Dmitry Likhachov

Life and career

Childhood and concentration camp (1906 – 1931)

Dmitry Likhachev was born in Saint Petersburg. From his early childhood he had a passion for literature, even though his parents did not approve of this interest.

In a 1987 interview with David Remnick, Likhachev recalled how he had, "watched the February and October Revolutions from his window."

In 1923, at only 16 years old, Likhachev entered the Department of Linguistics and Literature of Leningrad State University. He attended the Roman-Germanic and Slavic-Russian sections at the same time, undertaking two diplomas. At the university the young Likhachev met many outstanding scientists and developed his own way of thinking. Likhachev graduated in 1928 from the Leningrad University. In 1928, at the end of his studies, Likhachev was arrested and accused of being a member of what Remnick called, "a students' literary group called the Cosmic Academy of Sciences", which "posed about as great a threat to the Kremlin as the Harvard Lampoon does to the White House."

For his election to the "Cosmic Academy", Likhachev had presented a short report, in which he poked fun at the new spelling rules of 1918 and urged that they be "reformed" by restoring the banned letter "Yat". After his arrest, Likhachev was confronted with the paper by a Soviet secret police interrogator, who screamed, "What do you mean by language reform? Perhaps we won't even have any language at all under Socialism!"

After nine months in jail, the young scientist was unlawfully exiled without trial and spent five years in the USSR's first concentration camp, located on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea.

Deported to the Solovki Special Purpose Camp, he spent 5 years studying "criminal folklore" (as he termed it). Dmitry Likhachev wrote his first scientific article, "Card Games of Criminals", in the camp. He didn't play cards himself, but was a keen observer. He also gathered much material about the language of thieves and later published articles and a book about thieves' slang and customs.

At the camp, hard work, poor living conditions and illness dramatically damaged Likhachev's health, but he survived. On the Solovetsky Islands he met both exiled Russian intellectuals and real criminals, who happened to save his life. As Dmitry Likhachev said many years later, "At the Solovki, I understood that every person is a person."

Education (1931 – 1947)

Likhachev returned to Leningrad and started his scholarly career in the Pushkin House (as the Russian Literature Institute is known), which spanned more than 60 years and saw the publication of more than 500 scholarly works. Likhachev did not stop his work even during the Siege of Leningrad. He believed that Russia was an integral and indivisible part of European civilization, contrary to "Euroasiatic" views of Russia popular with Lev Gumilev, Boris Rybakov, and many other contemporaries.

Likhachev worked for five years as a proofreader in the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1936, thanks to petitions by the president of the Academy of Sciences, Aleksandr Karpinsky, Dmitry Likhachev's criminal record was cleared. In 1938 the talented scientist was noticed and invited to the Department of Old Russian Literature of the Institute of Russian Literature (known as the Pushkin House). Dmitry Likhachev worked here until the end of his life.

Old Russian literature, which at that time did not receive much academic attention, became the main scientific interest of Dmitry Likhachev who, by the beginning of the 1940s, was one of the most renowned specialists in this sphere. In 1941 Likhachev presented his thesis "The Novgorod Annalistic Corpus of the 12th Century".

World War II brought new trials. Likhachev, together with his wife and twin daughters, survived the horrors of the siege of Leningrad (1941-1944). He described his experience in a story, full of harsh details, exposing different types of people and their heroic or appalling behavior when faced with starvation and death. In 1942, completely exhausted by hunger and cold, Dmitry Likhachev started to gather materials on medieval poetry and soon published the book Defense of the Old Russian Cities. In 1943 Likhachev and his entire family were exiled to Kazan, supposedly because of the "connection with the Solovetsky Camp". But by the end of the war they had returned to Leningrad.

