Articles by Dmitry Likhachev. Biography of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev
One can probably evaluate Likhachev’s contribution to Russian science differently. If there was one.
But in any case, his name will forever remain sullied with betrayal.
Yes, Academician Likhachev deliberately betrayed Russia by voluntarily collaborating with its worst enemy, J. Soros. This is the most shameful, indelible stain on his already very dubious biography.
Likhachev could not help but understand the enormous influence this or that version of history has on schoolchildren. Nevertheless, he actively collaborated with the Americans, who caused irreparable damage to the worldview of millions of our children who learned history from Soros textbooks.
A MAN WITHOUT PRINCIPLES?
The name of Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev is surrounded by many wonderful myths.
So who is Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev really?
Born on November 28, 1906 in St. Petersburg in the family of the Russian engineer Sergei Mikhailovich Likhachev and the baptized Jewish woman Vera Semyonovna (before baptism - Sarah Saulovna), Likhachev received a good upbringing and education in the Russian environment and joined the ranks of the marginal Soviet intelligentsia, which replaced the Russian noble intelligentsia after 1917 .
In the last years of his life, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev represented the “aristocracy of the spirit” in St. Petersburg; he was a distinguished and influential person. The beginning of his dizzying career dates back to the 1920s.
In the twenties, Likhachev, a student at the Faculty of History and Philology at Leningrad University, visited the pro-Masonic circle "Hilfernak" and the Masonic lodge "Space Academy", where he studied philosophy and occult sciences.
At the beginning of 1928, he was arrested by the GPU and spent several years in prison on Solovki and on the White Sea-Baltic Canal. Soon after the murder of Kirov, he returned to Leningrad (12/8/1934) and at the request of his father, deputy director of the printing house on Krasnaya Street, was completely rehabilitated already in 1935.
Enormous knowledge, tact and politeness, dexterity and artistry of behavior helped Likhachev to gain the favor of Academician A.S. Orlova, then deputy director of the IRLI - Pushkin House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Orlov invited Likhachev to work at the institute, first as a clerk in the office, and then as a junior researcher in the sector of ancient Russian literature.
At the same time, in May 1938, Likhachev wrote a five-page explanatory note to the directorate in his own hand about what he did in the camp. The author of these lines became acquainted with Likhachev’s personal file in the spring of 1968, when he was temporarily acting as scientific secretary of the institute.
From this document it followed that Likhachev held high administrative positions in the Gulag: deputy head of the Solovkov forensic laboratory and head of the same laboratory at the White Sea Canal.
According to prisoners, this was a department of the GPU, which, with the help of local informants, collected information about “reforged” and “non-reforged” prisoners and then compiled “life” or “death” lists, thereby deciding the fate of the convicts.
Information that Likhachev served as a sexot and had the nickname Stolz was reported by Likhachev’s fellow prisoner Trofim Makarovich Kuporov (d. 1943); he told his daughter about this, and the daughter told his son, Vadim Petrovich Avdeev, now an engineer living in Moscow.
Another prisoner, later the writer Oleg Vasilyevich Volkov, who lived to be 96 years old (died in 1996), called Likhachev sexot.
In 1989, Likhachev turned to the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU to one of the secretaries (Yuri Aleksandrovich Denisov) with a request to protect him from Volkov’s “slander.” Denisov and his assistant began an investigation, turning to the KGB archives, and soon announced their decision to Likhachev: there were no grounds for protection, documents show that Likhachev in the camp actually worked for the GPU - the NKVD.
Judging by the 1938 note, the authorities were satisfied with Likhachev’s work, and he was released early with a commendable reference. The latter played an important role in returning home (a person whose rights had been impaired could not return to Leningrad!) and in entering work at a time when Leningrad, after the murder of S.M. Kirov was hit by a wave of repression.
His career was facilitated by his creative friendship with the elderly corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. P. Adrianova-Peretz, who admitted to me then: “You know, Dmitry Sergeevich was as beautiful as a cherub!”
Soon, in 1944, when the country was still at war, Likhachev defended his Ph.D. thesis, and in 1947, his doctorate. The topics of the dissertations were the study of Novgorod and all-Russian chronicles using the works of the late scientists M.D. Priselkov and V.L. Komarovich: Likhachev contributed very little of his own.
In 1954 V.P. Adrianova-Peretz handed over to Likhachev the management of the sector of ancient Russian literature. Gradually, Likhachev took control of the entire institute: his influence became enormous and spread not only to historical and philological science in our country, but also to science abroad.
The popular opinion among the staff of the institute was that Likhachev was a mediocre scientist, but an intriguer who had the power to prevent other people from becoming scientists. Director of the Pushkin House V.G. Bazanov, at the academic council in the fall of 1972, called Likhachev an “international intriguer,” referring to his affairs in Bulgaria.
Many useful undertakings of employees - scientific plans, finished books, monographs, articles, series projects - were stopped and sunk into oblivion because of Likhachev. Adoring flattery, he was intolerant of criticism and dealt with employees who had their own scientific views and judgments. For example, in 1972, Likhachev tried to destroy the typesetting of my book “Kozma the Presbyter in Slavic Literatures,” published by the publishing house of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia, but was stopped.
