Translated material
Russian intellectual in the twentieth century
One hundred years ago Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was born
Thirty years ago, the Nauka publishing house published a collection of scientific works entitled “The Cultural Heritage of Ancient Rus'. Origins. Becoming. Traditions." It opened with an article by three outstanding medievalists, “Problems in the Study of Old Russian Literature,” only by reaching the third paragraph of which the reader should have understood what he was dealing with. “In recent decades in our country (a convenient euphemism; writing “Russia” is impermissible, “USSR” is sickening. - A.N. ) interest in ancient Russian culture has increased unusually: collecting activity has developed (expeditions for manuscripts, searches for ancient icons), on a large scale (they say, it actually happened before. - A.N. ) those who died in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 began to be restored and restored. and the architectural monuments and ensembles of the distant past, which suffered from time (and not from Bolshevik obscenities - A.N. ) (in the country of victorious atheism, you can’t just blurt out: “temples” - A.N. ), began a real pilgrimage (and they hinted, but tactfully. - A.N. ) to the centers of ancient Russian culture <...> In this kind of “revival” (one cannot do without a qualified epithet and quotation marks. - A.N. ) , which has great patriotic significance (“patriotism” has been introduced into the mandatory range of Soviet values; it’s not the twenties. - A.N. ), the great merit of Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, who currently heads the Soviet (or what else! - - A. N. ) school of researchers of ancient Russian literature, a school that has won first place in world medieval studies.” A life-affirming “sports” chord (as if scientific schools can really compete; as if it should be considered an achievement that in Russia they study the culture of the Russian Middle Ages more than in other countries!), among other things, means: Likhachev to Likhachev, but the main thing is that we are here too , as in rocket science, land reclamation and the field of ballet, ahead of the rest.Yes, the collection consisted of offerings from colleagues to Academician Likhachev, whose anniversary the authors of the introductory article reported in its last lines. “The history of the accumulation of values” (quote from Likhachev - A.N. ) is not a spontaneous process. This is a man-made story. To have the right to call the literary heritage of Ancient Russia “the great heritage” (the title of Likhachev’s newest book at that time - A.N. ), the efforts of many scientists were required. Among them, one of the first places belongs (again a competition, but here it is impossible to name a “champion”; there is no chance that a party functionary who seems to have abandoned the cannibalistic habits of the Stalin years will be offended, transferred to the head of Soviet philology, who graciously agreed to join the editorial board of the collection and thereby contributed to the good case. - A.N. ) D.S. Likhachev, who turns 70 in 1976.”
We spoke out. Readers, of course, already understood everything. It is not indicated on the book in whose honor it was published, but there is a portrait of Likhachev. The title of the introductory article is vague, but it talks about the works of Likhachev - a historian, textual critic, and theorist. And the book closes with a list of the researcher’s published works for the years 1966-1975. Everything is correct, there is a link to a previously published bibliography, from which anyone can find out that Likhachev’s first scientific work appeared in 1930 in the magazine “Solovetsky Islands” and was devoted to card games of criminals. Do not repeat this information, otherwise people will be interested in why the scientist made his debut in such a strange publication and on such a strange topic. Yes, because they took him in October 1928 for a report he made in a friendly academic circle on the advantages of the old spelling and sent him to Solovki, from where he was released in August 1932. And in the camp there were enough “socially close” lessons, the colorful jargon and customs of which interested the young philologist (Likhachev managed to complete his studies at the university of his native - then renamed - city, in the faculty, also equipped with a nickname - “social sciences”); Having returned to St. Petersburg, he published some of his “field observations” in academic publications.
You can’t write something like that in a normal Soviet book! This is not the “slanderous” “GULAG Archipelago,” where D.S. is named among the “few Solovki residents preserved in the memory of those who survived.” Likhachev. Now we can and should say: Likhachev’s name is also included in another (the one that will appear in the upcoming re-editions of “Archipelago...”) list - in the list of 227 witnesses who helped the writer erect a great monument to the victims of communism. Likhachev told Solzhenitsyn in detail about Solovki (of course, understanding that the author of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” was not asking him out of idle curiosity), and without the information he provided, one of the most terrible chapters of the “experience of artistic research” - “The Archipelago is Born from the Sea” - would be much poorer.
No, this was impossible. So it is better not to duplicate a bibliography that has slipped into print due to an oversight and to minimally touch upon the biography in the introductory article. It is said that in 1938 he entered the Sector of Old Russian Literature of the Pushkin House, and let the curious figure out for themselves what Likhachev did before. Well, the sector opened five years earlier - maybe he had other interests. Yeah, others. Likhachev served as a proofreader, first as a simple person, then as a “scientist”. It is listed as such in the output of some volumes of the large academic Collected Works of Pushkin. It was also not recommended to remember anything in 1976. How could it not be explained why a scientist who defended his candidate’s thesis in 1944, and three years later his doctorate, has since then worked extremely intensively (the first book, written in co-authorship with M.A. Tikhanova, vital for the wartime “Defense ancient Russian cities" - was published in 1942, the next two - "National identity of Ancient Rus'" and "Novgorod the Great" - in 1945, and then - 1946, 1947, 1950, 1952- th... this is not counting articles), before, already working in his specialty, he published in very measured doses. And much more was required to be left behind the scenes.
