The article considers the phenomenon of  Solomon Mikhoels (Solomon Vovsi, 1890 -1948), the renowned Jewish actor and director. This study is based on a comparative analysis of two memoir ego-documents: the memoirs of his twin brother, Khaim Vovsi and those of the philosopher – Aaron Steinberg. The analysis employs a biographical and cultural-historical approach tailored to the specific characteristics of ego-documents, as well as the structural-semiotic analysis. The two memoir texts under study uncover unique facts of Solomon Mikhoels’ biography and personality, particularly related to his childhood and adolescence. They highlight factors that shaped his creativity, perception of theatre, and contributions to the Jewish theatrical tradition. Although both texts focus on the same biographic period, they discuss entirely different facts; this testifies to the subjectivity of selection and the work of memory mechanism. The comparative approach allows to consider the specific structure of ego-documents, which combine personal memories and elements of the “inclusion” of collective memory.

In literary works authors use a variety of literary and linguistic techniques to create unique characters and convey deep meanings. In this regard, linguistic features play a special role, which bring originality to the work and enliven the speech of the characters. Considered in the article are the linguistic features of the speech of the characters in Nekod Singer's novel Tickets at the Box Office. Bioautography: mainly foreign-language inclusions and semiotic blends (hybrids), the functions of foreign-language inclusions have been described and word-formation models of blends have been derived. The article also introduces the cultural and historical context of that era, revealing a connection with the above-mentioned linguistic aspects.

The article examines the Jewish themes in Lyudmila Ulitskaya's novel The Green Tent, expressed in the discourse of the mythology of everyday life and in official practices. The analysis focuses on the book's cover artwork (first edition) as a  part of  the text that sets the mythopoetic direction for reading the novel: the author of the article sees in the drawing a sukkah — a booth that Jews build from plant branches during the days of remembrance of past wanderings and tribulations. The semantics of the novel's title, linked to the memory of the traumatic history of the Soviet 20th century, is also considered.

 Emigration is a worldwide and timeless phenomenon, regardless of its voluntary or forced nature. The study of emigration and repatriation has become a popular and widely discussed topic, as these phenomena can be dissected by many fields of study, such as history, cultural studies, literary studies, linguistics, religious studies, sociology, political science or even research in pedagogy. The article deals the work of the emigrant writer Zinovy Zinik in the field of literary studies, with reference to the author's interest in culture. This article is devoted to presenting Zinoviev Zinik's silhouette, discussing one of the author's most popular novels, The Mushroom Picker, which deals with the issue of cultural barriers between representatives of two different cultures. It also discusses emigration as a source of the author's literary concepts.

The references to the Jewish theme selected from Babel's text, occurring in the form of sentences and phrases, formed the subject of analysis, the meaning of which was determined by the representation of the image of Jewish existence against the background of looting, military operations during the civil war of the early 20s of the twentieth century. The events are taking place on the territory of eastern Poland and western Ukraine. The appearance of representatives of the local Jewish environment, their appearance, occupations, clothes, actions, behavior, as well as attitudes towards them from others, their relationships with these others, their internal relationships – in the family, in the community, between communities, among themselves – all this becomes the object of a consistent semantic distribution. There are distinguished groups and subgroups, the visual, viewable description and characteristics of which make it possible to see and understand not only what is happening, but also what the world of Jewish existence depicted by Babel in his work represented. The consequence of the proposed consideration could be a semantic, according to the highlighted features, characterizing the description of what constitutes Jewish features and Jewish specifics, both in relation to the time and space shown in Babel, and in a broader perspective.

In October 1892, maskil Simon Dubnow published an open letter in Voskhod, the liberal Jewish monthly in Odessa where he worked as a journalist and literary editor. His letter, directed to both the maskilim (intellectuals) and mithnagdim (traditionalists) of his day, appealed to his cohorts to assist in writing the history of Russian Jews as a value distinct from the larger world history of Jewry. The letters Dubnow received in response bear witness to this process of  historiography, and many are preserved in  The Simon Dubnow Papers, 1632-1938, part of  the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections. Within Record Group 87, ten folders from Jewish towns spreading from Bialystok to Kishinev were recently re-discovered. These folders include: Bialystok, Gomel, Lipoviets, Lublin, Lutsk, Miedzybozh, Mohilev Podolsk, Ostroha and Stepan, and Kishinev. This paper examines the inscriptions contained in these letters and responds to the simple questions: Why did the zamiers select specific epitaphs that they transcribed for Dubnow?, and What value does each gravestone letter hold for Jewish historiography then and now?

The book by L.N. Mazour and O.V. Gorbachev, Soviet Films about the Village: Attempts at Historical Interpretation of Visual Imagery depicts a detailed picture of Soviet Films dealing with the village life in the Soviet Union. The authors present Soviet village films as a historical document and a tool used by the Soviet authorities to influence the rural audience, and educate it. However, Soviet village films were far from constituting a trustworthy historical document, as they ignored central and global events that occurred in the Soviet Union during the extended decades of its creation. The authors of the book present an unreliable picture of Soviet rural existence.

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