Biography
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev - (November 28, 1906, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire - September 30, 1999, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation) Russian philologist, member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, then of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Author of fundamental works devoted to the history of Russian literature (mainly Old Russian) and Russian culture. Author of hundreds of works (including more than forty books) on a wide range of problems in the theory and history of ancient Russian literature, many of which have been translated into English, Bulgarian, Italian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Czech, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, German and other languages. Author of 500 scientific and about 600 journalistic works.
Father - Sergei Mikhailovich Likhachev, electrical engineer, mother - Vera Semyonovna Likhacheva, nee Konyaeva.
From 1914 to 1916 he studied at the gymnasium of the Imperial Philanthropic Society, from 1916 to 1920 at the K.I. May Real School, then until 1923 at the Soviet Unified Labor School named after. L. D. Lentovskaya (now it is secondary school No. 47 named after D. S. Likhachev). Until 1928, a student of the Romano-Germanic and Slavic-Russian section of the Department of Linguistics and Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leningrad State University.
On February 8, 1928, he was arrested for participating in the student circle “Space Academy of Sciences,” where shortly before his arrest he made a report on the old Russian spelling, “trampled and distorted by the enemy of the Church of Christ and the Russian people”; sentenced to 5 years for counter-revolutionary activities. Until November 1931 he was a political prisoner in the Solovetsky special purpose camp.
In November he was transferred from the Solovetsky camp to Belbaltlag and worked on the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.
Released from prison early and without restrictions as a drummer. Returned to Leningrad.
Literary editor of Sotsekgiz (Leningrad).
Proofreader for foreign languages at the Komintern printing house (Leningrad).
Scientific proofreader, literary editor, editor of the Department of Social Sciences of the Leningrad Branch of the Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
He married Zinaida Aleksandrovna Makarova.
Publication of the article “Features of primitive primitivism of thieves’ speech” in the collection of the Institute of Language and Thought named after. N. Ya. Marra “Language and Thinking.”
On July 27, at the request of the President of the Academy of Sciences A.P. Karpinsky, the criminal record was expunged by a resolution of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.
Twin daughters Vera and Lyudmila Likhachev were born.
Junior, since 1941 - senior researcher at the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the USSR Academy of Sciences (IRLI AS USSR).
Autumn 1941 - spring 1942
I was with my family in besieged Leningrad.
Publication of the first book “Defense of Old Russian Cities” (1942), written jointly. with M. A. Tikhanova.
He defended his dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences on the topic: “Novgorod chronicles of the 12th century.”
Together with his family, he was evacuated along the Road of Life from besieged Leningrad to Kazan.
Awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad".
Father Sergei Mikhailovich Likhachev died in besieged Leningrad.
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Scientific maturity
Publication of the books “National Identity of Ancient Rus'. Essays from the field of Russian literature of the 11th–17th centuries.” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1945. 120 p. (phototype reprint of the book: The Hugue, 1969) and “Novgorod the Great: Essay on the cultural history of Novgorod 11–17 centuries.” L., Gospolitizdat. 1945. 104 p. 10 t.e. (reprint: M., Sov. Russia. 1959.102 p.).
Awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
Publication of the book “Culture of Rus' in the era of the formation of the Russian national state. (End of the 14th – beginning of the 16th century).” M., Gospolitizdat. 1946. 160 p. 30 t.e. (phototype reprint of the book: The Hugue, 1967).
Associate Professor, since 1951 Professor at Leningrad State University. At the Faculty of History of Leningrad State University he taught special courses “History of Russian Chronicles”, “Paleography”, “History of the Culture of Ancient Rus'”, etc.
He defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philology on the topic: “Essays on the history of literary forms of chronicle writing of the 11th-16th centuries. "
Publication of the book “Russian Chronicles and Their Cultural and Historical Significance” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1947. 499 p. 5 t.e. (phototype reprint of the book: The Hugue, 1966).
Member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Publication of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in the “Literary Monuments” series with translation and comments by D. S. Likhachev.
Publication of “The Tale of Bygone Years” in the “Literary Monuments” series with translation (jointly with B. A. Romanov) and comments by D. S. Likhachev (reprinted: St. Petersburg, 1996).
Publication of the articles “Historical and political outlook of the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”” and “Oral origins of the artistic system of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign””.
Publication of the book: “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: Historical and literary essay. (NPS). M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1950. 164 p. 20 t.e. 2nd ed., add. M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1955. 152 p. 20 t.e.
Confirmed with the rank of professor.
Publication of the article “Literature of the XI-XIII centuries. "in the collective work "The History of Culture of Ancient Rus'". (Volume 2. Pre-Mongol period), which received the USSR State Prize.
The Stalin Prize of the second degree was awarded for the collective scientific work “The History of Culture of Ancient Rus'. T. 2″.
Publication of the book “The Emergence of Russian Literature”. M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1952. 240 p. 5 t.e.
Member, since 1971 - Chairman of the Editorial Board of the USSR Academy of Sciences series “Literary Monuments”.
Elected corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Publication of the articles “Folk poetic creativity during the heyday of the ancient Russian early feudal state (X-XI centuries)” and “Folk poetic creativity during the years of feudal fragmentation of Rus' - before the Tatar-Mongol invasion (XII-early XIII centuries)” in the collective work “Russian folk poetic creativity."
Awarded the Prize of the Presidium of A.N. USSR for the work “The Emergence of Russian Literature.”
Awarded the medal “For Labor Valor”.
Head of the Sector, since 1986 - Department of Old Russian Literature of the Institute of Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
The first speech in the press in defense of ancient monuments (Literary Newspaper, January 15, 1955).
Member of the Bureau of the Department of Literature and Language of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Member of the Union of Writers of the USSR (Criticism Section), since 1992 - member of the Union of Writers of St. Petersburg.
Member of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1974 - member of the Bureau of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
First trip abroad - sent to Bulgaria to work in manuscript repositories.
Participated in the work of the IV International Congress of Slavists (Moscow), where he was chairman of the subsection of ancient Slavic literatures. A report was made “Some tasks of studying the second South Slavic influence in Russia.”
Publication of the book “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1958. 186 p. 3 t.e. (reprint: M., 1970; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 vols. T. 3. L., 1987) and the brochure “Some tasks of studying the second South Slavic influence in Russia.” M., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1958. 67 p. 1 t.e.
Deputy Chairman of the permanent Editorial and Textological Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
Member of the Academic Council of the Museum of Ancient Russian Art. Andrey Rublev.
A granddaughter, Vera, was born, the daughter of Lyudmila Dmitrievna (from her marriage to Sergei Zilitinkevich, a physicist).
Participated in the I International Conference on Poetics (Poland).
Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad branch of the Soviet-Bulgarian Friendship Society.
Member of the Academic Council of the State Russian Museum.
Member of the Soviet (Russian) Committee of Slavists.
Participated in the II International Conference on Poetics (Poland).
Since 1961, member of the editorial board of the journal Izvestia of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Department of Literature and Language."
Publication of books: “Culture of the Russian people 10−17 centuries.” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1961. 120 p. 8 t.e. (2nd ed.) M.-L., 1977. and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” - the heroic prologue of Russian literature.” M.-L., Goslitizdat. 1961. 134 pp. 30 ie 2- e ed. L., HL.1967.119 pp. 200 t.e.
Deputy of the Leningrad City Council of Workers' Deputies.
Trip to Poland for a meeting of the permanent Editorial and Textual Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
Publication of the books “Textology: Based on the material of Russian literature of the X - XVII centuries.” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1962. 605 p. 2500 e. (reprint: Leningrad, 1983; St. Petersburg, 2001) and “Culture of Rus' during the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise (late XIV - early XV centuries)” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1962. 172 p. 30 t.e.
(republished: Likhachev D.S. Thoughts about Russia. St. Petersburg, 1999).
Elected foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
He was awarded the Order of Cyril and Methodius, 1st degree, by the Presidium of the People's Assembly of the People's Republic of Bulgaria.
Participated in the V International Congress of Slavists (Sofia).
Sent to Austria to give lectures.
Member of the Artistic Council of the Second Creative Association of Lenfilm.
Since 1963, member of the editorial board of the USSR Academy of Sciences series “Popular Science Literature”.
Awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun (Poland).
Trip to Hungary to read papers at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Trip to Yugoslavia to participate in a symposium dedicated to the study of the work of Vuk Karadzic, and to work in manuscript repositories.
Trip to Poland to give lectures and reports.
Trip to Czechoslovakia for a meeting of the permanent Editorial and Textual Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
A trip to Denmark to the South-North Symposium, organized by UNESCO.
Member of the Organizing Committee of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.
Member of the Commission for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR.
Awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for services to the development of Soviet philological science and in connection with the 60th anniversary of his birth.
Trip to Bulgaria for scientific work.
Trip to Germany for a meeting of the permanent Editorial and Textual Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
A granddaughter, Zina, was born, the daughter of Vera Dmitrievna (from her marriage to Yuri Kurbatov, an architect).
Elected honorary doctor of the University of Oxford (Great Britain).
Trip to the UK to give lectures.
Participated in the General Assembly and scientific symposium of the Council for History and Philosophy of UNESCO (Romania).
Publication of the book “Poetics of Old Russian Literature” L., Science. 1967. 372 p. 5200 e., awarded the State Prize of the USSR (republished: Leningrad, 1971; Moscow, 1979; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 volumes. T. 1. Leningrad, 1987)
Member of the Council of the Leningrad city branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.
Member of the Central Council, since 1982 - member of the Presidium of the Central Council of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.
Member of the Academic Council of the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of History of the USSR of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Elected corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Participated in the VI International Congress of Slavists (Prague). I read the report “Ancient Slavic Literatures as a System.”
Awarded the USSR State Prize for the scientific work “Poetics of Old Russian Literature.”
Participated in a conference on epic poetry (Italy).
Member of the Scientific Council on the complex problem “History of World Culture” of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1970 - member of the Council Bureau.
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Academician
Elected full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Elected foreign member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Awarded a 1st degree diploma from the All-Union Society “Knowledge” for the book “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'.”
Awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Edinburgh (UK).
Publication of the book “The Artistic Heritage of Ancient Rus' and Modernity” L., Science. 1971. 121 p. 20 t.e. (together with V.D. Likhacheva).
Mother Vera Semyonovna Likhacheva died.
Member of the editorial board of the Brief Literary Encyclopedia.
Head of the Archaeographic Group of the Leningrad Branch of the Archives of the A.N. USSR.
Awarded a 1st degree diploma from the All-Union Society “Knowledge” for participation in the collective scientific work “A Brief History of the USSR. Part 1″.
Elected an honorary member of the historical and literary school society “Boyan” (Rostov region).
Elected foreign member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Participated in the VII International Congress of Slavists (Warsaw). The report “The Origin and Development of Genres of Old Russian Literature” was read.
Publication of the book “Development of Russian Literature X - XVII centuries: Epochs and Styles” L., Science. 1973. 254 p. 11 t.e. (reprint: Likhachev D.S. Selected works: in 3 volumes. T. 1. L., 1987; St. Petersburg, 1998).
Member of the Academic Council of the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography.
Member of the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) branch of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1975 - member of the bureau of the Branch of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Member of the Bureau of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Chairman of the editorial board of the yearbook “Cultural Monuments. New discoveries” of the Scientific Council on the complex problem “History of World Culture” of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Chairman of the Scientific Council on the complex problem “History of World Culture” of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Awarded the medal “Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
Awarded the VDNKh gold medal for the monograph “The Development of Russian Literature in the X-XVII Centuries.”
He spoke out against the expulsion of A.D. Sakharov from the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Trip to Hungary to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Participated in the “MAPRYAL” (International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature) symposium on comparative literature (Bulgaria).
Publication of the book “The Great Heritage: Classic Works of Literature of Ancient Rus'” M., Sovremennik. 1975. 366 p. 50 t.e. (reprinted: M., 1980; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: in 3 volumes. T.2. L., 1987; 1997).
Member of the editorial board of the publication of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the USSR of the USSR Academy of Sciences “Auxiliary Historical Disciplines”.
Participated in a special meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the book by O. Suleimenov “Az and I” (banned).
Participated in the conference “Tarnovo School. Disciples and followers of Efimy Tarnovsky" (Bulgaria).
Elected a corresponding member of the British Academy.
Publication of the book “The Laughter World” of Ancient Rus'” L., Nauka. 1976. 204 pp. 10 t. Ancient Rus'" - jointly with A. M. Panchenko and N. V. Ponyrko; 1997: "Historical poetics of literature. Laughter as a worldview").
Member of the editorial board of the international magazine “Palaeobulgarica” (Sofia).
The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria awarded the Order of Cyril and Methodius, 1st degree.
The Presidium of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Academic Council of the Sofia University named after Kliment Ohridski awarded him the Cyril and Methodius Prize for the work “Golemiah svyat na ruskata literature”.
He was awarded a diploma from the Union of Bulgarian Journalists and the honorary sign “Golden Pen” for his great creative contribution to Bulgarian journalism and publicism.
Elected an honorary member of the Brigantine literary club for high school students.
Trip to Bulgaria to participate in the international symposium “Tarnovo Art School and Slavic-Byzantine Art of the XII-XV centuries. "and for giving lectures at the Institute of Bulgarian Literature of the BAN and the Center for Bulgarian Studies.
Trip to the GDR for a meeting of the permanent Editorial and Textual Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
Publication of the book “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and the culture of his time” L., Kh.L. 1978. 359 p. 50 t.e. (reprint: Leningrad, 1985; St. Petersburg, 1998)
Initiator, editor (jointly with L. A. Dmitriev) and author of introductory articles to the monumental series “Monuments of Literature of Ancient Rus'” (12 volumes), published by the publishing house “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura” (the publication was awarded the State Prize in 1993).
The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria awarded the honorary title of laureate of the International Prize named after the brothers Cyril and Methodius for exceptional services in the development of Old Bulgarian and Slavic studies, for the study and popularization of the work of the brothers Cyril and Methodius.
Publication of the article “Ecology of Culture” (Moscow, 1979, No. 7)
The Secretariat of the Union of Writers of Bulgaria awarded him the honorary badge “Nikola Vaptsarov”.
Trip to Bulgaria to give lectures at Sofia University.
Awarded a Certificate of Honor from the “All-Union Voluntary Society of Book Lovers” for his outstanding contribution to the study of ancient Russian culture, Russian books, and source studies.
The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria awarded the “International Prize named after Evfimy Tarnovsky”.
Awarded the honorary badge of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Participated in the conference dedicated to the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state (Sofia).
Publication of a collection of articles “Literature - reality - literature”. L., Soviet writer. 1981. 215 p. 20 t.e. (reprinted: Leningrad, 1984; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 volumes, T. 3. Leningrad, 1987) and the brochure “Notes on the Russian.” M., Sov. Russia. 1981. 71 p. 75 t.e. (reprint: M., 1984; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 volumes. T. 2. L., 1987; 1997).
A great-grandson, Sergei, was born, the son of his granddaughter Vera Tolts (from his marriage to Vladimir Solomonovich Tolts, a Sovietologist and Ufa Jew).
Daughter Vera died in a car accident.
Member of the editorial board of the almanac of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments “Monuments of the Fatherland.”
Awarded a Certificate of Honor and a prize from Ogonyok magazine for the interview “The memory of history is sacred.”
Elected honorary doctor of the University of Bordeaux (France).
The editorial board of the Literaturnaya Gazeta awarded the prize for active participation in the work of the Literaturnaya Gazeta.
Trip to Bulgaria to give lectures and consultations at the invitation of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Publication of the book “Poetry of Gardens: Towards the Semantics of Garden and Park Styles” L., Nauka. 1982. 343 p. 9950 e. (reprint: Leningrad, 1991; St. Petersburg, 1998).
Awarded the VDNKh Diploma of Honor for creating a manual for teachers “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”
Elected honorary doctor of the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Member of the Soviet Organizing Committee for the preparation and holding of the IX International Congress of Slavists (Kyiv).
Publication of the book for students “Native Land”. M., Det.lit. 1985. 207 p.
Chairman of the Pushkin Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
The name of D. S. Likhachev was assigned to small planet No. 2877, discovered by Soviet astronomers: (2877) Likhachev-1969 TR2.
Member of the Leningrad Scientific Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Awarded the anniversary medal “Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
The Presidium of A.N. USSR awarded the V.G. Belinsky Prize for the book “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” and the culture of his time.”
The editorial board of the Literaturnaya Gazeta awarded the title of laureate of the Literaturnaya Gazeta for active cooperation in the newspaper.
Awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Loránd Eötvös University of Budapest.
A trip to Hungary at the invitation of the Lorand Eötvos University of Budapest in connection with the 350th anniversary of the university.
Participated in the Cultural Forum of the participating states of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Hungary). The report “Problems of preservation and development of folklore in the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution” was read.
Publication of the books “The Past to the Future: Articles and Essays” L., Science. 1985. 575 p. 15 t.e. and “Letters about the good and the beautiful” M., Det.lit. 1985. 207 p. (reprint: Tokyo, 1988; M., 1989; Simferopol, 1990; St. Petersburg, 1994; St. Petersburg, 1999).
In connection with the 80th anniversary, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria awarded him the Order of Georgi Dimitrov (the highest award in Bulgaria).
Awarded the Veteran of Labor medal.
Included in the Book of Honor of the All-Union Society “Knowledge” for active work in promoting artistic culture and providing methodological assistance to lecturers.
Awarded the title of laureate of “Literary Russia” for 1986 and awarded the Ogonyok magazine prize.
Elected honorary chairman of the International Society for the Study of the Works of F. M. Dostoevsky (IDS).
Elected an honorary member of the book and graphics section of the Leningrad House of Scientists named after. M. Gorky.
Elected a corresponding member of the “Irises” section of the Moscow City Club of Amateur Flower Growers.
Participated in the Soviet-American-Italian symposium “Literature: Tradition and Values” (Italy).
Participated in a conference dedicated to “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (Poland).
The book “Studies on Old Russian Literature” has been published. L., Science. 1986. 405 p. 25 t.e. and the brochure “The Memory of History is Sacred.” M., True. 1986. 62 p. 80 t.e.
Chairman of the Board of the Soviet Culture Fund (since 1991 - Russian Culture Fund).
He was awarded the medal and the Bibliophile's Almanac prize.
Awarded a diploma for the film “Poetry of Gardens” (Lentelefilm, 1985), which was awarded second prize at the V All-Union Film Review of Architecture and Civil Engineering.
Elected as a deputy of the Leningrad City Council of People's Deputies.
Elected member of the Commission on the Literary Heritage of B. L. Pasternak.
Elected foreign member of the Italian National Academy.
Participated in the international forum “For a nuclear-free world, for the survival of humanity” (Moscow).
Trip to France for the XVI session of the Permanent Mixed Soviet-French Commission on Cultural and Scientific Relations.
A trip to the UK at the invitation of the British Academy and the University of Glasgow to give lectures and consultations on cultural history.
A trip to Italy for a meeting of an informal initiative group to organize the fund “For the Survival of Humanity in a Nuclear War.”
Publication of the book “The Great Path: The Formation of Russian Literature in the 11th-17th Centuries.” " M., Sovremennik. 1987. 299 p. 25 t.e.
Publication of “Selected Works” in 3 volumes.
Member of the editorial board of the magazine "New World", since 1997 - member of the Public Council of the magazine.
Participated in the international meeting “International Fund for the Survival and Development of Humanity.”
Elected honorary doctor of Sofia University (Bulgaria).
Elected corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (Germany).
Trip to Finland for the opening of the exhibition “Time of Change, 1905-1930 (Russian Avant-garde).”
A trip to Denmark for the opening of the exhibition “Russian and Soviet art from personal collections. 1905-1930."
Trip to the UK to present the first issue of the magazine “Our Heritage”.
Publication of the book: “Dialogues about yesterday, today and tomorrow.” M., Sov. Russia. 1988. 142 p. 30 t.e. (co-author N. G. Samvelyan)
A great-granddaughter, Vera, was born, the daughter of the granddaughter of Zinaida Kurbatova (from her marriage to Igor Rutter, an artist, a Sakhalin German).
Awarded the European (1st) Prize for Cultural Activities in 1988.
Awarded the International Literary and Journalistic Prize of Modena (Italy) for his contribution to the development and dissemination of culture in 1988.
Together with other cultural figures, he advocated the return of the Solovetsky and Valaam monasteries to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Participated in a meeting of European ministers of culture in France.
Member of the Soviet (later Russian) branch of the Pen Club.
Publication of the books “Notes and Observations: From Notebooks of Different Years” L., Sov.writer. 1989. 605 p. 100 t.e. and “On Philology” M., Higher School. 1989. 206 p. 24 t.e.
People's Deputy of the USSR from the Soviet Cultural Foundation.
Member of the International Committee for the Revival of the Library of Alexandria.
Honorary Chairman of the All-Union (since 1991 - Russian) Pushkin Society.
Member of the International Editorial Board created for the publication of “The Complete Works of A. S. Pushkin” in English.
Laureate of the International Prize of the City of Fiuggi (Italy).
Publication of the book “School on Vasilyevsky: A Book for Teachers.” M., Enlightenment. 1990. 157 p. 100 t.e. (jointly with N.V. Blagovo and E.B. Belodubrovsky).
Awarded the A.P. Karpinsky Prize (Hamburg) for the research and publication of monuments of Russian literature and culture.
Awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Charles University (Prague).
Elected honorary member of Serbian Matica (SFRY).
Elected an honorary member of the World Club of St. Petersburgers.
Elected an honorary member of the German Pushkin Society.
Publication of the books “I Remember” M., Progress. 1991. 253 p. 10 t.e., “Book of Anxiety” M., News. 1991. 526 p. 30 t.e., “Thoughts” M., Det.lit. 1991. 316 p. 100 t.e.
Elected foreign member of the Philosophical Scientific Society of the USA.
Elected honorary doctor of the University of Siena (Italy).
Awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Milan and Arezzo (Italy).
Participant of the International Charity Program “New Names”.
Chairman of the public anniversary Sergius Committee for preparations for the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the repose of St. Sergius of Radonezh.
Publication of the book “Russian Art from Antiquity to the Avant-garde.” M., Art. 1992. 407 p.
The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded him the Big Gold Medal. M. V. Lomonosov for outstanding achievements in the field of humanities.
Awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation for the series “Monuments of Literature of Ancient Rus'”.
Elected foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Awarded the title of the first Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg by decision of the St. Petersburg Council of People's Deputies.
Elected honorary doctor of the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions.
The book “Articles of the Early Years” has been published. Tver, Tver. OO RFK. 1993. 144 p.
Chairman of the State Jubilee Pushkin Commission (for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin).
Publication of the book: “Great Rus': History and artistic culture of the 10th-17th centuries” M., Art. 1994. 488 pp. (jointly with G.K. Wagner, G.I. Vzdornov, R.G. Skrynnikov).
Participated in the International Colloquium “The Creation of the World and the Purpose of Man” (St. Petersburg - Novgorod). Presented the project “Declaration of the Rights of Culture”.
Awarded the Order of the Madara Horseman, first degree, for exceptional services in the development of Bulgarian studies, for promoting the role of Bulgaria in the development of world culture.
On the initiative of D. S. Likhachev and with the support of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the International Non-Governmental Organization “Fund for the 200th Anniversary of A. S. Pushkin” was created.
Publication of the book “Memoirs” (St. Petersburg, Logos. 1995. 517 p. 3 i.e. reprinted 1997, 1999, 2001).
Awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, for outstanding services to the state and great personal contribution to the development of Russian culture.
Awarded the Order of Stara Planina, first degree, for his enormous contribution to the development of Slavic and Bulgarian studies and for his great services in strengthening bilateral scientific and cultural ties between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Russian Federation.
Publication of books: “Essays on the philosophy of artistic creativity” St. Petersburg, Blitz. 1996. 158 p. 2 vol. (reissue 1999) and “Without evidence” St. Petersburg, Blitz. 1996. 159 p. 5 t.e.
Laureate of the Presidential Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art.
Awarding the prize “For the honor and dignity of talent”, established by the International Literary Fund.
The private Tsarskoye Selo art prize was awarded under the motto “From the artist to the artist” (St. Petersburg).
Publication of the book “On the Intelligentsia: Collection of Articles.”
A great-granddaughter, Hannah, was born, the daughter of the granddaughter of Vera Tolz (from her marriage to Yor Gorlitsky, a Sovietologist).
Editor (jointly with L. A. Dmitriev, A. A. Alekseev, N. V. Ponyrko) and author of introductory articles of the monumental series “Library of Literature of Ancient Rus' (published vols. 1 - 7, 9 -11) - Nauka publishing house "
Awarded the Order of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called for his contribution to the development of national culture (first holder).
Awarded a Gold Medal of the first degree from the Interregional Non-Profit Charitable Foundation in Memory of A. D. Menshikov (St. Petersburg).
Awarded the Nebolsin Prize of the International Charitable Foundation and Professional Education named after. A. G. Nebolsina.
Awarded the International Silver Commemorative Badge “Swallow of the World” (Italy) for his great contribution to the promotion of ideas of peace and the interaction of national cultures.
Publication of the book “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign and the Culture of His Time. Works of recent years." St. Petersburg, Logos. 1998. 528 p. 1000 e.
One of the founders of the “Congress of St. Petersburg Intelligentsia” (along with Zh. Alferov, D. Granin, A. Zapesotsky, K. Lavrov, A. Petrov, M. Piotrovsky).
Awarded a souvenir Golden Jubilee Pushkin Medal from the “Foundation for the 200th Anniversary of A. S. Pushkin.”
Publication of the books “Thoughts about Russia”, “Novgorod Album”.
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev died on September 30, 1999 in St. Petersburg. He was buried in the cemetery in Komarovo on October 4.
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Titles, awards
Hero of Socialist Labor (1986)
Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (September 30, 1998) - for outstanding contribution to the development of national culture (awarded order No. 1)
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (November 28, 1996) - for outstanding services to the state and great personal contribution to the development of Russian culture
The order of Lenin
Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1966)
Pushkin Medal (June 4, 1999) - in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of A. S. Pushkin, for services in the field of culture, education, literature and art
Medal "For Labor Valor" (1954)
Medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" (1942)
Medal "30 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941−1945" (1975)
Medal "40 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941−1945" (1985)
Medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941−1945" (1946)
Medal "Veteran of Labor" (1986)
Order of Georgiy Dimitrov (NRB, 1986)
Two Orders of Cyril and Methodius, 1st degree (NRB, 1963, 1977)
Order of Stara Planina, 1st class (Bulgaria, 1996)
Order of the Madara Horseman, 1st class (Bulgaria, 1995)
Sign of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council "To a resident of besieged Leningrad"
In 1986 he organized the Soviet (now Russian) Cultural Foundation and was chairman of the presidium of the Foundation until 1993. Since 1990, he has been a member of the International Committee for the Organization of the Library of Alexandria (Egypt). He was elected as a deputy of the Leningrad City Council (1961-1962, 1987-1989).
