Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon was a Russian scholar, essayist, and editor.
Background
Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon was born on July 1, 1869, in Chisinau, Moldova to the family of Pinhus-Joseph Leibovich (Joseph Lvovich) Gershenzon, a small businessman and private attorney from the city of Litin. His father was a bourgeois, then a merchant of the second guild, who later went bankrupt.
Education
Mikhail Osipovich studied history, philosophy, and political science at Moscow University, graduating in 1894.
Career
From graduation until the Bolshevik revolution Mikhail Osipovich was unable to obtain an official academic position because he was Jewish. He was a literary reviewer for Nauchnoe Slovo (Scientific word) from 1903 to 1905 and for Vestnik Evropy (Herald of Europe) in 1907-1908 and was literary editor of Kriticheskoe Obozrenie (Critical review), 1907-1909. Around this time, Gershenzon’s deep friendships were established with the writers of the symbolist circle (V.F. Khodasevich, as well as A.M. Remizov, F. Sologub). He collaborates with the Moscow religious-philosophical publishing house of the non-Slavophiles The Way, where he publishes the collected works of I. Kireevsky and P.Ya. Chaadaev.
In the publishing house of the Sabashnikov brothers, Mikhail Osipovich publishes and reprints most of his books, participates in the development of the series Monuments of World Literature, translates the works of F. Petrarch (1915). In March 1917, he became one of the organizers of the All-Russian Union of Writers and was its first chairman. After October 1917, he was actively involved in establishing cultural life in the country: a member of the Bureau of the Literary Department of the People's Commissariat of Education (1920-1921), a member of the board of the 4th section of the Glavarchive (since 1920), the head of the literary section of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (since 1921) and a member of its board (since 1923).
Mikhail Osipovich had a common-law relationship with Maria Goldenveizer from 1904 (Judaists and Orthodox Christians were unable to marry legally); they had a daughter and a son.
In December 1893, Mikhail Osipovich was awarded a gold medal for the composition "Athenian Politics of Aristotle and the Plutarch’s Biography", written on the initiative and under the guidance of P.G. Vinogradov. He hoped on the basis of this medal to achieve for Gershenzon at least a business trip abroad to continue his education, but none of this was possible.
In December 1893, Mikhail Osipovich was awarded a gold medal for the composition "Athenian Politics of Aristotle and the Plutarch’s Biography", written on the initiative and under the guidance of P.G. Vinogradov. He hoped on the basis of this medal to achieve for Gershenzon at least a business trip abroad to continue his education, but none of this was possible.