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HelpBest for Jewish soviet actress born I Ukriane
So far I've settled on her stage name which is Oktibryna Volkova, She is a communist.
Oktybrina devoted her life to her Marxist ideology not knowing she will get stabbed in the back
Oktybrina is a famous soviet actress known for her roles in soviet propaganda movies, her acting talent and her voice.
However, she was born in Tsarist Russia (Modern-day Ukraine where Jews were allowed to reside)
She was born to an Odessan rabbi and his wife and the eldest of 4 siblings. Including her youngest sister who immigrated to Haifa to follow the zionist dream (important for later)
Oktybrina was Stalin's favorite actress but everything changed in the year of 1950. Oktybrina faced a cruel death at the hands of a soviet actor and intelligence man, she was immediately shot on stage during her performance.
The reason for her assassination was her sister's political alliance and Oktybrina's Jewish background. It was common for soviet authorities to target Jews during Stalin's repressions and people suspected of being zionists or having external relations.
I chose Julia (yoo-lya) Wolfina as her original name, because Wolfina has an identical meaning to Volkova. I do like get last name but I am not settled on her first name.
I am looking for name that is either Ukrainian, Jewish or Russian. Something that will go well with her last name. It should fit her historical background.
Edit: I do know the topic of Zionism is a sensitive topic but I am sharing this as it is relevant for her background and story
*******
rate my PLN:
https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/229415/142623
https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/229415/165832
Oktybrina devoted her life to her Marxist ideology not knowing she will get stabbed in the back
Oktybrina is a famous soviet actress known for her roles in soviet propaganda movies, her acting talent and her voice.
However, she was born in Tsarist Russia (Modern-day Ukraine where Jews were allowed to reside)
She was born to an Odessan rabbi and his wife and the eldest of 4 siblings. Including her youngest sister who immigrated to Haifa to follow the zionist dream (important for later)
Oktybrina was Stalin's favorite actress but everything changed in the year of 1950. Oktybrina faced a cruel death at the hands of a soviet actor and intelligence man, she was immediately shot on stage during her performance.
The reason for her assassination was her sister's political alliance and Oktybrina's Jewish background. It was common for soviet authorities to target Jews during Stalin's repressions and people suspected of being zionists or having external relations.
I chose Julia (yoo-lya) Wolfina as her original name, because Wolfina has an identical meaning to Volkova. I do like get last name but I am not settled on her first name.
I am looking for name that is either Ukrainian, Jewish or Russian. Something that will go well with her last name. It should fit her historical background.
Edit: I do know the topic of Zionism is a sensitive topic but I am sharing this as it is relevant for her background and story
*******
rate my PLN:
https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/229415/142623
https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/229415/165832
This message was edited 11/11/2024, 6:28 AM
Replies
Wolfina doesn’t sound like a real surname, let alone a Jewish one. The Russian suffix –ina is added to a German word that starts with a letter that doesn’t even have an equivalent in the Russian alphabet.
I can't speak on historical accuracy, or on the plausibility of the last name, so I'll assume you have your facts right.
I'm not really feeling Julia but I'm not sure why not. I would expect a rabbi's children to have strongly Jewish names, but at the same time, in that time and place, maybe the parents wouldn't care to call that much attention to their Judaism?
Also, how secret was this lady's background when she hit the stage in the USSR? If she was really hiding it, using a last name that's a direct translation of her original surname wouldn't be too smart.
I'm thinking Olga for her first name. It works in both Ukrainian and Russian and I've run across Jewish characters in books named Olga. It's not Biblical, but neither is it strongly associated with Christian figures.
I'm not really feeling Julia but I'm not sure why not. I would expect a rabbi's children to have strongly Jewish names, but at the same time, in that time and place, maybe the parents wouldn't care to call that much attention to their Judaism?
Also, how secret was this lady's background when she hit the stage in the USSR? If she was really hiding it, using a last name that's a direct translation of her original surname wouldn't be too smart.
I'm thinking Olga for her first name. It works in both Ukrainian and Russian and I've run across Jewish characters in books named Olga. It's not Biblical, but neither is it strongly associated with Christian figures.
Julia can be used to honor people with the Hebrew name Yoel. Sometimes especially during the 20th or 19th century, you could see religious parents giving their Children "gentile names", often it was a way of ensuring their child would be safe
Aelita, Agnessa, Aksinia, Anastasia, Angelina, Antonina, Bluma, Charna, Daria, Darina, Diana, Dominika, Elena, Eleonora, Elvira, Emiliya, Evelina, Golda, Inessa, Iraida, Ivanna, Izolda, Kalyna, Kamilla, Katerina, Kira, Klara, Kristina, Kseniya, Lara, Lilia, Ludmilla, Margarita, Marianna, Marina, Marta, Matrona, Milena, Mirele, Nadezhda, Natalya, Neonilla, Raissa, Rayna, Sabina, Stanislava, Svetlana, Taisiya, Tamara, Tatiana, Tomila, Velvela, Venera, Vera, Veronika, Viktoria, Violetta, Yelena, Yulia, Yulianna, Yustina, Zelda, Zlata, Zoriana.