Foreign member of the Academies of Sciences of Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Serbia. Corresponding member of the Austrian, American, British, Italian, Gottingen academies, corresponding member of the oldest US society - the Philosophical Society. Member of the Writers' Union since 1956. Since 1983 - Chairman of the Pushkin Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences, since 1974 - Chairman of the Editorial Board of the yearbook “Cultural Monuments. New discoveries". From 1971 to 1993, he headed the editorial board of the “Literary Monuments” series, since 1987 he has been a member of the editorial board of the New World magazine, and since 1988 of the Our Heritage magazine.
The Russian Academy of Art Studies and Musical Performance awarded him the Amber Cross Order of Arts (1997). Awarded an Honorary Diploma of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (1996). Awarded the Great Gold Medal named after M.V. Lomonosov (1993). First Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg (1993). Honorary citizen of the Italian cities of Milan and Arezzo. Laureate of the Tsarskoye Selo Art Prize
Likhachev Dmitry Sergeevich, originally from St. Petersburg, was born on November 28, 1906 in the family of Sergei and Vera Likhachev. His parents gave him one of the best educations at that time. He graduated from high school in 1916, college in 1920, and labor school in 1923. Until February 8, 1928, he studied at Leningrad State University, until he was convicted for his activities, as a result of which he received a sentence of imprisonment for 5 years in the Solovetsky camp.
While serving his sentence, the author did not waste his time, and in 1930, he wrote his first article, “Cardboard Games of Criminals.” In 1932 he was released early and returned to Leningrad, where he was hired as a proofreader at the Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1935 he married Zinaida Aleksandrovna Makarova and in 1937 Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev gave birth to beautiful twin daughters Vera and Lyudmila. In 1942, the Likhachev family moved to Kazan. After the move, Dmitry loses his father, who dies in his occupied hometown.
The writer has received many awards, most of them for his services in 1941, when Leningrad was occupied, and for his investments and development of literature. In 1942, his first book, “Defense of Old Russian Cities,” was published, and in 1945, “Novgorod the Great: An Essay on the Cultural History of Novgorod in the 11th–17th Centuries.” and “National identity of Ancient Rus'. Essays from the field of Russian literature of the 11th–17th centuries.” In 1950, he commented on “The Tale of Bygone Years” and translated with commentary “Tales of Igor’s Campaign.”
Already a professor, Likhachev wrote a lot of books about the culture of Ancient Rus' and its literature: “Textology: Based on the material of Russian literature of the X - XVII centuries,” “The Emergence of Russian Literature,” “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus',” and many others.
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
A book written by the most prominent Soviet scientist, Academician D.S. Likhachev, is devoted to issues of aesthetic, moral and patriotic education.
Against a broad cultural and historical background, the author reveals the enduring value of monuments of Russian literature and art, bright pages of the country’s heroic past, the continuity of moral, artistic and aesthetic traditions of the centuries-old history of our homeland.
Poetics of Old Russian Literature
The artistic specificity of ancient Russian literature is increasingly attracting the attention of literary medievalists. This is understandable: without fully identifying all the artistic features of Russian literature of the 11th-17th centuries. it is impossible to construct a history of Russian literature and an aesthetic assessment of the monuments of Russian literature of the first seven centuries of its existence.
Is it possible to talk about ancient Russian literature as a certain unity from the point of view of historical poetics? Is there continuity in the development of Russian literature from ancient to new and what is the essence of the differences between ancient Russian literature and new? These questions should be answered throughout this book, but they can be posed in a preliminary form at the beginning.
I remember
In the book of the Hero of Socialist Labor, Academician D.S. Likhachev's memoirs of his childhood, youth, and passion for ancient Russian literature are published. This included the “Solovetsky Records” deciphered by Likhachev in 1989, which tells about his stay in prison during the Stalinist repressions. The recordings were released to the parents in 1930.
The second section of the book consists of journalistic speeches by D.S. Likhachev in recent years. These are articles, interviews, conversations about painful problems of society - problems of morality and culture.
Memories
Written in the genre of memoirs, the book outgrows the traditional framework of the memoir genre: the author does not aim to resurrect only the events of his own life. Recreating the atmosphere of past years and the history of many human destinies with which he managed to come into contact, D.S. Likhachev encourages the reader to peer into the face of the era, think about its patterns, and learn lessons from the past.
The chapters of the book are milestones in Russian history and the history of Russian culture of the 20th century.
Notes about Russian. Collection
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev is an outstanding scientist of the twentieth century.
His creative heritage is extremely extensive and diverse; his research, journalistic articles and notes touched on various aspects of cultural history - from ancient Russian literature, to the study of which he made a huge contribution, to landscape gardening styles of the 18th-19th centuries.
This book contains articles and notes by D.S. Likhachev of different years. Extracted by the author from notebooks and going far beyond the boundaries of “pure science,” these materials are united by a cross-cutting theme—the historical past and future of Russia.
Literature – reality – literature
In this book D.S. Likhachev makes “philological walks” through famous works of literature, dwelling on individual details, images, and motifs.
What are the similarities between Emperor Nicholas I and Gogol’s Manilov? Why did Dostoevsky, in his novels and stories, always so accurately indicate the St. Petersburg addresses of his heroes and so clearly define the “history of time”? How are the traditions of ancient Russian literature manifested in Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace”? What are the similarities between Akhmatova’s “Poem without a Hero” and the lines of Blok and Gogol? In which poem did Blok use the principle of symmetry to reinforce the theme of life and death?
Russian literary scholar and public figure, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was born on November 28 (November 15, old style) 1906 in St. Petersburg in the family of electrical engineer Sergei Mikhailovich Likhachev.
In 1914–1917, Dmitry Likhachev studied first at the Gymnasium of the Imperial Philanthropic Society, then at the Karl May Gymnasium and Real School. In 1917, Likhachev continued his education at the Soviet Labor School named after L.D. Lentovskaya.
In 1923, Dmitry Likhachev entered Leningrad University at the Faculty of Social Sciences in the department of linguistics and literature, where he studied simultaneously in two sections: Romano-Germanic and Slavic-Russian.
In February 1928, after graduating from Leningrad State University, Dmitry Likhachev was arrested for participating in the Space Academy of Sciences student group and sentenced to five years for counter-revolutionary activities.
From November 1928 to August 1932, Likhachev served his sentence in the Solovetsky special purpose camp. Here, during his stay in the camp, Likhachev’s first scientific work, “Card Games of Criminals,” was published in the magazine “Solovetsky Islands” in 1930.
After his early release, he returned to Leningrad, where he worked as a literary editor and proofreader in various publishing houses. Since 1938, Dmitry Likhachev’s life was connected with the Pushkin House - the Institute of Russian Literature (IRLI AS USSR), where he began working as a junior researcher, then became a member of the academic council (1948), and later - head of the sector (1954) and the department of ancient Russian literature (1986).
During the Great Patriotic War, from the autumn of 1941 to the spring of 1942, Dmitry Likhachev lived and worked in besieged Leningrad, from where he was evacuated with his family along the “Road of Life” to Kazan. For his selfless work in the besieged city, he was awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad.”
Since 1946, Likhachev worked at Leningrad State University (LSU): first as an assistant professor, and in 1951–1953 as a professor. At the Faculty of History of Leningrad State University, he taught special courses “History of Russian Chronicles”, “Paleography”, “History of the Culture of Ancient Rus'” and others.
Dmitry Likhachev devoted most of his works to the study of the culture of Ancient Rus' and its traditions: “National identity of Ancient Rus'” (1945), “The emergence of Russian literature” (1952), “Man in the literature of Ancient Rus'” (1958), “Culture of Rus' in the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphany the Wise" (1962), "Poetics of Old Russian Literature" (1967), essay "Notes on the Russian" (1981). The collection “The Past for the Future” (1985) is dedicated to Russian culture and the inheritance of its traditions.
Likhachev paid a lot of attention to the study of the great monuments of ancient Russian literature “The Tale of Bygone Years” and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” which he translated into modern Russian with the author’s comments (1950). In different years of his life, various articles and monographs of the scientist were devoted to these works, translated into many languages of the world.
Dmitry Likhachev was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953) and a full member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1970). He was a foreign member or corresponding member of the academies of sciences of a number of countries: the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1963), the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1971), the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1973), the British Academy (1976), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1968), the Göttingen Academy Academy of Sciences (1988), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993).
Likhachev was an honorary doctor from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun (1964), Oxford (1967), the University of Edinburgh (1971), the University of Bordeaux (1982), the University of Zurich (1982), Lorand Eötvos University of Budapest (1985), Sofia University (1988) ), Charles University (1991), University of Siena (1992), honorary member of the Serbian literary, scientific, cultural and educational society “Srpska Matica” (1991), Philosophical Scientific Society of the USA (1992). Since 1989, Likhachev was a member of the Soviet (later Russian) branch of the Pen Club.
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 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.”
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). SPb., 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 the founding of the International 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.”
For his scientific and social activities, Dmitry Likhachev was awarded many government awards. Academician Likhachev was twice awarded the State Prize of the USSR - for the scientific works “The History of the Culture of Ancient Rus'” (1952) and “The Poetics of Old Russian Literature” (1969), and the State Prize of the Russian Federation for the series “Monuments of Literature of Ancient Rus'” (1993). In 2000, Dmitry 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”.
Academician Dmitry Likhachev was awarded the highest awards of the USSR and Russia - the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1986) with the Order of Lenin and the gold medal "Hammer and Sickle", he was the first holder of the Order of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called (1998), and was also awarded many orders and medals.
Since 1935, Dmitry Likhachev was married to Zinaida Makarova, an employee of the publishing house. In 1937, their twin daughters Vera and Lyudmila were born. In 1981, the academician’s daughter Vera died in a car accident.
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev died on September 30, 1999 in St. Petersburg, and was buried in the cemetery in Komarovo.
In 2001, the International Charitable Foundation named after D.S. Likhacheva. The name of Dmitry Likhachev was given to minor planet No. 2877, discovered by Soviet astronomers, to the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage in Moscow, as well as to a prize established by the government of St. Petersburg and the D.S. Foundation. Likhacheva
2006, the year of the centenary of the scientist’s birth, was declared the Year of Academician Dmitry Likhachev by decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
THE SPIRITUAL PATH OF DMITRY SERGEEVICH LIKHACHEV
Conscience is not only the guardian angel of human honor, it is the helmsman of his freedom, she makes sure that freedom does not turn into arbitrariness, but shows a person his true path in the complicated circumstances of life, especially modern life.
D.S. Likhachev
November 28, 2006, the first day of the Nativity Fast, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev. And the end of his earthly life followed on September 30, 1999, on the day of remembrance of the holy martyrs Faith, Nadezhda, Lyubov and their blessed mother Sophia. Having lived for almost 93 years, this great Russian scientist witnessed almost the entire 20th century.
2006 has been declared the “Year of Likhachev” in Russia, and events are being held at all levels to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth. Thanks to the anniversary, new editions of his works are appearing, bibliographic indexes of his numerous works are being printed, and articles about his life and work are being published.
The purpose of these notes is to once again carefully read the memoirs, letters and some scientific works of the Unforgettable Dmitry Sergeevich in order to understand his spiritual life, his spiritual life path, his behests to Russia.
1. Children's prayer
Here is an excerpt from Dmitry Sergeevich’s book “Memoirs”.
“One of the happiest memories of my life. Mom is lying on the couch. I climb between her and the pillows, lie down too, and we sing songs together. I haven't gone to preschool yet.
Children, get ready for school,
The cockerel crowed a long time ago.
Dress quickly!
The sun looks out the window.
Man, and beast, and bird -
Everyone gets down to business
A bug drags along with a burden,
A bee flies after the honey.
The field is clear, the meadow is cheerful,
The forest has woken up and is noisy,
Woodpecker with his nose: knock and knock!
The oriole screams loudly.
The fishermen are already dragging their nets,
In the meadow the scythe rings...
Let's pray for books, children!
God does not command you to be lazy.
It’s probably because of the last phrase that this children’s song came out of Russian life,” Dmitry Sergeevich further recalls. “And all the children knew it thanks to Ushinsky’s anthology “Native Word.”
Yes, this touching song, which many mothers used to wake up their children in Rus' (and not only woke them up, but also got them ready to study!), thanks to the militant atheism of the post-revolutionary years, was removed from Russian life. However, this does not mean that immediately after October 25 (November 7, new style) 1917, Russian mothers stopped singing this song to their children. Those of them who themselves remembered it for the rest of their lives from the voices of their mothers continued to sing it in the mornings even in the middle of the 20th century, despite decades of persecution of the Church, the faith, and believers. But this song was removed from Soviet school textbooks, or rather, not allowed, despite the fact that the main pedagogical library of the USSR was named after K.D. Ushinsky, from whose textbook millions of Russian children had previously learned this song. And Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, as can be seen from his memoirs, sang this song with his mother even when he did not go to preparatory class. This is what preparation for school was like! The child had not yet gone to school, and the words “Pray for books, children! “God doesn’t command you to be lazy,” he had already internalized in his heart.
In the fall of 1914 (the war had just begun), eight-year-old Mitya Likhachev went to school. He immediately entered the senior preparatory class of the gymnasium of the Humane Society. (What kind of Societies they were!) Most of his classmates were already in their second year of study, having completed the junior preparatory class. Mitya Likhachev was the “new kid” among them.
The more “experienced” high school students somehow attacked the new guy with their fists, and he, pressed against the wall, first fought back as best he could. And when the attackers suddenly became afraid and unexpectedly began to retreat, he, feeling like a winner, began to attack them. At that moment, the school inspector noticed the scuffle. And in Mitya’s diary an entry appeared: “He beat his comrades with his fists.” And the signature: “Inspector Mamai.” How Mitya was struck by this injustice!
However, his trials did not end there. Another time, the boys, throwing snowballs at him, deftly managed to bring him under the windows of the inspector who was watching the children. And in the diary of the newcomer Likhachev, a second entry appears: “I was naughty on the street. Inspector Mamai." “And the parents were called to the director,” recalled Dmitry Sergeevich. - How I didn’t want to go to school! In the evenings, kneeling down to repeat the words of prayers after my mother, I would add on my own, burying myself in the pillow: “God, make me get sick.” And I got sick: my temperature began to rise every day - two or three tenths of a degree above 37. They took me out of school, and in order not to miss a year, they hired a tutor.”
This is the kind of prayer and life experience the future scientist received in his first year of study. From these memories it is clear that he learned to pray from his mother.
The following year, 1915, Mitya Likhachev entered the famous gymnasium and real school of Karl Ivanovich May, which is on the 14th line of Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg.
From early childhood, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev remembered “family words”, that is, phrases, sayings, jokes that were often heard at home. From such “family words” he remembered the prayerful words of his father’s sighs: “Queen of Heaven!”, “Mother of God!” “Is it because,” recalled D.S. Likhachev, “that the family was in the parish of the Church of the Vladimir Mother of God? With the words “Queen of Heaven!” my father died during the blockade.”
2. Along the Volga - Mother River
In May 1914, that is, even before he first entered school, Mitya Likhachev, together with his parents and older brother Mikhail, traveled on a ship along the Volga. Here is a fragment from his memories of this trip along the great Russian river.
“On Trinity (that is, on the feast of the Holy Trinity), the captain stopped our ship (although it was diesel, but the word “motor ship” did not yet exist) right next to a green meadow. On a hill stood the village church. Inside, it was all decorated with birch trees, the floor was strewn with grass and wildflowers. The traditional church singing by the village choir was extraordinary. The Volga made an impression with its songfulness: the vast expanse of the river was full of everything that floats, hums, sings, shouts.”
In the same “Memoirs” D.S. Likhachev gives the names of the ships of that time sailing along the Volga: “Prince Serebryany”, “Prince Yuri of Suzdal”, “Prince Mstislav Udaloy”, “Prince Pozharsky”, “Kozma Minin”, “Vladimir” Monomakh", "Dmitry Donskoy", "Alyosha Popovich", "Dobrynya Nikitich", "Kutuzov", "1812". “Even from the names of the ships we could learn Russian history,” recalled the scientist who loved the Volga and Russia so much.
3. Persecution
Dmitry Likhachev entered Petrograd State University without yet being fully 17 years old. He studied at the Faculty of Social Sciences, in the ethnological and linguistic department, where philological disciplines were studied. Student Likhachev chose two sections at once - Romano-Germanic and Slavic-Russian. He listened to the historiography of ancient Russian literature from one of the outstanding Russian archaeographers, Dimitri Ivanovich Abramovich, Master of Theology, former professor at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, later a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. And at the time when Dmitry Likhachev studied at Petrograd State University (later renamed Leningrad University), the former professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy was simply Dimitry Ivanovich, since there were no academic titles and degrees then, they were canceled or not introduced in the post-revolutionary frenzy . Defenses of even doctoral works were called disputations. However, according to tradition, some old scientists were called “professors”, and some new ones were called “red professor”.
The old professor Dimitri Ivanovich Abramovich was an experienced specialist in ancient Russian literature. He made his contribution to Russian historical and philological science with fundamental research dedicated to the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon. Was it not he who managed to inspire Dmitry Likhachev so much that he, already at the university bench, began to study ancient Russian literature in the most serious way - literature primarily of the church.
Here’s how Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev himself wrote about it: “I turned to ancient Russian literature at the university because I considered it little studied in literary terms, as an artistic phenomenon. In addition, Ancient Rus' interested me from the point of view of knowledge of the Russian national character. The study of the literature and art of Ancient Rus' in their unity also seemed promising to me. The study of styles in ancient Russian literature, in time, seemed very important to me.”
Against the backdrop of incessant curses against the past (cultural revolution!), showing interest in the past meant swimming against the tide.
The following recollection of the scientist dates back to this period of his life: “You always remember your youth with kindness. 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.”
“Almost simultaneously with the October Revolution, persecution of the Church began. The persecution was so unbearable for any Russian that many non-believers began to attend church, psychologically separating themselves from the persecutors. Here is undocumented and possibly inaccurate data from one book of that time: “According to incomplete data (the Volga region, the Kama region and a number of other places are not taken into account), in only 8 months (from June 1918 to January 1919) ... the following were killed: 1 metropolitan , 18 bishops, 102 priests, 154 deacons and 94 monks and nuns. 94 churches and 26 monasteries were closed, 14 temples and 9 chapels were desecrated; The land and property of 718 clergy and 15 monasteries were sequestered. The following were imprisoned: 4 bishops, 198 priests, 8 archimandrites and 5 abbesses. 18 religious processions were banned, 41 church processions were dispersed, church services were disrupted by obscenity in 22 cities and 96 villages. At the same time, the desecration and destruction of relics and the requisition of church utensils took place.” This is only for the first months of Soviet power. And then it went and went...”
Thus, Dmitry Sergeevich exposes the myth that the most terrible repressions occurred in 1936–1937. He writes about this as follows: “One of the goals of my memoirs is to dispel the myth that the most brutal time of repression came in 1936–1937. I think that in the future, statistics of arrests and executions will show that waves of arrests, executions, and deportations began already from the beginning of 1918, even before the official announcement of the “Red Terror” in the fall of this year, and then the tide kept growing until Stalin’s death, and , seems to be a new wave in 1936–1937. was only the “ninth wave.”
“Then even more terrible provocative cases began with the “living church,” the confiscation of church valuables, etc. etc.,” Academician D.S. Likhachev continues his memories of the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church. - The appearance in 1927 of the “Declaration” of Metropolitan Sergius, who sought to reconcile the Church with the state and the state with the Church, was perceived by everyone, both Russian and non-Russian, precisely in this environment of facts of persecution. The state was “atheistic”.
Divine services in the remaining Orthodox churches were held with particular fervor. The church choirs sang especially well, because they were joined by many professional singers (in particular, from the opera troupe of the Mariinsky Theater). The priests and the entire clergy served with a special feeling<…>
The wider the persecution of the Church developed and the more numerous the executions became at Gorokhovaya Two, in Petropavlovka, on Krestov Island, in Strelna, etc., the more acutely we all felt pity for the perishing Russia. Our love for the Motherland was least of all like pride in the Motherland, its victories and conquests. Now this is difficult for many to understand. We didn't sing patriotic songs - we cried and prayed.
With this feeling of pity and sadness, I began to study ancient Russian literature and ancient Russian art at the university in 1923. I wanted to keep Russia in my memory, just as children sitting at her bedside want to keep in their memory the image of a dying mother, collect her images, show them to friends, talk about the greatness of her martyr’s life. My books are, in essence, memorial notes that are given “for the repose of the dead”: you can’t remember everyone when you write them - you write down the most dear names, and such were for me precisely in Ancient Rus'.”
This is where the origins of Academician Likhachev’s amazing love for ancient Russian literature, for his native language, for Russia...
4. Helfernak and the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov
“I began to think about the essence of the world, as it seems, from childhood,” recalls Dmitry Sergeevich. In the last classes of the gymnasium, the future scientist began to become interested in philosophy and very early realized that a full-fledged worldview cannot be developed without religious faith, without theology.
“The theological teaching about synergy came to my aid,” the scientist writes in his “Memoirs,” - the combination of Divine omnipotence with human freedom, making a person fully responsible not only for his behavior, but also for his essence - for everything evil or good, what is contained in it."
Until the end of 1927, various student societies and philosophical circles could still operate in Leningrad. Members of such Societies and circles gathered wherever they could - in their educational institutions, in the Geographical Society, or even just at someone’s home. “Various philosophical, historical and literary problems were discussed relatively freely,” recalls D.S. Likhachev.
In the early 20s, Dmitry Likhachev’s school teacher I.M. Andreevsky organized the “Helfernak” circle: “Artistic, Literary, Philosophical and Scientific Academy.” “The dawn of Helfernak occurred in 1921–1925, when venerable scientists, schoolchildren, and students gathered every Wednesday in two cramped rooms of Ivan Mikhailovich Andreevsky on the attic floor of a house on Tserkovnaya Street No. 12 (now Blokhin Street). Among the participants in these meetings was, for example, M.M. Bakhtin.
Reports in Helfernack were made on a wide variety of topics, literary, philosophical and theological issues were considered. The discussions were always lively.
“In the second half of the 20s, the circle of Ivan Mikhailovich Andreevsky Helfernak began to acquire more and more religious character. This change was undoubtedly explained by the persecution to which the Church was subjected at that time. Discussion of church events captured the bulk of the circle. I.M. Andreevsky began to think about changing the main direction of the circle and about its new name. Everyone agreed that the circle, from which many atheistically minded participants had already left, should be called a “brotherhood.” But in the name of whom I.M. Andreevsky, who initially fought for the protection of the Church, wanted to call it the “Brotherhood of Metropolitan Philip,” meaning Metropolitan Philip (Kolychev), who spoke the truth to Ivan the Terrible to his face and was strangled in the Tver Youth Monastery by Malyuta Skuratov. Then, however, under the influence of S.A. Alekseev, we called ourselves the “Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov.”
In his memoirs of that time, Dimitry Sergeevich cites a propaganda poem, probably composed by Demyan Bedny:
Drive away, drive away the monks,
Drive away, drive away the priests,
Beat the speculators
Crush your fists...
“Komsomol members,” recalls D.S. Likhachev, “barged into the churches in groups wearing hats, talking loudly and laughing. I will not list everything that was happening in the spiritual life of the people at that time. At that time we had no time for “subtle” considerations about how to preserve the Church in an atmosphere of extreme hostility towards it from those in power.”
“We came up with an idea to attend church together. We, five or six people, all went together in 1927 to the Exaltation of the Cross in one of the subsequently destroyed churches on the Petrograd side. Ionkin, whom we did not yet know was a provocateur, also got involved with us. Ionkin, who pretended to be religious, did not know how to behave in church, was afraid, cowered, and stood behind us. And then for the first time I felt distrust of him. But then it turned out that the appearance in the church of a group of tall and unusual young men for its parishioners caused a commotion in the church clergy, especially since Ionkin was carrying a briefcase. They decided that this commission and the church would be closed. This is where our “joint visits” stopped.”
Dmitry Sergeevich always retained a special flair for provocateurs. When he, being imprisoned on Solovki, saw off his parents who had visited him and one person asked his father to deliver a letter to the mainland, Dmitry Sergeevich stopped his father. And he was right. The “petitioner” turned out to be a provocateur.
And here is another memory of the scientist’s student years: “I remember that once at my teacher’s apartment I met the rector of the Transfiguration Cathedral, Father Sergius Tikhomirov, and his daughter. Father Sergius was extremely thin, with a thin gray beard. He was neither eloquent nor vociferous, and, indeed, served quietly and modestly. When he was “summoned” and asked about his attitude towards the Soviet regime, he answered in monosyllables: “from the Antichrist.” It is clear that he was arrested and very quickly shot. This happened, if I’m not mistaken, in the fall of 1927, after the Exaltation of the Cross (a holiday on which, according to popular belief, demons, frightened by the cross, are especially zealous to harm Christians).”
The Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov managed to hold only three or four meetings before its closure. The time has approached when the authorities began to suppress the activities of not only all Orthodox Brotherhoods, but also all organized Societies, circles and student interest groups not by order from above.
Members of the Brotherhood soon “saw through” the provocateur Ionkin and imitated the self-dissolution of the Brotherhood so as not to expose the owner of the apartment, I.M. Andreevsky. Ionkin “fell for” this trick (later D.S. Likhachev learned from documents that in his denunciations Ionkin represented the members of the Brotherhood as monarchists and ardent counter-revolutionaries, which is what those who sent him required). And members of the Orthodox Student Brotherhood began to gather in their homes.
On August 1, 1927, the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, they prayed in the apartment of Lucy Skuratova’s parents, and Father Sergius Tikhomirov served a prayer service.
“In Russian worship, the manifestation of feelings is always very restrained,” D.S. Likhachev recalls about this service. “Father Sergius also served with restraint, but the mood was conveyed to everyone in some special way. I can't define it. It was both joy and the realization that our life was becoming completely different from that day on. We left one by one. Opposite the house stood a lonely gun that fired at the cadet school in November 1917. There was no surveillance. The Brotherhood of Seraphim of Sarov existed until the day of our arrest on February 8, 1928.”
5. Old Russian spelling for “Space Academy of Sciences”
The arrest of Dmitry Likhachev was associated not with his participation in the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov, but in connection with the active activities of another student association? - the comic student “Space Academy of Sciences” (abbreviated as KAS). The members of this “academy” met almost weekly, without hiding at all. At the meetings they made scientific reports, seasoning them with a fair amount of humor.
