Dmitri Petrovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky

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Dmitri Petrovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky

Dmitri Petrowitsch Swjatopolk-Mirsky ( Russian Дмитрий Петрович Святополк-Мирский , often also in English transcription DS Mirsky; * August 27th July / September 8th  1890 greg. In Gijowka, Charkov Governorate , 1939 in Magadan Straflager , † June 6th, 1939 ) was a Russian writer, historian and literary scholar.

Live and act

The son of the Russian Interior Minister Pyotr Dmitrijewitsch Svyatopolk-Mirsky began to write symbolist poems at an early age . After serving in the tsarist army and on the “white” side in the civil war (on General Denikin's staff ), Svyatopolk-Mirski emigrated to Great Britain in 1921. There he taught Russian language and literature at King's College, University of London . As a university teacher he published studies on Pushkin and Lenin, among other things . His history of Russian literature (until 1900), which is still considered a standard work in English-speaking countries, became famous.

Svyatopolk-Mirski's political views developed more and more in the direction of Marxism , in 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and asked Maxim Gorky to mediate to be allowed to return to Russia. The desired permission was given to him in 1932, and despite warnings from friends, Svyatopolk-Mirsky decided to move ( Virginia Woolf noted on the occasion of his departure that he would "soon be bullet in the head"). At first, however, Svyatopolk-Mirski remained free, even played a certain role in the Soviet Writers' Union and was allowed to publish, for example (1935) a study on the intelligentsia in Great Britain. In 1937, however, as part of the Great Terror , Svyatopolk-Mirsky was arrested. He died in the gulag in 1939 .

Works (selection)

  • History of Russian Literature Munich, Piper 1964
  • Russia From Prehistory to the October Revolution , Kindler's Cultural History 1967, Essen Magnus Verlag 1975

literature

  • Gerald Stanton Smith: DS Mirsky: A Russian-English Life 1890-1939 ; Oxford University Press 2000 ISBN 0-19-816006-2

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Svyatopolk-Mirski, Dmitri Petrovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Svyatopolk-Mirski, Dimitri Petrovich; Святополк-Мирский, Дмитрий Петрович (Russian); Mirsky, DS
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian writer, historian and literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Gijowka, Kharkov Governorate
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1939
Place of death at Magadan