A whole generation has already grown up that does not remember Dmitry Likhachev. But some people deserve to be remembered. In the life of this outstanding scientist and spiritual associate there was much instructive. And it will not be superfluous for any thinking person to find out for himself who Dmitry Likhachev was, a short biography of his interest.
Prominent Russian thinker and scientist
There are not so many people in the socio-political life of the Russian society of people whose value clearly rises above momentary opportunistic passions. Persons for whom the role of moral authority would be recognized, if not by all, then by a clear majority.
However, such people are sometimes found. One of them is Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachev, whose biography contained so many that it would be enough for a series of fascinating historical novels about twentieth-century Russia. With all its disasters, wars and contradictions. The beginning of his life fell on the silver age of Russian culture. And he died a year before the third millennium. At the end of the dashing nineties. Nevertheless, he believed in the future of Russia.
Some facts from the life of the academician
Dmitry Likhachev was born in 1906 in St. Petersburg, in an intelligent family of modest affluence. He received a classical secondary education and continued his path to knowledge at the philological department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Leningrad University. To his misfortune, a semi-underground circle was functioning in the student community, which studied ancient Slavic philology. A member of it was Dmitry Likhachev. His biography at this point sharply changes its direction. In 1928, he was arrested on standard charges of anti-Soviet activity and soon found himself on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea.
A little later Dmitry Likhachev was transferred to the construction of the Belomorkanal. He was released ahead of schedule in 1932.
After the gulag
He had to go 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 removal of a criminal record. He gives all his time and energy to scientific work. His research in philological fields is often based on the experience gained in the camps. During the war, Dmitry Likhachev remains in the besieged Leningrad. Does not stop researching Old Russian chronicles during the siege of winter. One of his works is devoted to the history of the defense of Russian cities in the era of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. It is evacuated from the city along the Road of Life only in the summer of 1942. Continues to work in Kazan.
His works in the field of history and philology are gradually beginning to acquire more and more significance and authority in the Russian intellectual space.
Continent of Russian culture
Dmitry Likhachev gained worldwide recognition as a result of extensive fundamental research in various fields of Russian culture and philology from early Slavic writing to the present day. Perhaps, no one before him has described and explored the millennial content of Russian and Slavic culture and spirituality in such a comprehensive way. Its inextricable connection with world cultural and intellectual peaks. The undeniable merit of Academician Likhachev lies in the fact that for a long time he concentrated and coordinated scientific forces in the most important research areas.
And once again becoming Petersburg, the former Leningrad University, among other things, will also be known for the fact that it once studied here and then for many years conducted research and teaching activities, academician Dmitry Likhachev. His biography is inextricably intertwined with the fate of the famous university.