Based on the reports, “departments” were distributed among the members of this comic academy. Dmitry Likhachev gave a report on the lost advantages of the old spelling (which suffered in the revolutionary reform of Russian spelling in 1918). Thanks to this report, he “received” at the KAS “the department of old spelling, or, as an option, the department of melancholic philology.” The title of this report, somewhat ironic in form and quite serious in content, speaks of the old spelling as “trampled and distorted by the enemy of the Church of Christ and the Russian people.” No one was forgiven for such phrases back then...
And although the “Space Academy of Sciences” was just a comic student circle, and its work followed the principle of “gay science”, long known among students, however, for the hyper-vigilant authorities, the comic academy seemed by no means a joke. As a result, Dmitry Likhachev and his friends were tried and sent to study life in forced labor camps...
Recalling the classes of the “Space Academy of Sciences”, Dmitry Sergeevich, in particular, wrote:
“One of the postulates of this “gay science” was that the world that science creates through the study of the environment should be “interesting,” more complex than the world before it was studied. Science enriches the world by studying it, discovering new, hitherto unknown things in it. If science simplifies and subordinates everything around us to two or three simple principles, it is a “unfun science” that makes the Universe around us boring and gray. This is the teaching of Marxism, which belittles the surrounding society, subordinating it to crude materialistic laws that kill morality - simply making morality unnecessary. This is all materialism. This is the teaching of S. Freud. The same is true of sociologism in explaining literary works and the literary process. The doctrine of historical formations also belongs to this category of “boring” teachings.”
These words were published in the cited book by D.S. Likhachev “Favorites. MEMORIES", which was published in its first edition in St. Petersburg in 1995. A similar statement is found in a speech made by the great scientist in October 1998 at the discussion “Russia in the Dark: Optimism or Despair?”, held at the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace.
“Of course, pessimism prevails in our country now, and this has its roots. For 70 years we were brought up in pessimism, in philosophical teachings of a pessimistic nature. After all, Marxism is one of the most desperately pessimistic teachings. Matter predominates over spirit, over spirituality - this position alone suggests that matter, that is, the base principle, is primary, and from this point of view all literary and artistic works were analyzed; At the core of everything they were looking for class struggle, that is, hatred. And our youth were brought up on this. Is it any wonder that we have established pessimistic norms regarding morality, that is, norms that allow any crime, because there is no outcome?<…>
But the point is not only that matter is not the basis of spirituality, but that the very laws that science prescribes give rise to this pessimism. If nothing depends on the will of a person, if history goes its own way, regardless of a person, then it is clear that a person has nothing to fight for, and therefore there is no need to fight<…>
It depends on us whether we will become agents of good or not.”
No one before Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev said so simply and clearly that Marxism, under the banner of which revolutionaries promised to make the whole world happy, is the most pessimistic teaching! And that preaching the primacy of matter and economics inevitably leads to the destruction of moral norms and, as a result, resolves any crime against man and humanity, “because there is no outcome...”.
The current director of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Abdusalam Abdulkerimovich Guseinov, in his article “On the Cultural Studies of D.S. Likhachev,” is disingenuous when he speaks about Dmitry Sergeevich’s attitude to philosophy: “Likhachev, it seems, did not really like philosophy, and I don’t know how well he knew her. Once he even proposed excluding philosophy from the minimum candidate exams in graduate school, which upset his fellow humanists from the philosophical workshop.”
No! Dmitry Sergeevich was very fond of philosophy (in Slavic - love of wisdom, that is, “love of wisdom”). Since childhood, he thought about the essence of the world. In the last classes of the gymnasium, I became interested in the intuitionism of A. Bergson and N. O. Lossky. Reflecting on the relationship between time and eternity, he thought through his concept of time - the theory of the timeless (in the sense of transtemporal, supertemporal) essence of everything that exists.
He thought about time as a way of perceiving the world, as a form of existence, and explained why this form was needed: “The entire future running away from us is necessary to preserve our freedom of choice, freedom of will, which exist simultaneously with God’s complete will, without which no one no hair will fall from our heads. Time is not a deception that forces us to answer before God and conscience for our actions, which we actually cannot cancel, change, or somehow influence our behavior. Time is one of the forms of reality that allows us to be free in a limited form. However, the combination of our limited will with the will of God, as I have already said, is one of the secrets of synergy. Our ignorance is opposed to God's omniscience, but is by no means equal to it in importance. But if we knew everything, we wouldn’t be able to control ourselves.”
Such reasoning is given by D.S. Likhachev, recalling his passion for philosophy in his youth. One of his gymnasium teachers, Sergei Alekseevich Askoldov, believing that Dmitry Likhachev would become a philosopher, asked him in the last grade of the gymnasium: where will he enroll? “Hearing that I wanted to become a literary critic, he agreed, saying that in current conditions literary criticism is freer than philosophy, and yet close to philosophy. Thus, he strengthened me in my intention to obtain a liberal arts education, despite my family’s opinion that I should become an engineer. “You will be a beggar,” my father told me in response to all my arguments. I always remembered these words from my father and was very embarrassed when, upon returning from prison, I found myself unemployed and had to live at his expense for months.”
From the above memoirs it follows that Dmitry Sergeevich loved philosophy because he was a true sage. Only he categorically did not recognize the so-called Marxist-Leninist philosophy of materialism as a philosophy, which for decades served violent experiments on Russia, justified the destruction of traditional Russian culture and cultivated the “Soviet man,” “Soviet people,” and “Soviet culture.”
“Atheism is the ABC of Marxism,” taught the classics of materialist philosophy. And Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev realized very early that godlessness only destroys and does not create anything. Being a wise and peaceful man, he did not enter into public disputes with followers of Marxist-Leninist philosophy. But at the same time, he could allow himself, with a wise smile, to make a proposal to Soviet philosophers - to exclude philosophy from the candidate minimum in graduate school. Academician D.S. Likhachev had a subtle sense of humor. And it is not difficult to guess that his proposal to exclude the philosophy exam was nothing more than a protest against the imposition of “the only true and all-conquering teaching” on everyone. Having gone through prisons, camps, and other “construction projects of the first five-year plans,” he was not so naive as to think that at his call the exam, which was a test of ideological reliability, would be canceled. However, he believed in the truth and lived to see the time when dogmatic Marxist-Leninist materialism ceased to be a mandatory creed for all his compatriots.
But then, in 1928, the godless government was just beginning to force the citizens of the USSR into a “bright future” with a firm hand. And a telegram supposedly from the Pope with congratulations on the anniversary of the “Space Academy of Sciences” (probably a joke from one of his friends or a provocation) led to the arrest of the “academicians”.
At the beginning of February 1928, the table clock in the Likhachev house struck eight times. Dmitry Likhachev was alone in the house, and when the clock struck, he was seized by a chilling fear. The fact is that his father did not like the chiming of the clock, and the chiming in the clock was turned off even before Mitya was born. In 21 years of his life, the clock struck for the first time, struck 8 times - rhythmically and solemnly... And on February 8, the NKVD came for Dmitry Likhachev. His father turned terribly pale and sank into a chair. The polite investigator handed the father a glass of water. The search began. They were looking for anti-Sovietism. We packed our knapsack, said goodbye to the journey, and for the philologist who had just graduated from university, other “universities” began...
In the pre-trial detention center, a cross, a silver watch and several rubles were taken from Dmitry Likhachev. “The chamber number was 237: degrees of space cold.”
Having failed to obtain the information he needed from Likhachev (about participation in a “criminal counter-revolutionary organization”), the investigator told his father: “Your son is behaving badly.” For the investigator, it was “good” only if the person under investigation, at his suggestion, admitted that he had participated in a counter-revolutionary conspiracy.
The investigation lasted six months. Here's a telegram for you! They gave Dmitry Likhachev 5 years (after prison he was sent to Solovki, and then transferred to the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal). So in 1928 he ended up in the famous Solovetsky Monastery, converted by the Soviet authorities into SLON (Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp), and then repurposed into STON (Solovetsky Special Purpose Prison). Ordinary Soviet prisoners, who were “doing their time” on the territory of the Solovetsky Monastery, remembered the cry with which the camp authorities “greeted” them, accepting a new stage: “Here the power is not Soviet, here is the Solovetsky power!”
6. In the Solovetsky Monastery
Describing his trip to Solovki in 1966, academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev wrote about his first (1928–1930) stay on this island: “My stay on Solovki was the most significant period of my life.”
Similar judgments were made by people of holy life, for example, some Russian confessors who endured prison bonds during the Soviet persecution of the Orthodox faith, the Church of Christ. They said this because they were convinced by themselves that only through severe trials and suffering does a person improve and approach God in a direct way. According to the Gospel word of Christ the Savior, a person striving for God and for perfection in God must go through many sorrows. In a world stricken by sin, only following Christ, only through suffering, only through Great Heel and Golgotha does the path to perfection, to bliss, to the Paschal joy of the Resurrection open to man.
In his notes “On Life and Death,” Dmitry Sergeevich wrote: “Life would be incomplete if there were no sadness and grief in it at all. It’s cruel to think so, but it’s true.” D.S. Likhachev also said: “If a person does not care about anyone or anything, his life is “spiritless.” He needs to suffer from something, to think about something. Even in love there must be a share of dissatisfaction (“I didn’t do everything I could”).” That is why he considered Solovki the most significant period of his life.
The notes of Dmitry Sergeevich, entitled in one word - “Solovki”, published in his collection “Articles of Different Years”, published in Tver in 1993, have been preserved. But before reading the lines from these notes, it is necessary to say a few words about the camp itself.
What did Solovki become for Dmitry Likhachev, who had just graduated from university? This is how Academician D.S. Likhachev himself writes about his involuntary placement in a monastery. “Entry and exit from the Kremlin was allowed only through the Nikolsky Gate. There were guards there checking passes in both directions. The Holy Gate was used to house the fire brigade. Fire carts could quickly move out of the Holy Gate, out and in. Through them they were taken out to be executed - this was the shortest route from the eleventh (punishment) company to the monastery cemetery, where the executions were carried out.”
Nikolsky Gate. 1928
The party of prisoners, which included D.S. Likhachev, arrived on Solovetsky Island in October 1928. “Fast ice” - coastal ice - has already appeared off the coast of the island. First, they brought the living ashore, then they carried out the corpses of those who had suffocated from the deadly tightness, squeezed to the point of broken bones, and bloody diarrhea. After the bath and disinfection, the prisoners were led to the Nikolsky Gate. “At the gate,” recalls Dmitry Sergeevich, “I took off my student cap, which I never parted with, and crossed myself. Before that I had never seen a real Russian monastery. I perceived Solovki and the Kremlin not as a new prison, but as a holy place.”
For the ruble he demanded, some petty boss at the site gave Dmitry Likhachev a place on the bunk, and space on the bunk was very scarce. The newcomer, who had caught a cold, had a terrible sore throat, so that he could not swallow a piece of preserved cookies without pain. Literally falling onto the bunk, Dmitry Likhachev woke up only in the morning and was surprised to see that everything around him was empty. “The bunks were empty,” the scientist recalls. - Besides me, a quiet priest remained at the large window on the wide windowsill and darned his duckweed. The ruble played its role doubly: the separated one did not pick me up and send me to check-in, and then to work. Having talked with the priest, I asked him what seemed to be the most absurd question: did he know (in this crowd of thousands living on Solovki) Father Nikolai Piskanovsky. Shaking out his duckweed, the priest answered: “Piskanovsky?” It's me!"".
Even before arriving in Solovki, at the stage - on Popov Island, seeing an exhausted young man, one priest, a Ukrainian, lying next to him on a bunk, told him that on Solovki he would need to find Father Nikolai Piskanovsky - he would help. “I didn’t understand why exactly he would help and how,” recalled D.S. Likhachev. “I decided to myself that Father Nikolai probably occupied some important position. The most absurd assumption: a priest - and a “responsible position”! But everything turned out to be true and justified: the “position” consisted in respect for him from all the heads of the island, and Father Nikolai helped me for years<…>Unsettled himself, quiet, modest, he arranged my fate in the best possible way. Looking around, I realized that Father Nikolai and I were not alone. The sick were lying on the upper bunks, and from under the bunks hands reached out to us, asking for bread. And in these hands there was also the pointing finger of fate. Under the bunks lived the “lice” - teenagers who had lost all their clothes. They went into an “illegal position” - they didn’t go out for verification, didn’t receive food, lived under bunks so that they wouldn’t be forced out into the cold to do physical work, naked. They knew about their existence. They simply wiped them out, without giving them any rations of bread, soup, or porridge. They lived on handouts. We lived while we lived! And then they were taken out dead, put in a box and taken to the cemetery. These were unknown street children who were often punished for vagrancy and petty theft. How many of them were there in Russia! Children who lost their parents - killed, starved, driven abroad by the White Army<…>I felt so sorry for these “lice” that I walked around like a drunk—drunk with compassion. It was no longer a feeling, but something like an illness. And I am so grateful to fate that six months later I was able to help some of them.”
In the memoirs of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, such gratitude is repeatedly encountered. Like many Russian ascetics of faith and piety, he thanks not for being helped or served, but for the fact that he himself was honored to help and serve other people.
Father Nikolai introduced Dmitry Likhachev to Bishop Victor (Ostrovidov; 1875–1934). D.S. Likhachev wrote about this archpastor-confessor in his “Memoirs” in the “Clergy” section. There is also a photograph of Vladyka Victor in exile. Bishop Victor, according to the memoirs of D.S. Likhachev, in appearance looked like a simple rural priest, but he was very educated and had published works. Being a missionary in Saratov (1904) before becoming a bishop, he gave public lectures about “dissatisfied people” in the works of M. Gorky. Among his listeners was, for example, the Saratov governor P.A. Stolypin himself. “(Vladyka Victor) greeted everyone with a wide smile (I don’t remember him any other way),” recalled D.S. Likhachev. “Some kind of radiance of kindness and gaiety emanated from him. He tried to help everyone and, most importantly, he could help, since everyone treated him well and believed his words.”
Bishop Victor advised Dmitry Likhachev, appointed assistant veterinarian, “as soon as possible, by any means, to get out from under the tutelage of Komchebek-Voznyatsky” - the “veterinarian”, informer and adventurer. And soon the “veterinarian” himself was taken to another place. D.S. Likhachev also writes that Vladyka Victor took care of Mikhail Dmitrievich Priselkov (1881–1941), a professor at Petrograd (Leningrad) University, the author of many works on the history of Kievan Rus and ancient Russian chronicles. M.D. Priselkov refused to work at the Solovetsky Museum (there was such an institution in SLON), saying “I have already been imprisoned for studying history.” He was sent to a quarantine company, from where he was rescued by the entourage of Vladyka Victor and Dmitry Likhachev.
“Vladyka (Victor) died,” writes D.S. Likhachev, “soon after his “liberation” in exile in the Arkhangelsk region, where he was sent after the camp, in extreme poverty and torment.”
Vladyka Victor ended up in Solovki for “anti-Soviet agitation”; he was exiled to his last place of imprisonment (and his death) for “creating an anti-Soviet organization.” These are typical accusations for which a great many Orthodox clergy were repressed at that time. By the Bishops' Jubilee Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000, Vladyka Victor was canonized as the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Now you can read a large article about him in Volume VIII of the Orthodox Encyclopedia. There is a photograph and icon of this martyr. In the bibliography of the articles there is also an indication of “Memoirs” by D.S. Likhachev.
For Dmitry Likhachev, the “other bright man” on Solovki was the already mentioned father Nikolai Piskanovsky. “He could not be called cheerful,” recalls D.S. Likhachev, “but he always radiated inner calm in the most difficult circumstances. I don’t remember him laughing or smiling, but meeting him was always somehow comforting. And not only for me. I remember how he told my friend, who had been tormented for a year by the lack of letters from his relatives, that he should be patient a little, and that the letter would come soon, very soon. I was not present at this and therefore cannot quote here the exact words of Father Nikolai, but the letter arrived the next day. I asked Father Nikolai how he could know about the letter? And Father Nikolai answered me that he didn’t even know, but somehow “it was said.” But there were a lot of people like that. Father Nikolai had an antimension, and he subsequently celebrated the Liturgy in a whisper in the sixth (“priestly”) company.”
Dmitry Sergeevich wrote about Father Nikolai back on Solovki (in a secret diary): “he was our spiritual father all the time before his departure from the Island.” And then I wrote about the first meeting with him as a miraculous event: “I sat on the windowsill and peacefully mended my cassock, giving me a charge of extraordinary calm on the very first morning after arriving in Solovki: a miracle! [yes that’s how it was].”
Dmitry Likhachev walked his way of the cross on Solovki next to such people. Moreover, remembering Solovki and the White Sea-Baltic camp, he almost always talks about others, about their suffering, about their high spiritual dignity, and not about himself, not about his difficult trials. He mentions himself lightly, and even writes about evil people rather sparingly and restrainedly. But D.S. Likhachev is ready to talk endlessly about the spiritual beauty in the suffering of a person graciously shining with mercy and other virtues.
“What did I learn in Solovki? - Dmitry Sergeevich asks himself. - First of all, I realized that every person is a person. My life was saved by the “burglar” (apartment burglar) and the king of all lesson on Solovki, bandit Ivan Yakovlevich Komissarov, with whom I lived in the same cell for about a year. After hard physical labor and typhus, I worked as an employee of the Criminological Committee and organized a labor colony for teenagers - I looked for them all over the island, saved them from death, kept records of their stories about themselves... I came out of all this trouble with a new knowledge of life and with a new state of mind. The good that I managed to do for hundreds of teenagers, saving their lives, and many other people, the good received from the fellow prisoners themselves, the experience of everything I saw gave rise to some very deep-seated peace and mental health in me. I did not bring evil, did not approve of evil, managed to develop a keen sense of observation in myself, and was even able to carry out scientific work unnoticed. Perhaps it was precisely this scientific desire to observe that helped me survive, making me, as it were, an “outsider” to everything that happened to me.”
From the Solovetsky notes, preserved from 1928–1930:
“It was awkward to take off my shirt [wearing a gold cross; the doctors didn’t pay attention].”
D.S. Likhachev in a Romanov sheepskin sheepskin coat - a witness to the Solovetsky imprisonment. Photography from the 1990s.
Dmitry Sergeevich brought with him to Solovki “the lightest children’s duvet, which weighed almost nothing” (by the end of the 1920s, people already “knew what a prison, a stage, a camp was, and they knew how to equip those deported - what to give them on the road. It was necessary for the luggage to be light"). With difficulty covering himself with this small blanket, he recalled his childhood, warmed by prayer and parental love: “Lying under a child’s blanket is a feeling of home, family, parents’ cares and a child’s prayer at night: “Lord, have mercy on mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, Misha.” , nanny... And have mercy and save everyone.” Under the pillow, which I always cross at night, there is a small silver fold. A month later, the company commander found it and took it away from me: “It’s not allowed.” A word that is sickeningly familiar in camp life!”
7. One day from the Solovetsky life of Dmitry Sergeevich
It is necessary to tell a special story about one day in the life of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev on Solovki.
Visits with relatives on Solovki were usually allowed twice a year. In the late autumn of 1929, his parents, Sergei Mikhailovich and Vera Semyonovna, came to see Dmitry Likhachev on a date (for the second time). On the days allotted for the visit, the prisoner could live not in the company, but, for example, in the room of a civilian guard, rented by those who came for the visit. There was even a “photography” on the Island, where, with the permission of the camp authorities, you could take pictures with those visiting.
Periodically, “routine” arrests and executions were carried out in the camp. Their purpose, apparently, was twofold: firstly, to keep all prisoners in fear, and secondly, to make room for new parties of “enemies of the people.” They shot imaginary “rebels” and simply obstinate prisoners, often shooting on the basis of false denunciations and fictitious accusations. “Those executed without orders were written off as having died of disease.”
Just during the arrival of D.S. Likhachev’s parents, a wave of arrests and executions began. At the end of their stay on the Island, people from the company came to Dmitry Sergeevich in the evening and said: “They came for you!” “Everything was clear: they came to arrest me,” recalls D.S. Likhachev. “I told my parents that I was being called for urgent work and left: my first thought was: let them not arrest me in front of my parents.”
Then he went to one of the prisoners, Alexander Ivanovich Melnikov, who lived above the 6th company near the Filippovskaya Church, and received a strict reprimand from him: “If they came for you, there is no point in letting others down. You may be followed." And here is a further description of this terrible day in the life of Dmitry Sergeevich: “When I went out into the yard, I decided not to return to my parents, I went to the wood yard and shoved myself between the woodpiles. The firewood was long - for monastery stoves. I sat there until the crowd rushed to work, and then I got out, surprising no one. What I suffered there, hearing the shots of the executioners and looking at the stars of the sky (I didn’t see anything else all night)!
Since that terrible night there has been a revolution in me. I won’t say that everything happened at once. The coup took place over the next 24 hours and became increasingly stronger. The night was just a push.
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 have to live for two. So that the one who was taken for me would not be ashamed! There was something in me and remained in the future that the “boss” stubbornly did not like. At first I blamed everything on my student cap, but I continued to stubbornly wear it until Belbaltlag. Not “one of our own”, “class alien” - that’s clear. I returned to my parents that day calm. Soon an order was received to stop the prisoners from visiting their relatives.”
So Dmitry Sergeevich learned to perceive every day of his life as a new gift from God. Hence his surprisingly careful attitude towards time, towards his responsibilities, towards the people around him. Therefore, describing his trip to Solovki in 1966, Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev wrote: “My stay on Solovki was the most significant period of my life.” It was not for nothing that he perceived Solovki not as a camp, but as a holy place.
...And again the questions arise: “Why was D.S. Likhachev imprisoned? For the defense of old Russian spelling? For the ridiculous telegram supposedly sent from the Pope? For participation in the “Space Academy of Sciences”?”
Not only and, perhaps, not so much for this. His friends from the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov also ended up on Solovki. In his work “Russian Intelligentsia,” Dmitry Sergeevich recalls how he and his comrades listened to the verdict passed on them without trial: “It was in 1928, around the beginning of October. We were all summoned to the head of the prison regarding the case of the student circle “Space Academy of Sciences” and the Brotherhood of Seraphim of Sarov...” This means that the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov was also involved in the case, and not just the “Space Academy of Sciences”. And this is understandable for those years when any religious activity was perceived by the godless authorities as ideological sabotage.
Solovki remained in the heart of Dmitry Sergeevich for the rest of his life...
Having visited Solovki in 1966 (for the first time after his imprisonment), Dmitry Sergeevich walked a lot around the island “alone, remembering places, marveling at the changes that took place during the years of transformation of SLON into STON (Solovetsky Prison for Special Purposes). The traces of the MOAN were much worse than the traces of the ELEPHANT: there were even bars on the windows of buildings that were considered uninhabitable under the ELEPHANT.”
“I arrived in Solovki when the island was shrouded in thick fog. "Tataria" sounded its horn at regular intervals so as not to bump into any ship. Only when we came close to the pier did the building of the Administration of the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp become visible. I left Solovki in wonderful sunny weather. The entire length of the island was visible. I will not describe the feelings that overwhelmed me when I realized the enormity of this common grave - not only of people, each of whom had their own spiritual world, but also of Russian culture - the last representatives of the Russian “Silver Age” and the best representatives of the Russian Church. How many people did not leave any traces of themselves, because even those who remembered them died. And the Solovki residents did not rush off to the south, as was sung in the Solovetsky song, but for the most part died either here on the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago, or in the North in the deserted villages of the Arkhangelsk region and Siberia.”
Another - the last - visit of D.S. Likhachev to Solovki was associated with the filming of the film “I Remember”. The filming went well and the weather was wonderful. But in general, Solovki left a difficult impression on the scientist. “The Holy Gates of the Solovetsky Kremlin were demolished<…>houses grew up on the site of the Onufrievsky cemetery, including the blue house at the site of the 1929 executions<…>On Bolshoi Zayatsky Island, the Peter's Church lost its casing, torn off for fuel. Extreme destruction occurred to monuments on Anzer, in Muksalm, in Savvatiev...”
“Solovki the monastery, Solovki the camp, Solovki the prison retreated even more into the realm of oblivion. One monument for all the hundreds of graves, ditches, pits in which thousands of corpses are buried, opened after my last visit to Solovki, should, it seems to me, even more emphasize the depersonalization, oblivion, and erasure of the past.”
D.S. Likhachev mourns the lost monuments as if they were people who died without proper burial. And against oblivion, he reminds us of memory: “Memory, I repeat, is overcoming time, overcoming death. This is its greatest moral significance. “Unmemorable” is, first of all, an ungrateful, unscrupulous person, and therefore, to some extent, incapable of selfless actions. An indicator of culture is the attitude towards monuments. Remember Pushkin's lines:
Two feelings are wonderfully close to us,
The heart finds food in them:
Love for the native ashes,
Love for fathers' coffins.
Life-giving shrine!
The earth would be dead without them..."
The epigraph to the “Memoirs” published in 1997, Dmitry Sergeevich put the words of the funeral church prayer: “And create for them, Lord, eternal memory...”.
8. Blockade
On June 11, 1941, D.S. Likhachev successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on the Novgorod chronicles, and just eleven days later the war began.
Likhachev showed up at the recruiting station, but due to health reasons (which had been undermined in Solovki, where Likhachev developed a peptic ulcer), they refused to call him to the front and left him in Leningrad. Together with thousands of Leningraders, Dmitry Sergeevich and his family (wife Zinaida Aleksandrovna and four-year-old twin daughters Vera and Lyudmila) experienced the terrible hardships of the siege.
In his memoirs about the blockade, Dmitry Sergeevich writes: “During the famine, people showed themselves, exposed themselves, freed themselves from all sorts of tinsel: some turned out to be wonderful, unparalleled heroes, others - villains, scoundrels, murderers, cannibals. There was no middle ground. Everything was real. The heavens opened and God was visible in the heavens. The good ones saw him clearly. Miracles happened." Dmitry Sergeevich, as once in the camp, was ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. Of course, he does not emphasize this in his memoirs, but from the few slips of the tongue one can understand that at times he committed acts that required truly heroic self-sacrifice.
Here he supports the literary critic V.L. Komarovich, giving him his portion of bread, feeding him with crackers and a bar of glucose, here he walks at night through a deserted frosty city, risking falling and not getting up from exhaustion, in order to transfer a ticket for an evacuation plane to another of his colleague N.P. Andreev, now spends his last strength in order to drag the man who fell on its steps into the dining room. These and similar actions, in conditions where every extra effort brought one closer to death, and every extra crumb of bread gave hope of survival, were real self-sacrifice. “D.S. Likhachev, despite his dystrophy, showed his colleagues an example of perseverance,” said G.K. Wagner in his speech on the 90th anniversary of the scientist.