An outstanding expert on ancient Russian literature, professor at Leningrad University I.P. Eremin was preparing to travel to Sofia for the V International Congress of Slavists with a report “On Byzantine influence in Bulgarian and Old Russian literature of the 9th-12th centuries.”
Unexpectedly, he learned that his name had been crossed out from the list of the Soviet delegation. The scientist died suddenly from an attack of angina on September 19, 1963. Igor Petrovich was the best specialist in ancient Russian literature at the institute, but he could never get along with Likhachev.
I remember how on May 13, 1957, at the III All-Union Conference on Old Russian Literature, during the report of D.S. Likhachev “On the emergence of literary trends in Russian literature” I.P. Eremin stood up from his place on the presidium and left the hall. I caught up with him on the stairs and on behalf of Likhachev asked him to return. Eremin replied that all his thoughts were stolen and he had nothing to do at the conference.
Later, Eremin, whose lectures I listened to at the university, invited me to a cafe and there he spoke about the fallacy of Likhachev’s works in the field of poetics and the need to study oratorical prose and church genres, taking into account the literature and poetics of Byzantium.
For a long time (until 1956), Likhachev often delivered laudatory speeches in honor of Joseph Vissarionovich at meetings. “The Leader of all times and peoples” was the idol of the soul of the Soviet scientist, like the poet Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, whose photograph stood on his desk.
In poetics, Likhachev borrowed something from A.N. Grabara, I.P. Eremin, Hans Meyerhoff, Ernst Robert Curtius, in style - by A.S. Orlova, V.P. Adrianova-Peretz, D.I. Chizhevsky (whom he criticized), as well as from his graduate student O.F. Konovalova. In textual criticism, Likhachev borrowed something from A.A. Shakhmatova and M.O. Skripil, who was severely criticized by him in the sector of ancient Russian literature.
And he began in the 1940s as a patriotic scientist, the author of books about the defense of ancient Russian cities (1942), about the national identity of Ancient Rus' (1945), about Novgorod the Great (1945), about the culture of Ancient Rus' (1946), about “The Tale Bygone Years" (1950), about "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" (1950), etc.
Subsequently, starting from the 1960s and closer to the 1970s, Likhachev as a thinker gradually leaned towards Westernism and the affirmation of cosmopolitan ideas, in particular the primacy of universal values over national ones.
As a result, Likhachev modernized Old Russian literature and thereby distorted it, tearing Ancient Rus' away from its roots - from Orthodoxy and nationality, from folklore and folk books. Thus, for a long time he programmed the dead-end nature of the development of this scientific discipline.
Likhachev owes his election to academicianship to candidate member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee Pyotr Nilovich Demichev. The latter, in the 1960s, promised Likhachev assistance in his election if Likhachev helped defeat the concept of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” by Moscow professor A.A. Zimina.
Zimin's work was published in three volumes in a rotaprint with a circulation of 101 copies and was distributed in the summer of 1964 among scientists according to a special list. Likhachev helped: Zimin’s concept was criticized at a special meeting at the Department of Historical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow in October 1964. Criticism of Zimin’s views was published on the pages of publications in the sector of ancient Russian literature, in many magazines, newspapers and collections.
At the end of 1970, Likhachev’s election took place, and he, as they said, “came closer to the inhabitants of heaven.” For more than 40 years, Academician Likhachev has reigned supreme in the Pushkin House, dictating who and where should be accepted and chosen, and who should not be accepted; who and where to send and direct, who and where - not; who, how and where to print; who should be rewarded and with what, and who should be fired and not re-certified. Likhachev's power sometimes acquired an international character.
In Bulgaria, the Soviet academician managed to become a friend of Zhivkov and receive many awards and honorary titles from the Bulgarian state, although Likhachev has almost no scientific works on Bulgarian studies.
It also happened in other countries, for example: in Italy, England, Germany, Austria. Personal connections also helped his success: Likhachev’s granddaughter, Vera Tolts, worked at Radio Liberty and had close ties with the CIA and Mossad.
At the beginning of perestroika, the Soviet academician managed to rebuild and become a friend of the Gorbachev family. Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva became Likhachev’s deputy at the Cultural Foundation. Using his enormous connections and authority, Likhachev managed to enter the country’s ruling elite, taking upon himself partly the formation of a new ideology.
Answering the question of one businessman, a Russian American, why he subserviently to Zionism, Likhachev answered: “But what kind of power?! Is it possible to go against her?
Acting as an “agent of influence,” Likhachev began to often appear on television, on the radio, with articles and notes in magazines and newspapers, trying to educate Western ideologists, “citizens of the world,” champions of universal values in culture, unspiritual executors of anti-people reforms.
Likhachev's sermons contributed to the growth of lack of spirituality, indifference, anti-patriotism, and consumerism among young people.
