In these November days of 2016, we remember Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, a man from St. Petersburg, about whom it is difficult to talk about without slipping into pathos. But Daniil Granin, in his essays about his contemporary, perhaps managed to do this.

DMITRY SERGEEVICH LIKHACHEV.

The Likhachev phenomenon will seem incomprehensible to the future time. Once upon a time there was a scientist, a great scientist, he was engaged in ancient Russian literature, in essence, an armchair, book science. How did he become the spokesman for the public conscience in this troubled vast country, in these troubled years? Why are both the people and the authorities reckoning with him? Why, finally, all the corrosive time could not crush him, why did he resist, despite all the hardships, losses, persecutions? ..

Daniel GRANIN

The Likhachev phenomenon will seem incomprehensible to the future time. Once upon a time there was a scientist, a great scientist, he was engaged in ancient Russian literature, in essence, an armchair, book science. How did he become the spokesman for the public conscience in this troubled vast country, in these troubled years? Why are both the people and the authorities reckoning with him? Honored as the most worthy representative of the Russian intelligentsia?

Why, finally, all the corrosive time could not crush him, why did he resist, despite all the hardships, losses, persecutions?

Firstly, it was formed by a family of hereditary Russian intellectuals, and secondly, by the school. Spiritual strength brought up by school and family helped to survive in any conditions. He himself recalled: “In our school<…>encouraged to form their own worldview. Contradict existing theories. For example, I made a report against Darwinism. The teacher liked it, although he did not agree with me. I was a cartoonist, drawing on school teachers. They laughed along with everyone." This is how spiritual fearlessness was brought up.

And there was a third - a link. After the University, he was arrested for participating in a student circle, and he spent four and a half years on Solovki. But even there he contrived to engage in archeology, study the art of restoration, and studied the biography of homeless children. They confessed: "We're lying to you." And he was interested in how they lie, what is the philosophy of self-justification. Subsequently, Likhachev wrote works about thieves' speech, about the customs of thieves playing cards.

During the blockade, he managed to write, together with M. Tikhanova, the book “Defense of Old Russian Cities”, managed to withstand the tests of hunger, maintain dignity, although, while working on the “Blockade Book”, I was convinced how difficult it is, how hunger distorts people.

He knew how to use any of his misfortunes, defining this property with the term "resistance" - resistance.

He worked at the Pushkin House for more than 50 years. This was the style of his life: to live in depth, not in breadth. He liked the sedentary life. He considered it a blessing. It would seem that after all the disasters, the occupation of ancient Russian literature is an ideal refuge, a safe refuge in which he could hide from all the worries of the world. However, it didn't work out. And for many reasons. Time and again challenged him.

In the 60s, the idea of ​​rebuilding Nevsky Prospekt arose, and then for the first time I saw D.S. Likhachev "in action". It was in the sixties. Another attempt on the beauty of Nevsky Prospekt has ripened, another group of reformers undertook to remake the avenue. A major restructuring was planned. The lower floors of all houses were supposed to be combined into one common showcase, a special space was created, made into a pedestrian zone, buildings “of no great value” were replaced with new ones, etc. The project had solid supporters who wanted something "outstanding" to commemorate their stay at the helm. And so the discussion began. Dmitry Sergeevich delivered a speech. It was a brilliant speech. He proved that the restructuring of Nevsky is fatal for the whole culture, Leningrad, Russia, through which Nevsky Prospekt passes. I hung this speech, if I could find it, in the Architectural Department. Calmly and very tactfully, he refuted argument after argument of the chief architect and other planners, showing the inconsistency of their arguments. He tried not to offend personally, not to convict of historical and aesthetic mistakes, but behind his words one could feel that superiority of knowledge that it became impossible to argue.

In those days, for many, such a decisive tone of objection to the city authorities was unusual. Many were perplexed - what does this "ancient", scientist, specialist in the "Lay of Igor's Campaign" need, what is he fighting for? But the problem of personality and power is not only a problem of the intelligentsia. This is a problem for all decent people, no matter what strata of society they come from. Decent people are intolerant not of power as such, but of injustice emanating from power.

