Zorin Mikhail (1916)

Zorin Mikhail (real name: Mikhail Israilevich Simkhovich) (1916, Ukraine — ?) — journalist, writer.

Mikhail Zorin was born into the family of a baker and confectioner. In 1931 he graduated from secondary school in Yuzovka, worked at a metallurgical plant, and pursued self-education in the “Workers’ Authors’ Cabinet” at the plant’s Palace of Culture. Contributed as a freelance correspondent to the factory newspaper Young Worker; also worked as librarian, archivist, linotypist, and assistant theater designer.

Before World War II was a reporter for newspapers in the North Caucasus, later for the Donbas paper Rutchenkovo Giant at Mine No. 17-17-bis. On the recommendation of A. S. Novikov-Priboi, in 1936 Mikhail Zorin published the short story The Son in the journal Literary Donbas.

During World War II he ran the sections On the Red Army Bayonet and South Uralians at the Front in the Red Army newspaper of the South Ural Military District. After the war worked as a traveling correspondent.

In 1951 Mikhail Zorin moved to Latvia, residing in Melluži and Riga. In 1952 he studied at the Evening University of Marxism-Leninism in Riga. Became a member of the Latvian Writers’ Union, Baltic correspondent for Literaturnaya Gazeta, and also published in Rīgas Balss. Author of novellas and novels, many published in Riga. Wrote memoirs about Riga writer N. P. Zadornov and essays on A. Upītis, J. Sudrabkalns, A. Sakse, E. Zālīte, J. Smuulis, V. Shklovsky, Vs. Ivanov, M. Svetlov, among others.

Family:

Brother — Zalman Simkhovich, radiologist, senior researcher at the Institute of Traumatology in Riga

Brother — Ilya, circus performer, bear trainer (stage name Leonid Dubrovsky)

Wife — Ida Zakharovna Shulkina, writer and translator from Yiddish, co-author of Zorin’s first production novel The Day Comes Early (День наступает рано) and the book The Burning Torch (Пылающий факел).

Selected works:

The Day Comes Early (День наступает рано). Riga, 1958

Scout’s Trails: Hero of the Soviet Union V. F. Kalishin (Тропы разведчика: [Герой Советского Союза В. Ф. Калишин]). Moscow, 1960

Roads of History: On the Work of N. P. Zadornov (Дороги истории: о творчестве Н. П. Задорнова). Riga: Latgosizdat, 1960

Soldiers’ Roads (Солдатские дороги). Penza, 1962

I Dream of Pskov…(Мечтаю о Пскове… ) Riga: Liesma, 1970

Let My Lamp Not Go Out: Literary Portraits, Memoirs, Reflections (Лампе моей не гаснуть: Литературные портреты. Воспоминания. Размышления). Riga: Liesma, 1976

Donetsk Boy (Донецкий мальчик). Moscow, 1980

All That Is Destined (Все, что суждено). Riga: Liesma, 1986

Literature:

Zorin, M. The Hours, Days, and Years Pass By Let My Lamp Not Go Out (Идут часы, и дни, и годы Лампе моей не гаснуть: Литературные портреты. Воспоминания. Размышления.Riga: Liesma, 1976, pp. 481–502

Zorin, M. Deportation Was Being Prepared (Депортация готовилась) Lechaim. 2001, No. 8 (112)