All this ideological work of the former admirer of Joseph Vissarionovich was akin to the ideological sabotage of A.N. Yakovlev, the “foreman of perestroika”, who widely and for many years propagated through the media: a consumerist attitude to life, the desire for profit, the cult of the money bag, permissiveness and lack of spirituality , complete indifference to the fate of the long-suffering Russian people experiencing genocide.
They say that even in the Pushkin House the Masonic lodge “Alexander Pushkin” allegedly built a nest for itself. If this is so, then I will not be surprised at the sacrilege: the seeds fell on fertilized soil.
In the spring of 1989, the compassionate Likhachev was the first to lend a helping hand to the Soros Foundation. An agreement was concluded with the Soviet Cultural Foundation, headed by Likhachev and Raisa Gorbacheva. As a result, the Cultural Initiative Association arose with an almost unlimited range of powers.
Projects included: urban development, studying the history of the Stalinist period, creating libraries for youth and textbooks, studying the “Luber” movement, working on the rehabilitation of dissidents, etc.
So with the help of Soros in 1997, Dvoiris, Smirnov, Likhachev created the subversive “scientific” academy “Gremlandia” with the goal of washing patriotic brains and replacing them with cosmopolitan thoughts, and even with a Zionist flavor.
In reality, everything turned into desperate Russophobia and the imposition of everything pro-Western, anti-Russian in exchange for pitiful handouts called grants. Finally, Soros's help burst in September 1998.
With the light hand of Likhachev, a disgusting type of service scientist appeared, standing on the threshold of the Soros Foundation with an outstretched hand and wanting to please his Western masters at any cost, even to the point of betrayal. Thanks to Likhachev, Western scientists were provided with copies of the most valuable documents and sources on the history of Russian culture and literature from Russian archives.
Likhachev's multi-volume works and individual books were published in large numbers and in large print runs in Russia and abroad, while patriotic scientists who had valuable findings and suggestions could not publish a single line.
As a Western ideologist, the academician often spoke out in support of the political course of “reforms” and condemned the spiritual opposition of the Russian people, for example, the writers Valentin Rasputin and Vasily Belov, whom he classed without any reason as xenophobes, and branded representatives of patriotic creative unions “fascists.” "
He more than once demonstrated his sympathies for Russophobes: Academician A.D. Sakharov and Elena Bonner, G.V. Starovoitova. These performances earned Likhachev people's dislike.
Likhachev condemned the false putsch of August 1991 and welcomed the October shooting of parliament in 1993. He signed the notorious “Anti-Fascist Letter” at the end of 1994, directed against the freedom of the Russian people. Thus, he seemed to take upon himself moral responsibility for the atrocities of pseudo-democracy in Russia.
A man without principles, in a television interview he allowed himself such, for example, prophetic statements: “Russia will be like an Arab poor country threatening Europe.” For this he was generously rewarded.
I remember the history of his being awarded the prestigious Order of St. Andrew the First-Called in October 1998. Initially, among the first candidates named in government circles were the names of the democratic cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, a participant in the shooting of the White House, General Anatoly Romanov, and Likhachev.
Yeltsin chose Likhachev because he “provided him with invaluable services” in burying the remains of the Royal Family in St. Petersburg on July 17, 1998, calling for repentance over the bones of the Tsar Martyr, the very man who, together with Solomentsev, gave the order for the destruction of the Ipatiev House in Sverdlovsk in 1977
In fact, the remains of unknown people were buried in St. Petersburg, since the original royal relics have not yet been found - this is the opinion of experts. However, the Freemasons at all costs need to stage a performance with the participation of the “father of the nation” in order to somehow increase the falling trust rating of the authorities who have compromised themselves.
That’s why a high-degree Mason, Likhachev, was needed to “call to order” a Mason of no less high degree.
And a telegram followed: come to St. Petersburg and repent. Yeltsin (the destroyer of the Ipatiev House) obeyed, arrived in the city on the Neva, repented, and a little later remembered the elder and hung another order on his chest.
By the way, awarding Likhachev the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called looked blasphemous and caused a feeling of indignation. On October 7, 1998, on the Day of National Protest, protesting students carried a poster along Nevsky Prospekt with the inscription “Likhachev is an enemy of the people.”
The biography of Likhachev the academician is very typical of a successful representative of the Soviet intelligentsia, who broke away from the Russian people and their centuries-old historical consciousness, experienced many breakdowns and adapted to any power just to survive, and, on occasion, to teach and create their own kind.
S. IVANOV(published with abbreviations)
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A more detailed version of the article can be found.
The Russian literary scholar, academician, and public figure Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev embodied an ascetic of culture. He fought in thought and word for Culture and held high the honor of the Russian intellectual.
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev (1906-1999).
D.S. Likhachev was born into the family of an engineer. His parents' great hobby was ballet. Little Dmitry also attended the theater with his parents from the age of four.
In 1914, a month after the outbreak of World War I, Mitya Likhachev went to school. He studied at the Gymnasium of the Humane Society (1914-1915), at the Gymnasium and real school of K.I. May (1915-1917), at the school named after L. Lentovskaya (1918-1923). In 1923, D. Likhachev decided to become a philologist and entered the ethnological and linguistic department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Petrograd University.
