated from the literature department of the V. I. Lenin Moscow Pedagogical Institute in 1940. He first appeared in print in 1935. His first collection of verses, At the Spring, was published in 1940. Essentially a lyric poet, he celebrates man’s strength and wisdom in the struggle for tranforming life and nature. One of the main themes of his works is the struggle against the fascist German invaders during the years of World War II. Vergelis is the author of the narrative poems The Song of Iosif Bumagin (1947), The Song on Blissful Work (1948), Cosmic Narrative Poem (1962), / Speak to You, America (1962), and The Beginning and the End (1963). He also wrote critiques on problems in contemporary Jewish literature and on Soviet Jewish writers. Editor of the journal Sovetish Geimland since 1961, he has been awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.

WORKS

Beim kval.Moscow, 1940.
Birobidzhaner dor.Moscow. 1948.
Oig af oig.New York, 1969. (Verses and narrative poems.)
Fun alef bis tov.Moscow, 1970. (Selected works.)
In Russian translation:
Zhazhda.Moscow, 1956.
Vtoraia vstrecha.Moscow, 1961.

REFERENCES

Narovchatov, S. “Stikhi A. Vergelisa.” Novyi Mir,1957, no. 3.
Roitman, Sh. “A gezang in gerangl mit stikheien.” Sovetish Geimland,1968, no. 10.

G. A. REMENIK