Shmuel Halkin

Shmuel Zalmanovich Halkin (; ; ; December 5, 1897 – September 21, 1960), also known as Samuil Galkin, was a Soviet poet who wrote lyric poetry and translated many writers into Yiddish.

Biography Halkin was born in Rahachow, in what was then the Russian Empire (now Belarus) on December 5, 1897. He was the youngest of nine children in a Hasidic, Jewish household and a cousin of Simon and Abraham Halkin. In his youth he wrote his poetry in Hebrew, but from 1921 onwards he wrote in Yiddish.

Halkin's first poems were published in 1917 in an anthology. He would then move to Moscow in 1922, after having lived in Kiyv for a year, where he published his debut collection Lider (Songs) with the help of David Hofstein. This would not only be the foundation of his career, but part of the foundation of Soviet Jewish poetry. These and his later works would earn his lyric poetry acclaim. He was arrested in 1949 alongside other members of the committee but was spared execution alongside them in 1952, likely due to a heart attack he suffered while imprisoned that hospitalized him. He would go on to be released in 1955.

Along with his original works, Halkin was known for translating the poems of Pushkin, Yesenin, Blok, Mayakovsky, Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear into Yiddish.

Halkin supported zionism, and would be criticized for his advocacy of Jewish nationalism. He was buried in Novodevichy Cemetery.

Following his death more of Halkin's works would be posthumously released, notably his work on the chorus of Mieczysław Weinberg's sixth symphony.

Musical settings Mieczyslaw Weinberg: 6 Jewish Songs op.17 1944, in Yiddish.