Lectures, classes in archives and libraries, endless conversations on worldview topics in a long university corridor, attending public speeches and debates, philosophical circles - all this fascinated and spiritually and intellectually enriched the young man.
D.S. In the 20s, Likhachev attended a circle called Helfernak (“Artistic, Literary, Philosophical and Scientific Academy”), meetings were held in the apartment of school teacher I.M. Likhachev. Andreevsky.
On August 1, 1927, by decision of the participants, the circle was transformed into the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov. In addition, D.S. Likhachev also participated in another circle, the Space Academy of Sciences. The activities of this comic academy, which consisted of writing and discussing semi-serious scientific reports, trips to Tsarskoe Selo and friendly practical jokes, attracted the attention of the authorities, and its members were arrested. Following this, members of the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov were also arrested (the investigation into both circles was combined into one case). The day of his arrest—February 8, 1928—was the beginning of a new page in the life of D.S. Likhacheva. After a six-month investigation, Dmitry Sergeevich was sentenced to five years in the camps. A few months after graduating from Leningrad University (1927), he was sent to Solovki, which D.S. Likhachev will call it his “second, and main, university.”
In 1931 D.S. Likhachev was transferred from Solovki to the White Sea-Baltic Canal, and on August 8, 1932 he was released from prison and returned to Leningrad. At this time, Dmitry Sergeevich reads a lot and returns to scientific activity. In 1935 D.S. Likhachev married Z.A. Makarova, and in 1937 two twin girls, Vera and Lyudmila, were born into the family. In 1938 D.S. Likhachev went to work at the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where on June 11, 1941 he defended his dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences on the topic “Novgorod chronicles of the 12th century.”
Eleven days after defending my dissertation, the Great Patriotic War began. Due to health reasons D.S. Likhachev was not called up to the front and remained in besieged Leningrad until June 1942.
After the war D.S. Likhachev was actively involved in science. In 1945-1946. His books “National Identity of Ancient Rus'”, “Novgorod the Great”, “Culture of Rus' in the Age of the Formation of the Russian National State” were published. In 1947 he defended his doctoral dissertation “Essays on the history of literary forms of chronicle writing of the 11th-16th centuries.” In 1950 D.S. Likhachev prepared for publication in the “Literary Monuments” series two most important works of ancient Russian literature - “The Tale of Bygone Years” and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” In 1953 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1970 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. D.S. Likhachev becomes one of the most authoritative Slavists in the world. His most significant works: “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'” (1958), “Culture of Rus' in the Time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise” (1962), “Textology” (1962), “Poetics of Old Russian Literature” (1967), “Eras and Styles” "(1973), "The Great Legacy" (1975).
D.S. Likhachev not only himself was engaged in the study of ancient Russian literature, but was also able to gather and organize scientific forces for its study. From 1954 until the end of his life, he was the head of the Sector (since 1986 - Department) of Old Russian Literature of the Pushkin House, which became the country's main scientific center on this topic. The scientist did a lot to popularize ancient Russian literature, so that its seven centuries of history became known to a wide circle of readers. On his initiative and under his leadership, the series “Monuments of Literature of Ancient Rus'” was published, which was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 1993.
In the 1980-1990s, the voice of D.S. was especially loud. Likhachev the publicist. In his articles, interviews, and speeches, he raised such topics as the protection of cultural monuments, the ecology of cultural space, historical memory as a moral category, etc. He devoted a lot of energy to work in the Soviet (since 1991 - Russian) Cultural Fund, created on his initiative . Spiritual authority D.S. Likhachev was so great that he was rightly called “the conscience of the nation.”
From 1986 to 1993 he is elected Chairman of the Board of the Soviet (since 1991 - Russian) Cultural Fund, protecting national culture from neglect, destruction, ignorant encroachments and arbitrariness of officials.
Creation of D.S. Likhachev in 1995. The “Declaration of the Rights of Culture” and the first steps taken in St. Petersburg for its implementation inspired certain hopes and gave support to those who were ready to defend and protect the spiritual values that Russia has. “The Declaration of the Rights of Culture” is the fruit of many years of reflection by a scientist who went through trials and hardships, who deeply knew and loved cultural origins. “Culture represents the main meaning and main value of the existence of both individual peoples and small ethnic groups, and states. Outside of culture, their independent existence becomes meaningless.”[Declaration of the Rights of Culture (draft). St. Petersburg, S.2.]
In 1996, the International League for the Defense of Culture was established in Moscow. D.S. Likhachev and many outstanding scientists and cultural figures supported the initiative of the International Center of the Roerichs to create an organization designed to protect culture, continuing the work founded by N.K. Roerich in 1931 of the World League of Culture.D.S. Likhachev became an Honorary Member of the Executive Committee of the League for the Defense of Culture and supported the candidacy of RAS Academician B.V. Rauschenbach for the post of Honorary President of the League. In subsequent years, D.S. Likhachev often addressed the President of Russia, ministers, and other officials on behalf of the League, defending culture.
