Yuli Daniel

Yuli Markovich Daniel (Russian: Юлий Маркович Даниэль; November 15, 1925—December 30, 1988) was a Soviet dissident writer, poet, translator, political prisoner and gulag survivor. He frequently wrote under the pseudonyms Nikolay Arzhak (Николай Аржак) and Yu. Petrov (Ю.Петров).

Early life and World War II

Yuli Daniel was born in Moscow into the family of Yiddish playwright M. Daniel (Mark Meyerovich, Russian: Марк Наумович Меерович), who took the pseudonym Daniel. The famous march song of the Soviet young pioneers, "Орленок" (Young Eagle), was originally written for one of his plays. Daniel's uncle, an ardent revolutionary (alias Liberten), was a member of Comintern who perished in the Great Purge.

In 1942, during Great Patriotic War, Daniel lied about his age and volunteered to serve at the front. He fought in the 2nd Ukrainian and the 3rd Belorussian fronts, in 1944 was heavily wounded in his legs and demobilized due to disability.

Writing and arrest

In 1950, he graduated from Moscow Pedagogical Institute and worked as a school teacher in Kaluga and Moscow regions. He published his poetry translations from a variety of languages. Daniel and his friend Andrei Sinyavsky also wrote satirical novels and smuggled them to France to be published under pseudonyms as тамиздат Tamizdat. (Tamizdat is a linguistic play on самиздат Samizdat, a neologism for self-publishing, a common practice for literary works that could not pass censorship. Tam is Russian for there. Tamizdat means published abroad.)

He married Larisa Bogoraz who later also became a famous dissident. In 1965, Daniel along with Sinyavsky were arrested and tried in the infamous Sinyavsky-Daniel trial. The Sinyavsky-Daniel trial (Russian: процесс Синявского и Даниэля) took place in Moscow Supreme court, between autumn 1965 and February 1966, presided by L.P. Smirnov. The writers were accused of having published anti-Soviet material in foreign editorials using pseudonyms Abram Terz or Абрам Терц (Sinyavsky) and Nikolay Arzhak or Николай Аржак (Daniel). Daniel and Sinyavsky could not publish their creations in USSR, and they send them to western countries (mainly, France) for publications under pseudonyms Abram Tertz (Sinyavsky)

When KGB revealed the authorship of the novels mentioned, the writers were arrested.

There was a strong pressure on writers through the mass media , typical for the Soviet show trials. Daniel was sentenced to five years of hard labor. On February 14, 1966, Sinyavsky was sentenced to seven years for "anti-Soviet activity." Unprecedented in the USSR, both writers plead not guilty.

Louis Aragon wrote about the trial: "To make opinion a crime is something more harmful to the future of socialism than the works of these two writers could ever have been. It leaves a bit of fear in our hearts that one may think this type of trial is inherent in the nature of Communism."

The affair was accompanied by harsh propaganda campaign in the media. A group of Soviet luminaries sent a letter to Leonid Brezhnev asking not to rehabilitate Stalinism. Among the signatories were the academicians Andrei Sakharov, Igor Tamm, Lev Artsimovich, Pyotr Kapitsa, Ivan Maysky, writers Konstantin Paustovsky, Korney Chukovsky, actors Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Maya Plisetskaya, Oleg Yefremov, directors Georgy Tovstonogov, Mikhail Romm, Marlen Khutsiyev and others. Several people, including Larisa Bogoraz, sent independent letters in support of Siniavski and Daniel.

As historian Fred Coleman writes, "Historians now have no difficulty pinpointing the birth of the modern Soviet dissident movement. It began in February 1966 with the trial of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, two Russian writers who ridiculed the Communist regime in satires smuggled abroad and published under pen names... Little did they realize at the time that they were starting a movement that would help end Communist rule."

The process of Sinyavsky and Daniel brought to the end the period of Khruschev's liberalism (Khrushchev Thaw), and the beginning of Brezhnev's epoch (Brezhnev Stagnation).

Late years and influence

According to Fred Coleman, "Historians now have no difficulty pinpointing the birth of the modern Soviet dissident movement. It began in February 1966 with the trial of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, two Russian writers who ridiculed the Communist regime in satires smuggled abroad and published under pen names... Little did they realize at the time that they were starting a movement that would help end Communist rule."

After four years of captivity in Mordovia labor camps and one year in Vladimir prison, Daniel refused to emigrate (as was customary among Soviet dissidents) and lived in Kaluga.

Before his death, Bulat Okudzhava acknowledged that some translations published under Okudzhava's name were ghostwritten by Daniel who was on the list of authors banned to be published in the USSR.

Notes

• A Day in the Life of Yuli Daniel "Time magazine" - Retrieved October 24, 2007.

Bibliography

• "Бегство" (The Escape), 1956
• "Говорит Москва" (Report from Moscow), 1959 [1]
• "Человек из МИНАПа" (A Man from MINAP), 1960 [2]
• "Искупление" (The Redemption), 1964
• "Руки" (The Hands)
• "Письмо другу" (A Letter to a Friend), 1969
• "Ответ И.Р.Шафаревичу" (The Response to Igor Shafarevich), 1975
• "Книга сновидений" (A Book of Dreams)
• "Я все сбиваюсь на литературу..." Письма из заключения. Стихи (The Letters from Prison), 1972 (ISBN 0-87955-501-7)

External links

All links retrieved October 24, 2007.

• A Bit of Fear (Time magazine, 1966)
• A Day in the Life of Yuli Daniel (Time magazine, 1969)
• Larisa Bogoraz has died Kharkiv Group for Human Rights Protection
• (Russian) Poetry
• (Russian) Memoirs about Yuli Daniel by Natalia Rapoport
• (Russian) Bio
• (Russian) Radio Freedom program dedicated to Yuli Daniel
• (Russian) Anthology of Samizdat

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Yuli_Daniel  ^history
• Sinyavsky-Daniel_trial  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Yuli Daniel"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.