Background
Dmitry Likhachov was born on November 28, 1906, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He was a son of Sergey and Vera Likhachev.
1925
Leningrad State University student, Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachov.
1929
Prisoner Dmitry Likhachov in a meeting with his parents in the Solovetsky camp.
1962
Dmitry Likhachov at the Fifth All-Union Meeting on Old Russian Literature.
1967
Honorary doctor of the Oxford University, Dmitry Likhachov.
1987
Dmitry Likhachov in Nizhny Novgorod.
1989
People's Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Dmitry Likhachov.
1990
Dmitry Likhachov in the Oak Hall of the Soviet Cultural Foundation.
1998
Russian President Boris Yeltsin awarding academician Dmitry Likhachov with the Order of St. Andrew.
Naberezhnaya Kryukova Kanala, 15, St Petersburg, Russia, 190068
School №232 where Dmitry Likhachov studied.
14-Ya Liniya B.o., 39, St Petersburg, Russia, 199178
The St. Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation of the Russian Academy of Sciences where Dmitry Likhachov studied from 1916 to 1920.
Plutalova Ulitsa, 24А, St Petersburg, Russia, 197136
School № 47 where Dmitry Likhachov studied from 1920 to 1923.
University Embankment, 7/9, St Petersburg, Russia, 199034
Saint Petersburg State University where Dmitry Likhachov studied.
The Order of the Red Banner of Labour that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1966.
The USSR State Prize that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1969.
The Hero of Socialist Labour medal that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1986.
The Lomonosov Gold Medal that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1993.
The State Prize of the Russian Federation that Dmitry Likhachov was awarded posthumously in 2000.
The Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad" that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1942.
The Medal "For Valiant Labour during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1946.
The Medal "For Labour Valour" that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1954.
The Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1975.
The Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941 1945" that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1985.
The Jubilee Medal "50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" that Dmitry Likhachov received on 22 March 1995.
The Medal "Veteran of Labour" that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1986.
The Medal "In Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad" that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1957.
The Order of Georgi Dimitrov that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1986.
The Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1963 and 1977.
The Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" that Dmitry Likhachov received on 28 November 1996.
The Medal of Pushkin that Dmitry Likhachov received in 1999.
Dmitry Likhachov in Leningrad in the 1930s.
Mila, Zinaida Alexandrovna, Vera and Dmitry Likhachov in the 1950s.
D. S. Likhachev, G. V. Myasnikov and R. M. Gorbachev at the constituent conference of the Soviet Cultural Foundation. October 1986.
Russian postage stamp, 2006.
Russian postage stamp, 2000.
Russian postage stamp, 2011.
Dmitry Likhachov and Eugene Vodolazkin at the International Conference "Monastic Culture. East and West". June 1998.
(Among the most respected public figures in Russia today, ...)
Among the most respected public figures in Russia today, Dmitrii Sergeevich Likhachev has profoundly influenced generations of Soviet historians, literary scholars, philosophers, and other intellectual and cultural leaders.
https://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Russia-Dmitrii-S-Likhachev/dp/0367285355/?tag=2022091-20
1991
(This compelling and often traumatic book is the memoir of...)
This compelling and often traumatic book is the memoir of one of the most important figures in modern Russian history. It is an incredible account of of an intellectual's turbulent journey through 20th Century Russia. Likhachev recounts the fortunes of people with whom he came into contact and produces the air of passed years in Russia.
https://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Russian-Soul-Dmitry-Likhachev/dp/9639116467/?tag=2022091-20
1997
Dmitry Likhachov was born on November 28, 1906, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He was a son of Sergey and Vera Likhachev.
Dmitry Likhachov attended Gimnaziya Imperatorskogo Chelovekolyubivogo Obshchestva (now School № 232). He also studied at Karl May School (now the St. Petersburg Institute for Informatics and Automation of the Russian Academy of Sciences) from 1916 to 1920 and later at Unified Soviet Labor School № 10.
In 1923, Likhachov entered the Department of Linguistics and Literature of Leningrad State University (now Saint Petersburg State University). He graduated in 1928 and was arrested and accused of being a member of what Remnick called, "a students' literary group called the Cosmic Academy of Sciences".
In 1941 Likhachyov presented his thesis "The Novgorod Annalistic Corpus of the 12th Century" and received the Candidate of Sciences degree. In 1947, he received his Doctorate in Philology, having presented his thesis "Essays on the History of Annalistic Literary Forms of the 11th–16th Centuries". Likhachyov received an honorary doctorate from the Oxford University in 1964.