Two years after its foundingInternational League for the Defense of Culture D.S. Likhachev wrote: “It seems to me that the very idea of the International League for the Defense of Culture is very successful. The Declaration of the Rights of Culture does not yet talk about the ways in which culture needs to be protected, how to justify the rights of culture. It seems to me that the League for the Defense of Culture answers this question. I wish you complete, complete success, as I do for all of us.”
In 1998, for his contribution to the development of national culture, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was awarded the Order of Apostle Andrew the First-Called “For Faith and Fidelity to the Fatherland.” Dmitry Sergeevich became the first holder of the Order of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called after the restoration of this highest award in Russia.
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev passed away on September 30, 1999. His books, articles, and conversations are a great legacy, the study of which will help preserve the spiritual traditions of Russian culture, to which he dedicated his life.
A whole generation has already grown up that does not remember Dmitry Likhachev. But some people deserve to be remembered. There were many instructive things in the life of this outstanding scientist and spiritual associate. And for any thinking person it would not be superfluous to find out for himself who Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was; his short biography is of interest.
Outstanding Russian thinker and scientist
There are not so many people in the socio-political life of Russian society whose importance clearly rises above the momentary passions of the moment. Individuals for whom the role of moral authority would be recognized, if not by everyone, then by a clear majority.
However, such people do sometimes exist. One of them is Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, whose biography contains so much that it would be enough for a series of fascinating historical novels about Russia in the twentieth century. With all its disasters, wars and contradictions. His life began during the Silver Age of Russian culture. And he died a year before the third millennium. At the end of the day And still believed in the future of Russia.
Some facts from the life of an academician
Dmitry Likhachev was born in 1906 in St. Petersburg, of modest means. He received a classical secondary education and continued his path to knowledge at the philological department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Leningrad University. Unfortunately for him, there was a semi-underground circle among students that studied ancient Slavic philology. Dmitry Likhachev was also a member of it. His biography at this point sharply changes its direction. In 1928, he was arrested on the standard charge of anti-Soviet activities and soon found himself in the White Sea.
A little later, Dmitry Likhachev was transferred to He was released early in 1932.
After the Gulag
He went through the hell of Stalin's camps, but the years of imprisonment did not break the young man. After returning to Leningrad, Dmitry Likhachev was able to complete his education and even get his criminal record cleared. He devotes all his time and energy to scientific work. His research in philological fields is often based on the experience gained in the camps. During the war, Dmitry Likhachev remains in besieged Leningrad. He does not stop researching ancient Russian chronicles during the siege winter. One of his works is devoted to the history of the defense of Russian cities during the era of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. He was evacuated from the city along the Road of Life only in the summer of 1942. Continues to work in Kazan.
His works in the field of history and philology are gradually beginning to acquire greater significance and authority in the Russian intellectual space.
Continent of Russian culture
Dmitry Likhachev gained worldwide recognition as a result of extensive fundamental research in various areas of Russian culture and philology from early Slavic writing to the present day. Perhaps no one before him had described and explored the thousand-year-old content of Russian and Slavic culture and spirituality in such a comprehensive manner. Its inextricable connection with the world's cultural and intellectual peaks. The indisputable merit of Academician Likhachev also lies in the fact that for a long time he concentrated and coordinated scientific forces in the most important research areas.
And once again becoming St. Petersburg, the former Leningrad University, among other things, will also be known for the fact that academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev once studied here and then carried out research and teaching activities here for many years. His biography is inextricably intertwined with the fate of the famous university.
Community service
Dmitry Likhachev considered educational activities to be no less important than scientific ones. For many decades, he devoted all his energy and time to communicating his thoughts and views to the broad masses. In the second half of the eighties, an entire generation of those who today constitute the intellectual elite of Russian society grew up on his broadcasts on Central Television in the second half of the eighties. These programs were built in the format of free communication between an academician and a wide audience.
Until his last day, Dmitry Likhachev was engaged in publishing and editing activities, personally reading and correcting the manuscripts of young scientists. He considered it obligatory for himself to respond to all the numerous correspondence that sometimes came to him from the most remote corners of the country, from people who were not indifferent to the fate of Russia and Russian culture. It is significant that Dmitry Sergeevich was a categorical opponent of nationalism in any of its forms. He denied conspiracy theories in understanding historical processes and did not recognize Russia’s messianic role in the global history of human civilization.
Childhood D.S. Likhachev fell during that short but brilliant time in the history of Russian culture, which is usually called the Silver Age. Parents D.S. Likhachev did not belong to a literary or artistic environment (his father was an engineer), however, this era also affected their family. Likhachev's parents' great hobby was ballet. Every year, despite the lack of funds, they tried to rent an apartment as close as possible to the Mariinsky Theater, bought two ballet tickets to the third tier box and did not miss almost a single performance. Little Dmitry also attended the theater with his parents from the age of four. In the summer, the family went to the dacha in Kuokkala. Many representatives of the artistic and literary world of St. Petersburg vacationed here. On the paths of the local park one could meet I.E. Repina, K.I. Chukovsky, F.I. Shalyapin, Sun. Meyerhold, M. Gorky, L. Andreev and other writers, artists, actors, musicians. Some of them performed in an amateur country theater, reading poetry and memoirs. “People of art have become, if not familiar to us all, then easily recognizable, close, and approachable,” says D.S. Likhachev.
