Background
Gofshtein, David was born on August 6, 1889 in Korostyshev.
Gofshtein, David was born on August 6, 1889 in Korostyshev.
Educated in Petersburg and Kiev.
Appeared in print, 1917. Became one of the pioneers of Jewish communist poetry in Yiddish in the Soviet Union. Arrested after World War II, during the anti-Semitic campaign, with a group of Jewish writers (Kvitko, Bergelson and others).
All were shot on Stalin’s orders. According to Soviet official sources, died 12 July 1952, but according to close friends living Israel, the whole group was shot on one day, in 12 August 1952. Witnesses have stated that compilers of the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia have been officially given instructions to alter the dates of death, so that days of mass executions do not become too conspicuous.
Posthumously rehabilitated.
