Background
ZASLAVSKY, David was born in 1879 in Yelizavetgrad, now Kirovograd.
literature critic satirist feuilleton writer
ZASLAVSKY, David was born in 1879 in Yelizavetgrad, now Kirovograd.
Studied at Kiev University.
At first member, Kiev Social-Democratic party, then joined Jewish “Bund”. Before 1917 Revolution contributed to following newspapers: “Kievskaya mysl”. “Kievskie otkliki”; “Den” (St. Petersburg).
“Severnye zapiski”; “Novaya zhizn”. “Sovremenny mir”; “Nasha zarya”, etc., under the pseudonyms “Homunculus”, “F. Bogrov”, “A. Lyuiov”, “D. Osipov”, etc. Edited several “Bund” and Menshevik publications.
1907 attended 5th Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party Congress, London. Arrested and imprisoned several times by tsarist authorities. During Civil War was in Ukrainia.
1919, after entry of Bolsheviks into Kiev, wrote letter to edition of newspaper “Kommunist”, confessing his previous “errors” and renouncing further political activity. 1924 wrote letter to “Pravda” again announcing his abandonment of Menshevik views. 1925 resumed journalistic work, first as feuilleton writer for Leningrad newspaper “Krasnaya gazeta”, then for “Leningradskaya pravda”.
1926 joined edition staff of “Izvestiya”. Since 1928 one of “Pravda’s” leading journalists. Was admitted to Communist Party on Stalin’s personal recommendation.
1956 wrote special critical and biographical essay evaluating the work of Dostoevsky in the light of the changed official attitude towards the latter, decided upon by the collective leadership. Early in 1957, when Party leadership decided to put an end to the literature “thaw”, he was called upon to write a long “Pravda” article in which he called the “thaw” a “rotten infection”. 1958 delegation at 1st Constituent Congress Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Writers.
Member, Communist Party, since 1940.
Member, Communist Party, since 1940.