In 1914, a month after the outbreak of World War I, Mitya Likhachev went to school. First he studied at the Gymnasium of the Humane Society (1914–1915), then at the Gymnasium and real school of K.I. May (1915–1917), and finally - at the school named after. L. Lentovskaya (1918–1923). Having already crossed the eighty-year mark of life, D.S. Likhachev will write: “...secondary school creates a person, higher school gives a specialty.” Those educational institutions in which he studied as a child truly “created man.” Studying at the Lentovskaya school had a particularly great influence on the boy. Despite the hardships of the revolutionary times and significant material difficulties (the school building was not heated, so in winter children sat in coats and mittens over gloves), the school managed to create a special atmosphere of cooperation between teachers and students. There were many talented teachers among the teachers. There were circles at the school, the meetings of which were attended not only by schoolchildren and teachers, but also by famous scientists and writers. D.S. Likhachev especially liked to participate in literature and philosophy circles. At this time, the boy begins to seriously reflect on worldview issues and even thinks through his own philosophical system (in the spirit of A. Bergson and N. O. Lossky, who fascinated him at that time). He finally decides to become a philologist and, despite his parents’ advice to choose a more profitable profession as an engineer, in 1923 he entered the ethnological and linguistic department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Petrograd University.
University
Despite the repressions against the intelligentsia that had already begun, the 1920s were the heyday of the humanities in Russia. D.S. Likhachev had every reason to say: “In the 1920s, Leningrad University was the best university in the world in the humanities. There was no such professorship as Leningrad University had at that time in any university either before or after.” There were many outstanding scientists among the teachers. It is enough to name the names of V.M. Zhirmunsky, L.V. Shcherby, D.I. Abramovich (with whom D.S. Likhachev wrote his thesis on stories about Patriarch Nikon), etc.
Lectures, classes in archives and libraries, endless conversations on worldview topics in a long university corridor, attending public speeches and debates, philosophical circles - all this fascinated and spiritually and intellectually enriched the young man. “Everything around was extremely interesting<…>the only thing I had an acute lack of was time,” recalls Dmitry Sergeevich.
But this culturally and intellectually rich life unfolded against an increasingly gloomy social background. The persecution of the old intelligentsia intensified. People learned to live in anticipation of arrest. The persecution of the Church did not stop. It is about them that D.S. Likhachev remembers with particular pain: “You always remember your youth kindly. But I, and my other friends at school, university and clubs, have something that is painful to remember, that stings my memory and that was the most difficult thing in my young years. This is the destruction of Russia and the Russian Church, which took place before our eyes with murderous cruelty and which, it seemed, left no hope for revival.”
However, the persecution of the Church, contrary to the wishes of the authorities, led not to a decrease, but to an increase in religiosity. In those years when, according to D.S. Likhachev, “churches were closed and desecrated, services were interrupted by trucks driving up to churches with brass bands or amateur choirs of Komsomol members playing on them,” educated youth went to churches. Literary and philosophical circles, which existed in large numbers before 1927 in Leningrad, began to acquire a predominantly religious, philosophical or theological character. D.S. In the twenties, Likhachev attended one of them - a circle called Helfernak (“Artistic, Literary, Philosophical and Scientific Academy”), meetings were held in the apartment of school teacher I.M. Likhachev. Andreevsky. On August 1, 1927, by decision of the participants, the circle was transformed into the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov. In addition, D.S. Likhachev also participated in another circle, the Space Academy of Sciences. The activities of this comic academy, which consisted of writing and discussing semi-serious scientific reports, trips to Tsarskoe Selo and friendly practical jokes, attracted the attention of the authorities, and its members were arrested. Following this, members of the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov were also arrested (the investigation into both circles was combined into one case). The day of the arrest - February 8, 1928 - became the beginning of a new page in the life of D.S. Likhacheva. After a six-month investigation, he was sentenced to five years in the camps. A few months after graduating from Leningrad University (1927), he was sent to Solovki, which Likhachev would call his “second and main university.”
The Solovetsky Monastery, founded by the Monks Zosima and Savvaty in the 13th century, was closed in 1922 and turned into the Solovetsky special-purpose camp. It became a place where thousands of prisoners served their sentences (at the beginning of the 1930s, their number reached 650 thousand, of which 80% were so-called “political” and “counter-revolutionaries”).
Forever D.S. Likhachev remembers the day when their convoy was unloaded from the wagons at the transit point in Kemi. The hysterical screams of the guards, the shouts of Beloozerov, who was taking the stage: “The power here is not Soviet, but Solovetsky,” the order for the entire column of prisoners, tired and chilled in the wind, to run around the pillar, raising their legs high - all this seemed so fantastic in its absurd reality that D. WITH. Likhachev could not stand it and laughed. “We’ll laugh later,” Beloozerov shouted at him threateningly.
