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23-820: Born in Smarhon (present-day Belarus , then in the Russian Empire) to a Jewish family, Kulbak studied at the famous Volozhin Yeshiva . During the World War I he lived in Kovno (today, Kaunas , Lithuania), where he began to write poetry in Hebrew, before switching to Yiddish. He made his publishing debut in Yiddish in 1916, with the poem "Shterndl" (Little star). In 1918 he moved to the city of Minsk ; in 1919, after

46-527: A Russian puppet state. Even this, however, came to an end after a Polish insurrection in 1831 , at which point Russia ended most of the kingdom's autonomy and exacted multiple punitive measures on the Polish populace. In 1867, Russia made Poland an official part of the Russian Empire, as opposed to a puppet state. Poland would not regain full independence until the end of World War I when the signing of

69-613: A nationwide uprising against Poland's foreign occupiers, marking the beginning of the Kościuszko Uprising . Catherine II and Frederick William II were quick to respond and, despite initial successes by Kosciuszko's forces, the uprising was crushed by November 1794. According to legend, when Kosciuszko fell off of his horse at the Battle of Maciejowice , shortly before he was captured, he said "Finis Poloniae", meaning in Latin "[This is]

92-743: A traditional treat at Saint Casimir's Fair in Vilnius. Smarhon is twinned with: Third Partition of Poland The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia , the Habsburg monarchy , and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polish–Lithuanian national sovereignty until 1918 . The partition

115-634: Is a town in Grodno Region , Belarus . It serves as the administrative center of Smarhon District . It was the site of Smarhon air base , now mostly abandoned. Smarhon is located 107 kilometres (66 mi) from the capital, Minsk . As of 2024, it has a population of 35,422. Within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Smarhon was part of Vilnius Voivodeship . Forty percent of the names of Smarhon District 's settlements have remained of Lithuanian origin, while residents of Smarhon once spoke in

138-698: The Polish Legions . In addition, Polish poets and artists would make the desire for national freedom a defining characteristic of the Polish Romanticist movement. Poland briefly regained semi-autonomy in 1807 when Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw , but this effectively ended with the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Congress created the Kingdom of Poland, sometimes called Congress Poland , as

161-554: The 19th century. Polish-Lithuanian journalist Adam Kirkor wrote in the encyclopedia Picturesque Russia : "In Smorgon, Oshmyany district, Vilna province, almost all the petty bourgeois population is busy baking small bubliki , or kringles , which are widely known as Smorgon obvaranki . Each traveller would definitely buy several bundles of these bubliki ; besides, they are transported to Vilna and other cities." Władysław Syrokomla mentioned Smarhon as "the capital of obwarzanki famous in all Lithuania". Smarhon obwarzanki were

184-738: The Eastern Aukštaitian - Vilnian dialect of Lithuanian language . In 1795, the town was acquired by the Russian Empire in the course of the Third Partition of Poland . Until the mid 19th century, Smarhon was a private property of the Radziwiłł family with most of its population being Jewish. Amid the disastrous retreat from Russia in 1812, Napoleon left the remnants of the Grande Armée at Smorgon on December 5 to return to Paris. From 1921 until 1939, Smarhon ( Smorgonie )

207-663: The First Partition. Outraged with the further humiliation of Poland by her neighbors and the betrayal by the Polish nobility, and emboldened by the French Revolution unfolding in France, the Polish masses quickly turned against the occupying forces of Prussia and Russia. Following a series of nationwide riots, on 24 March 1794, Polish patriot Tadeusz Kościuszko took command of the Polish armed forces and declared

230-479: The Lamed-Vovniks are a group of 36 holy Jews on whose goodness the whole of humanity depends.) Benye, and the many other characters, undergo experiences the strangeness of which approaches incomprehensibility, to themselves as well as the reader. Legendary figures such as Lilith and Simkhe Plakhte are characters in the novel. In September 1937, Moyshe Kulbak was arrested during a wave of Stalinist purges. He

253-692: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ended the existence of an independent Polish and Lithuanian state for the next 123 years. Immediately following the Third Partition, the occupying powers forced many Polish politicians, intellectuals, and revolutionaries to emigrate across Europe, in what was later known as the Great Emigration . These Polish nationalists participated in uprisings against Austria , Prussia, and Russia in former Polish lands, and many would serve France as part of

