The name is Maurice. The surname is Simashko. And behind this unusual combination of names is an extraordinary person.

The author wrote the following to explain his rare French name:

"18th March, the Day of the Paris Commune. On this significant day I was born at the student hostel of the Odessa Institute of Public Education. My Father wore the Communist Youth Union uniform and my mother was involved in the International Movement. It was decided that my name could not be anything but Marseille or Maurice. The only argument my parents had was about choosing one or the other. Name Maurice predetermined a lot in my life ".

The long-time friend of the writer Leonid Girsh has explained how the respected Jewish surname Shamis was transformed into a pseudonym Simashko.

"Maurice Davidovich's Father, the director of the Republic Institute of Microbiology, had a surname Shamis. When Maurice began to write, he spelt this surname in reverse order and added "ko" to it. This is how it became Simashko."

The writer it known by this pseudonym all over the world, and his books such as "Stories of the Red and Black Sands" (1965-1966), the novels "Mazdak" (1971), "Commissioner Dzhangildin" (1978), "Atonement of Dabir" (1979), "The Bell" (1982), "Semiramida" (1988), the story "Gu-ga" (1990) have been translated into more than forty foreign languages. Maurice Simashko was awarded the titles of the National Writer of Kazakhstan, the Laureate of the Kazakhstan's Presidential Peace and Spiritual Consent Prize, the Laureate of the Abay Prize and the Vice President of Kazakh "Poets, Essayists and Novelists"(PEN) club.

After graduating from the Odessa Institute for Teachers in 1946, Maurice Davidovich started teaching at a school. In 1950 he completed a journalism course by correspondence from the Faculty of Journalism of Kazakh State University named after Kirov. He then worked as the staff reporter of TASS, "The Soviet Culture ", " The Teacher's Newspaper ", in the magazine "Expanse" and at the Union of Writers of Kazakhstan. For most of his life, the writer lived in Central Asia and appreciated its culture and history. Once Maurice Davidovich remarked, "A history... I can't say I loved it, this is the inappropriate word. I simply could feel it even when I was an eight-year-old boy wandering through the ruins of the Turkish fortress of Khadjibey, which was situated just two blocks away from our home."

A sincere friendship associated Maurice Davidovich with the Jewish community. The writer was a frequent guest at Hesed "Polina" and his readers' conferences were held there. Maurice Davidovich was WWII participant and attended community events for the veterans. Kazakh PEN club nominated Simashko for a Nobel Prize. We are very proud of the fact that such a remarkable person and a writer was a member of our community.

In the late 1990s David Morris and his family moved to their historical homeland. He decided to live in Israel, but to work in Almaty. Unfortunately, this plan was never destined to be put into practice. The writer was put to rest on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. But there are many people in our city who keep memories about this intelligent and talented person.

On the photo: Maurice Simashko in the Hesed "Polina", 1998.

Ludmila Starodubova