Likhachev was given the strength to gain such perseverance by faith and prayer. “In the morning we prayed, the children too,” he says about the “siege” way of life of his family. “When we walked along the street, we usually chose the side that was from the direction of the shelling - the western one, but during the shelling we did not hide. A German shot was clearly heard, and then, at the count of 11, an explosion. When I heard a burst, I always counted and, counting to 11, prayed for those who died from the burst.” On March 1, 1942, Dmitry Sergeevich’s father died of exhaustion. It was not possible to bury him in a separate grave. But before taking the body to the morgue on a children's sleigh, Dmitry Sergeevich and his family took him to the Vladimirovsky Cathedral to pray here during the funeral service. In the same church, fifty years later, the funeral service for Dmitry Sergeevich himself will take place. All night before the burial, students and staff will read the Psalter over his coffin standing here.
Work also gave me strength to persevere. Having survived the difficult winter of the siege, in the spring of 1942 Dmitry Sergeevich began to “collect material on medieval poetics.” “But this is unthinkable! - exclaims G. K. Wagner. “Extremely exhausted, always dreaming of delicious food, never able to warm up, wrapped in an unimaginable blanket, with trembling legs and ... thoughts about medieval poetics.” Moreover, Likhachev not only collected materials for future works, but also in April-May 1942, co-authored with M.A. Tikhanova, wrote an entire book - “Defense of Ancient Russian Cities.” The life and scientific path of D.S. Likhachev continues.
9. “Repressed Science”
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev is known throughout the world as a great scientist. His name has long been inscribed in golden letters in the history of Russian and world science. He wrote dozens of wonderful books, hundreds of wonderful articles and letters; The list of the scientist’s works exceeds a thousand titles. A dry list of scientific conferences and other scientific events in which he took part would require a separate publication. Academician D.S. Likhachev has done a fantastic amount in science. But he could have done immeasurably more. To properly assess his scientific feat, it should be taken into account that only after the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', which occurred in 1988, he could write almost freely, and in the last years of his life, quite openly about ancient Russian literature, about Russian history, about his native culture. And for entire decades (1940–70s) the great scientist wrote in secret...
To clarify this statement, I would like to cite an excerpt from the preface of the famous biblical scholar Anatoly Alekseevich Alekseev to the book by Sergei Averintsev “Another Rome”. Speaking about the scientific activity of Sergei Sergeevich Averintsev (1937–2004), A.A. Alekseev, using the example of medievalists, shows how the ideological supervision of the prevailing atheism in those years did not allow scientists to freely present the results of their research in publications. “Natural human and scientific interest in the Bible and religion was suppressed in those years, and public discussion of these issues was not allowed. However, medievalists, that is, historians of medieval writing and culture, could not ignore them in complete silence; in one form or another they won their place in the press. Sometimes it was enough to use new terminology for camouflage, calling, for example, the Church Slavonic language “ancient Slavic literary written language,” or the Gospel as a monument of “traditional content.” In another case, it was necessary to emphasize the social and even anti-church character of any source in order to justify its study: thus, the study of the culture, literature and even theological thought of the Old Believers was widely developed, since they constituted a “protest” group in the history of the Russian Church, despite the fact that it was unacceptable All that remained was to study the works of their opponents. Linguistic or linguostylistic study of any religious source made it possible to lightly touch on issues of biblical studies and theology, which is why in Slavic studies the study of biblical manuscripts as sources on the history of the language became widespread, since almost all the sources of its medieval period were church, liturgical or theological in content.”
Likewise, the monuments of ancient Russian literature and literature studied by Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, almost all were church, liturgical or theological in content. And in order to publish them in a scientific or educational publication, in those years it was necessary to call them with some kind of substitute words. So, for example, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lidia Petrovna Zhukovskaya (1920–1994), who wrote brilliant linguo-textological studies on the oldest manuscripts of liturgical Gospels in Rus' (Aprakos), in order to publish her works, had to call the Gospel “a monument” in the title of her research and books traditional content."
By using such terminological camouflage, real scientists did not sin against science, since any work found in ancient manuscripts can be called a literary monument. But a real philologist (as opposed to a poet or creator of literary prose) will not write only “on the table.” “On the table” he writes a diary, a memoir, as Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev probably did. And archaeographic descriptions, rediscovered texts of monuments and historical and philological developments must be introduced into scientific circulation and published by the scientist. Without this, there is no progressive development of philological science.
Therefore, until the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', Russian scientists, historians and philologists had to write secretly. Figuratively speaking, Russian science itself was repressed throughout the entire era of 70 years of atheistic captivity. This does not mean that learned people could not think or create. They both thought and created. Great scientists worked in the “sharashkas” described by A.I. Solzhenitsyn. The encyclopedic priest Pavel Florensky worked in concentration camps. As far as possible, Dmitry Likhachev did not abandon his scientific studies in Solovki.
Due to opposition from party bodies, he was not allowed to teach, although there were invitations. Only in 1946 did Likhachev manage to get a job at the history department of Leningrad State University, from which already in 1953 he was “survived” by overly zealous party leaders. But even during these six years, Likhachev managed to win the love and respect of students. Dmitry Sergeevich gave lectures on ancient Russian culture and ancient Russian chronicles, captivating his listeners with the world of Ancient Rus' at a time when the very pursuit of medieval studies looked like something ideologically unreliable, like “a retreat into the past.” With his very personality, with his life, he pointed out where the spiritual sources of the great Russian culture were. One of the then students of D.S. Likhachev, M.P. Sotnikova (now a Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading specialist in the numismatics department of the State Hermitage), recalls how in 1952 Dmitry Sergeevich went with students to Novgorod, which was still in post-war ruins. They also stopped in Khutyn - a village near Novgorod, in which the Khutyn Monastery is located, founded by St. Varlaam of Khutyn in the 12th century. “The lecture-excursion conducted by Dmitry Sergeevich among the ruins of the Khutyn Monastery made an amazing and indelible impression on the audience,” recalls M.P. Sotnikova. “Dmitry Sergeevich spoke about the miracles of St. Varlaam as historically reliable facts, that is, as only he could speak believer. For his young companions this was an astonishing discovery. The university graduates realized in hindsight that students were attracted to Dmitry Sergeevich’s lectures and seminars not only by the desire to learn from a scientist who knew the subject perfectly and was a paradoxical thinker. There was also an unconscious desire for spiritual communication with a person, special in that he lived as a Christian, which we, however, did not suspect then and could not understand. To his students, who grew up in the Pioneer and Komsomol, if not atheists, then certainly thoughtless atheists, Dmitry Sergeevich instilled the necessary need to think about human dignity, the meaning of life, God and turn to the Gospel. For me this was D.S.’s task. for the rest of my life."
The period of the so-called “thaw” almost completely coincided with Khrushchev’s violent persecution of the Orthodox faith, the Russian Church. The year of his inglorious excommunication from governing the country (1964) was marked by the creation of the Institute of Scientific Atheism at the Academy of Social Sciences (under the Central Committee of the CPSU). And this so-called “scientific atheism” kept a vigilant eye so that somewhere under the guise of science nothing religious would seep into the life of the Soviet people.
Even for the publication in 1972 of a collection of biographies of the saints of the Ancient Church (under the title “Byzantine Legends”), Dmitry Sergeevich was “called on the carpet” and received a reprimand from a high-ranking cultural leader for deception - for what he published under the title “legends” in scientific publication of the lives of the saints! Isn’t this proof “by contradiction” that the lives of saints are not legends (in the sense of fiction), but very important monuments of the Christian faith, life and world literature?! The reason for the “destruction” was the following incident. The aforementioned boss, heading to work in the morning and driving a company car along a wide avenue of the northern capital, suddenly saw a line. Queues at that time (1972) were a common occurrence: as soon as some store “gave” something (another interesting term is “thrown away”!), a line immediately formed. Sometimes experienced people knew in advance, in the evening, that in the morning they would “give” something in that particular store. (And those who wanted to subscribe to the Complete Works of F.M. Dostoevsky signed up several days in advance and were on duty at bookstores at night so as not to miss the subscription).
The line, which the sharp-eyed guardian of Soviet ideology saw, had a long tail just outside the famous bookstore. Arriving at work, he immediately called his subordinates and found out that the people were behind the Byzantine Legends. What are “Byzantine Legends”? These are the lives of the saints! There is a terrible ideological sabotage. And he, as the one in power, called the great scientist “on the carpet” and reprimanded him for “deceiving” Soviet science.
Dmitry Sergeevich recalled this episode of his life with irony: the main thing for him was that the book, despite all the ideological obstacles, was nevertheless published and his compatriots would be able to read in good texts the lives of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Rev. Mary of Egypt and other “Byzantine” saints. Having gone through the Solovetsky camp and having experienced many other sorrows, D.S. Likhachev was not at all afraid to say and write what he thought. But over decades of vigilant atheistic supervision of Soviet science, he learned well what Soviet censorship was, that not everything that a scientist could write would be published. And therefore, for decades (!), he put his deepest research into a verbal form acceptable for publication, without bending his conscience at all.
Speaking about Academician Likhachev as the world's largest specialist in Ancient Russian literature, I would like to once again recall his words already quoted above about how he developed a desire to study the literature and culture of Ancient Rus'.
“The wider the persecution of the Church developed and the more numerous the executions became at Gorokhovaya Two, in Peter and Paul, on Krestovy Island, in Strelna, etc., the more acutely we all felt pity for the perishing Russia. Our love for the Motherland was least of all like pride in the Motherland, its victories and conquests. Now this is difficult for many to understand. We didn't sing patriotic songs - we cried and prayed. With this feeling of pity and sadness, I began to study ancient Russian literature and ancient Russian art at the university in 1923. I wanted to keep Russia in my memory, just as children sitting at her bedside want to keep in their memory the image of a dying mother, collect her images, show them to friends, talk about the greatness of her martyr’s life. My books are, in essence, memorial notes that are given “for the repose of the dead”: you can’t remember everyone when you write them - you write down the most dear names, and such were for me precisely in Ancient Rus'.”
This means that writing books on Russian literature and culture was for him service to God, service to Russia, service to his people. And this did not hinder, but helped him to love the whole world of God, respect all people, treat with respect the people of another nation, their culture.
Answering the questions “How did ancient Russian literature arise? Where did she get her creative strength from?” Dmitry Sergeevich argued that “the appearance of Russian literature at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century was like a miracle! Before us, as it were, immediately are works of literature that are mature and perfect, complex and deep in content, testifying to a developed national and historical self-awareness.”
Speaking “about the ideal by which Ancient Rus' lived,” Dmitry Sergeevich wrote that “now that we have perceived Europe as our own, which turned out to be a “window into Ancient Rus'” for us, which we look at as strangers from the outside, it is all the more clear to us that in Ancient Rus' there existed a unique and great culture.” It is not difficult to notice the bitter irony of the scientist here. He seems to be saying: having opened a window to Europe, we perceived it as our own, simultaneously losing a lot of our native, original spirituality and culture; but if we imagine ourselves as Europeans and already look at our native culture as strangers from outside, then let at least European culture be for us a “window into Ancient Rus'”! After all, for decades, Soviet scientists received scientific descriptions of monuments of Russian literature and culture (and photocopies of the best pre-revolutionary descriptions) from abroad, for example from the GDR. Here is your “window to Ancient Rus'”.
Academician D.S. Likhachev writes: “In the past, we got used to thinking about the culture of Ancient Rus' as backward<…>If we proceed from modern ideas about the height of culture, there were indeed signs of backwardness in Ancient Rus', but, as unexpectedly discovered in the 20th century, they were combined in Ancient Rus' with values of the highest order - in architecture, icon painting and mural painting, in decorative arts, in sewing, and now it has become even clearer: both in ancient Russian choral music and in ancient Russian literature.”
A deep understanding of the Orthodox enlightenment of Rus', which began under Princess Olga - “the day before the sun”, “the dawn before the light” - and accomplished under Prince Vladimir - the “Red Sun”, allowed Dmitry Sergeevich to create the invaluable publication “The Tale of Bygone Years” (1950 ed. ., 2nd ed. - 1996). And for a long time he called the hypothetical “The Tale of the Initial Spread of Christianity in Rus',” which he reconstructed on the basis of the text of “The Tale of Bygone Years,” the first work of Russian literature. The scientist also loved to analyze the “Philosopher’s Speech” from “The Tale of Bygone Years.” This “Speech” is the oldest description of world history in Rus'.
In order to more clearly imagine the moral ideals of Ancient Rus', Dmitry Sergeevich points to the collection of soul-helping teachings “Izmaragd” and writes that “a huge role in the creation of these ideals belongs to the literature of the hesychasts, the ideas of leaving the world, self-denial, removal from everyday worries, which helped Russian people endure its deprivation, look at the world and act with love and kindness towards people, turning away from all violence.”
In the book “Great Rus'”, published with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' and printed in Italy in 1994, Dmitry Sergeevich wrote the first part - “Literature of Rus' XI - early XIII centuries”, where an excellent analysis of such outstanding monuments is given Orthodox culture of Ancient Rus', such as the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion, the works of Prince Vladimir Monomakh, “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”, “Kievo-Pechersk Patericon”, “The Walk of Abbot Daniel”, “The Prayer of Daniel the Zatochnik” and other famous monuments of ancient Russian church literature.
Dmitry Sergeevich wrote about all these works of ancient Russian literature many times, throughout his multi-creative life. But in the book “Great Rus',” which was published five years before the death of the great scientist, he was able to speak about these works of ancient Russian writers completely freely, using all the religious terminology he needed.
As in the book “Great Rus'”, in the articles of recent years published in the book “Russian Culture” (posthumous edition of 2000), one can find whole scatterings of his statements about the Orthodox culture of Russia. It is not for nothing that the publishers of “Russian Culture” placed on the book’s dust jacket a fragment of an ancient Russian icon depicting the consecration (dedication, the most reverent moment of Orthodox worship) of St. Demetrius of Prilutsky (†1392), whose name was Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev.
Perhaps his favorite reading from ancient Russian literature was the instructions of Vladimir Monomakh, collected under the title “Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh.” Pathetic excerpts from this amazing monument were published in anthologies on ancient Russian literature. Moreover, verse quotes from the Psalter were cut out. And the teachings of Vladimir Monomakh are generally based on the Psalter, and the reason for their writing was that Prince Vladimir Monomakh opened the Psalter and wrote what he wrote!
Dmitry Sergeevich was especially struck and surprised by Monomakh’s letter to the famous Oleg Svyatoslavich (“Gorislavich,” as the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” calls him, for the grief that he brought with his fratricidal wars to the Russian land). Monomakh writes a letter to the murderer of his son. And the murdered man was Oleg’s godson. Maybe he sets some conditions or demands to confess? "No! - writes D.S. Likhachev. - Monomakh’s letter is amazing. I do not know anything in world history similar to this letter from Monomakh. Monomakh forgives the murderer of his son. Moreover, he consoles him. He invites him to return to the Russian land and receive the principality due to inheritance, asks him to forget the grievances.”
“The letter was written with amazing sincerity, sincerity and at the same time with great dignity. This is the dignity of a person who is aware of his enormous moral strength. Monomakh feels himself above the pettiness and vanity of politics. Monomakh’s Letter should take one of the first places in the history of human Conscience, if only this History of Conscience is ever written.”
It was not for nothing that Dmitry Sergeevich was called the conscience of the nation.
To better understand the spiritual world and spiritual path of Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, it is also good to read his “Letters about the Good and the Beautiful,” published in 1985 and 1988.
In letter 25, “At the behest of conscience,” he writes: “The best behavior is that which is determined not by external recommendations, but by spiritual necessity. Mental necessity is, perhaps, especially good when it is unaccountable. You need to do the right thing, without thinking, without thinking for a long time. The unaccountable spiritual need to do well, to do good to people is the most valuable thing in a person.”
And in the 7th letter, “What unites people?” D.S. Likhachev reveals the content of morality: “Morality is characterized to the highest degree by a feeling of compassion. In compassion there is the consciousness of one’s unity with humanity and the world (not only people, nations, but also with animals, plants, nature, etc.). A feeling of compassion (or something close to it) makes us fight for cultural monuments, for their preservation, for nature, individual landscapes, for respect for memory. In compassion there is a consciousness of one’s unity with other people, with a nation, people, country, universe. That is why the forgotten concept of suffering requires its full revival and development.”
The book “Russian Culture”, published shortly after the death of academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, contains a number of his last articles, as well as the texts of some works of previous years, which were previously published in abbreviations in collections of his works published during his lifetime.
The book “Russian Culture” can be perceived as the scientist’s testament to his people, especially to the younger generation of Russia. This book contains many valuable words about young people and for young people.
The first article in this book is called “Culture and Conscience.” The second is “Culture as a holistic environment.” It is difficult to quote from these small works. It would be better to read them in their entirety. Faith, conscience, morality, culture and life appear in them in a convincing unity.
“The guardian of a person’s freedom is his conscience.”
“If a person believes that he is free, does this mean that he can do whatever he pleases? Of course not. And not because someone from the outside imposes prohibitions on him, but because a person’s actions are often dictated by selfish motives. The latter are incompatible with free decision-making.”
10. Holy Rus'
Dmitry Sergeevich's culture was coupled with holiness. Defending culture, he defended the shrines of his native land.
“Culture is what largely justifies before God the existence of a people and a nation.”
“Culture is the shrines of the people, the shrines of the nation.
What, in fact, is the old and already somewhat hackneyed, worn-out (mainly from arbitrary use) concept of “Holy Rus'”? This, of course, is not just the history of our country with all its inherent temptations and sins, but the religious values of Russia: churches, icons, holy places, places of worship and places associated with historical memory.”
In 1992, the Russian Orthodox Church solemnly celebrated the 600th anniversary of the repose of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The Moskovsky Rabochiy publishing house published a wonderful book, “Biographies of Memorable People of the Russian Land (X-XX Centuries).” These are the lives of saints, only not “Byzantine” ones, but those who shone in the Russian land. The beautiful texts of the lives (with scientific commentaries at the end of the book) are preceded by two prefaces: one by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', and the other by Academician D.S. Likhachev. His preface is called “Holy Rus'”. To any person who doubts the Orthodox confession of Dmitry Sergeevich, pointing to this hagiographic miniature, one can say, “Come and see!”
Here is the beginning of this amazing hagiographic title.
“How often in pre-revolutionary Russia one had to hear the words “Holy Rus'”. They were said when they were walking or driving or sailing on a pilgrimage, and this was done often: they went to venerate the image, relics, or simply went to a holy place. They were also remembered when, having heard bad news from the front or news of crop shortages or natural disasters, they prayed and believed: “God will not allow the destruction of Holy Rus'.”
What is Holy Rus'? This is not at all the same as Russia; this is not the whole country as a whole with everything sinful and base that has always been in it. “Holy Rus'” is, first of all, the shrines of the Russian Land in their conciliarity, in their entirety. These are its monasteries, churches, priesthood, relics, icons, sacred vessels, righteous people, holy events in the history of Rus'. All this seemed to be united into the concept of “Holy Rus'”, freed from everything sinful, and stood out as something unearthly and purified.”
But with what love Dmitry Sergeevich wrote about Orthodox Russian churches. In “Notes on the Russian,” he wrote that the banal descriptions of the Novgorod and Pskov churches as filled only with strength and power do not seem correct to him. “The hands of the builders seemed to have sculpted them, and did not “stretch” them with bricks and did not hew out their walls. They placed them on the hills - where it was more visible, they allowed them to look into the depths of rivers and lakes, and warmly greet “swimming and traveling people.”
Moscow churches are not the opposite of these simple and cheerful buildings. “Motley and asymmetrical, like flowering bushes, golden-headed and friendly, they are placed as if jokingly, with a smile, and sometimes with the gentle mischief of a grandmother giving her grandchildren a joyful toy. It is not for nothing that in ancient monuments, when praising churches, they said: “Temples are having fun.” And this is wonderful: all Russian churches are cheerful gifts to people, their favorite street, their favorite village, their favorite river or lake. And like any gifts made with love, they are unexpected: they suddenly appear among forests and fields, at the bend of a river or road.”
Dmitry Sergeevich drew well. In 1999, exactly a week after his death, his “Novgorod Album” was published. Ninety percent of the drawings in this album are images of temples and monasteries of Veliky Novgorod. The drawings were made by the scientist in the summer of 1937. To the question: “Dmitry Sergeevich, did you like to draw so much?”, he answered: “No, I just didn’t have the opportunity to buy a camera then.” In his album, Novgorod churches are also “having fun.”
Dmitry Sergeevich not only wrote scientific-historical works and articles about Orthodox Russian churches and monasteries, but also defended them from ruin many times. He most often (among prominent figures of science and culture) petitioned for the return of shrines to the Russian Orthodox Church.
His signature is under the petition letter of outstanding figures of Russian science and culture for the return of Optina Pustyn to the Russian Orthodox Church. This letter was sent to the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Gorbachev in 1987, on the eve of the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus'. On November 17, 1987, Optina Pustyn was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Petitions to high authorities about Orthodox churches and other architectural monuments of Russia brought Dmitry Sergeevich a lot of grief. In the book “Memoirs”, at the end of the chapter “Elaborations”, Dmitry Sergeevich writes: “I will not tell everything that I had to experience while protecting the Traveling Palace on Srednyaya Rogatka, the church on Sennaya, the church on Murin, and Tsarskogo Park from deforestation. Villages, from the “reconstructions” of Nevsky Prospekt, from the sewage of the Gulf of Finland, etc. and so on. It’s enough to look at the list of my articles to understand how much effort and time the struggle for the purity of Russian culture took away from my science.”
“Culture,” wrote Dmitry Sergeevich, “is a huge holistic phenomenon that makes people inhabiting a certain space from just the population into a people, a nation. The concept of culture should and always has included religion, science, education, moral and moral norms of behavior of people and the state.”
11. About the religious education of children
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev wrote a lot for children and youth. Wanting to pass on the basics of spiritual and moral education to the younger generation, he wrote and published letters about good things, and compiled moral commandments based on the Gospel of Christ.
Here are some of them.
1. Love people - both near and far.
2. Do good without seeing any merit in it.
3. Love the world in yourself, not yourself in the world.
12. Be sincere: by misleading others, you yourself are deceived.
14. Learn to read with interest, with pleasure and slowly; Reading is the path to worldly wisdom, don’t disdain it!
22. Be conscientious: all morality is in conscience.
23. Honor the past, create the present, believe in the future.
In total, D.S. Likhachev wrote 25 such moral commandments.
Let us dwell on one of the commandments in more detail. This is his 17th commandment: “Be a believer - faith enriches the soul and strengthens the spirit.”
In Russia, several generations were brought up in atheism. First, militant atheism, and now secular (anti-religious) humanism developed and largely introduced into the consciousness of Soviet people the assertion that a child should not be raised in a religious tradition. He is still small! Let him grow up and then make his worldview choice.
Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev views this problem quite differently. He's writing:
“They are brought up in a religious spirit from childhood. Doesn't this restrict people's freedom to choose religion, freedom in general? No, because it is easier to give up religion than to join a large family of believers<…>By raising children in the precepts of a particular religion or creed, we make them more free in choosing their faith than when we give them a non-religious education, because the absence of something always impoverishes a person, and it is easier to give up wealth than to acquire it. Religion is precisely wealth. Religion enriches the understanding of the world, allows the believer to feel the significance of everything that happens, comprehend human life, and constitutes the most convincing basis of morality. Without religion, there always remains the temptation of selfishness, the temptation of isolation in one’s own personal interests.”
Speaking about school education, Dmitry Sergeevich also attached the most important importance to spiritual and moral education. “Secondary school should educate a person capable of mastering a new profession, be sufficiently capable of various professions and, above all, be moral. For the moral basis is the main thing that determines the viability of society: economic, state, creative. Without a moral basis, the laws of the economy and the state do not apply, decrees are not implemented, and it is impossible to stop corruption, bribery, and any kind of fraud. Without morality, the development of any science is impossible, because it is extremely difficult to verify experiments, calculations, references to sources, etc. People are educated: directly by religion, and in a more complex way - music (especially, I would say, choral singing), literature, art, studying logic, psychology, learning languages (even if they will not have to be used in life in the future).”
For many years, the ideologists of godless education of children in the USSR instilled in our people that religion is the opium of the people. While children were so zealously separated from the Church, real opium penetrated to children and youth. Those who now actively oppose religious education and upbringing are less afraid of drugs than of the Orthodox faith and culture. Academician D.S. Likhachev was convinced that children should be raised in a religious spirit from childhood.
12. About religion, about Orthodoxy
Academician D.S. Likhachev did not publicly discuss his religious feelings, he rarely wrote, but he firmly preserved his faith. In his notes “On Life and Death,” he wrote this: “Religion either occupies the main place in a person’s life, or he does not have it at all. You cannot believe in God “in passing,” “by the way,” recognize God as a postulate and remember Him only when asked.”
Speaking about Orthodox Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian, and most often Russian culture, academician D.S. Likhachev most often called Orthodox culture Christian culture, and Orthodoxy - Christianity, emphasizing the universal (worldwide) significance of Orthodoxy.
“What is the most important thing for me personally in Orthodoxy?” asked the great scientist. “The Orthodox (as opposed to the Catholic) teaching about the trinity of God. Christian understanding of God-manhood and the Passion of Christ (otherwise there would be no justification of God) (by the way, the salvation of humanity by Christ was inherent in the transtemporal essence of humanity). What is important to me in Orthodoxy is the very antiquity of the ritual side of the Church, traditionalism, which is gradually being abolished even in Catholicism. Ecumenism carries with it the danger of indifference to faith.”
These words testify to how well Dmitry Sergeevich knew Orthodox dogma and how much he valued holy Orthodoxy. A deep Christian faith filled his soul and heart with love for his native Orthodox culture. In 1988, he glorified Russian culture at the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' in his beloved city - Veliky Novgorod. He collaborated with the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. Once, while in Moscow on the day of memory of his mother, he fervently prayed for her in the Church of St. Joseph of Volotsk Publishing Department.
When Dmitry Sergeevich turned 90 in 1996, Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga congratulated him. The Bishop presented the icon of the Mother of God as a gift to the hero of the day, Dmitry Sergeevich reverently crossed himself and, like any Orthodox Christian, kissed the image of the Mother of God. And by the way he crossed himself and how he venerated the icon, it was clear that he always prayed, prayed throughout his long and difficult life. The whole country could see it on television.
And soon a note on the occasion of the anniversary appeared in the Izvestia newspaper (November 30, 1996): “The Time of Academician Likhachev.” In the note, in particular, there is the following evidence: “By the way, he was a believer, always, in Soviet times too.” Yes, indeed, Dmitry Sergeevich has always been a believer and in faith he drew strength for science, for saving cultural monuments, for helping people.
He did not separate science and culture from the Christian faith, from the Orthodox Church, just as he did not separate life from conscience, morality and spirituality. It was the organic combination of faith and knowledge, religion and culture, love for Russia and sincere respect for all peoples and people that helped him not only preserve a huge part of the Russian cultural and historical heritage, but also become a spiritual and moral guide for his fellow citizens.