Then it was prescribed. Now society wants to forget (or “rewrite”) the reality of the “golden autumn” of Soviet power, wants to throw out of memory the sticky ambiguity, the stamp of which, to one degree or another, fell on any cultural fact of the extremely “cultural” era of the 70s (began in 1968- m, if not earlier, ended, at best, in 1987; it turned out to be a long “decade”). I did not bring forth fragments of the anniversary article, filled with omissions, euphemisms, and ritual formulas, in order to reproach its authors - undoubtedly great scientists and truly noble people. They (like many other philologists, historians, and art critics) wanted to honor their teacher and colleague, and for this purpose they were doomed to resort to stylistic tricks. One can imagine how many authorities agreed on the composition of the participants, which nevertheless included both “undesirable” foreigners (including, although immortalized by Mayakovsky, R.O. Yakobson, who never returned to the USSR), and “dubious” for bosses, domestic researchers. It is no coincidence that a book with the auspices of the Pushkin House was published in Moscow (although the Nauka publishing house had a branch on the banks of the Neva, intended specifically for stamping local products) - here the keen eye of the capital was needed!
We are not talking about the collection - about the sociocultural situation in which Academician Likhachev found himself. Recognized (but behind the scenes - everyone seems to “know it anyway”) coryphaeus of humanities (“Soviet”), laureate of the Stalin 2nd degree (1952) and State (1969) prizes (but not Lenin!), order bearer (received on his sixtieth birthday the Red Banner of Labor, and on his seventieth birthday - shish; the star of the Hero of Socialist Labor will be given to him in 1986 by Gorbachev), a foreign member or honorary doctor of many European academies and universities, chairman of the editorial board of “Literary Monuments” and other authoritative publications... I I didn’t preface this list with the sacramental “on the one hand,” because it already shows the other side, where there were persecutions of loved ones, threats of physical violence (and just scuffles - remaining undisclosed “hooligan antics” were not uncommon in those fabulous years), the impossibility to tell the truth about their own terrible experience (Solovetsky and the siege), the need to observe “Soviet scientific etiquette,” powerlessness in the academy (and even in the Pushkin House, where things were far from going well, and in their own department, whose personnel issues are resolved in “ personnel department"), constant compromises and humiliations associated with pushing through first one or another publication... The simplest example: in the volume that opened the treasured series “Monuments of Literature of Ancient Rus'” (1978), which Likhachev thought of as his life’s work, was the most important monument of the Kyiv period - “The Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion. They printed “The Word...” at the end of the final XII volume, containing verses of the 17th century. This volume was published in 1994 (the previous one appeared in 1989) in the dying (in fact, already dead) publishing house “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura”. Remember the “attention” of a poor state to culture at that time and think about why the federal program included funding for a ten-thousandth edition of a rather expensive book (the paper is bad, but there is a color insert) of a book: if not directly by the “sovereign will,” then with explicit consideration of the attitude the first president of Russia to academician Likhachev. One must think that he had to hit with his forehead even then, but if someone else had bowed, the result would have been different too. It is worth remembering this now, when slowly but, it seems, surely, a greatly expanded edition of “Monuments...” is being published. Already without Likhachev, but bequeathed to him.
Yes, under Yeltsin, Likhachev retained the status that was granted to him by Gorbachev. Order of St. St. Andrew the First-Called (1998) is worth "Gertrude". The President, asking Likhachev whether to participate in the reburial of the remains of the last emperor, and accepting (in a difficult situation) the advice of the academician, strengthened his image no less than his own.
In recent years, Likhachev was surrounded by affected respect (from the state, the scientific community, the intelligentsia), all his books (including memoirs and journalism) were published and republished, his students became major and recognized philologists, the best people of the country were proud to know him, they asked for his blessing for any reason or without it, it became customary to pronounce his name with aspiration, the phrases “great scientist”, “conscience of the nation”, “true Russian intellectual” were in the air...
All this could be considered “compensation” for a distorted youth, for many years of humiliation and sneaky dirty tricks, for the fact that even in the “best years” I had to hide my religious feelings, endure mockery of people, culture, science - of the Motherland and faith, finally... It would be possible, if this could be compensated for at least somehow. It would be possible if the praises did not smack of idle talk, and the counterbalance to the “cult” was not mocking back-door abuse, a mixture of slander and especially offensive “half-truths.” It would be possible if the government and society learned to respect not idols appointed or elected (even after the fairest “competition”), but creative individuals, science, art, and “cultural heritage.”
