A Shadow Career: The Covert Poetry of Vladimir Lifshits

Abstract

While perhaps best known as a children’s poet, Vladimir Lifshits was a prolific writer in several genres, who superficially resembled many other Soviet writers in good standing with the regime. However, this article, surveying his now undeservedly ignored career, reveals another side to his writing: Lifshits not only composed unpublished verse highly critical of the authorities but also used various techniques – initially and most importantly, the mask of literary parody – to publish works expressing his aversion to much of what he observed in Soviet society. These writings show he was a principled, if often overlooked, opponent of the existing order.