Kahana, Mozes

Early years

Mozes Kahana was born in 1897 in the Transylvanian town of Gyergyóbékás ^[1] on the Bikazu River, in the family of a miller; graduated from school here. He published his first poems in the magazine Mában under the pseudonym Joel Béla . In 1918, with the formation of the Hungarian People's Republic , he moved to Budapest , where he was also published under the pseudonym Gyergyai Zoltán ; with the collapse of the republic the following year he went to emigrate to Vienna .

At the end of 1918, the first collection of Kahane’s poems Univerzum ( Universe ) was published in Budapest, followed by poetry collections Én te ő ( Me, You, She , 1921) and Túl a politikán ( On Politics , in Vienna). 1921), with illustrations by the modernist Transylvanian artist Janos Mattis Teutsch ( János Mattis Teutsch , 1884-1960). In 1922, Kahana, together with Iren Komjat (Komját Aladár, 1891-1937) founded the magazine Egyseg ( Unity ), designed to unite left-handed Hungarian emigration in Vienna; published under a variety of pseudonyms in this magazine and in another Vienna edition of Akasztott Ember. In 1923, under the name Térítő Pál, he published the collection A mozgalom (The Movement ), with illustrations by Sándor Bortnyik , 1893-1976, after which he returned to the now Romanian Transylvania and joined the illegal Communist Party of Romania. For communication with the banned party, he was arrested in 1926, sentenced to two years and placed in Doftanul prison, specially designed for political prisoners. In the same year he escaped from prison (having received a gunshot wound in the leg), crossed the Dniester River , along which the state border of the USSR passed then, and settled in the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic , where he joined the literary life in the Moldavian language. He became one of the founders and the first chairman of the Moldovan Writers' Union (1927), but already in 1929, on instructions from the Comintern , he was transferred to Berlin to organize underground communist work, and from there to Paris . He again switched to Hungarian and now exclusively to prose. He became a regular contributor to the Korunk magazine, where he had been published before (even when he was in the Soviet Union); journalistic and literary critical works (o Tolstoy , Sadovyanu , Radnoti and others) throughout the 1930s printed under the pseudonyms Köves Miklós, KM, km and KK

It was in Paris that Kahana wrote his most famous novels, which were published by the Hungarian publishing house in Cleveland ( USA ) under the pseudonym Köves Miklós and in the Soviet Union in Russian and Hungarian under his own name: “Tarackos” (in Russian in 2 volumes) , M. - L. , 1930 and 1932), "A Kárpátok alatt" ( Underground , 1931), "Taktika" ( Tactics , in Russian, M. - L. , 1933 and in Hungarian - Cleveland, 1934) , Őszi hadgyakorlat ( Autumn Maneuver , in Hungarian, Cleveland, 1935). In 1937, Kahana returned to Romania , this time settled in Bessarabia , and continued to regularly publish in the Korunk magazine until 1940 , when Bessarabia left the USSR . In 1940, in Cluj , again under the pseudonym Miklós Köves , his most famous novel, Hat nap és a hetedik, was released and Kahana joined the activity of the Writers' Union of the MSSR formed in Chisinau .

In the USSR

During the Great Patriotic War - in evacuation in Central Asia, after the war he returned to Chisinau , then settled in Bender . During these years he was engaged in lexicographic work and in 1946, his “Hungarian-Russian Dictionary” of 20 thousand words was published in the state publishing house of foreign languages. The second edition of the dictionary, in 1951, already contains 27 thousand words, and the third, published in 1959, brings the author to 35 thousand lexical units and adds an outline of the grammar of the Hungarian language (another edition was published in 1964 ). In 1954, the first novel by Kahana from the planned trilogy on collectivization and collective farm life “Kostya Gyngash” (in Russian appears in a separate book in the Moscow publishing house “Soviet Writer” in 1958 as the first part of the trilogy “Justice”) in 1956 , in 1956 the year - the second novel of the trilogy - "Pavel Bragar". Over the last novel, Kahan has been severely criticized by the chairman of the Moldovan Writers' Union, Andrei Lupan, for revisionism and is, in fact, completely removed from the literary process in Moldova. At the Third Congress of the Union of Writers of the USSR in May 1959 , at the request of the leadership of the Moldavian Writers' Union, Kahana is also criticized for this novel, is forced to apologize and will not return to Moldova, but settles in Moscow, where a new edition of his Hungarian has just been published Russian dictionary.

