Eugene Sadowski

Eugene Ivanovich Sadowski (August 30, 1911 – August 1987) was a Ukrainian-born Soviet-American author, translator, Nazi collaborator, and mathematics professor. Lauded by Soviet and Russian authorities as a writer who died during World War II, it was discovered in January 2011 that Sadowski had not died but had instead collaborated with the Germans, where he wrote for Rech in Oryol.

Early life and literary career Yevgeny Ivanovich Sadovsky was born on August 30, 1911, in the city of Mariupol, then part of the Russian Empire (now located in south-eastern Ukraine) into an ethnically Russian family. According to an autobiography which he dictated to German authorities, he moved to Moscow in 1926, studying and eventually (in 1932) graduating from the German department of the faculty for literary translation at the Institute for New Languages. He described himself as having been fascinated with languages from an early age, and, in addition to his native Ukrainian and Russian, spoke German and some English.

Starting in 1933, Sadowski began work as a translator, working to translate the works of Friedrich Hölderlin into Russian. The process was arduous, taking six years rather than the one year initially expected.

In 1941, following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, he was conscripted into the Red Army, where he worked as an interpreter. He was spared from a frontline role due to what he described as "not so strong physique and very serious vision problems." Sadowski claimed in his autobiography that he never joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union or any of its subsidiary organisations save for the Union of Soviet Writers. Johannes R. Becher also celebrated Sadowski, saying in 1943, "A seriously wounded Russian was delivered to the headquarters of a German division. In the pocket of his tunic, a volume of Hölderlin in German was found. During a short interrogation, it turned out that the seriously wounded man was a translator of Hölderlin's poems into Russian. Shortly after the interrogation, he died." Becher often repeated Sadowski's story, alternatively claiming he had died as a result of his wounds or was killed for refusing to join the Germans. Sadowski was one of seven employees of Rech, along with Oktan, Vladimir Samarin, and individuals named Azbukin, Bogomolov, Petrov, and Sofronova. Sadowski's work, translation of German war reports, was among the most significant of content in Rech, making up over half of the content, though he remained anonymous in his translation.