Indeed, there was little funny in Solovetsky life. D.S. Likhachev experienced its hardships to the fullest. He worked as a sawyer, a loader, an electrician, a cow shed, a “vridlo” (a vridlo is a temporary horse, as prisoners who were harnessed to carts and sleighs instead of horses were called on Solovki), lived in a barracks, where at night the bodies were hidden under an even layer of swarming lice, dying of typhus. Prayer and the support of friends helped me get through it all. Thanks to the help of Bishop Victor (Ostrovidov) and Archpriest Nikolai Piskanovsky, who became D.S.’s spiritual father on Solovki. Likhachev and his comrades in the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov, the future scientist managed to leave grueling general work in the Criminological Office, which was organizing a children's colony. At his new job, he had the opportunity to do a lot to save the “louses” - teenagers who had lost all their clothes at cards, lived in barracks under bunks and were doomed to starvation. In the Criminological Office, Likhachev communicated with many remarkable people, of whom the famous religious philosopher A.A. made a particularly strong impression on him. Meyer.
An incident occurred on Solovki that had great consequences for D.S.’s internal self-awareness. Likhacheva. At the end of November 1928, mass executions began in the camp. Likhachev, who was on a date with his parents, having learned that they were coming for him, did not return to the barracks and sat at the woodpile all night, listening to the shots. The events of that terrible night produced a revolution in his soul. He would later write: “I realized this: every day is a gift from God. I need to live for the day to day, to be satisfied that I live another day. And be grateful for every day. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of anything in the world. And one more thing - since the execution this time was carried out as a warning, I later found out that an even number of people were shot: either three hundred or four hundred people, along with those who followed soon after. It is clear that someone else was “taken” instead of me. And I need to live for two. So that I don’t feel ashamed in front of the one who was married to me!”
In 1931 D.S. Likhachev was transferred from Solovki to the White Sea-Baltic Canal, and on August 8, 1932 he was released from prison and returned to Leningrad. The era in his biography is ending, about which he said in 1966: “The stay on Solovki was the most significant period of my life.”
Pushkin House
Returning to his hometown, D.S. Likhachev could not get a job for a long time: his criminal record got in the way. His health was undermined by the Solovki. A stomach ulcer opened, the disease was accompanied by severe bleeding, Likhachev spent months in the hospital. Finally, he managed to become a scientific proofreader at the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences.
At this time he reads a lot and returns to scientific activities. In 1935 D.S. Likhachev married Zinaida Aleksandrovna Makarova, and in 1937 they had two girls - twins Vera and Lyudmila. In 1938 D.S. Likhachev went to work at the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where on June 11, 1941 he defended his dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences on the topic “Novgorod chronicles of the 12th century.”
Eleven days after the defense, the Great Patriotic War began. Due to health reasons D.S. Likhachev was not called up to the front and remained in besieged Leningrad until June 1942. He remembers how the day went in their family. In the morning we heated the potbelly stove with books, then together with the children we prayed, prepared meager food (crushed bones, boiled many times, soup made from wood glue, etc.). Already at six o'clock in the evening we went to bed, trying to throw on as much warm clothing as possible. We read a little by the light of the smokehouse and for a long time could not fall asleep due to thoughts about food and the internal cold permeating the body. It is amazing that in such a situation D.S. Likhachev did not give up his studies in science. Having survived the severe winter of the siege, in the spring of 1942 he began collecting materials on the poetics of ancient Russian literature and prepared (in collaboration with M.A. Tikhanova) a study “Defense of Old Russian Cities.” This book, published in 1942, was the first book published by D.S. Likhachev.
After the war D.S. Likhachev is actively involved in science. In 1945–1946 His books “National Identity of Ancient Rus'”, “Novgorod the Great”, “Culture of Rus' in the Age of the Formation of the Russian National State” were published. In 1947 he defended his doctoral dissertation “Essays on the history of literary forms of chronicle writing of the 11th–16th centuries.” Student and employee D.S. Likhacheva O.V. Tvorogov writes: “D.S.’s own scientific path. Likhachev began somewhat unusually - not with a series of articles on specific issues and minor publications, but with generalizing works: in 1945–1947. Three books were published one after another, covering the history of Russian literature and culture over several centuries.<...>In these books, a feature characteristic of many of Likhachev’s works appeared - the desire to consider literature in its closest connections with other areas of culture - education, science, fine arts, folklore, folk ideas and beliefs. This broad approach allowed the young scientist to immediately rise to those heights of scientific generalizations that are the threshold of conceptual discoveries.” In 1950 D.S. Likhachev prepared for publication in the “Literary Monuments” series two most important works of ancient Russian literature - “The Tale of Bygone Years” and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” In 1953 he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1970 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He becomes one of the most authoritative Slavists in the world. His most significant works: “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'” (1958), “Culture of Rus' in the Time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise” (1962), “Textology” (1962), “Poetics of Old Russian Literature” (1967), “Eras and Styles” "(1973), "The Great Legacy" (1975).
