(1909–1992), Soviet poet, playwright, and polemicist. A graduate of the law faculty of the Kiev Institute of Economics (1930), Tsesar’ Solodar’ was a war correspondent during World War II, and joined the Communist Party in 1943.
Solodar’ began publishing in 1936, turning out several volumes of poetry, essays, and comic stories, and was responsible for the lyrics of many popular songs. His satirical comedies Letnii den’ (A Summer Day; 1950), V sirenevom sadu (In the Lilac Garden; 1954), Liubov’, direktor i kvartira (Love, Director, Apartment; 1957), Serebrianaia svad’ba (Silver Wedding Anniversary; 1959), Den’ v restorane (A Day in a Restaurant; 1965), and others mock the vestiges of the bourgeois past in the minds of Soviet citizens.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Solodar’ published numerous pieces in journals and newspapers attacking Zionism. These articles were collected in a series of books: Byvshie: Iz dokumental’nykh zapisei o sud’bakh byvshikh sovetskikh grazhdan v Izraile (Ex: Documentary Notes on the Fates of Former Soviet Citizens in Israel; 1975), Dikaia polyn’ (Wormwood; 1977), Temnaia zavesa (Dark Curtain; 1979), Litsemery (Hypocrites; 1980), and Lozh’ (The Lie; 1981). In following this radically anti-Zionist line, Solodar’ carried out the directives of party ideologues. His message was unambiguous: all Jews who wished to leave the Soviet Union were traitors, while Israel was a puppet in the hands of U.S. imperialists. Citing stories told by former Soviet citizens as well as occasional publications in the Israeli press, Solodar’ described the unremittingly harsh life of Soviet Jewish immigrants to Israel and the discrimination they faced daily. He had no qualms about juggling facts and often resorted to outright lies.
In addition to his written work, Solodar’ played an active role in the official anti-Zionist campaign, taking every opportunity to denounce Israel’s actions in the Middle East and demonstrating through his own example the absence of antisemitism in the USSR. He made frequent appearances on television, taking part in so-called Press Conferences of Citizens of Jewish Nationality, and he signed anti-Zionist petitions, manifestos, and the like. He received the Order of the Friendship of the Peoples for his career as a writer and social activist.
Translated from Russian by Alice Nakhimovsky