The Idea of Russia: The Life and Work of Dmitry Likhachev

by Vladislav Zubok

Overview

Dmitry Likhachev (1906-1999) was one of the most prominent Russian intellectuals of the twentieth century. His life spanned virtually the entire century - a tumultuous period which saw Russia move from Tsarist rule under Nicholas II via the Russian Revolution and Civil War into seven decades of communism followed by Gorbachev's Perestroika and the rise of Putin. In 1928, shortly after completing his university education, Likhachev was arrested, charged with counter-revolutionary ideas and imprisoned in the Gulag, where he spent the next five years. Returbaning to a career in academia, specialising in Old Russian literature, Likhachev played a crucial role in the cultural life of twentieth-century Russia, campaigning for the protection of important cultural sites and historic monuments. He also founded museums dedicated to great Russian writers including Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Pasternak. In this, the first biography of Likhachev to appear in English, Vladislav Zubok provides a thoroughly-researched account of one of Russia's most extraordinary and influential public figures.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784537272
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/30/2017
Series:	Library of Modern Russia
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Vladislav Zubok is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He has previously taught at Stanford University, University of Michigan, Amherst College, Temple University and Ohio University and has served as a fellow at the National Security Archive, a non-government organization at the University of George Washington. His publications include A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev and Zhivago's Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia.

Table of Contents

List of Plates vi

Preface A Russian Fox ix

Acknowledgements xii

A Note on Russian Names xiv

1 Vanishing Russia, 1906-1921 1

2 Patriotism of Pity, 1921-1928 14

3 Through the Gulag and Great Terror, 1928-1941 32

4 The Great Fatherland War, 1941-1945 54

5 Patriotism Defiled, 1945-1955 72

6 Advocate of Cultural Legacy, 1955-1965 88

7 The Making of a Wise Man, 1966-1976 105

8 Recognition, 1976-1988 121

9 Preparing for Collapse, 1988-1991 138

10 The Smoke of the Homeland, 1991-1999 157

Conclusion Death and Beyond 177

Notes 181

Select Bibliography and Further Reading 218

Index 221