Background
Ivanov, Viacheslav was born on February 16, 1866 in Moscow.
literary critic classical scholar poet
Ivanov, Viacheslav was born on February 16, 1866 in Moscow.
Studied at Moscow University, later in Berlin (pupil of Mommsen), Paris, London and Rome. Educated at Moscow secondary school. Studied at Moscow University, later in Berlin (pupil of Mommsen), Paris, London and Rome.
Lived in Italy, Greece and Switzerland. After 1905, the literary salon The Tower, run by him and his wife Lidia Zinov’eva-Annibal in Petersburg, became the centre of the Symbolist movement. Moved to Moscow in 1913, contributor to all Symbolist publications.
Professor of classical philology at Baku University in 1920. Emigrated in 1924. In Rome from 1926, converted to Catholicism. Professor of Russian language at the Vatican Oriental Institute, 1936.
By far the most erudite scholar-poet in an age of erudition, and one of the most colourful personalities of the Russian Silver Age.