D.S. Likhachev not only himself was engaged in the study of ancient Russian literature, but was also able to gather and organize scientific forces for its study. From 1954 until the end of his life, he was the head of the Sector (since 1986 - Department) of Old Russian Literature of the Pushkin House, which became the country's main scientific center on this topic. The scientist did a lot to popularize ancient Russian literature, so that its seven centuries of history became known to a wide circle of readers. On his initiative and under his leadership, the series “Monuments of Literature of Ancient Rus'” was published, awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 1993. “In total, about 300 works were published in 12 books of the series (not counting the poems that made up the last volume). Translations and detailed commentaries made the monuments of medieval literature accessible to any non-specialist reader. The publication of “Monuments” made it possible to convincingly refute the still prevailing idea of the poverty and monotony of Russian medieval literature,” writes O.V. Tvorogov.
In the 1980s–1990s, D.S.’s voice was especially loud. Likhachev the publicist. In his articles, interviews, and speeches, he raised such topics as the protection of cultural monuments, the ecology of cultural space, historical memory as a moral category, etc. He devoted a lot of energy to work in the Soviet (since 1991 - Russian) Cultural Fund, created on his initiative . Spiritual authority D.S. Likhachev was so great that he was rightly called “the conscience of the nation.”
In 1998, the scientist was awarded the Order of Apostle Andrew the First-Called “For Faith and Fidelity to the Fatherland” for his contribution to the development of national culture. He became the first holder of the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle after the restoration of this highest award in Russia.
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev died on September 30, 1999. His books, articles, conversations are that great heritage, the study of which will help preserve the spiritual traditions of Russian culture, to which he dedicated his life.
Priest Dimitry Dolgushin,
PhD in Philology
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev is a prominent figure in Russian culture, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, philologist, art critic, author of numerous studies and works in the field of the history of Russian literature, literature, and icon painting.
D.S. Likhachev is an outstanding example of a defender of Russian culture and constant promotion of morality and spirituality. Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was born on November 28, 1906 in St. Petersburg.
In the 20s, Dmitry Likhachev studied at Leningrad State University at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Linguistics.
Likhachev advocated for preserving the roots of Russian culture and, after reading a report “on spelling distorted by modernity,” he was arrested for counter-revolutionary activities.
From 1928 to 1931 Likhachev arrived as a political prisoner at Solovki and at the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.
In the summer of 1932, the future academician Likhachev returned to Leningrad. It was difficult to get a job; a criminal record got in the way. He continued his scientific research, working as a proofreader at the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences. In 1938, Likhachev went to work at the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences. On the eve of WWII D.S. Likhachev defended his dissertation and became a candidate of philological sciences.
D. S. Likhachev remained with his wife and two children in besieged Leningrad and continued his scientific work. In 1942, his first book, “Defense of Ancient Russian Cities,” was published.
In 1945-1947 D.S. Likhachev devotes himself to working on books on the history of Russian literature and culture.
In 1950 D.S. Likhachev prepared two most important works of ancient Russian literature - “The Tale of Bygone Years” and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”
By 1953, the prominent scientist Likhachev had already become a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and by 1970 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. His scientific works are recognized in the world cultural community, and Academician Likhachev is already considered one of the most prominent Slavists in the world.
The most famous scientific works of Academician Likhachev: “Man in the literature of Ancient Rus'”, “Textology”, “Culture of Rus' in the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise”, “Poetics of Old Russian literature”, “Eras and styles”, “Great heritage”.
Academician Likhachev’s contribution to the study of ancient Russian literature expanded the possibility of understanding this richest layer of Russian culture.
The activities of Academician Likhachev are recognized throughout the world. He was an honorary professor at many foreign universities, including Oxford (Great Britain), Zurich (Switzerland), Sofia (Bulgaria).
In the 80s-90s, Academician Likhachev actively advocated for the preservation of the country’s cultural monuments and encouraged honoring history as a “moral category.” The biography of Academician Likhachev of that period contains many publications and speeches on the topic of “ecology of cultural space.” It was in those years that Likhachev gained incredible authority and was rightly recognized as the conscience of the nation. On the initiative of Likhachev, the Soviet (Russian) Cultural Foundation was created.
D.S. Likhachev, winner of a huge number of state prizes and awards of the USSR, as well as honorary regalia from all over the world, became during the years of perestroika a symbol of the struggle for the restoration of spiritual traditions.
Academician Likhachev encouraged President Yeltsin to take part in the burial of the remains of the last Tsar of the Russian Empire, Nicholas, and members of the imperial family on July 18, 1997.
Among those dear to D.S. Likhachev awards of the country three anniversary medals "Victory in the Great Patriotic War", a medal "For Labor Valor during the Great Patriotic War", the Order of "St. Andrew the First-Called" - for outstanding contribution to the development of national culture, the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" II degree - for outstanding services to the state and great personal contribution to the development of Russian culture.
The biography of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, a prominent cultural figure of the 20th century, ended at the end of the century. He died on September 30, 1999.
Personality of Academician D.S. Likhachev, his activities constitute a significant layer of spiritual values of Russian culture. During his lifetime, a planet was named in his honor. 2006 was declared the “Year of Culture, Education, Humanities - the Year of Academician D.S. Likhachev."
Victoria Maltseva