That disastrous project for the reconstruction of Nevsky Prospekt was rejected, and this was the great merit of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev. We are accustomed to the merits of creation, the merits of restoration, that was a different merit, perhaps no less - the merit of preservation. It is no coincidence that it was he who introduced the term "ecology of culture" and saturated this concept with concern for the preservation of the cultural environment, which is necessary for the spiritual settledness of a person. For moral self-discipline. Violation of the natural environment can still be restored, the destruction of cultural monuments for the most part is irreversible.

This is how his speeches began - in defense of the Catherine Park in Pushkin, Peterhof Park. Since then, he has become an obstacle for the Leningrad authorities, for all ignorant, selfish projects. The public rallied around him.

For many years he was kept restricted from traveling abroad. He was threatened. He was beaten in the entrance of the house. They set fire to the apartment. He remained adamant. In essence, just a decent person, by no means a dissident, but perhaps that was even more dangerous.

Of course, a wide audience perceived not his scientific works, not scientific, but moral authority. This is a very curious situation when a scientist becomes a conscience, a leader of the public, of the intelligentsia, and perhaps, to some extent, of the nation. Regardless of their academic work. We saw something similar in the case of Sakharov. You need someone you can trust. They believed Likhachev. As falsehood is felt, so the truth is felt, people understood that there is no gap between what he says, what he believes, and what he does.

He did not call for anything, did not teach anything. And if he taught, then the experience of his life. It was something we had never seen or heard before. And today we don’t see, we don’t hear anymore - after Likhachev. He is irreplaceable.

Likhachev had a deep, heartfelt ability to find the way to the soul of modern man. The road has become impassable, it is blocked. The soul is closed, buttoned up, protected in every possible way from attempts of various efforts to penetrate it in the name of one's self-interest, in the name of political considerations. It is difficult to approach a person today. Likhachev knew how to do it. What is the secret here, I don’t fully understand, this is high art, which is always a mystery.

He was a very big thinker. Once, at a discussion, talking about the future life, I spoke rather pessimistically. He remarked to this that pessimism is the privilege of Marxism, the most pessimistic doctrine, since it considers that matter is primary, and spirit is secondary, that being determines consciousness. This is what pessimism is - to assume that everything depends on the material world. In fact, the spirit is primary and consciousness determines being. This is the optimism of a person - a call to activity.

There was another feature that is especially important today - the style of his life. Likhachev's lifestyle is a challenge from the intellectual to the entire society of acquirers. The modest city apartment he lived in, cramped by modern standards for a world-class scientist, was littered with books. He received foreign guests from all over the world in small rooms in Komarov.

We often make excuses: “What can I do? What can we do? Everyone says it, at all levels: "I am powerless." And Likhachev alone, having nothing at his disposal except his word and pen - he had nothing else - he could.

It became a silent call to each of us: we can do much more than we do. We can be so much more than we are. We can if we don't look for excuses. Life shows that it is difficult, but not hopeless.

I think it is no coincidence that D.S. Likhachev connected his fate with St. Petersburg, he was faithful all his life to the culture of our city, its beauty, its intelligence, and for the city he will remain both pride and love.

Based on: Granin D.A., Likhachev's recipes / Whims of my memory, M., OLMA Media Group, 2011, p. 90-93 and 98-100; Granin D. Secret sign of St. Petersburg. - St. Petersburg: Logos Publishing House, 2000. - S. 339-344.

Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev lived, worked at full strength, worked every day, a lot, despite poor health. From the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp he received a stomach ulcer and bleeding.

Why did he keep himself full until the age of 90? He himself explained his physical stamina by "resistance." None of his school friends survived. “Depression - I didn’t have this state. There were revolutionary traditions in our school, it was encouraged to form your own worldview. Contradict existing theories. For example, I made a report against Darwinism. The teacher liked it, although he did not agree with me.

I was a cartoonist, drawing on school teachers. They laughed along with everyone. They encouraged boldness of thought, brought up spiritual disobedience. All this helped me to resist the bad influences in the camp. When they failed me at the Academy of Sciences, I did not attach any importance to this, did not take offense and did not lose heart. Failed three times!

He told me: “In 1937, I was fired from the publishing house as a proofreader. Every misfortune was good for me. The years of proofreading were good, I had to read a lot. They didn’t take him to the war, he had a white ticket because of a stomach ulcer.

Personal persecution began in the seventy-second year, when I came out in defense of Catherine's Park in Pushkin. And to this day they were angry that I was against cutting down in Peterhof, building there. This is the sixty-fifth year. And then, in the seventy-second year, they went berserk. They forbade mentioning me in print and on television.”

