Shmuel Zalmanovich Halkin (Yiddish: שמואל האַלקין; Belarusian: Самуіл Залманавіч Галкін, romanized: Samuil Zalmanavič Halkin; ‹See Tfd›Russian: Самуил Залманович Галкин, romanized: Samuil Zalmanovich Galkin; 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.
Halkin was interested in Jewish culture as a child, later as a young man he would become interested in painting and literature before ultimately deciding to become a poet.[5][6] In his youth he wrote his poetry in Hebrew, but from 1921 onwards he wrote in Yiddish.[7]
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.[6][8][9] This would not only be the foundation of his career, but part of the foundation of Soviet Jewish poetry.[10] These and his later works would earn his lyric poetry acclaim.[11][2]
During World War II Halkin was a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and served on the editorial board of its journal Eynikayt, during which he wrote about the Shoah.[1][8] Halkin would develop a cordial relationship with fellow committee member and neighbor Peretz Markish.[12] 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.[8][13]