Dmitri Likhachev

Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was born on November 28, 1906 in St. Petersburg. His father, the son of a church starosta, was an engineer of the Main Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs, his mother came from a family of unified faith merchants.

From 1914 to 1923 Dmitry Likhachev studied at first in the Gymnasium of the Imperial Philanthropic Society, then in the gymnasium and a real school of Karl May, and later in the Soviet labor school named after L. Lentovsky.

In 1923 Likhachev entered the Department of Linguistics and Literature of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Leningrad University (LSU, now St. Petersburg State University), where he studied simultaneously in two sections: Romance-Germanic and Slavic-Russian.

In February 1928, after graduating from LSU, Dmitry Likhachev was arrested for participation in the student's circle "Space Academy of Sciences" and sentenced to five years for counterrevolutionary activity.

From November 1928 to August 1932 Likhachev served his sentence in the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp. Here, during his time in the camp, Likhachev's first scholarly work, "Card Games of Criminals," was also published in 1930 in the magazine Solovetskie Isles. In July 1936, by decision of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR on the petition of Alexander Karpinsky, president of the Academy of Sciences, Likhachev had his criminal record expunged.

After an early release in 1932, he returned to Leningrad (St. Petersburg), worked as a literary editor and proofreader in various publishing houses.

Since 1938, Dmitry Likhachev's life was associated with the Pushkin House - Institute of Russian Literature (IRLI of the USSR Academy of Sciences), where he began working as a junior research associate.

In 1948 he became a member of the Academic Council, in 1954 he became head of the department, and since 1986 he has been head of the Department of Old Russian Literature.

During the Great Patriotic War from the fall of 1941 to the spring of 1942, Dmitry Likhachev lived and worked in besieged Leningrad, 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 medals "For the Defense of Leningrad" (1942) and "For Valorous Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". In besieged Leningrad he created the book "Defense of ancient Russian cities". (1942), in the war years he wrote the book "The National Identity of Ancient Rus'" (1945).

From 1946 Likhachev worked at Leningrad State University, first as an assistant professor and in 1951-1953 as a professor. At the History Faculty of the Leningrad State University he read special courses entitled History of Russian Chronicles, Palaeography, History of Culture of Ancient Rus' and others.

Dmitry Likhachev's fundamental research of the Tale of Igor's Campaign, the literature and culture of ancient Russia, the problems of textology. His major works include "Russian Chronicles and Their Cultural and Historical Significance" (1947), "The Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'" (1958), "Poetics of Ancient Russian Literature" (1967), "Artistic Poetics of Ancient Russian Literature" (1967). (1967), "The Artistic Heritage of Ancient Rus' and Modernity" (1971), "The Lay of Igor's Campaign and the Culture of its Time" (1978), "Notes on Russian" (1981).

In 1953 Dmitry Likhachev was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in 1970 - a full member (Academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1970).

He was a foreign member or a corresponding member of several countries academies of sciences: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1963), Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (1971), Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1973), British Academy (1976), Austrian Academy of Sciences (1968), Göttingen Academy of Sciences (1988), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993).

Likhachev was an Honorary Doctor of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun (1964), Oxford (1967), University of Edinburgh (1971), University of Bordeaux (1982), University of Zurich (1983), Lorand Eötvös 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 1956 he was a member of the USSR Union of Writers, was a member of the editorial board of the academic series "Popular Science Literature.

Since 1989 Likhachev has been a member of the Soviet (later Russian) branch of PEN.

Academician Dmitry Likhachev conducted public work.

The academician considered his most significant work as chairman of the editorial board in the series "Literary Monuments" at the Soviet (later Russian) Fund of Culture (1971-1993).

In 1989-1991 he was a People's Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from the Soviet Fund of Culture.

Dmitry Likhachev actively spoke in the media in defense of monuments of Russian culture - buildings, streets, parks. Thanks to the scientist's activity many monuments in Russia, Ukraine, Crimea and the Caucasus were saved from demolition, "reconstructions" and "restorations".

Dmitry Likhachev received many government awards for his scientific and social activities. Academician Likhachev was twice awarded the State Prize of the USSR - for the scientific works "History of the culture of Ancient Rus' (1952) and "The Poetics of Old Russian Literature" (1969), the State Prize of the Russian Federation for the series "Monuments of Ancient Rus' literature" (1993). He was a recipient of the Russian President Prize in Literature and Art (1997). In 2000 Dmitry Likhachev was posthumously awarded the State Prize of Russia for the development of the artistic direction of national television and 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 Golden Medal "Hammer and Sickle. He was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland II degree (1996), was the first Knight of the Order of Saint Apostle Andrey Pervozvanny (1998), and was also awarded many orders and medals.

On September 30, 1999 Dmitry Likhachev died in St. Petersburg. He is buried in the cemetery in Komarovo.

Since 1935 Dmitry Likhachev was married to Zinaida Likhacheva (1907-2001), née Makarova. In 1937 they had twin daughters Vera and Lyudmila.

In 1981 the academician's daughter Vera, an art historian and professor at the Academy of Arts, was killed in a car accident.

Ludmila Likhacheva was an art historian, a member of the staff of the Department of Old Russian Art at the State Russian Museum, passed away in 2001.

Granddaughter Zinaida Kurbatova (daughter of Vera) is a journalist and artist, granddaughter Vera Zilitinkevich (daughter of Lyudmila) is a professor at Manchester University in the United Kingdom.

The D.S. Likhachev International Charitable Foundation was established in 2001.

Dmitry Likhachev's name was given to the small planet #2877, discovered by Soviet astronomers, to the Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage in Moscow, and to the prize established by the government of St. Petersburg and the Likhachev Foundation. A square in St. Petersburg's Petrogradsky District is also named after Likhachev.

2006, the year of the centenary of the scientist's birth, was declared the Year of Academician Dmitry Likhachev by a decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

International Likhachev Scientific Readings are held annually. In 2016 representatives from about 30 countries took part in the XVI Readings.