Tel Aviv

A novelist in the Russian language, Abraham Vysotsky was born in the town of Zhornishche (in present-day Ukraine). Living for a time in Biysk, Siberia, he immigrated to Palestine in the winter of 1919–1920. Although Vysotsky was fluent in Hebrew, his literary career was carried out entirely in Russian, a rare choice for a member of the literary community in Palestine at the time. While considered a minor writer, Vysotsky is included by critics within the work of both the Third Aliyah and the prerevolutionary wave of Russian literature “in emigration.” His novels were often works of historical fiction, concerning the lives of Jews in Palestine and elsewhere. Many of his works were translated into other European languages and into Hebrew.