The scandal erupted when he spoke on television against the renaming of Peterhof to Petrodvorets, Tver to Kalinin. Tver has played a colossal role in Russian history, how can you refuse! He said that the Scandinavians, Greeks, French, Tatars, Jews meant a lot to Russia.

In 1977, he was not allowed to attend the congress of Slavists.

Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences Likhachev was given in 1953. In 1958 they failed at the Academy, in 1969 they were rejected.

He managed to save the construction of the Kremlin with high-rise buildings in Novgorod, he saved in St. Petersburg - Nevsky Prospekt, the portico of Ruska. "The destruction of monuments always begins with arbitrariness, which does not need publicity."

He took the Old Russian literature out of isolation, including it in the structure of European culture.

He had his own approach to everything: natural scientists criticize astrological predictions for being unscientific. Likhachev - for the fact that they deprive a person of free will.

He did not create a doctrine, but he created the image of a defender of culture, a real citizen

Even in dead-end cases, - says Dmitry Sergeevich, - when everything is deaf, when they don’t hear you, please express your opinion. Don't hesitate, speak up. I force myself to speak so that at least one voice can be heard.

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Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin, a Russian Soviet writer, public figure, raises the problem of the ability to adequately survive life's difficulties.

The problem raised by Daniil Granin is still relevant today. The author illustrated how Dmitry Likhachev experiences life's difficulties with dignity. Since his school days, he was encouraged for the courage of thought, which is probably why he developed such abilities how to confront circumstances, express your opinion, defend your point of view and learn from any misfortune.

The author is convinced that having qualities inherent in Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, will be able to survive life's obstacles with dignity. Daniil Granin calls to learn lessons from any misfortune, not to be offended and not to lose heart.

I fully agree with the opinion of the author, who calls for having your own approach to life's difficulties. Indeed, in order to survive the difficulties of life with dignity, you need a strong character, courage of thought, your own point of view.

An example of how strong a person was in spirit, how life did not break him despite all the misfortunes that befell him, we see in Mikhail Sholokhov's story “The Fate of a Man”. G

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Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev lived a long life. He was born on November 15 (November 28 - according to the new style), 1906, and died on September 30, 1999, just a couple of months before he reached 93 years old. His life almost completely covered the 20th century - a century filled with both great and terrible events in Russian and world history.

Speaking about our affairs and responsibilities, we usually divide them into important and petty, great and small. Academician Likhachev had a higher view of human life: he believed that there were no unimportant deeds or duties, no trifles, no “little things in life”. Everything that happens in a person's life is important for him.

« In life, one must have service - service to some cause. Let this thing be small, it will become big if you are faithful to it.».

Likhachev Dmitry Sergeevich

Everyone heard about Academician Likhachev, and more than once. He is called both "a symbol of the Russian intelligentsia of the 20th century", and "the patriarch of Russian culture", and "an outstanding scientist", and "the conscience of the nation" ...

He had many titles: researcher of the literature of Ancient Russia, author of many scientific and journalistic works, historian, publicist, public figure, honorary member of many European academies, founder of the Our Heritage magazine dedicated to Russian culture.

Behind the dry lines of Likhachev's "track record" is lost the main thing to which he gave his strength, his spiritual energy - the protection, propaganda and popularization of Russian culture.

It was Likhachev who saved unique architectural monuments from destruction, it was thanks to the speeches of Dmitry Sergeevich, thanks to his articles and letters, that the collapse of many museums and libraries was prevented. The echo of his speeches on television could be caught in the subway, in trolleys, just on the street.

It was said about him: "Finally, television showed a real Russian intellectual." Popularity, world fame, recognition in scientific circles. It turns out an idyllic picture. Meanwhile, behind academician Likhachev's shoulders is by no means a smooth road of life ...

life path

Dmitry Sereevich was born in St. Petersburg. According to his father, he is Orthodox, and according to his mother, he is an Old Believer (earlier, the documents did not write nationality, but religion). The example of Likhachev's biography shows that hereditary intelligence means no less than the nobility.

The Likhachevs lived modestly, but found an opportunity not to give up their hobby - regular visits to the Mariinsky Theater. And in the summer they rented a dacha in Kuokkala, where Dmitry joined the artistic youth.

