Emil Draitser dreamed of becoming a writer. Born to a working-class Jewish family in the USSR on the eve of World War II, he came of age during the Brezhnev era, often considered the nadir of Soviet culture. Bored with an engineering job, he found refuge in writing, attracting the attention of a Moscow editor who encouraged him to try his hand at satire. He spent the next decade contributing to The Crocodile, the major Party-sponsored magazine known for its sharp-tongued essays and cartoons. After he got in trouble for criticizing an important Soviet official, he began weighing the heavy decision of whether to emigrate. In this captivating memoir, Draitser explores what it means to be a satirist in a country lacking freedom of expression. His experience provides a window into the lives of a generation of artists who were allowed to poke fun and make readers laugh, as long as they toed a narrow, state-approved line. In the Jaws of the Crocodile also includes several of Draitser's wry pieces translated into English for the first time.

In the Jaws of the Crocodile: A Soviet Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Draitser, Emil

Community & Culture

University of Wisconsin Press

Many years after making his way to America from Odessa in Soviet Ukraine, Emil Draitser made a startling discovery: every time he uttered the word "Jewish"―even in casual conversation―he lowered his voice. This behavior was a natural by-product, he realized, of growing up in the anti-Semitic, post-Holocaust Soviet Union, when "Shush!" was the most frequent word he heard: "Don't use your Jewish name in public. Don't speak a word of Yiddish. And don't cry over your murdered relatives." This compelling memoir conveys the reader back to Draitser's childhood and provides a unique account of midtwentieth-century life in Russia as the young Draitser struggles to reconcile the harsh values of Soviet society with the values of his working-class Jewish family. Lively, evocative, and rich with humor, this unforgettable story ends with the death of Stalin and, through life stories of the author's ancestors, presents a sweeping panorama of two centuries of Jewish history in Russia.

Shush! Growing Up Jewish under Stalin: A Memoir

University of California Press

Sailor, painter, doctor, lawyer, polyglot, and writer, Dmitri Bystrolyotov 
(1901–75) led a life that might seem far-fetched for a spy novel, yet here 
the truth is stranger than fiction. The result of a thirty-five-year journey 
that started with a private meeting between the author and Bystrolyotov 
in 1973 Moscow and continued through the author’s subsequent 
research in international archives, Stalin’s Romeo Spy: The Remarkable 
Rise and Fall of the KGB’s Most Daring Operative pieces together a life lived 
in the shadows of the twentieth century’s biggest events. 
One of the “Great Illegals,” a team of outstanding Soviet spies operating 
in Western countries between the world wars, Bystrolyotov was 
the response to Sidney Reilly, the British prototype for James Bond. 
A dashing man, his modus operandi was the seduction of women— 
among them a French embassy employee, a German countess, the wife 
of a British official, and a Gestapo officer—which enabled Stalin to look 
into diplomatic pouches of many European countries. Risking his life, 
Bystrolyotov also stole military secrets from Nazi Germany and Fascist 
Italy. A man of extraordinary physical courage, he twice crossed the 
Sahara Desert and the jungles of Congo. 
But his success as a spy didn’t save him from Stalin’s purges, at the 
height of which he was arrested and tortured until he falsely confessed 
to selling out to the enemy. Sentenced to twenty years of hard labor in 
the Gulag, Bystrolyotov risked more severe punishment by documenting 
the regime’s crimes against humanity in unpublished and suppressed 
memoirs that rival those of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 
The first full-length biography in any language, at once a real-life 
spy thriller, a drama of desire, and a prison memoir, Stalin’s Romeo Spy 
is the true account of a flawed yet extraordinary man.

Stalin's Romeo Spy: The Remarkable Rise and Fall of the KGB's Most Daring Operative

Historical

Northwestern University Press

<div> Set in the summer of 1979 at the height of the movement to free Soviet Jewry, Farewell, Mama Odessa is an autobiographical novel whose intertwined storylines&nbsp;follow a variety of people--dissidents, victims of ethnic discrimination, and black&nbsp;marketeers among them--as they bid farewell to their beloved hometown of Odessa,&nbsp;Ukraine, and make their way to the West. At the book's center is Boris, a young writer&nbsp;thwarted by state censorship and antisemitism. With an Angora kitten for his companion&nbsp;and together with other émigrés, he puts the old country in his rear-view mirror&nbsp;and sets out on a journey that will take him to Bratislava, Vienna, Rome, and New&nbsp;York on his way to Los Angeles. Will Boris be able to rekindle his creative passion and&nbsp;inspiration in the West? Will other Jewish émigrés fit into the new society, so much&nbsp;different than the one they left behind? With humor and compassion, Farewell, Mama Odessa describes the émigrés' attempts at adjustment to the free world.&nbsp; <div> <div> <div>&nbsp;</div> </div> </div> </div>

Farewell, Mama Odessa: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

World Literature

Laughing All the Way to Freedom: The Americanization of a Russian Emigre

McFarland

This anthology is a teaching aid for use in courses on Russian literature and culture of the 20th century for English-speaking students. It includes selected poems by Alexander Blok, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Sergei Esenin, Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandestam, Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Pasternak, and Iosif Brodsky. Each poet is introduced with a short biographical account. All poetical texts are supplied with stress-marks. Rare and difflcult words are translated. Cultural and historical background information is provided in footnotes. Editor and compiler of the book, Professor Emil Draitser teaches Russian language and literature at Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Russkie poety XX veka / Twentieth Century Russian Poets (Russian Edition)

Poetry

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Making War, Not Love: Gender and Sexuality in Russian Humor

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Sailor, painter, doctor, lawyer, polyglot, and writer, Dmitri Bystrolyotov (1901-75) led a life that might seem far-fetched for a spy novel, yet here the truth is stranger than fiction. The result of a thirty-five-year journey that started with a private meeting between the author and Bystrolyotovin 1973 Moscow and continued through the author's subsequent research in international archives, Stalin's Romeo Spy, pieces together a life lived in the shadows of the twentieth century's biggest events. One of the "Great Illegals," a team of outstanding Soviet spies operating in Western countries between the world wars, Bystrolyotov was the response to Sidney Reilly, the British prototype for James Bond. A dashing man, his modus operandi was the seduction of women-among them a French embassy employee, a German countess, the wife of a British official, and a Gestapo officer-which enabled Stalin to look into diplomatic pouches of many European countries. Risking his life, Bystrolyotov also stole military secrets from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. A man of extraordinary physical courage, he twice crossed the Sahara Desert and the jungles of Congo.But his success as a spy didn't save him from Stalin's purges, at the height of which he was arrested and tortured until he falsely confessedto selling out to the enemy. Sentenced to twenty years of hard labor in the Gulag, Bystrolyotov risked more severe punishment by documentingthe regime's crimes against humanity in unpublished and suppressed memoirs that rival those of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The first full-length biography in any language, at once a real-life spy thriller, a drama of desire, and a prison memoir, Stalin's Romeo Spy is the true account of a flawed yet extraordinary man.

Stalin's Romeo Spy: : The Remarkable Rise and Fall of the KGB's Most Daring Operative

True Crime

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