Academician Dmitry Likhachev

Already grown a generation that does not rememberDmitry Likhachev. But some people deserve to be remembered. In the life of this outstanding scientist and spiritual associate there was a lot of instructive. And for any thinking person it would not be superfluous to find out for himself who Dmitry Likhachev was, his brief biography is of interest.

Outstanding Russian thinker and scientist

Not much is found inthe social and political life of the Russian society of people whose value clearly rises above the momentary opportunistic passions. Individuals for whom the role of moral authority would be recognized, if not by all, then by a clear majority.

However, such people sometimes occur.One of them is Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachev, whose biography contains so much of himself that would be enough for a series of fascinating historical novels about Russia of the twentieth century. With all its catastrophes, wars and contradictions. The beginning of his life was in the silver age of Russian culture. And he died a year before the third millennium. At the end of the dashing nineties. And yet he believed in the future of Russia.

Some facts from the life of the academician

Dmitry Likhachev was born in 1906 inSt. Petersburg, in an intelligent family of modest affluence. Received a classical secondary education and continued the path to knowledge in the philological department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Leningrad University. To his misfortune, a semi-underground circle, which studied the ancient Slavic philology, functioned in the student's environment. Dmitry Likhachev was also a member. His biography at this point dramatically changes its direction. In 1928 he was arrested on a standard charge of anti-Soviet activities and soon found himself on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea.

A little later, Dmitry Likhachev was transferred to the construction of the White Sea Canal. He was released early in 1932.

After the Gulag

He went through the hell of the Stalinist camps,but the years of imprisonment did not break the young man. After returning to Leningrad, Dmitry Likhachev was able to complete his education and even achieve the withdrawal of a criminal record. He gives all his time and strength to scientific work. His research in the philological sphere is often based on the experience gained in the camps. During the war, Dmitry Likhachev remains in besieged Leningrad. Do not stop the research of ancient Russian chronicles in the blockade winter. One of his works is devoted to the history of the defense of Russian cities in the era of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Evacuated from the city along the Road of Life only in the summer of 1942. Continues work in Kazan.

His works in the field of history and philology are gradually beginning to acquire increasing importance and authority in the Russian intellectual space.

Continent of Russian culture

Worldwide recognition Dmitry Likhachev acquired inthe result of extensive basic research in various areas of Russian culture and philology from the early Slavic literature to the present day. Perhaps no one before him in such a comprehensive way described and researched the thousand-year content of Russian and Slavic culture and spirituality. Its inextricable link with the world's cultural and intellectual peaks. The undeniable merit of Academician Likhachev lies in the fact that for a long time he concentrated and coordinated the scientific forces in the most important research directions.

And once again became Petersburg, the formerThe Leningrad University, among other things, will be known also by the fact that Academician Likhachev Dmitry Sergeevich once studied and then conducted research and teaching activities for many years. His biography is inextricably intertwined with the fate of the famous university.

Community service

Not less significant than scientific, Dmitry Likhachevconsidered educational activities. For many decades, he gave all his strength and time to bring his thoughts and views to the masses. In its programs on Central Television in the second half of the eighties, an entire generation of those who make up the intellectual elite of Russian society grew up. These programs were built in the format of free communication of the academician with a wide audience of viewers.

Until the last day, Dmitry Likhachev workedpublishing and editorial activities, personally reading and correcting the manuscripts of young scientists. He considered it obligatory for him to answer all the numerous correspondence that came to him sometimes from the most remote corners of the country, from people who were not indifferent to the fate of Russia and Russian culture. It is significant that Dmitry Sergeevich was a categorical opponent of nationalism in any of its forms. He denied conspiracy doctrines in understanding historical processes and did not recognize Russia as a messianic role in the global history of human civilization.