In 1923, Dmitry entered the ethnological and linguistic department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Petrograd University. At some point, he entered a student circle under the comic name "Space Academy of Sciences".

The members of this circle met regularly, read and discussed each other's reports. In February 1928, Dmitry Likhachev was arrested for participating in a circle and sentenced to 5 years "for counter-revolutionary activities." The investigation lasted six months, after which Likhachev was sent to the Solovetsky camp.

Likhachev later called the experience of life in the camp his "second and main university." He changed several activities on Solovki. For example, he worked as an employee of the Criminological Cabinet and organized a labor colony for teenagers.

« I came out of all this trouble with a new knowledge of life and with a new state of mind,- said Dmitry Sergeevich. - The good that I managed to do to hundreds of teenagers, saving their lives, and many other people, the good received from the camp inmates themselves, the experience of everything I saw created in me some very deep-seated peace and mental health».

Likhachev was released ahead of schedule in 1932. He returned to Leningrad, worked as a proofreader at the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences (a criminal record prevented him from getting a more serious job).

In 1938, through the efforts of the leaders of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Likhachev's conviction was expunged. Then Dmitry Sergeevich went to work at the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House).

The Likhachevs (by that time Dmitry Sergeevich was married, he had two daughters) partially survived the war in besieged Leningrad. After the terrible winter of 1941–1942, they were evacuated to Kazan. After his stay in the camp, Dmitry Sergeevich's health was undermined, and he was not subject to conscription to the front.

The main theme of Likhachev the scientist was ancient Russian literature. In 1950, under his scientific guidance, two books were prepared for publication in the Literary Monuments series - The Tale of Bygone Years and The Tale of Igor's Campaign.

Dmitry Sergeevich was able to find in the Russian Middle Ages what connects us with the past, for a person is a part of society and part of its history. Through the prism of the history of the Russian language and literature, he comprehended the culture of his people and tried to introduce his contemporaries to it.

For more than fifty years he worked in the Pushkin House, headed the department of ancient Russian literature in it. And how many talented people Dmitry Sergeevich helped in life ... Andrei Voznesensky wrote that with his prefaces Likhachev helped to publish more than one "difficult" book.

And not only with prefaces, but also with letters, reviews, petitions, recommendations, and advice. It is safe to say that dozens, hundreds of talented scientists and writers owe the support of Likhachev, who played an important role in their personal and creative life.

Academician Likhachev became the informal leader of our culture. When the Cultural Foundation appeared in our country, Dmitry Sergeevich from 1986 to 1993 became the permanent chairman of its board. At this time, the Cultural Fund becomes a fund of cultural ideas.

Likhachev understood perfectly well that only a morally full-fledged, aesthetically receptive person is capable of preserving, preserving, and most importantly, extracting all the spiritual wealth of the culture of bygone times. And he found, perhaps, the most effective way to reach the hearts and minds of his contemporaries - he began to speak on radio and television.

Likhachev is a patriot by nature, a modest and unobtrusive patriot. He was not an ascetic. He loved travel, comfort, but lived in a modest city apartment, cramped by modern standards for a world-class scientist. She was littered with books. And this is today, when the craving for luxury has captured all sectors of society.

Dmitry Sergeevich was unusually easy-going. All journalists know how difficult it was to find him at home. Even at the age of 90, he was interested in the whole world, and he was interesting to the whole world: all the universities of the world invited him to visit, and Prince Charles helped him publish Pushkin's manuscripts and gave a dinner in his honor.

Even 2.5 months before his death in the summer of 1999, Likhachev agreed to speak at the Pushkin Conference in Italy. He died on September 30, 1999 and was buried at the Komarovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Notes and thoughts on the “little things” of life

Likhachev's latest books are like sermons or teachings. What is Likhachev trying to instill in us? What to explain, what to teach?

In the preface to the book "Letters about the good and the beautiful" Dmitry Sergeevich writes: " Try holding binoculars with trembling hands - you won't see anything". To perceive the beauty of the surrounding world, a person himself must be spiritually beautiful.

Remembering Dmitry Sergeevich, we read excerpts from his letters:

« What is the most important thing in life? The main thing can be for everyone their own, unique. But still, the main thing should be kind and significant. A person should think about the meaning of his life - look back at the past and look into the future.