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev lived a long life. Scary. In its own way - majestic. Undoubtedly worthy. The hand does not turn to write the expected “but happy”, although he managed to accomplish a lot of things that the scientist dreamed of. Probably much more than was dreamed of during the Solovetsky or blockade days. He was not the “conscience of the nation” - it is enough to recall the names of Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn to understand how irresponsible this phrase sounds when applied to a noble and courageous person, but who built his relations with the world in a completely different way. Whether he was a great scientist, let the experts decide. But its role in maintaining the scientific tradition and scientific ethics, in expanding the semantic horizons of Russian humanitarian knowledge, in connecting the national school to the world context, in introducing “ordinary readers” to a truly “great heritage” cannot be called anything other than great.
He was a Russian intellectual - not in the sense of the collection “Vekhi”, which Likhachev read before us, but in the generally understandable and unshakable sense. It was so much so that without Likhachev, several generations of Russian intellectuals - not only philologists, historians or writers, but also artists, entertainers, musicians, teachers, doctors, engineers - would have looked different than they did today, yesterday or the day before yesterday. We would all be different - regardless of the degree of familiarity with “The Poetics of Old Russian Literature” (1967), “The Development of Russian Literature of the X-XVII Centuries” (1973) or “Notes on the Russian” (1981). Those who lived (and especially those who were forming) in the late Soviet era should understand me (if their memory has not atrophied), I ask the younger ones to believe.
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was born on November 28 (15), 1906 in St. Petersburg in the family of an electrical engineer.
In the year the First World War began, he went to study at the gymnasium of the Imperial Humane Society, and graduated from the Soviet Labor School named after L. Lentovskaya.
In 1923 he entered Petrograd State University at the Faculty of Social Sciences (Roman-Germanic and Slavic-Russian section of the Department of Linguistics and Literature).
In 1928, he was arrested for participating in the student group "Space Academy of Sciences", sentenced to five years for counter-revolutionary activities and served his sentence in the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (SLON). In the camp, he managed to gather homeless teenagers into a children's colony, which actually meant salvation from death for them. Observing teenagers, Likhachev studied their language, poetic ideas, the mentality of the thieves' world, Russian criminal culture; organized the first of its kind research institution for the study of “homeless thieves’ thinking” - the “Criminological Cabinet”. From these notes and observations, Likhachev’s first scientific works were born: the article “Card Games of Criminals” “written on a plank” (published in the magazine “Solovetsky Islands” revived by Likhachev) and Likhachev’s first scientific work, published after his release from the camp, “Characters primitive primitivism of thieves' speech" (collection "Language and Thinking", Leningrad, 1935). In 1931, Likhachev was transferred to Bel-Baltlag, where he worked on the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.
In August 1932, Likhachev was released from prison early and without restrictions as a drummer.
Returning to Leningrad, Likhachev worked as a literary proofreader and editor.
In 1936, at the request of the President of the Academy of Sciences A.P. Karpinsky, Likhachev’s criminal record was cleared. In the same year, Likhachev married Zinaida Aleksandrovna Makarova, and in 1937 twin daughters Vera and Lyudmila were born.
Since 1938, Likhachev has worked as a researcher at the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House).
From the autumn of 1941 to the spring of 1942, Likhachev and his family were in besieged Leningrad, and then evacuated along the Road of Life to Kazan.
In 1941, Likhachev defended his dissertation on the topic: “Novgorod chronicles of the 12th century,” and in 1942 the first book, “Defense of Ancient Russian Cities,” was published, written together with M.A. Tikhanova. In 1945, the books “National Identity of Ancient Rus'” and “Novgorod the Great” were published, in 1946 - “Culture of Rus' during the era of the formation of the Russian National State (late XIV - early XVI centuries)”, in 1947 - books "Russian Chronicles and their cultural and historical significance."
After the war, Likhachev taught at Leningrad State University. In 1947 he became a Doctor of Philology.
In 1958, Likhachev's first trip abroad took place - he was sent to Bulgaria to work in manuscript repositories.
In 1969, he received the USSR State Prize for his book “The Poetics of Old Russian Literature.”
In 1975, Likhachev opposed the exclusion of A.D. Sakharov from the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1986 he organized the Soviet (now Russian) Cultural Fund and was chairman of the presidium of the fund until 1993.
In 1989, he was nominated as a people's deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR by the Soviet Cultural Foundation.
Became the first honorary citizen of St. Petersburg in 1993.
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev died on September 30, 1999 in St. Petersburg and was buried in the cemetery in Komarov.
In 2000, D.S. Likhachev was posthumously awarded the State Prize of Russia for the development of the artistic direction of domestic television and the creation of the all-Russian state television channel "Culture".