The Idea of Russia

The Life and Work of Dmitry Likhachev

Vladislav Zubok

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781784537272
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786720535
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Literature

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

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Plates
• Preface A Russian Fox
• Acknowledgements
• A Note on Russian Names
• 1. Vanishing Russia, 1906–1921
• 2. Patriotism of Pity, 1921–1928
• 3. Through the Gulag and Great Terror, 1928–1941
• 4. The Great Fatherland War, 1941–1945
• 5. Patriotism Defiled, 1945–1955
• 6. Advocate of Cultural Legacy, 1955–1965
• 7. The Making of a Wise Man, 1966–1976
• 8. Recognition, 1976–1988
• 9. Preparing for Collapse, 1988–1991
• 10. The Smoke of the Homeland, 1991–1999
• Conclusion Death and Beyond
• Notes
• Select Bibliography and Further Reading