The Life and Art of El Lissitzky Born Lazar Markovich Lissitzky on November 23, 1890, the man who would become known as El Lissitzky entered a world of quiet tradition in Pochinok. This small Jewish community lay about 50 kilometers southeast of Smolensk in the Russian Empire. His father, Mordukh Zalmanovich Lissitzky, was a man of letters and travel, a well-educated agent who moved through the world with a command of English and Germ…