2 October 2026, Friday, 9:41
Support
the website
Sim Sim,
Charter 97!
Categories

Marc Chagall's Memoirs Are Being Published In Belarusian For The First Time

Marc Chagall's Memoirs Are Being Published In Belarusian For The First Time
Marc Chagall. Above the City, 1918
Photo: Tretyakov Gallery

The book will be released in late October 2026.

The memoirs by Marc Chagall—specifically, the first draft of his autobiography titled “Mine”—are being published for the first time in Belarusian by the “Miane Nya” publishing house. This was reported by "Zerkalo".

“This is, perhaps, our most ambitious project. And we are glad that it has come to fruition. It brought together our personal interests, the public’s interest, and that of the translator, as well as the goodwill of the patrons who supported this publication. “Thank you to everyone involved!”—the team at “Mya Nema” noted.

The memoirs were originally written in Russian (that version has been lost) and published in Yiddish in 1925 in five issues of the New York monthly “Di cukunft” (“The Future”). The basis for the translation into Belarusian, carried out by Sergei Shupa, was a typescript (80 pages) held at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York—with some changes and additions to the version published in the magazine.

“The 1925 Yiddish version preserves Chagall’s authentic vision,” the translator notes in the afterword to the edition. The widely known French version—*My Life*, published in 1931 in a translation by the artist’s wife Bella Chagall— “presents the public with a more acceptable and ‘safe’ image of Chagall, removing anything that might create an undesirable impression.” “His Own” — Chagall as he truly is.

You can order the book on the page of the publisher. It is scheduled for release in late October 2026.

Write your comment

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts

▲