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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
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