Dmitry Sergeevich has countless government and other awards and honorary titles. But some need to be mentioned. In 1996 (on his 90th birthday), he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree. In 1998, for his great contribution to the development of national culture, he became the first holder of the newly established (that is, restored) Order of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called “For Faith and Fidelity to the Fatherland.” Now it is the highest order of Russia.
The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria twice (1963 and 1977) awarded Dmitry Sergeevich the Order of Saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius, 1st degree.
Dmitry Sergeevich left us his books, articles, letters and memories. And his literary legacy will remain the best testimony of his faith, hope and love. Just as he departed to the Lord on precisely the day of remembrance of the holy martyrs Faith, Nadezhda, Lyubov and Sophia. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 1:7). He kept this reverent feeling all his life, and the Lord gifted him with great wisdom.
When the scientific publication of the complete collection of works of Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev is carried out, then his spiritual and creative path will be revealed with even greater breadth and clarity.
Instead of a conclusion
In the newspaper “Izvestia” dated August 2, 2006, p. 6 printed a rather cynical note “Why I liked Vlad.” Subtitle: “Read in The Guardian.” That is, Izvestia reprinted an article from the specified foreign newspaper. The author of the note is Nick Peyton Walsh, who worked as a Guardian correspondent in Moscow for 4.5 years. The sarcastic and vulgar expressions of the author of the note are not subject to comment - let them remain on his conscience. But this internationally mocking publication contains a summary, which the cheerful journalist Nick tells us through Izvestia:
“Trade, not politics, will bring Russia back to normal. Russians have irrevocably fallen in love with what is called “denhgi”. They fell in love with mobility and the benefits that a global world provides.”
So, we were not only counted, but also appreciated...
The great son of Russia, whose spiritual path of life we tried to trace, did not live to see August 2, 2006. But how would Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev react to such an assessment from the outside?
Archpriest Boris Pivovarov,
Master of Theology, teacher of the highest qualification category
(November 28, 1906, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire - September 30, 1999, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation)
en.wikipedia.org
Biography
Youth
Father - Sergei Mikhailovich Likhachev, electrical engineer, mother - Vera Semyonovna Likhacheva, nee Konyaeva.
From 1914 to 1916 he studied at the gymnasium of the Imperial Philanthropic Society, from 1916 to 1920 at the K.I. May Real School, then until 1923 at the Soviet Unified Labor School named after. L. D. Lentovskaya (now it is secondary school No. 47 named after D. S. Likhachev). Until 1928, a student of the Romano-Germanic and Slavic-Russian section of the Department of Linguistics and Literature, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leningrad State University.
On February 8, 1928, he was arrested for participating in the student circle “Space Academy of Sciences,” where shortly before his arrest he made a report on the old Russian spelling, “trampled and distorted by the enemy of the Church of Christ and the Russian people”; sentenced to 5 years for counter-revolutionary activities. Until November 1931 he was a political prisoner in the Solovetsky special purpose camp.
1931
- In November he was transferred from the Solovetsky camp to Belbaltlag, worked on the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal.
1932, August 8
- Released from prison early and without restrictions as a drummer. Returned to Leningrad.
1932-1933
- Literary editor of Sotsekgiz (Leningrad).
1933-1934
- Proofreader for foreign languages at the Comintern printing house (Leningrad).
1934-1938
- Scientific proofreader, literary editor, editor of the Department of Social Sciences of the Leningrad Branch of the Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1935
- Married Zinaida Aleksandrovna Makarova.
- Publication of the article “Features of primitive primitivism of thieves’ speech” in the collection of the Institute of Language and Thought named after. N. Ya. Marra “Language and Thinking.”
1936
- On July 27, at the request of the President of the Academy of Sciences A.P. Karpinsky, the criminal record was expunged by a resolution of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.
1937
- Twin daughters Vera and Lyudmila Likhachev were born.
1938-1954
- Junior, since 1941 - senior researcher at the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the USSR Academy of Sciences (IRLI AS USSR).
autumn 1941 - spring 1942
- I was with my family in besieged Leningrad.
- Publication of the first book “Defense of Old Russian Cities” (1942), written jointly. with M. A. Tikhanova.
1941
- Defended his dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences on the topic: “Novgorod chronicles of the 12th century.”
June 1942
- Together with his family, he was evacuated along the Road of Life from besieged Leningrad to Kazan.
1942
- Awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”.
1942
- Father Sergei Mikhailovich Likhachev died in besieged Leningrad.
Scientific maturity
1945
- Publication of the books “National Identity of Ancient Rus'. Essays from the field of Russian literature of the 11th-17th centuries.” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1945. 120 p. (phototype reprint book: The Hugue, 1969) and “Novgorod the Great: Essay on the cultural history of Novgorod 11-17 centuries.” L., Gospolitizdat. 1945. 104 p. 10 t.e. (reprint: M., Sov. Russia. 1959.102 p.).
1946
- Awarded the medal “For valiant labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
- Publication of the book “Culture of Rus' during the era of the formation of the Russian national state. (End of the 14th – beginning of the 16th century).” M., Gospolitizdat. 1946. 160 p. 30 t.e. (phototype reprint of the book: The Hugue, 1967).
1946-1953
- Associate Professor, since 1951 Professor at Leningrad State University. At the Faculty of History of Leningrad State University he taught special courses “History of Russian Chronicles”, “Paleography”, “History of the Culture of Ancient Rus'”, etc.
1947
- Defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philology on the topic: “Essays on the history of literary forms of chronicle writing of the 11th-16th centuries.”
- Publication of the book “Russian Chronicles and Their Cultural and Historical Significance” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1947. 499 p. 5 t.e. (phototype reprint of the book: The Hugue, 1966).
1948-1999
- Member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1950
- Publication of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in the “Literary Monuments” series with translation and comments by D. S. Likhachev.
- Publication of “The Tale of Bygone Years” in the “Literary Monuments” series with translation (jointly with B. A. Romanov) and comments by D. S. Likhachev (reprinted: St. Petersburg, 1996).
- Publication of the articles “Historical and political outlook of the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”” and “Oral origins of the artistic system of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”.”
- Publication of the book: “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: Historical and literary essay. (NPS). M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1950. 164 p. 20 t.e. 2nd ed., add. M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1955. 152 p. 20 t.e.
1951
- Confirmed with the rank of professor.
- Publication of the article “Literature of the XI-XIII centuries.” in the collective work “The History of Culture of Ancient Rus'”. (Volume 2. Pre-Mongol period), which received the USSR State Prize.
1952
- Awarded the Stalin Prize of the second degree for the collective scientific work “History of the Culture of Ancient Rus'. T. 2".
- Publication of the book “The Emergence of Russian Literature.” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1952. 240 p. 5 t.e.
1952-1991
- Member, since 1971 - Chairman of the Editorial Board of the USSR Academy of Sciences series “Literary Monuments”.
1953
- Elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
- Publication of the articles “Folk poetic creativity during the heyday of the ancient Russian early feudal state (X-XI centuries)” and “Folk poetic creativity during the years of feudal fragmentation of Rus' - before the Tatar-Mongol invasion (XII-early XIII centuries)” in the collective work “Russian folk poetry."
1954
- Awarded the Prize of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences for the work “The Emergence of Russian Literature.”
- Awarded the medal “For Labor Valor”.
1954-1999
- Head of the Sector, since 1986 - Department of Old Russian Literature of the Institute of Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1955
- First speech in the press in defense of ancient monuments (“Literaturnaya Gazeta”, January 15, 1955).
1955-1999
- Member of the Bureau of the Department of Literature and Language of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1956-1999
- Member of the Union of Writers of the USSR (Criticism Section), since 1992 - member of the Union of Writers of St. Petersburg.
- Member of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1974 - member of the Bureau of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1958
- First trip abroad - sent to Bulgaria to work in manuscript repositories.
- Participated in the work of the IV International Congress of Slavists (Moscow), where he was chairman of the subsection of ancient Slavic literatures. A report was made “Some tasks of studying the second South Slavic influence in Russia.”
- Publication of the book “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1958. 186 p. 3 t.e. (reprint: M., 1970; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 vols. T. 3. L., 1987) and the brochure “Some problems of studying the second South Slavic influence in Russia.” M., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1958. 67 p. 1 t.e.
1958-1973
- Deputy Chairman of the permanent Editorial and Textual Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
1959
- Member of the Academic Council of the Museum of Ancient Russian Art named after. Andrey Rublev.
1959
- Granddaughter Vera was born, daughter of Lyudmila Dmitrievna (from her marriage to Sergei Zilitinkevich, a physicist).
1960
- Participated in the I International Conference on Poetics (Poland).
1960-1966
- Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad branch of the Soviet-Bulgarian Friendship Society.
1960-1999
- Member of the Academic Council of the State Russian Museum.
- Member of the Soviet (Russian) Committee of Slavists.
1961
- Participated in the II International Conference on Poetics (Poland).
- Since 1961, member of the editorial board of the journal “Izvestia of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Department of Literature and Language".
- Publication of books: “Culture of the Russian people 10-17 centuries.” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1961. 120 p. 8 t.e. (2nd ed.) M.-L., 1977. and “The Lay of Igor’s Campaign” - the heroic prologue of Russian literature.” M.-L., Goslitizdat. 1961. 134 p. 30 t.e. 2nd ed. L.,HL.1967.119 p.200 t.e.
1961-1962
- Deputy of the Leningrad City Council of Workers' Deputies.
1962
- Trip to Poland for a meeting of the permanent Editorial and Textual Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
- Publication of the books “Textology: Based on Russian literature of the 10th - 17th centuries.” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1962. 605 p. 2500 e. (reprint: Leningrad, 1983; St. Petersburg, 2001) and “Culture of Rus' during the time of Andrei Rublev and Epiphanius the Wise (late XIV - early XV centuries)” M.-L., Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences. 1962. 172 p. 30 t.e. (republished: Likhachev D.S. Thoughts about Russia. St. Petersburg, 1999).
1963
- Elected as a foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
- The Presidium of the People's Assembly of the People's Republic of Bulgaria awarded the Order of Cyril and Methodius, 1st degree.
- Participated in the V International Congress of Slavists (Sofia).
- Sent to Austria to give lectures.
1963-1969
- Member of the Artistic Council of the Second Creative Association of Lenfilm.
1963
- Since 1963, member of the editorial board of the USSR Academy of Sciences series “Popular Science Literature”.
1964
- Awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun (Poland).
- Trip to Hungary to read reports at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
- Trip to Yugoslavia to participate in a symposium dedicated to the study of the work of Vuk Karadzic, and to work in manuscript repositories.
1965
- Trip to Poland to give lectures and reports.
- Trip to Czechoslovakia for a meeting of the permanent Editorial and Textual Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
- Trip to Denmark to the South-North Symposium, organized by UNESCO.
1965-1966
- Member of the Organizing Committee of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.
1965-1975
- Member of the Commission for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR.
1966
- Awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor for services to the development of Soviet philological science and in connection with the 60th anniversary of his birth.
- Trip to Bulgaria for scientific work.
- Trip to Germany for a meeting of the permanent Editorial and Textual Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
1966
- Granddaughter Zina was born, daughter of Vera Dmitrievna (from her marriage to Yuri Kurbatov, an architect).
1967
- Elected honorary doctor of the University of Oxford (Great Britain).
- Trip to the UK to give lectures.
- Participated in the General Assembly and scientific symposium of the Council for History and Philosophy of UNESCO (Romania).
- Publication of the book “Poetics of Old Russian Literature” L., Science. 1967. 372 p. 5200 e., awarded the State Prize of the USSR (republished: Leningrad, 1971; Moscow, 1979; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 volumes. T. 1. Leningrad, 1987)
- Member of the Council of the Leningrad city branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.
- Member of the Central Council, since 1982 - member of the Presidium of the Central Council of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments.
1967-1986
- Member of the Academic Council of the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of History of the USSR of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1968
- Elected corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
- Participated in the VI International Congress of Slavists (Prague). I read the report “Ancient Slavic Literatures as a System.”
1969
- Awarded the USSR State Prize for the scientific work “Poetics of Old Russian Literature.”
- Participated in a conference on epic poetry (Italy).
1969
- Member of the Scientific Council on the complex problem “History of World Culture” of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1970 - member of the Council Bureau.
Academician
1970
- Elected full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1971
- Elected as a foreign member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
- Awarded a 1st degree diploma from the All-Union Society “Knowledge” for the book “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'.”
- Awarded an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Edinburgh (UK).
- Publication of the book “The Artistic Heritage of Ancient Rus' and Modernity” L., Science. 1971. 121 p. 20 t.e. (together with V.D. Likhacheva).
1971
- Mother Vera Semyonovna Likhacheva died.
1971-1978
- Member of the editorial board of the “Concise Literary Encyclopedia”.
1972-1999
- Head of the Archaeographic Group of the Leningrad Branch of the Archives of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1973
- Awarded a 1st degree diploma from the All-Union Society “Knowledge” for participation in the collective scientific work “A Brief History of the USSR. Part 1."
- Elected an honorary member of the historical and literary school society “Boyan” (Rostov region).
- Elected as a foreign member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
- Participated in the VII International Congress of Slavists (Warsaw). The report “The Origin and Development of Genres of Old Russian Literature” was read.
- Publication of the book “The Development of Russian Literature in the X - XVII centuries: Epochs and Styles” L., Science. 1973. 254 p. 11 t.e. (reprint: Likhachev D.S. Selected works: in 3 volumes. T. 1. L., 1987; St. Petersburg, 1998).
1973-1976
- Member of the Academic Council of the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography.
1974-1999
- Member of the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) branch of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences, since 1975 - member of the bureau of the Branch of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
- Member of the Bureau of the Archaeographic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
- Chairman of the editorial board of the yearbook “Cultural Monuments. New discoveries” of the Scientific Council on the complex problem “History of World Culture” of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
- Chairman of the Scientific Council on the complex problem “History of World Culture” of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1975
- Awarded the medal “Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
- Awarded the VDNKh gold medal for the monograph “The Development of Russian Literature in the X-XVII Centuries.”
- Opposed the expulsion of A.D. Sakharov from the USSR Academy of Sciences.
- Trip to Hungary to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
- Participated in the “MAPRYAL” (International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature) symposium on comparative literature (Bulgaria).
- Publication of the book “The Great Heritage: Classic Works of Literature of Ancient Rus'” M., Sovremennik. 1975. 366 p. 50 t.e. (reprinted: M., 1980; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: in 3 volumes. T.2. L., 1987; 1997).
1975-1999
- Member of the editorial board of the publication of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the USSR of the USSR Academy of Sciences “Auxiliary historical disciplines”.
1976
- Participated in a special meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the book by O. Suleimenov “Az and I” (banned).
- Participated in the conference “Tarnovo School. Disciples and followers of Efimy Tarnovsky" (Bulgaria).
- Elected a corresponding member of the British Academy.
- Publication of the book “The Laughing World of Ancient Rus'” L., Science. 1976. 204 p. 10 t.e. (co-authored with A. M. Panchenko; re-ed.: L., Nauka. 1984.295 pp.; “Laughter in Ancient Rus'” - joint with A. M. Panchenko and N. V. Ponyrko; 1997 : "Historical poetics of literature. Laughter as a worldview").
1976-1999
- Member of the editorial board of the international magazine “Palaeobulgarica” (Sofia).
1977
- The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria awarded the Order of Cyril and Methodius, 1st degree.
- The Presidium of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Academic Council of the Sofia University named after Kliment Ohridski awarded the Cyril and Methodius Prize for the work “Golemiah svyat na ruskata literature.”
1978
- Awarded a diploma from the Union of Bulgarian Journalists and the honorary sign “Golden Pen” for his great creative contribution to Bulgarian journalism and publicism.
- Elected an honorary member of the Brigantine literary club for high school students.
- Trip to Bulgaria to participate in the international symposium “Tarnovo art school and Slavic-Byzantine art of the 12th-15th centuries.” and for lecturing at the Institute of Bulgarian Literature of the BAN and the Center for Bulgarian Studies.
- Trip to the GDR for a meeting of the permanent Editorial and Textual Commission of the International Committee of Slavists.
- Publication of the book “The Lay of Igor’s Campaign” and the culture of his time” L., Kh.L. 1978. 359 p. 50 t.e. (reprint: Leningrad, 1985; St. Petersburg, 1998)
1978-1989
- Initiator, editor (jointly with L. A. Dmitriev) and author of introductory articles to the monumental series “Monuments of Literature of Ancient Rus'” (12 volumes), published by the publishing house “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura” (the publication was awarded the State Prize in 1993).
1979
- The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria awarded the honorary title of laureate of the International Prize named after the brothers Cyril and Methodius for exceptional services in the development of Old Bulgarian and Slavic studies, for the study and popularization of the work of the brothers Cyril and Methodius.
- Publication of the article “Ecology of Culture” (Moscow, 1979, No. 7)
1980
- The Secretariat of the Union of Writers of Bulgaria awarded the honorary badge “Nikola Vaptsarov”.
- Trip to Bulgaria to lecture at Sofia University.
1981
- Awarded a Certificate of Honor from the “All-Union Voluntary Society of Book Lovers” for his outstanding contribution to the study of ancient Russian culture, Russian books, and source studies.
- The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria awarded the “International Prize named after Evfimy Tarnovsky”.
- Awarded the honorary badge of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
- Participated in the conference dedicated to the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state (Sofia).
- Publication of a collection of articles “Literature - reality - literature”. L., Soviet writer. 1981. 215 p. 20 t.e. (reprinted: Leningrad, 1984; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 volumes, T. 3. Leningrad, 1987) and the brochure “Notes on the Russian.” M., Sov. Russia. 1981. 71 p. 75 t.e. (reprint: M., 1984; Likhachev D.S. Selected works: In 3 volumes. T. 2. L., 1987; 1997).
1981
- Great-grandson Sergei was born, the son of granddaughter Vera Tolts (from marriage with Vladimir Solomonovich Tolts, Sovietologist, Ufa Jew).
1981-1998
- Member of the editorial board of the almanac of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments “Monuments of the Fatherland.”
1982
- Awarded a Certificate of Honor and a prize from Ogonyok magazine for the interview “The memory of history is sacred.”
- Elected honorary doctor of the University of Bordeaux (France).
- The editorial board of the Literaturnaya Gazeta awarded a prize for active participation in the work of the Literaturnaya Gazeta.
- Trip to Bulgaria to give lectures and consultations at the invitation of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
- Publication of the book “Poetry of Gardens: Towards the Semantics of Garden and Park Styles” L., Science. 1982. 343 p. 9950 e. (reprint: Leningrad, 1991; St. Petersburg, 1998).
1983
- Awarded the VDNKh Diploma of Honor for creating a manual for teachers “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”
- Elected honorary doctor of the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
- Member of the Soviet Organizing Committee for the preparation and holding of the IX International Congress of Slavists (Kyiv).
- Publication of a book for students “Native Land”. M., Det.lit. 1985. 207 p.
1983-1999
- Chairman of the Pushkin Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1984
- The name of D. S. Likhachev was assigned to small planet No. 2877, discovered by Soviet astronomers: (2877) Likhachev-1969 TR2.
1984-1999
- Member of the Leningrad Scientific Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
1985
- Awarded the anniversary medal “Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
- The Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences awarded the V. G. Belinsky Prize for the book “The Lay of Igor’s Campaign” and the culture of his time.”
- The editorial board of the Literaturnaya Gazeta awarded the title of laureate of the Literaturnaya Gazeta for active cooperation in the newspaper.
- Awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Loránd Eötvös University of Budapest.
- Trip to Hungary at the invitation of Lorand Eotvos University of Budapest in connection with the 350th anniversary of the university.
- Participated in the Cultural Forum of the participating states of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Hungary). The report “Problems of preservation and development of folklore in the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution” was read.
- Publication of the books “The Past to the Future: Articles and Essays” L., Science. 1985. 575 p. 15 t.e. and “Letters about the good and the beautiful” M., Det.lit. 1985. 207 p. (reprint: Tokyo, 1988; M., 1989; Simferopol, 1990; St. Petersburg, 1994; St. Petersburg, 1999).
1986
- In connection with the 80th anniversary, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
- The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria awarded the Order of Georgiy Dimitrov (the highest award in Bulgaria).
- Awarded the Veteran of Labor medal.
- Included in the Book of Honor of the All-Union Society “Knowledge” for active work in promoting artistic culture and providing methodological assistance to lecturers.
- Awarded the title of laureate of “Literary Russia” for 1986 and awarded the Ogonyok magazine prize.
- Elected honorary chairman of the International Society for the Study of the Works of F. M. Dostoevsky (IDS).
- Elected an honorary member of the book and graphics section of the Leningrad House of Scientists named after. M. Gorky.
- Elected a corresponding member of the “Irises” section of the Moscow City Club of Amateur Flower Growers.
- Participated in the Soviet-American-Italian symposium “Literature: tradition and values” (Italy).
- Participated in a conference dedicated to “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (Poland).
- The book “Studies on Old Russian Literature” was published. L., Science. 1986. 405 p. 25 t.e. and the brochure “The Memory of History is Sacred.” M., True. 1986. 62 p. 80 t.e.
1986-1993
- Chairman of the Board of the Soviet Culture Fund (since 1991 - Russian Culture Fund).
1987
- Awarded the medal and prize of the “Almanac of the Bibliophile”.
- Awarded a diploma for the film “Poetry of Gardens” (Lentelefilm, 1985), which was awarded second prize at the V All-Union Film Review of Architecture and Civil Engineering.
- Elected as a deputy of the Leningrad City Council of People's Deputies.
- Elected a member of the Commission on the Literary Heritage of B. L. Pasternak.
- Elected as a foreign member of the Italian National Academy.
- Participated in the international forum “For a nuclear-free world, for the survival of humanity” (Moscow).
- Trip to France for the XVI session of the Permanent Mixed Soviet-French Commission on Cultural and Scientific Relations.
- A trip to the UK at the invitation of the British Academy and the University of Glasgow to give lectures and consultations on cultural history.
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- Trip to Italy for a meeting of the informal initiative group to organize the fund “For the Survival of Humanity in a Nuclear War.”
- Publication of the book “The Great Path: The Formation of Russian Literature of the XI-XVII centuries.” M., Sovremennik. 1987. 299 p. 25 t.e.
- Publication of “Selected Works” in 3 volumes.
1987-1996
- Member of the editorial board of the magazine "New World", since 1997 - member of the Public Council of the magazine.
1988
- Participated in the international meeting “International Fund for the Survival and Development of Humanity.”
- Elected honorary doctor of Sofia University (Bulgaria).
- Elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (Germany).
- Trip to Finland for the opening of the exhibition “Time of Change, 1905-1930 (Russian Avant-garde).”
- Trip to Denmark for the opening of the exhibition “Russian and Soviet art from personal collections. 1905-1930."
- Trip to the UK to present the first issue of the magazine “Our Heritage”.
- Publication of the book: “Dialogues about yesterday, today and tomorrow.” M., Sov. Russia. 1988. 142 p. 30 t.e. (co-author N. G. Samvelyan)
1987
- A great-granddaughter, Vera, was born, the daughter of the granddaughter of Zinaida Kurbatova (from her marriage to Igor Rutter, an artist, a Sakhalin German).
1989
- Awarded the European (1st) Prize for Cultural Activities in 1988.
- Awarded the International Literary and Journalistic Prize of Modena (Italy) for his contribution to the development and dissemination of culture in 1988.
- Together with other cultural figures, he advocated the return of the Solovetsky and Valaam monasteries to the Russian Orthodox Church.
- Participated in a meeting of European culture ministers in France.
- Member of the Soviet (later Russian) branch of the Pen Club.
- Publication of the books “Notes and Observations: From Notebooks of Different Years” L., Sov.writer. 1989. 605 p. 100 t.e. and “On Philology” M., Higher School. 1989. 206 p. 24 t.e.
1989-1991
- People's Deputy of the USSR from the Soviet Cultural Foundation.
1990
- Member of the International Committee for the Revival of the Library of Alexandria.
- Honorary Chairman of the All-Union (since 1991 - Russian) Pushkin Society.
- Member of the International Editorial Board created for the publication of “The Complete Works of A. S. Pushkin” in English.
- Laureate of the International Prize of the city of Fiuggi (Italy).
- Publication of the book “School on Vasilyevsky: A Book for Teachers.” M., Enlightenment. 1990. 157 p. 100 t.e. (jointly with N.V. Blagovo and E.B. Belodubrovsky).
1991
- Awarded the A.P. Karpinsky Prize (Hamburg) for the research and publication of monuments of Russian literature and culture.
- Awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Charles University (Prague).
- Elected honorary member of Serbian Matica (SFRY).
- Elected an honorary member of the World Club of St. Petersburgers.
- Elected an honorary member of the German Pushkin Society.
- Publication of the books “I Remember” M., Progress. 1991. 253 p. 10 t.e., “Book of Anxiety” M., News. 1991. 526 p. 30 t.e., “Thoughts” M., Det.lit. 1991. 316 p. 100 t.e.
1992
- Elected a foreign member of the Philosophical Scientific Society of the USA.
- Elected honorary doctor of the University of Siena (Italy).
- Awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Milan and Arezzo (Italy).
- Participant of the International Charity Program “New Names”.
- Chairman of the public anniversary Sergius Committee for preparations for the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the repose of St. Sergius of Radonezh.
- Publication of the book “Russian Art from Antiquity to the Avant-garde.” M., Art. 1992. 407 p.
1993
- The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded the Big Gold Medal named after. M. V. Lomonosov for outstanding achievements in the field of humanities.
- Awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation for the series “Monuments of Literature of Ancient Rus'”.
- Elected a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- Awarded the title of the first Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg by decision of the St. Petersburg Council of People's Deputies.
- Elected honorary doctor of the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions.
- The book “Articles of the Early Years” has been published. Tver, Tver. OO RFK. 1993. 144 p.
1994
- Chairman of the State Anniversary Pushkin Commission (for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin).
- Publication of the book: “Great Rus': History and artistic culture of the X-XVII centuries” M., Art. 1994. 488 pp. (jointly with G. K. Wagner, G. I. Vzdornov, R. G. Skrynnikov ).
1995
- Participated in the International Colloquium “The Creation of the World and the Destiny of Man” (St. Petersburg - Novgorod). Presented the project “Declaration of the Rights of Culture”.
- Awarded the Order of the Madara Horseman, first degree, for exceptional services in the development of Bulgarian studies, for promoting the role of Bulgaria in the development of world culture.
- On the initiative of D. S. Likhachev and with the support of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the International Non-Governmental Organization “Fund for the 200th Anniversary of A. S. Pushkin” was created.