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276-547: The Soviet Revolution, to Vilna (today Vilnius , Lithuania); and in 1920 to Berlin . In 1923 he came back to Vilna, which after the war had become part of newly independent Poland , and was a center of Yiddish literary culture. In Vilna he taught modern Yiddish literature at the Real-Gymnasium (a Yiddish-speaking high school), as well as at the Yiddish teachers' seminary. By 1928 he became disappointed with

299-530: The absurdities of Soviet life. His mystical novella The Messiah of the House of Ephraim (1924) draws together many strands of Jewish folklore and apocalyptic belief, presenting them from a perspective that owes much to German expressionist cinema . It principally concerns the poor man Benye, who may or may not be a Messiah , and whose destiny is intertwined with the Lamed-Vovniks . (In Jewish mysticism,

322-440: The country's name: In view of the necessity to abolish everything which could revive the memory of the existence of the Kingdom of Poland, now that the annulment of this body politic has been effected ... the high contracting parties are agreed and undertake never to include in their titles ... the name or designation of the Kingdom of Poland, which shall remain suppressed as from the present and forever ... The Third Partition of

345-538: The enactment of the May Constitution in 1791, which established a constitutional monarchy with separation into three branches of government, strengthened the bourgeoisie and abolished many of the nobility 's privileges as well as many of the old laws of serfdom. In addition, to strengthen Poland's international standings, King Stanislaus signed the Polish-Prussian Pact of 1790. Angered by what

368-527: The end of Poland." Austrian, Prussian, and Russian representatives met on 24 October 1795 to dissolve the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with the three conquering powers signing a treaty to divide the region on 26 January 1797. This gave the Habsburg monarchy control of the Western Galicia and Southern Mazovia territories, with approximately 1.2 million people; Prussia received Podlachia ,

391-802: The literary atmosphere in Poland, and decided to return to Minsk (capital of the Soviet Belarus), where much of his family lived, and where there was a lively Yiddish literary scene. In Minsk, Kulbak worked for several media organizations and for the Jewish section of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus . Kulbak wrote poems, fantastical or "mystical" novels, and, after moving to the Soviet Union , what are described by one source as "Soviet" satires. His novel The Zelmenyaners depicted with some realism

414-411: The remainder of Masovia, and Warsaw , with 1 million people; and Russia received the remaining land, including Vilnius and 1.2 million people. Unlike previous partitions, no Polish representative was party to the treaty. The Habsburgs, Russia, and Prussia forced King Stanislaus to abdicate and retire to St. Petersburg, where he died as a trophy prisoner in 1798. The victors also agreed to erase

437-476: The so-called "Bear Academy", was founded. Up until World War II , Smarhon was widely known for its baranki , traditional Eastern European ring-shaped bread rolls, similar to bagels and bubliki . Russian food historian William Pokhlyobkin considered Smarhon to be the birthplace of baranki. Baranki were supposedly used to feed bears in the Bear Academy. Written accounts of Smarhon baranki appeared in

460-501: Was accused of espionage and executed a month later together with several dozens of other Belarusian writers, intellectuals and administrators . In 1956, after the death of Joseph Stalin , he was officially rehabilitated by the Soviet authorities. Smarhon Smarhon ( Belarusian : Смаргонь [smɐrˈɣonʲ] ) or Smorgon ( Russian : Сморгонь ; Lithuanian : Smurgainys ; Polish : Smorgonie ; Yiddish : סמאָרגאָן )

483-672: Was part of the Second Polish Republic . In September 1939, the town was occupied by the Red Army and, on 14 November 1939, incorporated into the Byelorussian SSR . From 25 June 1941 until 4 July 1944, Smarhon was occupied by Nazi Germany and administered as a part of the Generalbezirk Litauen of Reichskommissariat Ostland . Smorgon is known as the place where a school of bear training,

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506-775: Was seen as dangerous, Jacobin -style reforms, Russia invaded Poland in 1792, beginning the War in Defense of the Constitution . Abandoned by her Prussian allies and betrayed by Polish nobles who desired to restore the privileges they had lost under the May Constitution, Poland was forced to sign the Second Partition in 1793, which ceded Dobrzyn, Kujavia, and a large portion of Greater Poland to Prussia and all of Poland's eastern provinces from Moldavia to Livonia to Russia, reducing Poland to one-third of her original size before

529-493: Was the result of the Kościuszko Uprising and was followed by a number of Polish–Lithuanian uprisings during the period. Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, in an attempt to strengthen the significantly weakened Commonwealth, King Stanisław August Poniatowski put into effect a series of reforms to enhance Poland's military, political system, economy, and society. These reforms reached their climax with

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