In Hungary

In Moscow, Kahana is engaged in translations from Hungarian; in translations into Russian, the publishing house "Soviet Writer" published his novel "Pavel Bragar" (1962) and a collection of short stories "Unforgettable" (1965). In 1964, Kahana left for Hungary, settled in Budapest, where he was greeted as the master of modern Hungarian literature (József Attila Prize for 1968). Reprints of his early novels follow one after another: Biharvári taktika (revised and continued edition of Tactics , 1965), Tarackos (1971), Két nő egy képen (1974), as well as new novels, short prose books and Memoirs: Földön, föld alatt (1967), Legyen másként (1967), Szabadság, szerelem (1968), Íratlan könyvek könyve, önéletrajzi (1969), Vízesés: el Maizovnő , "Szélhordta magyarok" (1971), "A boldog élet könyve, önéletrajzi" (1972), "Lemegy a nap" (1973), "Sóvárgások könyve, önéletrajzi" (1973). On April 11, 1974, being one of the most famous Hungarian writers, Moses Kahana committed suicide by jumping out of a hospital window in Budapest. Posthumously published editions of the writer's selected works: “Nagy időknek kis embere” (on his eightieth birthday, 1977), “Nyugtalan esztendő” (1977), three novels “Tarackos, Hat nap és a hetedik and Elbeszélések” came out with one book in Bucharest 1978 year.

In Hungarian

• Univerzum (poems), Budapest, 1918 [1919].
• Én te ő (verses), A MA kiadása: Vienna, 1921.
• Túl a politikán (verses), A MA kiadása: Vienna, 1921.
• A mozgalom (short stories under the name Térítő Pál ), Vienna, 1923.
• Tarackos (novel, in Russian), in 2 vols., Moscow-Leningrad, 1930 and 1932.
• A Kárpátok alatt (short stories), 1932.
• Taktika (novel), Moscow-Leningrad, 1933.
• Őszi hadgyakorlat (novel), in Russian - Moscow, 1933, in Hungarian - Munkás Szövetség Könyvosztálya: Cleveland, [1934] 1935.
• Hat nap és a hetedik (novel, under the name Köves Miklós ), Erdélyi regény: Kolosvár, [1939] 1940
• Hat nap és a hetedik, 1956.
• Biharvári taktika (novel), Kossuth: Budapest, 1965
• Földön, földalatt (novel, short stories), Szépirodalmi: Budapest, 1967.
• Legyen másként (novel), Budapest, 1967.
• Szabadság, szerelem (novel), Budapest, 1968.
• Íratlan könyvek könyve (novel), Budapest, 1969.
• Szélhordta magyarok (short stories), Budapest, 1971.
• Tarackos (novel), Kossuth: Budapest, 1971
• Vízesés. Mai moldován elbeszélők (from Moldavian), Budapest, 1971.
• A boldog élet könyve (autobiographical novel), Budapest, 1972.
• Lemegy a nap (novel), Budapest, 1973.
• Sóvárgások könyve (autobiographical novel), Budapest, 1973.
• Két nő égy képen (short stories), Szépirodalmi: Budapest, 1974.
• Nagy időknek kis embere (journalism), Budapest, 1977.
• Nyugtalan esztendő (novel), Európa, 1977
• Tarackos. Hat nap és a hetedik. Elbeszélések (novels, short stories), Bucharest, 1978.

Bibliographic edition

• Vera Zimane Lengyel, M. Kahana: Bibliografia, Budapest, 1977.

In Russian (M. G. Kahana)

• Hungarian-Russian Dictionary, State Publishing House of Foreign Languages. - M. , 1946; 2nd ed. - 1951; 3rd ed. - 1959.
• Kostya Gyngash (novel). - M .: Soviet writer, 1958.
• Pavel Bragar (novel). - M .: Soviet writer, 1962.
• Hungarian-Russian dictionary. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1964.
• Unforgettable (novels and stories). - M .: Soviet writer, 1965.

Article in the Literary Encyclopedia (inaccessible link from 06/14/2016 [1178 days])