Ilya Zinovyevich Gordon, better known as Elye Gordon, was a Soviet Yiddish author. He was born in Zelenopol, a Jewish agricultural colony in Russia between Yekaterinoslav and Mariupol, but grew up in an orphanage in Berdyansk. Gordon studied at the Yiddish language departments (rabfak) of the Odessa Pedagogical Institute, then Moscow Pedagogical Institute. As a volunteer for the Red Army during World War II, Gordon was twice decorated with the Order of the Red Banner. Wartime themes would also figure in his literary work.
