Naum Shafer

Naum Grigorievich Shafer (Russian: Наум Григорьевич Шафер; 13 January 1931 – 11 October 2022), also known as Nami Gitin, was a Kazakhstani musicologist, professor, phonograph record collector and composer.

Biography

Naum Shafer was born in Chișinău in 1931. In 1940, during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, he and his family were deported to Kazakhstan to the special settlement "New Way" in Akmola Region. Notably, they've brought a collection of 30 gramophone records with them. His father was sent to Sverdlovsk Oblast to a lumber camp, but was released two years later.

In 1946 his family moved to Akmolinsk, where he began studying at a music school. After graduating, he studied at the Philological Faculty of the S. Kirov Kazakh National University. There he met famous composer Yevgeny Brusilovsky, who saw talent in young Shafer and taught him music for free.

He was a postgraduate student at the Department of Russian Foreign Literature of the S. Kirov University. The topic of his dissertation research were the works of Bruno Jasieński. Such a topic was also picked for the Candidate of Philological Sciences degree at the Kazakh National Pedagogical University in 1965.

In 1971, he was imprisoned for 1.5 years for possession of Samizdat, his doctoral thesis was cancelled. He was rehabilitated only in 1989.

In 1991, he became a professor at the Department of Russian and Foreign Literature of the Pavlodar Pedagogical University.

Naum Schafer's private library and collection of 27 000 phonograph records became the basis of a house-museum which opened on February 21, 2001.

Awards

• Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) «Of Merit» Medal (2011)
• «20 Years of Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan» Jubilee Medal (2011)

References

• "Шафер Наум Григорьевич" [Shafer Naum Grigorievich]. Цифровая энциклопедия «Учёные Павлодарской области» (in Russian). S. Toraighyrov Pavlodar Regional Universal Scientific Library. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
• Temirbolat-uly, Salauat (2023-01-17). "Гений Наума Шафера" [Genius of Naum Shafer]. Наша жизнь (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-11-21.
• Kovaleva, Irina (2018-09-13). "Четыре маленьких и важных музея Павлодара" [Four Small and Important Museums of Pavlodar]. Vlast.kz (in Russian).
• Voronko, Olga (2011-01-13). "Нелогичная жизнь Шафера" [The Illogical Life of Shafer]. Время (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-11-22.
• Tashkinbayev, Renat (2019-12-20). "Это его вечеринка. Житель Павлодара устраивает удивительные посиделки" [This is His Party. Pavlodar Resident Hosts Extraordinary Gatherings]. TengriNews (in Russian).