People who do not care about anyone seem to fall out of memory, and people who served others, served smartly, having a good and significant goal in life, are remembered for a long time.

« What is the biggest purpose of life? I think: to increase the good in those around us. And goodness is above all the happiness of all people. It is made up of many things, and every time life sets a task for a person, which is important to be able to solve. You can do good to a person in small things, you can think about big things, but you can’t separate small things from big things ...»

« In life, the most valuable thing is kindness ... kindness is smart, purposeful. Knowing this, remembering this always and following the path of kindness is very, very important.».

« Caring is what unites people, strengthens the memory of the past, and is directed entirely towards the future. This is not a feeling itself - it is a concrete manifestation of a feeling of love, friendship, patriotism. The person must be caring. An uncaring or carefree person - most likely a person who is unkind and does not love anyone».

« Somewhere in Belinsky's letters, I remember, there is this idea: scoundrels always prevail over decent people because they treat decent people like scoundrels, and decent people treat scoundrels like decent people.

A stupid person does not like a smart, uneducated educated, ill-mannered educated, etc. And all this hiding behind some phrase: “I am a simple person ...”, “I don’t like philosophizing”, “I lived my life without it”, “Everything this is from the evil one, ”etc. But in the soul there is hatred, envy, a sense of one’s own inferiority».

« The most admirable property of man is love. In this connection people are most fully expressed. And the connectedness of people (families, villages, countries, the entire globe) is the foundation on which humanity stands.».

« Kindness cannot be stupid. A good deed is never stupid, because it is disinterested and does not pursue the goal of profit or “smart result” ... They say “kind” when they want to offend».

« If a person ceases to be a creative being and to be aspiring to the future, he will cease to be a human being.».

« Greed is a forgetfulness of one's own dignity, it is an attempt to put one's material interests above oneself, it is a spiritual crookedness, a terrible orientation of the mind, extremely limiting it, mental shriveledness, pity, an icteric view of the world, acrimony towards oneself and others, forgetfulness of fellowship».

« Life is, first of all, creativity, but this does not mean that every person, in order to live, must be born an artist, ballerina or scientist».

« You must live morally as if you were to die today, and work as if you were immortal.».

« The Earth is our tiny house, flying in an immensely large space ... It is a museum floating defenselessly in a colossal space, a collection of hundreds of thousands of museums, a close collection of works of hundreds of thousands of geniuses».

What is the Likhachev phenomenon after all? After all, he was, in fact, a lone fighter. He had neither a party nor a movement at his disposal, there was neither an influential position nor a government elite. Nothing. All he had at his disposal was moral reputation and authority.

Those who keep today Likhachev's legacy, we are convinced that it is necessary to remember Dmitry Sergeevich more often, not only when nationwide anniversary events are held.

It is felt more and more acutely that the time has come for an honest attempt to rethink what is happening with the country and all of us, which is why the appeal to cultural and moral values ​​is especially important.

A whole generation has already grown up that does not remember Dmitry Likhachev. But some people deserve to be remembered. In the life of this outstanding scientist and spiritual companion there was a lot of instructive. And for any thinking person it will not be superfluous to find out for himself who Likhachev Dmitry Sergeevich was, his brief biography is of interest.

Outstanding Russian thinker and scientist

There are not so many people in the socio-political life of the Russian society whose importance clearly rises above momentary opportunistic passions. Personalities who would be recognized as a moral authority, if not by all, then by a clear majority.

However, such people sometimes meet. One of them is Likhachev Dmitry Sergeevich, whose biography contains so much that it would be enough for a series of fascinating historical novels about Russia in the twentieth century. With all its catastrophes, wars and contradictions. The beginning of his life fell on the silver age of Russian culture. And he died a year before the third millennium. At the end And still believed in the future of Russia.

Some facts from the life of an academician

Dmitry Likhachev was born in 1906 in St. Petersburg, in modest means. He received a classical secondary education and continued his path to knowledge at the philological department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Leningrad University. To his misfortune, a semi-underground circle functioned among the students, studying ancient Slavic philology. Dmitry Likhachev was also a member of it. His biography at this point sharply changes its direction. In 1928 he was arrested on the standard charge of anti-Soviet activity and soon ended up in the White Sea.

A little later, Dmitry Likhachev was transferred to He was released ahead of schedule in 1932.