The name you're talking about for the stage name is spelled Oktyabrina.
It also probably wouldn't be good to use because it was a communist name, and a lot of Jews don't like communism due to the treatment of Jews under the Soviet Union.
"Julia" would be written as Yuliya unless her target audience is western people.
"Wolfina" isn't an actual last name and it would make more sense to be a stage name than a birth last name.
You could use Vovk, Vovchuk, Vovnenko (etc, there's more variants) which are all Ukrainian variants of a last name meaning "wolf".
As for the first name:
Depending on how Jewish you want the character to be, you could go with either a Yiddish name or a Slavic name. If you want her to be more Russian, a Russian name would be better, and a Ukrainian one for more Ukrainian. Anyways:
Yiddish: (all of these names are Russified variants of Yiddish name)
Rifka (variant of Rivka)
Sheyna (variant of Shayna)
Krayna (variant of Kreine)
Freyde or Freyda
Ukrainian:
Halyna (Russified: Galina)
Ivanna
Oleksandra (Russified: Aleksandra)
Yuliya or Ulyana
For Russian names, I'll give you basically the same thing.
Galina
Zhanna
Aleksandra
Yuliya, Ulyana, or Yuliana
It also probably wouldn't be good to use because it was a communist name, and a lot of Jews don't like communism due to the treatment of Jews under the Soviet Union.
"Julia" would be written as Yuliya unless her target audience is western people.
"Wolfina" isn't an actual last name and it would make more sense to be a stage name than a birth last name.
You could use Vovk, Vovchuk, Vovnenko (etc, there's more variants) which are all Ukrainian variants of a last name meaning "wolf".
As for the first name:
Depending on how Jewish you want the character to be, you could go with either a Yiddish name or a Slavic name. If you want her to be more Russian, a Russian name would be better, and a Ukrainian one for more Ukrainian. Anyways:
Yiddish: (all of these names are Russified variants of Yiddish name)
Rifka (variant of Rivka)
Sheyna (variant of Shayna)
Krayna (variant of Kreine)
Freyde or Freyda
Ukrainian:
Halyna (Russified: Galina)
Ivanna
Oleksandra (Russified: Aleksandra)
Yuliya or Ulyana
For Russian names, I'll give you basically the same thing.
Galina
Zhanna
Aleksandra
Yuliya, Ulyana, or Yuliana
(I am a native Russian speaker BTW)
Oktybrina was a communist, that's why I chose Oktibryna as her first name in the first place. She changed her name in order to conform to Soviet standards. The whole point of her story is that she devotes her life to Marxism and gets a stab in the back (metaphorically and literally)
Also as someone who knows a lot about Slavic names and someone who learns German I automatically assumed people would pronounce Julia as (Yoo-lya).
I myself come from a family with both communist Jews and Jews who were victims of repression. Oktybrina's story is based on my own family.
Oktybrina was a communist, that's why I chose Oktibryna as her first name in the first place. She changed her name in order to conform to Soviet standards. The whole point of her story is that she devotes her life to Marxism and gets a stab in the back (metaphorically and literally)
Also as someone who knows a lot about Slavic names and someone who learns German I automatically assumed people would pronounce Julia as (Yoo-lya).
I myself come from a family with both communist Jews and Jews who were victims of repression. Oktybrina's story is based on my own family.
This message was edited 11/11/2024, 6:28 AM
(I also speak Russian.)
From experience with English speakers, most of them pronounce Julia like dzhoo-lee-yah, so if you want to avoid that you should write Yuliya. If you're writing it in German or you just don't mind, then Julia is also fine.
From experience with English speakers, most of them pronounce Julia like dzhoo-lee-yah, so if you want to avoid that you should write Yuliya. If you're writing it in German or you just don't mind, then Julia is also fine.
I write in Hebrew so it's irrelevant
Hmmm...
Just to weigh in, Oktybrina and Oktibryna aren't the same as Oktyabrina (and you shift spellings so it's a bit confusing which one you mean). In terms of transliteration (into English, which, yes is different to Hebrew, but you ARE asking people on an English language forum!) I can't think of any standard way in which you could turn я into 'y' or 'i' when you're transliterating into Latin alphabet. 'Ya' is a different letter/sound. It also changes the name, which literally comes from the word oktYAbr' not oktIbr'. Just facts.
Just to weigh in, Oktybrina and Oktibryna aren't the same as Oktyabrina (and you shift spellings so it's a bit confusing which one you mean). In terms of transliteration (into English, which, yes is different to Hebrew, but you ARE asking people on an English language forum!) I can't think of any standard way in which you could turn я into 'y' or 'i' when you're transliterating into Latin alphabet. 'Ya' is a different letter/sound. It also changes the name, which literally comes from the word oktYAbr' not oktIbr'. Just facts.
I will take it into notice!
thank you for this insight
thank you for this insight
This message was edited 11/13/2024, 7:49 AM