Academic career and legacy (1947 – 1999)

In 1947 Dmitry Likhachev received his Doctorate in Philology, having presented his thesis "Essays on the History of Annalistic Literary Forms of the 11th–16th Centuries". Three years later he became a professor at the Leningrad State University. From 1953 he was a corresponding member - and from 1970 a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

1950 marked the publication of Likhachev's two-volume edition containing unique, important literary works translated into the modern Russian language: The Primary Chronicle, a history of Kievan Rus' from the 9th to the 12th centuries, and The Lay of the Host of Igor, an account based on a failed raid by Prince Igor Svyatoslavich of Novgorod-Seversk against the Cumans in 1185.

Dmitry Likhachev was not a scientist detached from everyday life. From the 1950s he began a campaign to save the wooden temples of the Russian North and to preserve the historical appearance of Russian cities. He helped found the museums of Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Pasternak.

In 1953 Likhachev was admitted into the Soviet Academy of Sciences as a corresponding member. He defended Andrei Sakharov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and other dissidents during their persecution by Soviet authorities.

In the 1960s Likhachev was one of the initiators of a movement for the protection of historical monuments, libraries and archives. Thanks to Likhachev many monuments were saved, including Marina Tsvetaeva's flat in Moscow, the Nevsky Prospect in Leningrad (which was supposed to be turned into a shopping street) and Aleksandr's Garden. In the 1980s he headed the Soviet (later renamed Russian) Cultural Fund, supporting the process of the Orthodox Church's reclaiming of its temples, formerly appropriated by the Soviet government. The scientist also participated in the preservation of national minorities in danger of dying out while aiding the return to Russia of émigré public and cultural figures.

In 1980 Likhachev was one of the members of the Academy of Sciences who refused to sign a letter requesting the expulsion of the scientist Andrei Sakharov from the Academy because of Sakharov's public disapproval of the dispatch of Soviet troops to Afghanistan in 1979.

Family

In 1936, Likhachev married Zinaida Makarova (1907-2000), who devoted her entire life to her husband. They had twin daughters, Lyudmila and Vera (born 1937).

Legacy

A minor planet 2877 Likhachev discovered in 1969 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh is named after him.

Honours

1952 – Stalin Prize

1963 – Elected to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

1964 – Honorary doctorate of the Torun University

1964 – Honorary doctorate of the Oxford University

1966 – Order of the Red Banner of Labour

1968 – Elected to the Austrian Academy of Sciences

1970 – Elected to the Soviet Academy of Sciences

1964 – Honorary doctorate of the Edinburgh University

1969 – USSR State Prize

1972 – Elected to the Serbian Academy of Sciences

1973 – Elected to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

1983 – Honorary doctorate of the University of Bordeaux

1983 – Honorary doctorate of the University of Zurich

1985 – Honorary doctorate of the Budapest University

1986 – Hero of Socialist Labour

1987 – Elected to the Lincean Academy

1988 – Honorary doctorate of the University of Göttingen

1991 – Honorary doctorate of the Charles University

1992 – Honorary doctorate of the University of Siena

Medals

Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad"

Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

Medal "For Labour Valour"

Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary since the Birth of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin"

Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

Medal "Veteran of Labour"

Main works

1942 – Defense of Old Russian Towns

1945 – National Self-Consciousness of Ancient Rus

1947 – Russian Chronicles and Their Cultural Significance

1950 – The Tale of Bygone Years (2 volumes)

1952 – Genesis of the Tale of Igor's Campaign

1955 – The Lay of Igor's Campaign

1958 – Human Dimension of the Old Russian Literature

1962 – Russian Culture at the Times of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise

1962 – Textology

1967 – The Poetics of Early Russian Literature (Russian: Поэтика древнерусской литературы, romanized: Poetika Drevnerusskoy Literatury)

1971 – Artistic Heritage of Ancient Rus in Our Time

1973 – Development of Old Russian Literature: the Epochs and Styles

1975 – Great Heritage: Classic Works of Old Russian Literature

1976 – Laughing World of Ancient Rus

1978 – The Tale of Igor's Campaign and Culture of That Time

1981 – Russian Notes

1981 – Literature – Reality – Literature

1982 – The Poetry of Gardens