After the Gulag

He went through the hell of the Stalinist camps, but the years of imprisonment did not break the young man. After returning to Leningrad, Dmitry Likhachev was able to complete his education and even get his convictions removed. He devotes all his time and energy to scientific work. His research in the philological fields is often based on the experience gained in the camps. During the war, Dmitry Likhachev remained in besieged Leningrad. He does not stop researching ancient Russian chronicles during the blockade winter. One of his works is devoted to the history of the defense of Russian cities in the era of the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Evacuated from the city along the Road of Life only in the summer of 1942. Continues to work in Kazan.

His works in the field of history and philology gradually begin to gain more and more importance and authority in the Russian intellectual space.

Continent of Russian culture

Dmitry Likhachev gained worldwide recognition as a result of extensive fundamental research in various areas of Russian culture and philology from early Slavic writing to the present day. Perhaps no one before him has described and explored the thousand-year-old content of Russian and Slavic culture and spirituality in such a comprehensive way. Its inextricable connection with the world's cultural and intellectual peaks. The indisputable merit of Academician Likhachev also lies in the fact that for a long time he concentrated and coordinated scientific forces in the most important research areas.

And the newly-became St. Petersburg, former Leningrad University, among other things, will also be known for the fact that Academician Likhachev Dmitry Sergeevich once studied here and then conducted research and teaching activities for many years. His biography is inextricably intertwined with the fate of the famous university.

public service

No less significant than scientific, Dmitry Likhachev considered educational activities. For many decades, he devoted all his energy and time to bringing his thoughts and views to the masses of the people. On his programs on Central Television in the second half of the eighties, a whole generation of those who today make up the intellectual elite of Russian society grew up. These programs were built in the format of free communication between an academician and a wide audience.

Until the last day, Dmitry Likhachev was engaged in publishing and editorial activities, personally reading and correcting the manuscripts of young scientists. He considered it obligatory for himself to answer all the numerous correspondence that sometimes came to him from the most remote corners of the country, from people who were not indifferent to the fate of Russia and Russian culture. It is significant that Dmitry Sergeevich was a categorical opponent of nationalism in any form. He denied conspiracy doctrines in understanding historical processes and did not recognize Russia's messianic role in the global history of human civilization.

Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev

« Each of those living on Earth voluntarily or involuntarily gives lessons to others: someone teaches how to live, someone teaches how not to live, someone teaches how to act, someone teaches how not to or should not act. The circle of trainees can be different - these are relatives or close ones, neighbors. And only for a few, this circle becomes the whole society, the whole nation, the whole people, so they get the right to be called Teachers with a capital letter. Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was such a Teacher».
Vladimir Alexandrovich Gusev, Director of the State Russian Museum

November 28 being executed 110 years from the birthday of academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev- Russian thinker, scientist and writer, whose life was a great feat for the spirituality of the Russian people and native culture. In his life, which covered almost the entire 20th century, there was a lot: arrest, camp, blockade and great scientific work. Contemporaries called Likhachev "the last conscience of the nation".

Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev was born November 15 (November 28 - new style), 1906 in St. Petersburg, in a wealthy family Old Believers-bezpopovtsy of Fedoseevsky consent.

In their "Memories" Dmitry Sergeevich wrote: My mother was from a merchant background. According to her father, she was Konyaeva (it was said that the family name was originally Kanaev and was incorrectly recorded in the passport of one of the ancestors in the middle of the 19th century). By her mother, she was from the Pospeevs, who had an Old Believer chapel on Rasstannaya Street near the Raskolnichy Bridge near the Volkov cemetery: Old Believers of the Fedoseevsky consent lived there. Pospeevsky traditions were the strongest in our family. According to the Old Believer tradition, we never had dogs in the apartment, but we all loved birds».

Starting school in the fall 1914 almost coincided with the outbreak of the First World War. First, Dmitry Likhachev entered the senior preparatory class of the Gymnasium of the Imperial Humanitarian Society, and in 1915 went to study at the famous Gymnasium of Karl Ivanovich May on Vasilyevsky Island.

From left to right: Dmitry Likhachev's mother, his brother (center) and himself. 1911 d

From his school years, Dmitry Sergeevich fell in love with a book - he not only read, he was actively interested in printing. The Likhachev family lived in a state-owned apartment at the printing house of the current Printing Yard, and the smell of a newly printed book, as the scientist later recalled, was for him the best aroma that could cheer him up.

