RECEPTIONS OF WAR AND THE HOLOCAUST IN THE SOVIET POST-WAR LITERATURE: DOCUMENTARY NARRATIVE «THE NOTES OF PARTISAN DOCTOR» BY ALBERT TSESSARSKY

  • Victoria Sukovata

Abstract

The article aims to analyze artistic receptions of the Holocaust in the Soviet literature of the first post-war decades based on the documentary narrative The Notes of Partisan Doctor by Albert Tsessarsky (1956).

A. Tsessarsky was a doctor in the «Winners» partisan unit, where many well-known Soviet Chekists, sportsmen and professional diversionists fought against the Nazis and further on became a part of the Soviet «mass mythology» (D. Medvedev, N. Kuznetsov) thanks to related books and movies.

The article explores Tsessarksy’s narrative at different levels: in terms of its genre, content and thematic peculiarity; in terms of the existing tradition of studying the Soviet partisan movement; in terms of the intention of fighters and survivors to record their war and occupation experience in the narrative (primarily in fiction), which lead to the development in Soviet literature of the «military prose» genre encompassing particularly the topic of the Holocaust.

In his prose, Tsessarsky sought to depict all areas of war and post-war life of the Soviet partisans, particularly through focusing on various aspects of his daily medical activity, spiritual and gender relationships in the partisan unit, the attitude of Ukrainian and Polish population to the Soviet partisans as well as on the perception of the Holocaust and its victims by lay partisans, their commanders and local citizens.

In his notes, Tsessarsky shows that Jews, who had undergone persistent mass destruction, were replaced by the Soviet prisoners of war and local Slavs (Ukrainians, Poles, Russians, the so-called «Untermenschen» using Nazi terms), who also experienced ruthless repressions.

Besides, the analysis of the prose makes it possible to conceptualize an identity-shaping background of a Soviet Jewish combatant displayed in A. Tsessarsky’s book. The value of Tsessarsky’s prose lies in the fact that it represents one of the first Holocaust testimonies in Ukraine as well as reflections upon this genocide. The novelty of this article is determined by the fact that it is the first time Tsessarsky’s prose has become the subject of the research as a phenomenon of the Soviet post-war culture, as a documented Holocaust testimony and as a reflection of the Soviet Jewish partisan’s war and resistance experience in post-war literature.

Key words: the Holocaust, Nazi occupation, Soviet post-war literature, Soviet partisan resistance, Jewish front-line soldiers.

Author Biography

Victoria Sukovata

Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Theory of Culture and Philosophy of Science, Kharkiv National University after V.N. Karazin, author of a number of scientific publications devoted to the Holocaust issues.

Published
2018-12-15