Dmitry Likhachov started his career as a linguist in 1928 when he wrote a short report about old Russian spelling. Soon he was arrested and sentenced to 5 years for counter-revolutionary activities. He spent nine-month in jail and then exiled without trial and spent five years in the USSR's first concentration camp, located on the Solovetsky Islands. Likhachov studied "criminal folklore" and wrote his first scientific article, "Card Games of Criminals", in the camp. He gathered material about the language of thieves and later published articles and a book about thieves' slang and customs.
In 1929, Likhachov started to work as a member of the Criminological Cabinet. He helped to organize a labor colony for teenagers, saving them from death caused by hunger, drugs, and cold. In November 1931, he left the Solovki prison camp and became a worker on the construction of the Stalin White Sea-Baltic Canal. Likhachov was released on parole and returned to Leningrad where he worked as a literary editor.
In 1934, he became a proofreader in the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1936, Dmitry Likhachyov's criminal record was cleared and two years later he became a Junior research associate at Literary Museum of the Institute of Russian Literature. In 1941, Likhachov was appointed a senior research associate and held this post until his death. He also worked as Head of the Sector of Old Russian Literature and Head of the department of Old Russian Literature.
Dmitry Likhachov was appointed to a post of a professor at the Leningrad State University (now Saint Petersburg State University) in 1951 and worked there for three years. In 1958, he went to Bulgaria in order to work in archives. Likhachov also participated in the International Conferences on poetics that were held in 1960, 1961 and 1973. Likhachov led the Archaeographic Group of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1972 to 1999. He served as First President of the Russian Cultural Fund from 1986 to 1993. He also worked as an editor and author at Nauka publisher from 1997 to 1999.
Dmitry Likhachov wrote such books as Defense of Old Russian Towns, Russian Chronicles and Their Cultural Significance, Human Dimension of the Old Russian Literature, Poetics of Old Russian Literature, The Great Heritage: The Classical Literature of Old Rus and many others. He wrote a lot of articles and research papers including introductory articles of the monumental series "Library of the literature of Ancient Russia".
(Among the most respected public figures in Russia today, ...)
1991(This compelling and often traumatic book is the memoir of...)
1997Dmitry Likhachov was born in the family of Old Believers of the Fedoseevtsy movement. He was respectful to the Russian Church, especially to the clergy who suffered in the prison camps. He was in close friendship with some of them. Likhachov said that he would like to be buried according to the Old Believers' customs.
Dmitry Likhachov was never a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and refused to sign letters against cultural figures of the USSR. However, he was not a dissident and tried to find a compromise with the Soviet government.
In October 1993, Likhachov signed The Letter of Forty-Two calling for the prohibition of communist and nationalist parties and movements. He also was a member of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991.
Dmitry Likhachov devoted his life to studying Russian literature and old Russian customs. He took part in the preservation and restoration of various cultural objects of St. Petersburg. Likhachov was a real patriot of Russia and an advocate for morality and spirituality.
Quotations:
"Nationalism lives in the shadows and only pretends to be based on love for one's country. But in fact, it is spawned by malice and hatred for other nations and for those people in one's own nation who do not share these nationalistic views."
"There is a profound difference between patriotism and nationalism. In the first case, you love your own country. In the second, you hate all others."
"Life is creativity. But it does not mean that in order to live, every person must be born as an artist, ballerina or scientist."
"There should not be blind to beauty, deaf to the word and unconscious to the past. And for this we need knowledge. We need the intelligence given by culture."
Dmitry Likhachov was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He also was a member of the Academies of Sciences of Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia and a corresponding member of the Austrian, American, British, Italian and Göttingen Academies, as well as a member of the Writers Guild of St. Petersburg.
Likhachov was a member of the Scientific Council of the State Russian Museum and the Soviet (Russian) Committee of Slavists from 1960 to 1999. He also was a member of the Leningrad Scientific Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, honorary member of the German Pushkin Society and the Commission on Human Rights at the Administration of St. Petersburg.
Dmitry Likhachov was an ambitious, honest and wise man. However, he also was a very stubborn, reserved and rigorous person. He was a stout-hearted man, as he managed to face the challenges and not to lose himself. Likhachov always strove for perfection in everything.
Quotes from others about the person
Evgeniy Vodolazkin, writer: He was a man of colossal internal temperament. Like magma sipping out of a volcano – just like that. There were cases, occasionally – two or three times, when his explosive character was felt.
Igor Dmitriev: The pride of the Russian people, the pride of the intelligentsia. I don’t know who can take his place and who can have the right to say so about any problems of Russian culture with such knowledge and such pain for her.
Dmitry Likhachov married Zinaida Makarovna in 1936. The marriage produced two daughters.
His daughter Vera Likhachova became a historian of arts. Likhachov hoped that she could continue her father's legacy, but Vera died in a car accident on September 11, 1981. His second daughter Lyudmila Likhachova died soon after Likhachov's death.