From 1923 to 1928, after graduating from the gymnasium, Dmitry Likhachev studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences Leningrad State University, where he receives the first skills of research work with manuscripts. But in 1928, only having managed to graduate from the university, the young scientist gets into Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp.

The reason for his arrest and imprisonment in the camp was participation in the work of a half-joking student "Space Academy of Sciences", for which Dmitry Likhachev wrote a report on the old Russian spelling, replaced by a new one in 1918. He sincerely considered the old spelling to be more perfect, and until his death he basically typed on his old typewriter. with "yate". This report was enough to accuse Likhachev, like most of his comrades at the Academy, of counter-revolutionary activities. Dmitry Likhachev was convicted for 5 years: he spent six months in prison, and then was sent to a camp on Solovetsky Island.

Likhachev family. Dmitry Likhachev - pictured in the center, 1929

Solovetsky Monastery founded by Saints Zosima and Savatiy in the thirteenth century, in 1922 was closed and turned into the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp. It became a place where thousands of prisoners served time. Back to top 1930s their number reached up to 650 thousand, of them 80% were "political" prisoners and "counter-revolutionaries".

The day when the stage of Dmitry Likhachev was unloaded from the cars at the transit point in Kemi he will remember forever. When disembarking from the car, the guard smashed his face with his boot into the blood, they tortured the prisoners as best they could. The cries of the guards, the cries of the stage host Beloozerova: « Here the power is not Soviet, but Solovetsky". It was this threatening statement that later served as the title of a 1988 documentary directed by Marina Goldovskaya “Solovki power. Certificates and documents».

The entire column of prisoners, tired and chilled in the wind, was ordered to run around the post, raising their legs high - all this seemed so fantastic, so absurd in its reality that Likhachev could not stand it and laughed: “ When I laughed (however, not at all because I was having fun)- wrote Likhachev in "Memoirs", - Beloozerov shouted at me: " We will laugh later, ”but did not beat».

In Solovetsky life, there really was little funny - cold, hunger, illness, hard work, pain and suffering were everywhere: " The sick were lying on the upper bunk beds, and from under the bunk pens reached out to us, asking for bread. And in these pens, too, was the pointing finger of fate. Under the bunks lived "sewn-in" - teenagers who lost all their clothes from themselves. They switched to an "illegal position" - they did not go out for verification, did not receive food, lived under bunks so that they would not be driven naked into the cold, to physical work. They knew about their existence. They simply bled them out, not giving them any rations of bread, soup, or porridge. They lived on handouts. Live while you live! And then they were taken out dead, put in a box and taken to the cemetery.
I felt so sorry for these "snitches" that I walked around like a drunk - drunk with compassion. It was no longer a feeling in me, but something like an illness. And I am so grateful to fate that six months later I was able to help some of them".

Russian writer, veteran of the Great Patriotic War Daniil Aleksandrovich Granin, who knew Dmitry Likhachev closely, wrote about his Solovetsky impressions: “ In the stories about Solovki, where he was in the camp, there is no description of personal hardships. What does he describe? The people with whom he sat, tells what he did. The roughness and dirt of life did not harden him and, it seems, made him softer and more responsive.».

Letters from parents to the Solovetsky camp to Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev

Dmitry Sergeevich himself will later say about the conclusion: “ Staying on Solovki was for me all my life the most significant period of my life. It is surprising that, recalling such a difficult time in his life, he calls it not a terrible misfortune, unbearable hard labor, the hardest test, but simply "the most significant period of life».

In the Solovetsky camp, Likhachev worked as a sawyer, loader, electrician, cowshed, played the role of a horse - prisoners were harnessed to carts and sledges instead of horses, lived in a barracks, where at night the bodies were hidden under an even layer of swarming lice, died of typhus. Prayer, the support of relatives and friends helped to transfer all this.

Life in such harsh conditions taught him to cherish every day, appreciate the sacrificial mutual assistance, remain himself and help others endure trials.

In November 1928 on Solovki, prisoners were exterminated en masse. At this time, parents came to Dmitry Likhachev, and when the meeting ended, he became aware that they had come for him to be shot.

Likhachev's parents came to visit their son in the Solovetsky camp

Upon learning of this, he did not return to the barracks, but sat at the woodpile until morning. The shots sounded one after another. The number of those who were shot ran into the hundreds. What did he feel that night? Nobody knows.

