The Old and the New Together:David Bergelson's and Israel Joshua Singer's Portraits of Moscow Circa 1926-27

In the spring of 1926, David Bergelson changed his affiliation, breaking with Abraham Cahan's Forverts and joining the writers who grouped around the pro-Soviet Frayhayt. By the end of the same year, Bergelson (a Berlin resident in 1921-33) was dispatched to the Soviet Union to report the achievements of the Communist country. In the meantime, the Forverts sent its Warsaw-based corresspondent I. J. Singer to the Soviet Union. The article introduces and analyzes Bergelson's and Singer's Moscow travelogues, translated for this publication.