- Publication of the book “Memoirs” (St. Petersburg, Logos. 1995. 517 p. 3 i.e. reprinted 1997, 1999, 2001).
1996
- Awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, for outstanding services to the state and great personal contribution to the development of Russian culture.
- Awarded the Order of Stara Planina, first degree, for his enormous contribution to the development of Slavic and Bulgarian studies and for his great services in strengthening bilateral scientific and cultural ties between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Russian Federation.
- Publication of books: “Essays on the philosophy of artistic creativity” St. Petersburg, Blitz. 1996. 158 p. 2 vol. (reissue 1999) and “Without evidence” St. Petersburg, Blitz. 1996. 159 p. 5 t.e..
1997
- Laureate of the Presidential Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art.
- Awarding the prize “For the honor and dignity of talent”, established by the International Literary Fund.
- The private Tsarskoye Selo art prize was awarded under the motto “From the artist to the artist” (St. Petersburg).
- Publication of the book “On the Intelligentsia: Collection of Articles.”
1997
- Great-granddaughter Hannah was born, the daughter of the granddaughter of Vera Tolz (from her marriage to Yor Gorlitsky, a Sovietologist).
1997-1999
- Editor (jointly with L. A. Dmitriev, A. A. Alekseev, N. V. Ponyrko) and author of the introductory articles of the monumental series "Library of Literature of Ancient Rus' (published vols. 1 - 7, 9?11) - publishing house " The science".
1998
- Awarded the Order of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called for his contribution to the development of national culture (first holder).
- Awarded a Gold Medal of the first degree from the Interregional Non-Profit Charitable Foundation in Memory of A.D. Menshikov (St. Petersburg).
- Awarded the Nebolsin Prize of the International Charitable Foundation and Professional Education named after. A. G. Nebolsina.
- Awarded the International Silver Commemorative Badge “Swallow of the World” (Italy) for his great contribution to the promotion of ideas of peace and the interaction of national cultures.
- Publication of the book “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign and the culture of his time. Works of recent years." St. Petersburg, Logos. 1998. 528 p. 1000 e.
1999
- One of the founders of the “Congress of the St. Petersburg Intelligentsia” (along with Zh. Alferov, D. Granin, A. Zapesotsky, K. Lavrov, A. Petrov, M. Piotrovsky).
- Awarded a souvenir Golden Jubilee Pushkin Medal from the “Foundation for the 200th Anniversary of A. S. Pushkin.”
- Publication of the books “Thoughts about Russia”, “Novgorod Album”.
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev died on September 30, 1999 in St. Petersburg. He was buried in the cemetery in Komarovo on October 4.
Titles, awards
Hero of Socialist Labor (1986)
- Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (September 30, 1998) - for outstanding contribution to the development of national culture (awarded the order for No. 1)
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (November 28, 1996) - for outstanding services to the state and great personal contribution to the development of Russian culture
- The order of Lenin
- Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1966)
- Medal “50 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945.” (March 22, 1995)
- Pushkin Medal (June 4, 1999) - in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin, for services in the field of culture, education, literature and art
- Medal “For Labor Valor” (1954) - Medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” (1942)
- Medal “30 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945.” (1975)
- Medal “40 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945.” (1985)
- Medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.” (1946)
- Medal “Veteran of Labor” (1986)
- Order of Georgiy Dimitrov (NRB, 1986)
- Two Orders of Cyril and Methodius, 1st degree (NRB, 1963, 1977)
- Order of Stara Planina, 1st degree (Bulgaria, 1996)
- Order of the Madara Horseman, 1st degree (Bulgaria, 1995)
- Sign of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council “To a resident of besieged Leningrad”
In 1986 he organized the Soviet (now Russian) Cultural Foundation and was chairman of the presidium of the Foundation until 1993. Since 1990, he has been a member of the International Committee for the Organization of the Library of Alexandria (Egypt). He was elected as a deputy of the Leningrad City Council (1961-1962, 1987-1989).
Foreign member of the Academies of Sciences of Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Serbia. Corresponding member of the Austrian, American, British, Italian, Gottingen academies, corresponding member of the oldest US society - the Philosophical Society. Member of the Writers' Union since 1956. Since 1983 - Chairman of the Pushkin Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences, since 1974 - Chairman of the Editorial Board of the yearbook “Cultural Monuments. New discoveries". From 1971 to 1993, he headed the editorial board of the “Literary Monuments” series, since 1987 he has been a member of the editorial board of the New World magazine, and since 1988 of the Our Heritage magazine.
The Russian Academy of Art Studies and Musical Performance awarded him the Amber Cross Order of Arts (1997). Awarded an Honorary Diploma of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg (1996). Awarded the Great Gold Medal named after M.V. Lomonosov (1993). First Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg (1993). Honorary citizen of the Italian cities of Milan and Arezzo. Laureate of the Tsarskoye Selo Art Prize (1997).
Social activity
People's Deputy of the USSR (1989-1991) from the Soviet Cultural Foundation.
- In 1993, he signed the Letter of 42.
- Member of the Human Rights Commission under the Administration of St. Petersburg.
Other publications
Ivan the Terrible - writer // Zvezda. - 1947. - No. 10. - P. 183-188.
- Ivan the Terrible - writer // Messages of Ivan the Terrible / Prepared by. text by D. S. Likhachev and Y. S. Lurie. Per. and comment. Y. S. Lurie. Ed. V. P. Adrianova-Peretz. - M., L., 1951. - P. 452-467.
- Ivan Peresvetov and his literary modernity // Peresvetov I. Works / Prepared by. text. A. A. Zimin. - M., L.: 1956. - P. 28-56.
- Portrayal of people in hagiographic literature of the late XIV-XV centuries // Tr. Dept. Old Russian lit. - 1956. - T. 12. - P. 105-115.
- The movement of Russian literature of the 11th-17th centuries towards a realistic depiction of reality. - M.: Type. “At the combat post”, 1956. - 19 p. - (Materials for the discussion on realism in world literature).
- A meeting dedicated to the work of Archpriest Avvakum, [held on April 26. at the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the USSR Academy of Sciences] // Bulletin of the USSR Academy of Sciences. - 1957. - No. 7. - P. 113-114.
- Second international conference on poetics // News of the USSR Academy of Sciences. - 1962. - No. 2. - P. 97-98.
- Ancient Slavic literatures as a system // Slavic literatures: VI International. Congress of Slavists (Prague, Aug. 1968). Dokl. owls delegations. - M., 1968. - P. 5 - 48.
- Baroque and its Russian version of the 17th century // Russian literature. 1969. No. 2. P. 18-45.
- Old Russian laughter // Problems of poetics and history of literature: (Collected articles). - Saransk, 1973. - P. 73-90.
- Golemiyat is holy in Ruskata literature: Research. and Art. In Bulgaria language / Comp. and ed. P. Dinekov. - Sofia: Science and Art, 1976. - 672 p.
- [Speech at the IX International Congress of Slavists (Kyiv, September 6-14, 1983) based on the report of P. Buchvald-Peltseva “Emblematics of Kievan Rus of the Baroque Epoch”] // IX International Congress of Slavists. Kyiv, September 1983
- Discussion materials. Literary criticism and linguistic stylistics. - Kyiv, 1987. - P. 25.
- [Speech at the IX International Congress of Slavists (Kyiv, September 6-14, 1983) on the report of R. Belknap “Plot: Practice and Theory”] // IX International Congress of Slavists. Kyiv, September 1983. Discussion materials.
- Literary criticism and linguistic stylistics. - Kyiv, 1987. - P. 186.
- Introduction to reading monuments of ancient Russian literature. M.: Russian way, 2004
- Memories. - St. Petersburg: “Logos”, 1995. - 519 pp., ill.
Memory
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”. The books “Russian Culture” have been published; “The skyline of the city on the Neva. Memoirs, articles."
- By decree of the President of the Russian Federation, 2006 was declared the year of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev in Russia.
- The name Likhachev was assigned to minor planet No. 2877 (1984).
- Every year, in honor of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, the Likhachev Readings are held at GOU Gymnasium No. 1503 in Moscow, which brings together students from various cities and countries with performances dedicated to the memory of the great citizen of Russia.
- By order of the Governor of St. Petersburg in 2000, the name of D. S. Likhachev was given to school No. 47 (Plutalova Street (St. Petersburg), house No. 24), where Likhachev readings are also held.
- In 1999, the name of Likhachev was assigned to the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Biography
“Source Studies at School”, No. 1, 2006
THE SPIRITUAL PATH OF DMITRY SERGEEVICH LIKHACHEV Conscience is not only the guardian angel of human honor, it is the helmsman of his freedom, it makes sure that freedom does not turn into arbitrariness, but shows a person his true path in the complicated circumstances of life, especially modern life. D.S. Likhachev
November 28, 2006, the first day of the Nativity Fast, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev. And the end of his earthly life followed on September 30, 1999, on the day of remembrance of the holy martyrs Faith, Nadezhda, Lyubov and their blessed mother Sophia. Having lived for almost 93 years, this great Russian scientist witnessed almost the entire 20th century.
2006 has been declared the “Year of Likhachev” in Russia, and events are being held at all levels to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth. Thanks to the anniversary, new editions of his works are appearing, bibliographic indexes of his numerous works are being printed, and articles about his life and work are being published.
The purpose of these notes is to once again carefully read the memoirs, letters and some scientific works of the Unforgettable Dmitry Sergeevich in order to understand his spiritual life, his spiritual life path, his behests to Russia.
1. Children's prayer
Here is an excerpt from Dmitry Sergeevich’s book “Memoirs”.
“One of the happiest memories of my life. Mom is lying on the couch. I climb between her and the pillows, lie down too, and we sing songs together. I haven't gone to preschool yet.
Children, get ready for school,
The cockerel crowed a long time ago.
Dress quickly!
The sun looks out the window.
Man, and beast, and bird -
Everyone gets down to business
A bug drags along with a burden,
A bee flies after the honey.
The field is clear, the meadow is cheerful,
The forest has woken up and is noisy,
Woodpecker with his nose: knock and knock!
The oriole screams loudly.
The fishermen are already dragging their nets,
In the meadow the scythe rings...
Let's pray for books, children!
God does not command you to be lazy.
It’s probably because of the last phrase that this children’s song came out of Russian life,” Dmitry Sergeevich further recalls. - And all the children knew it thanks to Ushinsky’s anthology “Native Word”.
Yes, this touching song, which many mothers used to wake up their children in Rus' (and not only woke them up, but also got them ready to study!), thanks to the militant atheism of the post-revolutionary years, was removed from Russian life. However, this does not mean that immediately after October 25 (November 7, new style) 1917, Russian mothers stopped singing this song to their children. Those of them who themselves remembered it for the rest of their lives from the voices of their mothers continued to sing it in the mornings even in the middle of the 20th century, despite decades of persecution of the Church, the faith, and believers. But this song was removed from Soviet school textbooks, or rather, not allowed, despite the fact that the main pedagogical library of the USSR was named after K.D. Ushinsky, from whose textbook millions of Russian children had previously learned this song. And Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, as can be seen from his memoirs, sang this song with his mother even when he did not go to preparatory class. This is what preparation for school was like! The child had not yet gone to school, and the words “Pray for books, children! “God doesn’t command you to be lazy,” he had already internalized in his heart.
In the fall of 1914 (the war had just begun), eight-year-old Mitya Likhachev went to school. He immediately entered the senior preparatory class of the gymnasium of the Humane Society. (What kind of Societies they were!) Most of his classmates were already in their second year of study, having completed the junior preparatory class. Mitya Likhachev was the “new kid” among them.
The more “experienced” high school students somehow attacked the new guy with their fists, and he, pressed against the wall, first fought back as best he could. And when the attackers suddenly became afraid and unexpectedly began to retreat, he, feeling like a winner, began to attack them. At that moment, the school inspector noticed the scuffle. And in Mitya’s diary an entry appeared: “He beat his comrades with his fists.” And the signature: “Inspector Mamai.” How Mitya was struck by this injustice!
However, his trials did not end there. Another time, the boys, throwing snowballs at him, deftly managed to bring him under the windows of the inspector who was watching the children. And in the diary of the newcomer Likhachev, a second entry appears: “I was naughty on the street. Inspector Mamai." “And the parents were called to the director,” recalled Dmitry Sergeevich. - How I didn’t want to go to school! In the evenings, kneeling down to repeat the words of prayers after my mother, I would add on my own, burying myself in the pillow: “God, make me get sick.” And I got sick: my temperature began to rise every day - two-three tenths of a degree above 37. They took me out of school, and in order not to miss a year, they hired a tutor.”
This is the kind of prayer and life experience the future scientist received in his first year of study. From these memories it is clear that he learned to pray from his mother.
The following year, 1915, Mitya Likhachev entered the famous gymnasium and real school of Karl Ivanovich May, which is on the 14th line of Vasilyevsky Island in St. Petersburg.
From early childhood, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev remembered “family words”, that is, phrases, sayings, jokes that were often heard at home. From such “family words” he remembered the prayerful words of his father’s sighs: “Queen of Heaven!”, “Mother of God!” “Is it because,” recalled D.S. Likhachev, “that the family was in the parish of the Church of the Vladimir Mother of God? With the words “Queen of Heaven!” my father died during the blockade.”
2. Along the Volga - Mother River
In May 1914, that is, even before he first entered school, Mitya Likhachev, together with his parents and older brother Mikhail, traveled on a ship along the Volga. Here is a fragment from his memories of this trip along the great Russian river.
“On Trinity (that is, on the feast of the Holy Trinity), the captain stopped our ship (although it was diesel, but the word “motor ship” did not yet exist) right next to a green meadow. On a hill stood the village church. Inside, it was all decorated with birch trees, the floor was strewn with grass and wildflowers. The traditional church singing by the village choir was extraordinary. The Volga made an impression with its songfulness: the vast expanse of the river was full of everything that floats, hums, sings, shouts.”
In the same “Memoirs” D.S. Likhachev gives the names of the ships of that time sailing along the Volga: “Prince Serebryany”, “Prince Yuri of Suzdal”, “Prince Mstislav Udaloy”, “Prince Pozharsky”, “Kozma Minin”, “Vladimir” Monomakh", "Dmitry Donskoy", "Alyosha Popovich", "Dobrynya Nikitich", "Kutuzov", "1812". “Even from the names of the ships we could learn Russian history,” recalled the scientist who loved the Volga and Russia so much.
3. Persecution
Dmitry Likhachev entered Petrograd State University without yet being fully 17 years old. He studied at the Faculty of Social Sciences, in the ethnologo-linguistic department, where philological disciplines were studied. Student Likhachev chose two sections at once - Romano-Germanic and Slavic-Russian. He listened to the historiography of ancient Russian literature from one of the outstanding Russian archaeographers, Dimitri Ivanovich Abramovich, Master of Theology, former professor at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, later a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. And at the time when Dmitry Likhachev studied at Petrograd State University (later renamed Leningrad University), the former professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy was simply Dimitry Ivanovich, since there were no academic titles and degrees then, they were canceled or not introduced in the post-revolutionary frenzy . Defenses of even doctoral works were called disputations. However, according to tradition, some old scientists were called “professors”, and some new ones were called “red professor”.
The old professor Dimitri Ivanovich Abramovich was an experienced specialist in ancient Russian literature. He made his contribution to Russian historical and philological science with his fundamental research dedicated to the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon. Was it not he who managed to inspire Dmitry Likhachev so much that he, already at the university bench, began to study ancient Russian literature in the most serious way - literature primarily of the church.
Here’s how Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev himself wrote about it: “I turned to ancient Russian literature at the university because I considered it little studied in literary terms, as an artistic phenomenon. In addition, Ancient Rus' interested me from the point of view of knowledge of the Russian national character. The study of the literature and art of Ancient Rus' in their unity also seemed promising to me. The study of styles in ancient Russian literature, in time, seemed very important to me.”
Against the backdrop of incessant curses against the past (cultural revolution!), showing interest in the past meant swimming against the tide.
The following recollection of the scientist dates back to this period of his life: “You always remember your youth with kindness. 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.”
“Almost simultaneously with the October Revolution, persecution of the Church began. The persecution was so unbearable for any Russian that many non-believers began to attend church, psychologically separating themselves from the persecutors. Here is undocumented and possibly inaccurate data from one book of that time: “According to incomplete data (the Volga region, the Kama region and a number of other places are not taken into account), in only 8 months (from June 1918 to January 1919) ... the following were killed: 1 metropolitan , 18 bishops, 102 priests, 154 deacons and 94 monks and nuns. 94 churches and 26 monasteries were closed, 14 temples and 9 chapels were desecrated; The land and property of 718 clergy and 15 monasteries were sequestered. The following were imprisoned: 4 bishops, 198 priests, 8 archimandrites and 5 abbesses. 18 religious processions were banned, 41 church processions were dispersed, church services were disrupted by obscenity in 22 cities and 96 villages. At the same time, the desecration and destruction of relics and the requisition of church utensils took place.” This is only for the first months of Soviet power. And then it went and went...”
Thus, Dmitry Sergeevich exposes the myth that the most terrible repressions occurred in 1936–1937. He writes about this as follows: “One of the goals of my memoirs is to dispel the myth that the most brutal time of repression came in 1936–1937. I think that in the future, statistics of arrests and executions will show that waves of arrests, executions, and deportations began already from the beginning of 1918, even before the official announcement of the “Red Terror” in the fall of this year, and then the tide kept growing until Stalin’s death, and , seems to be a new wave in 1936–1937. was only the “ninth wave.”
“Then even more terrible provocative cases began with the “living church,” the confiscation of church valuables, etc. etc.,” Academician D.S. Likhachev continues his memories of the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church. - The appearance in 1927 of the “Declaration” of Metropolitan Sergius, who sought to reconcile the Church with the state and the state with the Church, was perceived by everyone, both Russian and non-Russian, precisely in this environment of facts of persecution. The state was “atheistic”.
Divine services in the remaining Orthodox churches were held with particular fervor. The church choirs sang especially well, because they were joined by many professional singers (in particular, from the opera troupe of the Mariinsky Theater). The priests and the entire clergy served with a special feeling
The wider the persecution of the Church developed and the more numerous the executions became at Gorokhovaya Two, in Petropavlovka, on Krestov Island, in Strelna, etc., the more acutely we all felt pity for the perishing Russia. Our love for the Motherland was least of all like pride in the Motherland, its victories and conquests. Now this is difficult for many to understand. We didn't sing patriotic songs - we cried and prayed.
With this feeling of pity and sadness, I began to study ancient Russian literature and ancient Russian art at the university in 1923. I wanted to keep Russia in my memory, just as children sitting at her bedside want to keep in their memory the image of a dying mother, collect her images, show them to friends, talk about the greatness of her martyr’s life. My books are, in essence, memorial notes that are given “for the repose of the dead”: you can’t remember everyone when you write them - you write down the most dear names, and such were for me precisely in Ancient Rus'.”
This is where the origins of Academician Likhachev’s amazing love for ancient Russian literature, for his native language, for Russia...
4. Helfernak and the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov
“I began to think about the essence of the world, as it seems, from childhood,” recalls Dmitry Sergeevich. In the last classes of the gymnasium, the future scientist began to become interested in philosophy and very early realized that a full-fledged worldview cannot be developed without religious faith, without theology.
“The theological teaching about synergy came to my aid,” the scientist writes in his “Memoirs,” - the combination of Divine omnipotence with human freedom, making a person fully responsible not only for his behavior, but also for his essence - for everything evil or good, what is contained in it."
Until the end of 1927, various student societies and philosophical circles could still operate in Leningrad. Members of such Societies and circles gathered wherever they could - in their educational institutions, in the Geographical Society, or even just at someone’s home. “Various philosophical, historical and literary problems were discussed relatively freely,” recalls D.S. Likhachev.
In the early 20s, Dmitry Likhachev’s school teacher I.M. Andreevsky organized the “Helfernak” circle: “Artistic, Literary, Philosophical and Scientific Academy.” “The dawn of Helfernak occurred in 1921–1925, when venerable scientists, schoolchildren, and students gathered every Wednesday in two cramped rooms of Ivan Mikhailovich Andreevsky on the attic floor of a house on Tserkovnaya Street No. 12 (now Blokhin Street). Among the participants in these meetings was, for example, M.M. Bakhtin.
Reports in Helfernack were made on a wide variety of topics, literary, philosophical and theological issues were considered. The discussions were always lively.
“In the second half of the 20s, the circle of Ivan Mikhailovich Andreevsky Helfernak began to acquire more and more religious character. This change was undoubtedly explained by the persecution to which the Church was subjected at that time. Discussion of church events captured the bulk of the circle. I.M. Andreevsky began to think about changing the main direction of the circle and about its new name. Everyone agreed that the circle, from which many atheistically minded participants had already left, should be called a “brotherhood.” But in the name of whom I.M. Andreevsky, who initially fought for the protection of the Church, wanted to call it the “Brotherhood of Metropolitan Philip,” meaning Metropolitan Philip (Kolychev), who spoke the truth to Ivan the Terrible to his face and was strangled in the Tver Youth Monastery by Malyuta Skuratov. Then, however, under the influence of S.A. Alekseev, we called ourselves the “Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov.”
In his memoirs of that time, Dimitry Sergeevich cites a propaganda poem, probably composed by Demyan Bedny:
Drive away, drive away the monks,
Drive away, drive away the priests,
Beat the speculators
Crush your fists...
“Komsomol members,” recalls D.S. Likhachev, “barged into the churches in groups wearing hats, talking loudly and laughing. I will not list everything that was happening in the spiritual life of the people at that time. At that time we had no time for “subtle” considerations about how to preserve the Church in an atmosphere of extreme hostility towards it from those in power.”
“We came up with an idea to attend church together. We, five or six people, all went together in 1927 to the Exaltation of the Cross in one of the subsequently destroyed churches on the Petrograd side. Ionkin, whom we did not yet know was a provocateur, also got involved with us. Ionkin, who pretended to be religious, did not know how to behave in church, was afraid, cowered, and stood behind us. And then for the first time I felt distrust of him. But then it turned out that the appearance in the church of a group of tall and unusual young men for its parishioners caused a commotion in the church clergy, especially since Ionkin was carrying a briefcase. They decided that this commission and the church would be closed. This is where our “joint visits” stopped.”
Dmitry Sergeevich always retained a special flair for provocateurs. When he, being imprisoned on Solovki, saw off his parents who had visited him and one person asked his father to deliver a letter to the mainland, Dmitry Sergeevich stopped his father. And he was right. The “petitioner” turned out to be a provocateur.
And here is another memory of the scientist’s student years: “I remember that once at my teacher’s apartment I met the rector of the Transfiguration Cathedral, Father Sergius Tikhomirov, and his daughter. Father Sergius was extremely thin, with a thin gray beard. He was neither eloquent nor vociferous, and, indeed, served quietly and modestly. When he was “summoned” and asked about his attitude towards the Soviet regime, he answered in monosyllables: “from the Antichrist.” It is clear that he was arrested and very quickly shot. This happened, if I’m not mistaken, in the fall of 1927, after the Exaltation of the Cross (a holiday on which, according to popular belief, demons, frightened by the cross, are especially zealous to harm Christians).”
The Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov managed to hold only three or four meetings before its closure. The time has approached when the authorities began to suppress the activities of not only all Orthodox Brotherhoods, but also all organized Societies, circles and student interest groups not by order from above.
Members of the Brotherhood soon “saw through” the provocateur Ionkin and imitated the self-dissolution of the Brotherhood so as not to expose the owner of the apartment, I.M. Andreevsky. Ionkin “fell for” this trick (later D.S. Likhachev learned from documents that in his denunciations Ionkin represented the members of the Brotherhood as monarchists and ardent counter-revolutionaries, which is what those who sent him required). And members of the Orthodox Student Brotherhood began to gather in their homes.
On August 1, 1927, the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, they prayed in the apartment of Lucy Skuratova’s parents, and Father Sergius Tikhomirov served a prayer service.
“In Russian worship, the manifestation of feelings is always very restrained,” D.S. Likhachev recalls about this service. “Father Sergius also served with restraint, but the mood was conveyed to everyone in some special way. I can't define it. It was both joy and the realization that our life was becoming completely different from that day on. We left one by one. Opposite the house stood a lonely gun that fired at the cadet school in November 1917. There was no surveillance. The Brotherhood of Seraphim of Sarov existed until the day of our arrest on February 8, 1928.”
5. Old Russian spelling for “Space Academy of Sciences”
The arrest of Dmitry Likhachev was associated not with his participation in the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov, but in connection with the active activities of another student association? - the comic student “Space Academy of Sciences” (abbreviated as KAS). The members of this “academy” met almost weekly, without hiding at all. At the meetings they made scientific reports, seasoning them with a fair amount of humor.
Based on the reports, “departments” were distributed among the members of this comic academy. Dmitry Likhachev made a report on the lost advantages of the old spelling (which suffered in the revolutionary reform of Russian spelling in 1918)3. Thanks to this report, he “received” at the KAS “the department of old spelling, or, as an option, the department of melancholic philology.” The title of this report, somewhat ironic in form and quite serious in content, speaks of the old spelling as “trampled and distorted by the enemy of the Church of Christ and the Russian people.” No one was forgiven for such phrases back then...
And although the “Space Academy of Sciences” was just a comic student circle, and its work followed the principle of “gay science” that had long been known among students, however, for the hypervigilant authorities, the comic academy seemed by no means a joke. As a result, Dmitry Likhachev and his friends were tried and sent to study life in forced labor camps...
Recalling the classes of the “Space Academy of Sciences”, Dmitry Sergeevich, in particular, wrote:
“One of the postulates of this “gay science” was that the world that science creates through the study of the environment should be “interesting,” more complex than the world before it was studied. Science enriches the world by studying it, discovering new, hitherto unknown things in it. If science simplifies and subordinates everything around us to two or three simple principles, it is a “unfun science” that makes the Universe around us boring and gray. This is the teaching of Marxism, which belittles the surrounding society, subordinating it to crude materialistic laws that kill morality - simply making morality unnecessary. This is all materialism. This is the teaching of S. Freud. The same is true of sociologism in explaining literary works and the literary process. The doctrine of historical formations also belongs to this category of “boring” teachings.”
These words were published in the cited book by D.S. Likhachev “Favorites. MEMORIES", which was published in its first edition in St. Petersburg in 1995. A similar statement is found in a speech made by the great scientist in October 1998 at the discussion “Russia in the Dark: Optimism or Despair?”, held at the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace.
“Of course, pessimism prevails in our country now, and this has its roots. For 70 years we were brought up in pessimism, in philosophical teachings of a pessimistic nature. After all, Marxism is one of the most desperately pessimistic teachings. Matter predominates over spirit, over spirituality - this position alone suggests that matter, that is, the base principle, is primary, and from this point of view all literary and artistic works were analyzed; At the core of everything they were looking for class struggle, that is, hatred. And our youth were brought up on this. Is it any wonder that we have established pessimistic norms regarding morality, that is, norms that allow any crime, because there is no outcome?
