[DBWI] On the anniversary of the death of D. S. Mirsky

D. S. Mirsky, who had long explained Russian literature to the English-speaking world, died today in Moscow in 1989. (He had finally returned to Russia earlier that year in the wake of Gorbachev's reforms.)

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OOC: (1) For the actual (sad) facts about Mirsky's return to Russia and his arrest in 1937 and death in 1939, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._S._Mirsky

(2) In Winter in Moscow by Malcolm Muggeridge (1934), a character based on Mirsky is described as "a man who's managed to be a parasite under three regimes: Aristocrat under Tzarism, Professor under capitalism, Proletarian man-of-letters under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat". " https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=5407

(3) Mirsky's A History of Russian Literature is now available for free online. https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.544231/2015.544231.A-History#page/n7/mode/2up
 
BTW, here's my favorite passage from Mirsky:

"But his [Gorky's] second play, The Lower Depths, was a triumph. At home the wonderful acting of the Stanislavsky cast was the deciding factor. Abroad it must be explained by the extreme novelty of this sort of thing: the sensational realism of the setting and the novel pleasure of listening to the profound conversations of philosophical thieves, tramps, and prostitutes — 'so Russian!' The Lower Depths contributed more than anything else to the silly idea the average European and American 'intelligent' formed for himself of Russia as a country of talkative philosophers occupied with finding their way to what they call 'God.'" https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet...tory-Of-Russian-Literature#page/n399/mode/2up
 
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