But the point is not only that matter is not the basis of spirituality, but that the very laws that science prescribes give rise to this pessimism. If nothing depends on the will of a person, if history goes its own way, regardless of a person, then it is clear that a person has nothing to fight for, and therefore there is no need to fight
It depends on us whether we will become agents of good or not.”
No one before Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev said so simply and clearly that Marxism, under the banner of which revolutionaries promised to make the whole world happy, is the most pessimistic teaching! And that preaching the primacy of matter and economics inevitably leads to the destruction of moral norms and, as a result, resolves any crime against man and humanity, “because there is no outcome...”.
The current director of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Abdusalam Abdulkerimovich Guseinov, in his article “On the Cultural Studies of D.S. Likhachev,” is disingenuous when he speaks about Dmitry Sergeevich’s attitude to philosophy: “Likhachev, it seems, did not really like philosophy, and I don’t know how well he knew her. Once he even proposed excluding philosophy from the minimum candidate exams in graduate school, which upset his colleagues in the humanities from the philosophy workshop.”
No! Dmitry Sergeevich was very fond of philosophy (in Slavic - love of wisdom, that is, “love of wisdom”). Since childhood, he thought about the essence of the world. In the last classes of the gymnasium, I became interested in the intuitionism of A. Bergson and N. O. Lossky. Reflecting on the relationship between time and eternity, he thought through his concept of time - the theory of the timeless (in the sense of transtemporal, supertemporal) essence of everything that exists.
He thought about time as a way of perceiving the world, as a form of existence, and explained why this form was needed: “The entire future running away from us is necessary to preserve our freedom of choice, freedom of will, which exist simultaneously with God’s complete will, without which no one no hair will fall from our heads. Time is not a deception that forces us to answer before God and conscience for our actions, which we actually cannot cancel, change, or somehow influence our behavior. Time is one of the forms of reality that allows us to be free in a limited form. However, the combination of our limited will with the will of God, as I have already said, is one of the secrets of synergy. Our ignorance is opposed to God's omniscience, but is by no means equal to it in importance. But if we knew everything, we wouldn’t be able to control ourselves.”
Such reasoning is given by D.S. Likhachev, recalling his passion for philosophy in his youth. One of his gymnasium teachers, Sergei Alekseevich Askoldov, believing that Dmitry Likhachev would become a philosopher, asked him in the last grade of the gymnasium: where will he enroll? “Hearing that I wanted to become a literary critic, he agreed, saying that in current conditions literary criticism is freer than philosophy, and yet close to philosophy. Thus, he strengthened me in my intention to obtain a liberal arts education, despite my family’s opinion that I should become an engineer. “You will be a beggar,” my father told me in response to all my arguments. I always remembered these words from my father and was very embarrassed when, upon returning from prison, I found myself unemployed and had to live at his expense for months.”
From the above memoirs it follows that Dmitry Sergeevich loved philosophy because he was a true sage. Only he categorically did not recognize the so-called Marxist-Leninist philosophy of materialism as a philosophy, which for decades served violent experiments on Russia, justified the destruction of traditional Russian culture and cultivated the “Soviet man,” “Soviet people,” and “Soviet culture.”
“Atheism is the ABC of Marxism,” taught the classics of materialist philosophy. And Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev realized very early that godlessness only destroys and does not create anything. Being a wise and peaceful man, he did not enter into public disputes with followers of Marxist-Leninist philosophy. But at the same time, he could allow himself, with a wise smile, to make a proposal to Soviet philosophers - to exclude philosophy from the candidate minimum in graduate school. Academician D.S. Likhachev had a subtle sense of humor. And it is not difficult to guess that his proposal to exclude the philosophy exam was nothing more than a protest against the imposition of “the only true and all-conquering teaching” on everyone. Having gone through prisons, camps, and other “construction projects of the first five-year plans,” he was not so naive as to think that at his call the exam, which was a test of ideological reliability, would be canceled. However, he believed in the truth and lived to see the time when dogmatic Marxist-Leninist materialism ceased to be a mandatory creed for all his compatriots.
But then, in 1928, the godless government was just beginning to force the citizens of the USSR into a “bright future” with a firm hand. And a telegram supposedly from the Pope with congratulations on the anniversary of the “Space Academy of Sciences” (probably a joke from one of his friends or a provocation) led to the arrest of the “academicians”.
At the beginning of February 1928, the table clock in the Likhachev house struck eight times. Dmitry Likhachev was alone in the house, and when the clock struck, he was seized by a chilling fear. The fact is that his father did not like the chiming of the clock, and the chiming in the clock was turned off even before Mitya was born. In 21 years of his life, the clock struck for the first time, struck 8 times - rhythmically and solemnly... And on February 8, the NKVD came for Dmitry Likhachev. His father turned terribly pale and sank into a chair. The polite investigator handed the father a glass of water. The search began. They were looking for anti-Sovietism. We packed our knapsack, said goodbye to the journey, and for the philologist who had just graduated from university, other “universities” began...
In the pre-trial detention center, a cross, a silver watch and several rubles were taken from Dmitry Likhachev. “The chamber number was 237: degrees of space cold.”
Having failed to obtain the information he needed from Likhachev (about participation in a “criminal counter-revolutionary organization”), the investigator told his father: “Your son is behaving badly.” For the investigator, it was “good” only if the person under investigation, at his suggestion, admitted that he had participated in a counter-revolutionary conspiracy.
The investigation lasted six months. Here's a telegram for you! They gave Dmitry Likhachev 5 years (after prison he was sent to Solovki, and then transferred to the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal). So in 1928 he ended up in the famous Solovetsky Monastery, converted by the Soviet authorities into SLON (Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp), and then repurposed into STON (Solovetsky Special Purpose Prison). Ordinary Soviet prisoners, who were “doing their time” on the territory of the Solovetsky Monastery, remembered the cry with which the camp authorities “greeted” them, accepting a new stage: “Here the power is not Soviet, here is the Solovetsky power!”
6. In the Solovetsky Monastery
Describing his trip to Solovki in 1966, academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev wrote about his first (1928–1930) stay on this island: “My stay on Solovki was the most significant period of my life.”
Similar judgments were made by people of holy life, for example, some Russian confessors who endured prison bonds during the Soviet persecution of the Orthodox faith, the Church of Christ. They said this because they were convinced by themselves that only through severe trials and suffering does a person improve and approach God in a direct way. According to the Gospel word of Christ the Savior, a person striving for God and for perfection in God must go through many sorrows. In a world stricken by sin, only following Christ, only through suffering, only through Great Heel and Golgotha does the path to perfection, to bliss, to the Paschal joy of the Resurrection open to man.
In his notes “On Life and Death,” Dmitry Sergeevich wrote: “Life would be incomplete if there were no sadness and grief in it at all. It’s cruel to think so, but it’s true.” D.S. Likhachev also said: “If a person does not care about anyone or anything, his life is “spiritless.” He needs to suffer from something, think about something. Even in love there must be a share of dissatisfaction (“I didn’t do everything I could”).” That is why he considered Solovki the most significant period of his life.
The notes of Dmitry Sergeevich, entitled in one word - “Solovki”, published in his collection “Articles of Different Years”, published in Tver in 1993, have been preserved. But before reading the lines from these notes, it is necessary to say a few words about the camp itself.
What did Solovki become for Dmitry Likhachev, who had just graduated from university? This is how Academician D.S. Likhachev himself writes about his involuntary placement in a monastery. “Entry and exit from the Kremlin was allowed only through the Nikolsky Gate. There were guards there checking passes in both directions. The Holy Gate was used to house the fire brigade. Fire carts could quickly move out of the Holy Gate, out and in. Through them they were taken out to be executed - this was the shortest route from the eleventh (punishment) company to the monastery cemetery, where the executions were carried out.”
The party of prisoners, which included D.S. Likhachev, arrived on Solovetsky Island in October 1928. “Fast ice” - coastal ice - has already appeared off the coast of the island. First, they brought the living ashore, then they carried out the corpses of those who had suffocated from the deadly tightness, squeezed to the point of broken bones, and bloody diarrhea. After the bath and disinfection, the prisoners were led to the Nikolsky Gate. “At the gate,” recalls Dmitry Sergeevich, “I took off my student cap, which I never parted with, and crossed myself. Before that I had never seen a real Russian monastery. I perceived Solovki and the Kremlin not as a new prison, but as a holy place.”
For the ruble he demanded, some petty boss at the site gave Dmitry Likhachev a place on the bunk, and space on the bunk was very scarce. The newcomer, who had caught a cold, had a terrible sore throat, so that he could not swallow a piece of preserved cookies without pain. Literally falling onto the bunk, Dmitry Likhachev woke up only in the morning and was surprised to see that everything around him was empty. “The bunks were empty,” the scientist recalls. - Besides me, a quiet priest remained at the large window on the wide windowsill and darned his duckweed. The ruble played its role doubly: the detached one did not pick me up and send me to check-in, and then to work. Having talked with the priest, I asked him what seemed to be the most absurd question: did he know (in this crowd of thousands living on Solovki) Father Nikolai Piskanovsky. Shaking out his duckweed, the priest answered: “Piskanovsky?” It's me!"".
Even before arriving in Solovki, at the stage - on Popov Island, seeing an exhausted young man, one priest, a Ukrainian, lying next to him on a bunk, told him that on Solovki he would need to find Father Nikolai Piskanovsky - he would help. “I didn’t understand why exactly he would help and how,” recalled D.S. Likhachev. “I decided to myself that Father Nikolai probably occupied some important position. The most absurd assumption: a priest - and a “responsible position”! But everything turned out to be true and justified: the “position” consisted in the respect for him from all the heads of the island, and Father Nikolai helped me for years. Unsettled, quiet, modest, he arranged my fate in the best possible way. Looking around, I realized that Father Nikolai and I were not alone. The sick were lying on the upper bunks, and from under the bunks hands reached out to us, asking for bread. And in these hands there was also the pointing finger of fate. Under the bunks lived the “lice” - teenagers who had lost all their clothes. They went into an “illegal position” - they didn’t go out for verification, didn’t receive food, lived under bunks so that they wouldn’t be forced out into the cold to do physical work, naked. They knew about their existence. They simply wiped them out, without giving them any rations of bread, soup, or porridge. They lived on handouts. We lived while we lived! And then they were taken out dead, put in a box and taken to the cemetery. These were unknown street children who were often punished for vagrancy and petty theft. How many of them were there in Russia! Children who lost their parents - killed, died of hunger, driven abroad by the White Army. I felt so sorry for these “little ones” that I walked around like a drunk - drunk with compassion. It was no longer a feeling, but something like an illness. And I am so grateful to fate that six months later I was able to help some of them.”
In the memoirs of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, such gratitude is repeatedly encountered. Like many Russian ascetics of faith and piety, he thanks not for being helped or served, but for the fact that he himself was honored to help and serve other people.
Father Nikolai introduced Dmitry Likhachev to Bishop Victor (Ostrovidov; 1875–1934). D.S. Likhachev wrote about this archpastor-confessor in his “Memoirs” in the “Clergy” section. There is also a photograph of Vladyka Victor in exile. Bishop Victor, according to the memoirs of D.S. Likhachev, in appearance looked like a simple rural priest, but he was very educated and had published works. Being a missionary in Saratov (1904) before becoming a bishop, he gave public lectures about “dissatisfied people” in the works of M. Gorky. Among his listeners was, for example, the Saratov governor P.A. Stolypin himself. “He (Vladyka Victor) greeted everyone with a wide smile (I don’t remember him any other way),” recalled D.S. Likhachev. “Some kind of radiance of kindness and gaiety emanated from him. He tried to help everyone and, most importantly, he could help, since everyone treated him well and believed his words.”
Bishop Victor advised Dmitry Likhachev, appointed assistant veterinarian, “as soon as possible, by any means, to get out of the tutelage of Komchebek-Voznyatsky” - the “veterinarian”, informer and adventurer. And soon the “veterinarian” himself was taken to another place. D.S. Likhachev also writes that Vladyka Victor took care of Mikhail Dmitrievich Priselkov (1881–1941), a professor at Petrograd (Leningrad) University, the author of many works on the history of Kievan Rus and ancient Russian chronicles. M.D. Priselkov refused to work at the Solovetsky Museum (there was such an institution in SLON), saying “I have already been imprisoned for studying history.” He was sent to a quarantine company, from where he was rescued by the entourage of Vladyka Victor and Dmitry Likhachev.
“Vladyka (Victor) died,” writes D.S. Likhachev, “soon after his “liberation” in exile in the Arkhangelsk region, where he was sent after the camp, in extreme poverty and torment.”
Vladyka Victor ended up in Solovki for “anti-Soviet agitation”; he was exiled to his last place of imprisonment (and his death) for “creating an anti-Soviet organization.” These are typical accusations for which a great many Orthodox clergy were repressed at that time. By the Bishops' Jubilee Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000, Vladyka Victor was canonized as the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Now you can read a large article about him in Volume VIII of the Orthodox Encyclopedia. There is a photograph and icon of this martyr. In the bibliography of the articles there is also an indication of “Memoirs” by D.S. Likhachev.
For Dmitry Likhachev, the “other bright man” on Solovki was the already mentioned father Nikolai Piskanovsky. “He could not be called cheerful,” recalls D.S. Likhachev, “but he always radiated inner calm in the most difficult circumstances. I don’t remember him laughing or smiling, but meeting him was always somehow comforting. And not only for me. I remember how he told my friend, who had been tormented for a year by the lack of letters from his relatives, that he should be patient a little, and that the letter would come soon, very soon. I was not present at this and therefore cannot quote here the exact words of Father Nikolai, but the letter arrived the next day. I asked Father Nikolai how he could know about the letter? And Father Nikolai answered me that he didn’t even know, but somehow “it was said.” But there were a lot of people like that. Father Nikolai had an antimension, and he subsequently celebrated the Liturgy in a whisper in the sixth (“priestly”) company.”
Dmitry Sergeevich wrote about Father Nikolai back on Solovki (in a secret diary): “he was our spiritual father all the time before his departure from the Island.” And then I wrote about the first meeting with him as a miraculous event: “I sat on the windowsill and peacefully mended my cassock, giving me a charge of extraordinary calm on the very first morning after arriving in Solovki: a miracle! [yes that’s how it was].”
Dmitry Likhachev walked his way of the cross on Solovki next to such people. Moreover, remembering Solovki and the White Sea-Baltic camp, he almost always talks about others, about their suffering, about their high spiritual dignity, and not about himself, not about his difficult trials. He mentions himself lightly, and even writes about evil people rather sparingly and restrainedly. But D.S. Likhachev is ready to talk endlessly about the spiritual beauty in the suffering of a person graciously shining with mercy and other virtues.
“What did I learn in Solovki? - Dmitry Sergeevich asks himself. - First of all, I realized that every person is a person. My life was saved by the “burglar” (apartment burglar) and the king of all lesson on Solovki, bandit Ivan Yakovlevich Komissarov, with whom I lived in the same cell for about a year. After hard physical labor and typhus, I worked as an employee of the Criminological Committee and organized a labor colony for teenagers - I looked for them all over the island, saved them from death, kept records of their stories about themselves... I came out of all this trouble with a new knowledge of life and with a new state of mind. The good that I managed to do for hundreds of teenagers, saving their lives, and many other people, the good received from the fellow prisoners themselves, the experience of everything I saw gave rise to some kind of very deep-seated peace and mental health in me. I did not bring evil, did not approve of evil, managed to develop a keen sense of observation in myself, and was even able to carry out scientific work unnoticed. Perhaps it was precisely this scientific desire to observe that helped me survive, making me, as it were, an “outsider” to everything that happened to me.”
From the Solovetsky notes, preserved from 1928–1930:
“It was awkward to take off my shirt [wearing a gold cross; the doctors didn’t pay attention].”
Dmitry Sergeevich brought with him to Solovki “the lightest children’s duvet, which weighed almost nothing” (by the end of the 1920s, people already “knew what a prison, a stage, a camp was, and they knew how to equip those deported - what to give them on the road. It was necessary for the luggage to be light"). With difficulty covering himself with this small blanket, he recalled his childhood, warmed by prayer and parental love: “Lying under a child’s blanket is a feeling of home, family, parents’ cares and a child’s prayer at night: “Lord, have mercy on mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, Misha.” , nanny... And have mercy and save everyone.” Under the pillow, which I always cross at night, there is a small silver fold. A month later, the company commander found it and took it away from me: “It’s not allowed.” A word that is sickeningly familiar in camp life!”
7. One day from the Solovetsky life of Dmitry Sergeevich
It is necessary to tell a special story about one day in the life of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev on Solovki.
Visits with relatives on Solovki were usually allowed twice a year. In the late autumn of 1929, his parents, Sergei Mikhailovich and Vera Semyonovna, came to see Dmitry Likhachev on a date (for the second time). On the days allotted for the visit, the prisoner could live not in the company, but, for example, in the room of a civilian guard, rented by those who came for the visit. There was even a “photography” on the Island, where, with the permission of the camp authorities, you could take pictures with those visiting.
Periodically, “routine” arrests and executions were carried out in the camp. Their purpose, apparently, was twofold: firstly, to keep all prisoners in fear, and secondly, to make room for new parties of “enemies of the people.” They shot imaginary “rebels” and simply obstinate prisoners, often shooting on the basis of false denunciations and fictitious accusations. “Those executed without orders were written off as having died of disease.”
Just during the arrival of D.S. Likhachev’s parents, a wave of arrests and executions began. At the end of their stay on the Island, people from the company came to Dmitry Sergeevich in the evening and said: “They came for you!” “Everything was clear: they came to arrest me,” recalls D.S. Likhachev. “I told my parents that I was being called for urgent work and left: my first thought was: let them not arrest me in front of my parents.”
Then he went to one of the prisoners, Alexander Ivanovich Melnikov, who lived above the 6th company near the Filippovskaya Church, and received a strict reprimand from him: “If they came for you, there is no point in letting others down. You may be followed." And here is a further description of this terrible day in the life of Dmitry Sergeevich: “When I went out into the yard, I decided not to return to my parents, I went to the wood yard and shoved myself between the woodpiles. The firewood was long - for monastery stoves. I sat there until the crowd rushed to work, and then I got out, surprising no one. What I suffered there, hearing the shots of the executioners and looking at the stars of the sky (I didn’t see anything else all night)!
Since that terrible night there has been a revolution in me. I won’t say that everything happened at once. The coup took place over the next 24 hours and became increasingly stronger. The night was just a push.
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 have to live for two. So that the one who was taken for me would not be ashamed! There was something in me that remained in the future that the “bossies” stubbornly did not like. At first I blamed everything on my student cap, but I continued to stubbornly wear it until Belbaltlag. Not “one of our own”, “class alien” - that’s clear. I returned to my parents that day calm. Soon an order was received to stop the prisoners from visiting their relatives.”
So Dmitry Sergeevich learned to perceive every day of his life as a new gift from God. Hence his surprisingly careful attitude towards time, towards his responsibilities, towards the people around him. Therefore, describing his trip to Solovki in 1966, Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev wrote: “My stay on Solovki was the most significant period of my life.” It was not for nothing that he perceived Solovki not as a camp, but as a holy place.
...And again the questions arise: “Why was D.S. Likhachev imprisoned? For the defense of old Russian spelling? For the ridiculous telegram supposedly sent from the Pope? For participation in the “Space Academy of Sciences”?”
Not only and, perhaps, not so much for this. His friends from the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov also ended up on Solovki. In his work “Russian Intelligentsia,” Dmitry Sergeevich recalls how he and his comrades listened to the verdict passed on them without trial: “It was in 1928, around the beginning of October. We were all summoned to the head of the prison in connection with the case of the student circle “Space Academy of Sciences” and the Brotherhood of Seraphim of Sarov…”3. This means that the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov was also involved in the case, and not just the “Space Academy of Sciences”. And this is understandable for those years when any religious activity was perceived by the godless authorities as ideological sabotage.
Solovki remained in the heart of Dmitry Sergeevich for the rest of his life...
Having visited Solovki in 1966 (for the first time after his imprisonment), Dmitry Sergeevich walked a lot around the island “alone, remembering places, marveling at the changes that took place during the years of transformation of SLON into STON (Solovetsky Prison for Special Purposes). The traces of the MOAN were much worse than the traces of the ELEPHANT: there were even bars on the windows of buildings that were considered uninhabitable under the ELEPHANT.”
“I arrived in Solovki when the island was shrouded in thick fog. “Tataria” sounded its horn at regular intervals so as not to bump into any ship. Only when we came close to the pier did the building of the Administration of the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp become visible. I left Solovki in wonderful sunny weather. The entire length of the island was visible. I will not describe the feelings that overwhelmed me when I realized the enormity of this common grave - not only of people, each of whom had their own spiritual world, but also of Russian culture - the last representatives of the Russian “Silver Age” and the best representatives of the Russian Church. How many people did not leave any traces of themselves, because even those who remembered them died. And the Solovki residents did not rush off to the south, as was sung in the Solovetsky song, but for the most part died either here on the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago, or in the North in the deserted villages of the Arkhangelsk region and Siberia.”
Another - the last - visit of D.S. Likhachev to Solovki was associated with the filming of the film “I Remember”. The filming went well and the weather was wonderful. But in general, Solovki left a difficult impression on the scientist. “The holy gates of the Solovetsky Kremlin were demolished on the site of the Onufrievsky cemetery, houses grew up, including the blue house at the site of the 1929 executions. On Bolshoi Zayatsky Island, the Petrovskaya Church lost its casing, torn off for fuel. Extreme destruction occurred to monuments on Anzer, in Muksalm, in Savvatiev...”
“Solovki the monastery, Solovki the camp, Solovki the prison retreated even more into the realm of oblivion. One monument for all the hundreds of graves, ditches, pits in which thousands of corpses are buried, opened after my last visit to Solovki, should, it seems to me, even more emphasize the depersonalization, oblivion, and erasure of the past.”
D.S. Likhachev mourns the lost monuments as if they were people who died without proper burial. And against oblivion, he reminds us of memory: “Memory, I repeat, is overcoming time, overcoming death. This is its greatest moral significance. “Unmemorable” is, first of all, an ungrateful, unscrupulous person, and therefore, to some extent, incapable of selfless actions. An indicator of culture is the attitude towards monuments. Remember Pushkin's lines:
Two feelings are wonderfully close to us,
The heart finds food in them:
Love for the native ashes,
Love for fathers' coffins.
Life-giving shrine!
The earth would be dead without them..."
The epigraph to the “Memoirs” published in 1997, Dmitry Sergeevich put the words of the funeral church prayer: “And create for them, Lord, eternal memory...”.
8. Blockade
On June 11, 1941, D.S. Likhachev successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on the Novgorod chronicles, and just eleven days later the war began.
Likhachev showed up at the recruiting station, but due to health reasons (which had been undermined in Solovki, where Likhachev developed a peptic ulcer), they refused to call him to the front and left him in Leningrad. Together with thousands of Leningraders, Dmitry Sergeevich and his family (wife Zinaida Aleksandrovna and four-year-old twin daughters Vera and Lyudmila) experienced the terrible hardships of the siege.
In his memoirs about the blockade, Dmitry Sergeevich writes: “During the famine, people showed themselves, exposed themselves, freed themselves from all sorts of tinsel: some turned out to be wonderful, unparalleled heroes, others - villains, scoundrels, murderers, cannibals. There was no middle ground. Everything was real. The heavens opened and God was visible in the heavens. The good ones saw him clearly. Miracles happened." Dmitry Sergeevich, as once in the camp, was ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. Of course, he does not emphasize this in his memoirs, but from the few slips of the tongue one can understand that at times he committed acts that required truly heroic self-sacrifice.
Here he supports the literary critic V.L. Komarovich, giving him his portion of bread, feeding him with crackers and a bar of glucose, here he walks at night through a deserted frosty city, risking falling and not getting up from exhaustion, in order to transfer a ticket for an evacuation plane to another of his colleague N.P. Andreev, now spends his last strength in order to drag the man who fell on its steps into the dining room. These and similar actions, in conditions where every extra effort brought one closer to death, and every extra crumb of bread gave hope of survival, were real self-sacrifice. “D.S. Likhachev, despite his dystrophy, showed his colleagues an example of perseverance,” G.K. Wagner said in his speech on the 90th anniversary of the scientist.
Likhachev was given the strength to gain such perseverance by faith and prayer. “In the morning we prayed, the children too,” he says about the “siege” way of life of his family. “When we walked along the street, we usually chose the side that was from the direction of the shelling - the western one, but during the shelling we did not hide. A German shot was clearly heard, and then, at the count of 11, an explosion. When I heard a burst, I always counted and, counting to 11, prayed for those who died from the burst.” On March 1, 1942, Dmitry Sergeevich’s father died of exhaustion. It was not possible to bury him in a separate grave. But before taking the body to the morgue on a children's sleigh, Dmitry Sergeevich and his family took him to the Vladimirovsky Cathedral to pray here during the funeral service. In the same church, fifty years later, the funeral service for Dmitry Sergeevich himself will take place. All night before the burial, students and staff will read the Psalter over his coffin standing here.
Work also gave me strength to persevere. Having survived the difficult winter of the siege, in the spring of 1942 Dmitry Sergeevich began to “collect material on medieval poetics.” “But this is unthinkable! - exclaims G. K. Wagner. “Extremely exhausted, always dreaming of delicious food, never able to warm up, wrapped in an unimaginable blanket, with trembling legs and ... thoughts about medieval poetics.” Moreover, Likhachev not only collected materials for future works, but also in April-May 1942, co-authored with M.A. Tikhanova, wrote an entire book - “Defense of Ancient Russian Cities.” The life and scientific path of D.S. Likhachev continues.
9. “Repressed Science”
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev is known throughout the world as a great scientist. His name has long been inscribed in golden letters in the history of Russian and world science. He wrote dozens of wonderful books, hundreds of wonderful articles and letters; The list of the scientist’s works exceeds a thousand titles. A dry list of scientific conferences and other scientific events in which he took part would require a separate publication. Academician D.S. Likhachev has done a fantastic amount in science. But he could have done immeasurably more. To properly assess his scientific feat, it should be taken into account that only after the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', which occurred in 1988, he could write almost freely, and in the last years of his life, quite openly about ancient Russian literature, about Russian history, about his native culture. And for entire decades (1940–70s) the great scientist wrote in secret...
To clarify this statement, I would like to cite an excerpt from the preface of the famous biblical scholar Anatoly Alekseevich Alekseev to the book by Sergei Averintsev “Another Rome”. Speaking about the scientific activity of Sergei Sergeevich Averintsev (1937–2004), A.A. Alekseev, using the example of medievalists, shows how the ideological supervision of the prevailing atheism in those years did not allow scientists to freely present the results of their research in publications. “Natural human and scientific interest in the Bible and religion was suppressed in those years, and public discussion of these issues was not allowed. However, medievalists, that is, historians of medieval writing and culture, could not ignore them in complete silence; in one form or another they won their place in the press. Sometimes it was enough to use new terminology for camouflage, calling, for example, the Church Slavonic language “ancient Slavic literary written language,” or the Gospel as a monument of “traditional content.” In another case, it was necessary to emphasize the social and even anti-church character of any source in order to justify its study: thus, the study of the culture, literature and even theological thought of the Old Believers was widely developed, since they constituted a “protest” group in the history of the Russian Church, despite the fact that it was unacceptable All that remained was to study the works of their opponents. Linguistic or linguostylistic study of any religious source made it possible to lightly touch on issues of biblical studies and theology, which is why in Slavic studies the study of biblical manuscripts as sources on the history of the language became widespread, since almost all the sources of its medieval period were church, liturgical or theological in content.”
Likewise, the monuments of ancient Russian literature and literature studied by Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, almost all were church, liturgical or theological in content. And in order to publish them in a scientific or educational publication, in those years it was necessary to call them with some kind of substitute words. So, for example, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lidia Petrovna Zhukovskaya (1920–1994), who wrote brilliant linguotextological studies on the oldest manuscripts of liturgical Gospels in Rus' (Aprakos), in order to publish her works, had to call the Gospel “a monument of traditional content” in the title of her studies and books "
By using such terminological camouflage, real scientists did not sin against science, since any work found in ancient manuscripts can be called a literary monument. But a real scholarly philologist (as opposed to a poet or creator of literary prose) will not write only “on the table.” “On the table” he writes a diary, a memoir, as Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev probably did. And archaeographic descriptions, rediscovered texts of monuments and historical and philological developments must be introduced into scientific circulation and published by the scientist. Without this, there is no progressive development of philological science.
Therefore, until the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', Russian scientists, historians and philologists had to write secretly. Figuratively speaking, Russian science itself was repressed throughout the entire era of 70 years of atheistic captivity. This does not mean that learned people could not think or create. They both thought and created. Great scientists worked in the “sharashkas” described by A.I. Solzhenitsyn. The encyclopedic priest Pavel Florensky worked in concentration camps. As far as possible, Dmitry Likhachev did not abandon his scientific studies in Solovki.
Due to opposition from party bodies, he was not allowed to teach, although there were invitations. Only in 1946 did Likhachev manage to get a job at the history department of Leningrad State University, from which already in 1953 he was “survived” by overly zealous party leaders. But even during these six years, Likhachev managed to win the love and respect of students. Dmitry Sergeevich gave lectures on ancient Russian culture and ancient Russian chronicles, captivating his listeners with the world of Ancient Rus' at a time when the very pursuit of medieval studies looked like something ideologically unreliable, like “a retreat into the past.” With his very personality, with his life, he pointed out where the spiritual sources of the great Russian culture were. One of the then students of D.S. Likhachev, M.P. Sotnikova (now a Doctor of Historical Sciences, leading specialist in the numismatics department of the State Hermitage), recalls how in 1952 Dmitry Sergeevich went with students to Novgorod, which was still in post-war ruins. They also stopped in Khutyn - a village near Novgorod, in which the Khutyn Monastery is located, founded by St. Varlaam of Khutyn in the 12th century. “The lecture-excursion conducted by Dmitry Sergeevich among the ruins of the Khutyn Monastery made an amazing and indelible impression on the audience,” recalls M.P. Sotnikova. “Dmitry Sergeevich spoke about the miracles of St. Varlaam as historically reliable facts, that is, as only he could speak believer. For his young companions this was an astonishing discovery. The university graduates realized in hindsight that students were attracted to Dmitry Sergeevich’s lectures and seminars not only by the desire to learn from a scientist who knew the subject perfectly and was a paradoxical thinker. There was also an unconscious desire for spiritual communication with a person, special in that he lived as a Christian, which we, however, did not suspect then and could not understand. To his students, who grew up in the Pioneer and Komsomol, if not atheists, then certainly thoughtless atheists, Dmitry Sergeevich instilled the necessary need to think about human dignity, the meaning of life, God and turn to the Gospel. For me this was D.S.’s task. for the rest of my life."
The period of the so-called “thaw” almost completely coincided with Khrushchev’s violent persecution of the Orthodox faith, the Russian Church. The year of his inglorious excommunication from governing the country (1964) was marked by the creation of the Institute of Scientific Atheism at the Academy of Social Sciences (under the Central Committee of the CPSU). And this so-called “scientific atheism” kept a watchful eye so that, under the guise of science, nothing religious would seep into the life of the Soviet people.
Even for the publication in 1972 of a collection of biographies of the saints of the Ancient Church (under the title “Byzantine Legends”), Dmitry Sergeevich was “called on the carpet” and received a reprimand from a high-ranking cultural leader for deception - for what he published under the title “legends” in scientific publication of the lives of the saints! Isn’t this proof “by contradiction” that the lives of saints are not legends (in the sense of fiction), but very important monuments of the Christian faith, life and world literature?! The reason for the “destruction” was the following incident. The aforementioned boss, heading to work in the morning and driving a company car along a wide avenue of the northern capital, suddenly saw a line. Queues at that time (1972) were a common occurrence: as soon as something was “given” in some store (another interesting term is “thrown away”!), a line immediately formed. Sometimes experienced people knew in advance, in the evening, that in the morning they would “give” something in that store. (And those who wanted to subscribe to the Complete Works of F.M. Dostoevsky signed up several days in advance and were on duty at bookstores at night so as not to miss the subscription).
The line, which the sharp-eyed guardian of Soviet ideology saw, had a long tail just outside the famous bookstore. Arriving at work, he immediately called his subordinates and found out that the people were behind the Byzantine Legends. What are “Byzantine Legends”? These are the lives of the saints! There is a terrible ideological sabotage. And he, as the one in power, called the great scientist “on the carpet” and reprimanded him for “deceiving” Soviet science.
Dmitry Sergeevich recalled this episode of his life with irony: the main thing for him was that the book, despite all the ideological obstacles, was nevertheless published and his compatriots would be able to read in good texts the lives of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and the Venerable Mary of Egypt and other “Byzantine” saints. Having gone through the Solovetsky camp and having experienced many other sorrows, D.S. Likhachev was not at all afraid to say and write what he thought. But over decades of vigilant atheistic supervision of Soviet science, he learned well what Soviet censorship was, that not everything that a scientist could write would be published. And therefore, for decades (!), he put his deepest research into a verbal form acceptable for publication, without bending his conscience at all.
Speaking about Academician Likhachev as the world's largest specialist in Ancient Russian literature, I would like to once again recall his words already quoted above about how he developed a desire to study the literature and culture of Ancient Rus'.
“The wider the persecution of the Church developed and the more numerous the executions became at Gorokhovaya Two, in Peter and Paul, on Krestovy Island, in Strelna, etc., the more acutely we all felt pity for the perishing Russia. Our love for the Motherland was least of all like pride in the Motherland, its victories and conquests. Now this is difficult for many to understand. We didn't sing patriotic songs - we cried and prayed. With this feeling of pity and sadness, I began to study ancient Russian literature and ancient Russian art at the university in 1923. I wanted to keep Russia in my memory, just as children sitting at her bedside want to keep in their memory the image of a dying mother, collect her images, show them to friends, talk about the greatness of her martyr’s life. My books are, in essence, memorial notes that are given “for the repose of the dead”: you can’t remember everyone when you write them - you write down the most dear names, and such were for me precisely in Ancient Rus'.”
This means that writing books on Russian literature and culture was for him service to God, service to Russia, service to his people. And this did not hinder, but helped him to love the whole world of God, respect all people, treat with respect the people of another nation, their culture.
Answering the questions “How did ancient Russian literature arise? Where did she get her creative strength from?” Dmitry Sergeevich argued that “the appearance of Russian literature at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 11th century was like a miracle! Before us, as it were, immediately are works of literature that are mature and perfect, complex and deep in content, testifying to a developed national and historical self-awareness.”
Speaking “about the ideal by which Ancient Rus' lived,” Dmitry Sergeevich wrote that “now that we have perceived Europe as our own, which turned out to be a “window into Ancient Rus'” for us, which we look at as strangers from the outside, it is all the more clear to us that in Ancient Rus' there was a unique and great culture”3. It is not difficult to notice the bitter irony of the scientist here. He seems to be saying: having opened a window to Europe, we perceived it as our own, simultaneously losing a lot of our native, original spirituality and culture; but if we imagine ourselves as Europeans and already look at our native culture as strangers from outside, then let at least European culture be for us a “window into Ancient Rus'”! After all, for decades, Soviet scientists received scientific descriptions of monuments of Russian literature and culture (and photocopies of the best pre-revolutionary descriptions) from abroad, for example from the GDR. Here is your “window to Ancient Rus'”.
Academician D.S. Likhachev writes: “In the past, we got used to thinking about the culture of Ancient Rus' as backward<...>If we proceed from modern ideas about the height of culture, there were indeed signs of backwardness in Ancient Rus', but, as unexpectedly discovered in the 20th century, they were combined in Ancient Rus' with values of the highest order - in architecture, icon painting and mural painting, in decorative arts, in sewing, and now it has become even clearer: both in ancient Russian choral music and in ancient Russian literature.”
A deep understanding of the Orthodox enlightenment of Rus', which began under Princess Olga - “the day before the sun”, “the dawn before the light” - and accomplished under Prince Vladimir - the “Red Sun”, allowed Dmitry Sergeevich to create the invaluable publication “The Tale of Bygone Years” (1950 ed. ., 2nd ed. - 1996). And for a long time he called the hypothetical “The Tale of the Initial Spread of Christianity in Rus',” which he reconstructed on the basis of the text of “The Tale of Bygone Years,” the first work of Russian literature. The scientist also loved to analyze the “Philosopher’s Speech” from “The Tale of Bygone Years.” This “Speech” is the oldest description of world history in Rus'.
In order to more clearly imagine the moral ideals of Ancient Rus', Dmitry Sergeevich points to the collection of soul-helping teachings “Izmaragd” and writes that “a huge role in the creation of these ideals belongs to the literature of the hesychasts, the ideas of leaving the world, self-denial, removal from everyday worries, which helped Russian people endure its deprivation, look at the world and act with love and kindness towards people, turning away from all violence.”
In the book “Great Rus'”, published with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' and printed in Italy in 1994, Dmitry Sergeevich wrote the first part - “Literature of Rus' XI - early XIII centuries”, where an excellent analysis of such outstanding monuments is given Orthodox culture of Ancient Rus', such as the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion, the works of Prince Vladimir Monomakh, “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk”, “Kievo-Pechersk Patericon”, “The Walk of Abbot Daniel”, “The Prayer of Daniel the Zatochnik” and other famous monuments of ancient Russian church literature .
Dmitry Sergeevich wrote about all these works of ancient Russian literature many times, throughout his multi-creative life. But in the book “Great Rus',” which was published five years before the death of the great scientist, he was able to speak about these works of ancient Russian writers completely freely, using all the religious terminology he needed.
As in the book “Great Rus'”, in the articles of recent years published in the book “Russian Culture” (posthumous edition of 2000), one can find whole scatterings of his statements about the Orthodox culture of Russia. It is not for nothing that the publishers of “Russian Culture” placed on the book’s dust jacket a fragment of an ancient Russian icon depicting the consecration (dedication, the most reverent moment of Orthodox worship) of St. Demetrius of Prilutsky (†1392), whose name was Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev.
Perhaps his favorite reading from ancient Russian literature was the instructions of Vladimir Monomakh, collected under the title “Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh.” Pathetic excerpts from this amazing monument were published in anthologies on ancient Russian literature. Moreover, verse quotes from the Psalter were cut out. And the teachings of Vladimir Monomakh are generally based on the Psalter, and the reason for their writing was that Prince Vladimir Monomakh opened the Psalter and wrote what he wrote!
Dmitry Sergeevich was especially struck and surprised by Monomakh’s letter to the famous Oleg Svyatoslavich (“Gorislavich,” as the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” calls him, for the grief that he brought with his fratricidal wars to the Russian land). Monomakh writes a letter to the murderer of his son. And the murdered man was Oleg’s godson. Maybe he sets some conditions or demands to confess? "No! - writes D.S. Likhachev. - Monomakh’s letter is amazing. I do not know anything in world history similar to this letter from Monomakh. Monomakh forgives the murderer of his son. Moreover, he consoles him. He invites him to return to the Russian land and receive the principality due to inheritance, asks him to forget the grievances.”
“The letter was written with amazing sincerity, sincerity and at the same time with great dignity. This is the dignity of a person who is aware of his enormous moral strength. Monomakh feels himself above the pettiness and vanity of politics. Monomakh’s Letter should take one of the first places in the history of human Conscience, if only this History of Conscience is ever written.”
It was not for nothing that Dmitry Sergeevich was called the conscience of the nation.
To better understand the spiritual world and spiritual path of Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, it is also good to read his “Letters about the Good and the Beautiful,” published in 1985 and 1988.
In letter 25, “At the behest of conscience,” he writes: “The best behavior is that which is determined not by external recommendations, but by spiritual necessity. Mental necessity is, perhaps, especially good when it is unaccountable. You need to do the right thing, without thinking, without thinking for a long time. The unaccountable spiritual need to do well, to do good to people is the most valuable thing in a person.”
And in the 7th letter, “What unites people?” D.S. Likhachev reveals the content of morality: “Morality is characterized to the highest degree by a feeling of compassion. In compassion there is the consciousness of one’s unity with humanity and the world (not only people, nations, but also with animals, plants, nature, etc.). A feeling of compassion (or something close to it) makes us fight for cultural monuments, for their preservation, for nature, individual landscapes, for respect for memory. In compassion there is a consciousness of one’s unity with other people, with a nation, people, country, universe. That is why the forgotten concept of suffering requires its full revival and development.”
The book “Russian Culture”, published shortly after the death of academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, contains a number of his last articles, as well as the texts of some works of previous years, which were previously published in abbreviations in collections of his works published during his lifetime.
The book “Russian Culture” can be perceived as the scientist’s testament to his people, especially to the younger generation of Russia. This book contains many valuable words about young people and for young people.
The first article in this book is called “Culture and Conscience.” The second is “Culture as a holistic environment.” It is difficult to quote from these small works. It would be better to read them in their entirety. Faith, conscience, morality, culture and life appear in them in a convincing unity.
“The guardian of a person’s freedom is his conscience.”
“If a person believes that he is free, does this mean that he can do whatever he pleases? Of course not. And not because someone from the outside imposes prohibitions on him, but because a person’s actions are often dictated by selfish motives. The latter are incompatible with free decision-making.”
10. Holy Rus'
Dmitry Sergeevich's culture was coupled with holiness. Defending culture, he defended the shrines of his native land.
“Culture is what largely justifies before God the existence of a people and a nation.”
“Culture is the shrines of the people, the shrines of the nation.
What, in fact, is the old and already somewhat hackneyed, worn-out (mainly from arbitrary use) concept of “Holy Rus'”? This, of course, is not just the history of our country with all its inherent temptations and sins, but the religious values of Russia: churches, icons, holy places, places of worship and places associated with historical memory.”
In 1992, the Russian Orthodox Church solemnly celebrated the 600th anniversary of the repose of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The Moskovsky Rabochiy publishing house published a wonderful book, “Biographies of Memorable People of the Russian Land (X-XX Centuries).” These are the lives of saints, only not “Byzantine” ones, but those who shone in the Russian land. The beautiful texts of the lives (with scientific commentaries at the end of the book) are preceded by two prefaces: one by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', and the other by Academician D.S. Likhachev. His preface is called “Holy Rus'”. To any person who doubts the Orthodox confession of Dmitry Sergeevich, pointing to this hagiographic miniature, one can say, “Come and see!”
Here is the beginning of this amazing hagiographic title.
“How often in pre-revolutionary Russia one had to hear the words “Holy Rus'”. They were said when they were walking or driving or sailing on a pilgrimage, and this was done often: they went to venerate the image, relics, or simply went to a holy place. They were also remembered when, having heard bad news from the front or news of crop shortages or natural disasters, they prayed and believed: “God will not allow the destruction of Holy Rus'.”
What is Holy Rus'? This is not at all the same as Russia; this is not the whole country as a whole with everything sinful and base that has always been in it. “Holy Rus'” is, first of all, the shrines of the Russian Land in their conciliarity, in their entirety. These are its monasteries, churches, priesthood, relics, icons, sacred vessels, righteous people, holy events in the history of Rus'. All this seemed to be united into the concept of “Holy Rus'”, freed from everything sinful, and stood out as something unearthly and purified.”
But with what love Dmitry Sergeevich wrote about Orthodox Russian churches. In “Notes on the Russian,” he wrote that the banal descriptions of the Novgorod and Pskov churches as filled only with strength and power do not seem correct to him. “The hands of the builders seemed to have sculpted them, and did not “stretch” them with bricks and did not hew out their walls. They placed them on the hills - where it was more visible, they allowed them to look into the depths of rivers and lakes, and warmly greet “swimming and traveling people.”
Moscow churches are not the opposite of these simple and cheerful buildings. “Motley and asymmetrical, like flowering bushes, golden-headed and friendly, they are placed as if jokingly, with a smile, and sometimes with the gentle mischief of a grandmother giving her grandchildren a joyful toy. It is not for nothing that in ancient monuments, when praising churches, they said: “Temples are having fun.” And this is wonderful: all Russian churches are cheerful gifts to people, their favorite street, their favorite village, their favorite river or lake. And like any gifts made with love, they are unexpected: they suddenly appear among forests and fields, at the bend of a river or road.”
Dmitry Sergeevich drew well. In 1999, exactly a week after his death, his “Novgorod Album” was published. Ninety percent of the drawings in this album are images of temples and monasteries of Veliky Novgorod. The drawings were made by the scientist in the summer of 1937. To the question: “Dmitry Sergeevich, did you like to draw so much?”, he answered: “No, I just didn’t have the opportunity to buy a camera then.” In his album, Novgorod churches are also “having fun.”
Dmitry Sergeevich not only wrote scientific-historical works and articles about Orthodox Russian churches and monasteries, but also defended them from ruin many times. He most often (among prominent figures of science and culture) petitioned for the return of shrines to the Russian Orthodox Church.
His signature is under the petition letter of outstanding figures of Russian science and culture for the return of Optina Pustyn to the Russian Orthodox Church. This letter was sent to the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M.S. Gorbachev in 1987, on the eve of the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus'. On November 17, 1987, Optina Pustyn was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Petitions to high authorities about Orthodox churches and other architectural monuments of Russia brought Dmitry Sergeevich a lot of grief. In the book “Memoirs”, at the end of the chapter “Elaborations”, Dmitry Sergeevich writes: “I will not tell everything that I had to experience while protecting the Traveling Palace on Srednyaya Rogatka, the church on Sennaya, the church on Murin, and Tsarskogo Park from deforestation. Villages, from the “reconstructions” of Nevsky Prospekt, from the sewage of the Gulf of Finland, etc. and so on. It’s enough to look at the list of my articles to understand how much effort and time the struggle for the purity of Russian culture took away from my science.”
“Culture,” wrote Dmitry Sergeevich, “is a huge holistic phenomenon that makes people inhabiting a certain space from just the population into a people, a nation. The concept of culture should and always has included religion, science, education, moral and moral norms of behavior of people and the state.”
11. About the religious education of children
Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev wrote a lot for children and youth. Wanting to pass on the basics of spiritual and moral education to the younger generation, he wrote and published letters about good things, and compiled moral commandments based on the Gospel of Christ.
Here are some of them.
1. Love people - both near and far.
2. Do good without seeing any merit in it.
3. Love the world in yourself, not yourself in the world.
12. Be sincere: by misleading others, you yourself are deceived.
14. Learn to read with interest, with pleasure and slowly; Reading is the path to worldly wisdom, don’t disdain it!
22. Be conscientious: all morality is in conscience.
23. Honor the past, create the present, believe in the future.
In total, D.S. Likhachev wrote 25 such moral commandments.
Let us dwell on one of the commandments in more detail. This is his 17th commandment: “Be a believer - faith enriches the soul and strengthens the spirit.”
In Russia, several generations were brought up in atheism. First, militant atheism, and now secular (anti-religious) humanism developed and largely introduced into the consciousness of Soviet people the assertion that a child should not be raised in a religious tradition. He is still small! Let him grow up and then make his worldview choice.
Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev views this problem quite differently. He's writing:
“They are brought up in a religious spirit from childhood. Doesn't this restrict people's freedom to choose religion, freedom in general? No, because it is easier to give up religion than to join a large family of believers. By raising children in the precepts of a certain religion or creed, we make them more free to choose their faith than when we give them a non-religious upbringing, because the absence of something always impoverishes a person, and It is easier to give up wealth than to acquire it. Religion is precisely wealth. Religion enriches the understanding of the world, allows the believer to feel the significance of everything that happens, comprehend human life, and constitutes the most convincing basis of morality. Without religion, there always remains the temptation of selfishness, the temptation of isolation in one’s own personal interests.”
Speaking about school education, Dmitry Sergeevich also attached the most important importance to spiritual and moral education. “Secondary school should educate a person capable of mastering a new profession, be sufficiently capable of various professions and, above all, be moral. For the moral basis is the main thing that determines the viability of society: economic, state, creative. Without a moral basis, the laws of the economy and the state do not apply, decrees are not implemented, and it is impossible to stop corruption, bribery, and any kind of fraud. Without morality, the development of any science is impossible, because it is extremely difficult to verify experiments, calculations, references to sources, etc. People are educated: directly by religion, and in a more complex way - music (especially, I would say, choral singing), literature, art, studying logic, psychology, learning languages (even if they will not have to be used in life in the future).”
For many years, the ideologists of godless education of children in the USSR instilled in our people that religion is the opium of the people. While children were so zealously separated from the Church, real opium penetrated to children and youth. Those who now actively oppose religious education and upbringing are less afraid of drugs than of the Orthodox faith and culture. Academician D.S. Likhachev was convinced that children should be raised in a religious spirit from childhood.
12. About religion, about Orthodoxy
Academician D.S. Likhachev did not publicly discuss his religious feelings, he rarely wrote, but he firmly preserved his faith. In his notes “On Life and Death,” he wrote this: “Religion either occupies the main place in a person’s life, or he does not have it at all. You cannot believe in God “in passing,” “by the way,” recognize God as a postulate and remember Him only when asked.”
Speaking about Orthodox Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian, and most often Russian culture, academician D.S. Likhachev most often called Orthodox culture Christian culture, and Orthodoxy - Christianity, emphasizing the universal (worldwide) significance of Orthodoxy.
“What is the most important thing for me personally in Orthodoxy?” asked the great scientist. “The Orthodox (as opposed to the Catholic) teaching about the trinity of God. Christian understanding of God-manhood and the Passion of Christ (otherwise there would be no justification of God) (by the way, the salvation of humanity by Christ was inherent in the transtemporal essence of humanity). What is important to me in Orthodoxy is the very antiquity of the ritual side of the Church, traditionalism, which is gradually being abolished even in Catholicism. Ecumenism carries with it the danger of indifference to faith.”
These words testify to how well Dmitry Sergeevich knew Orthodox dogma and how much he valued holy Orthodoxy. A deep Christian faith filled his soul and heart with love for his native Orthodox culture. In 1988, he glorified Russian culture at the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' in his beloved city - Veliky Novgorod. He collaborated with the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. Once, while in Moscow on the day of memory of his mother, he fervently prayed for her in the Church of St. Joseph of Volotsk Publishing Department.
When Dmitry Sergeevich turned 90 in 1996, Metropolitan Vladimir of St. Petersburg and Ladoga congratulated him. The Bishop presented the icon of the Mother of God as a gift to the hero of the day, Dmitry Sergeevich reverently crossed himself and, like any Orthodox Christian, kissed the image of the Mother of God. And by the way he crossed himself and how he venerated the icon, it was clear that he always prayed, prayed throughout his long and difficult life. The whole country could see it on television.
And soon a note on the occasion of the anniversary appeared in the Izvestia newspaper (November 30, 1996): “The Time of Academician Likhachev.” In the note, in particular, there is the following evidence: “By the way, he was a believer, always, in Soviet times too.” Yes, indeed, Dmitry Sergeevich has always been a believer and in faith he drew strength for science, for saving cultural monuments, for helping people.
He did not separate science and culture from the Christian faith, from the Orthodox Church, just as he did not separate life from conscience, morality and spirituality. It was the organic combination of faith and knowledge, religion and culture, love for Russia and sincere respect for all peoples and people that helped him not only preserve a huge part of the Russian cultural and historical heritage, but also become a spiritual and moral reference point for his fellow citizens.
Dmitry Sergeevich has countless government and other awards and honorary titles. But some need to be mentioned. In 1996 (on his 90th birthday), he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree. In 1998, for his great contribution to the development of national culture, he became the first holder of the newly established (that is, restored) Order of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called “For Faith and Fidelity to the Fatherland.” Now it is the highest order of Russia.
The State Council of the People's Republic of Bulgaria twice (1963 and 1977) awarded Dmitry Sergeevich the Order of Saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius, 1st degree.
Dmitry Sergeevich left us his books, articles, letters and memories. And his literary legacy will remain the best testimony of his faith, hope and love. Just as he departed to the Lord on precisely the day of remembrance of the holy martyrs Faith, Nadezhda, Lyubov and Sophia. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 1:7). He kept this reverent feeling all his life, and the Lord gifted him with great wisdom.
When the scientific publication of the complete collection of works of Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev is carried out, then his spiritual and creative path will be revealed with even greater breadth and clarity.
Instead of a conclusion
In the newspaper “Izvestia” dated August 2, 2006, p. 6 printed a rather cynical note “Why I liked Vlad.” Subtitle: “Read in The Guardian.” That is, Izvestia reprinted an article from the specified foreign newspaper. The author of the note is Nick Peyton Walsh, who worked as a Guardian correspondent in Moscow for 4.5 years. The sarcastic and vulgar expressions of the author of the note are not subject to comment - let them remain on his conscience. But this internationally mocking publication has a summary, which the cheerful journalist Nick tells us through Izvestia:
“Trade, not politics, will bring Russia back to normal. Russians have irrevocably fallen in love with what is called “denhgi”. They fell in love with mobility and the benefits that a global world provides.”
So, we were not only counted, but also appreciated...
The great son of Russia, whose spiritual path of life we tried to trace, did not live to see August 2, 2006. But how would Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev react to such an assessment from the outside?
Archpriest Boris Pivovarov, Master of Theology, teacher of the highest qualification category
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