As dawn blazed over Solovki, he realized, as he would later write, “something special”: I realized that every day is a gift from God. An even number was shot: either three hundred or four hundred people. It is clear that someone else was "taken" instead of me. And I need to live for two. So that in front of the one who was taken for me, there was no shame».

Likhachev kept the sheepskin coat in which he went to the camp on Solovki until his death.

In connection with his early release from the camp, accusations began that sounded and sometimes continue to sound against the scientist, the most ridiculous of which is Likhachev's collaboration with the "authorities". However, he not only did not cooperate with the authorities in the Solovetsky camp, but also refused to read atheistic lectures for prisoners. Such lectures were so necessary for the camp authorities, who understood perfectly well that Solovki was a holy monastery. But no one heard Likhachev's atheistic propaganda.

In 1932, six months before the expiration of the term of imprisonment, 25-year-old Dmitry Likhachev was released: the White Sea-Baltic Canal, which was built by the prisoners, was successfully commissioned, and " Stalin, delighted- writes the academician, - freed all the builders».

After being released from the camp and before 1935 Dmitry Sergeevich works in Leningrad as a literary editor.

Dmitry Likhachev's life partner became Zinaida Makarova, They merried in 1935. In 1936 at the request of the President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR A. P. Karpinsky Dmitry Likhachev's conviction was expelled, and in 1937 the Likhachevs had two daughters - twins Faith and Ludmila.

Dmitry Likhachev with his wife and children, 1937

In 1938 Dmitry Sergeevich becomes a researcher at the Institute of Russian Literature, the famous Pushkin House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a specialist in ancient Russian literature, and in a year and a half writes a dissertation on the topic: "Novgorod Chronicles of the 17th century". June 11, 1941 he defended his dissertation, becoming a candidate of philological sciences. Through 11 days the war began. Likhachev was sick and weak, they did not take him to the front, and he remained in Leningrad. From autumn 1941 to June 1942 Likhachev is in besieged Leningrad, and then he and his family are evacuated to Kazan. His memoirs of the blockade, written by 15 years later, they captured a true and terrible picture of the martyrdom of the inhabitants of Leningrad, a picture of hunger, adversity, death - and amazing fortitude.

In 1942 scientist publishes a book "Defense of Old Russian Cities", which was written by him in besieged Leningrad. In the post-war period, Likhachev became a doctor of science, having defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic: "Essays on the history of literary forms of chronicle writing in the 11th-16th centuries", then a professor, laureate of the Stalin Prize, a member of the Union of Writers, a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.

Literature did not exist for him separately, he studied it together with science, painting, folklore and epic. That is why the most important works of ancient Russian literature prepared by him for publication are "The Tale of Bygone Years", "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", "Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh", "Words of Law and Grace", « Prayer of Daniel the Sharpener"- have become a real discovery of the history and culture of Ancient Russia, and most importantly, not only specialists can read these works.

Dmitry Likhachev wrote: Russia adopted Christianity from Byzantium, and the Eastern Christian Church allowed Christian preaching and worship in its national language. Therefore, in the history of Russian literature there were neither Latin nor Greek periods. From the very beginning, unlike many Western countries, Russia had literature in a literary language understandable to the people.».

Dmitry Likhachev at Oxford

For these works, devoted to ancient Russian chronicle writing and, in general, to the literature and culture of Ancient Russia, Dmitry Sergeevich receives both national and international recognition.

In 1955 Likhachev begins the struggle for the preservation of historical monuments and antiquity, often travels to the West with lectures on ancient Russian literature. In 1967 becomes honorary doctorate at Oxford University. In 1969 His book "Poetics of Old Russian Literature" was awarded the State Prize of the USSR.

Simultaneously with his work in the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, he begins to fight against the so-called "Russian nationalism", which he continued until the end of his life.

« Nationalism ... the worst of the misfortunes of the human race. Like any evil, it hides, lives in darkness and only pretends to be generated by love for one's country. And it was actually generated by malice, hatred for other peoples and for that part of their own people that does not share nationalist views”, — wrote Dmitry Likhachev.

In 1975-1976 several assassination attempts are made on him. In one of these attempts, the attacker breaks his ribs, but, despite this, in his 70 years old, Likhachev gives a fitting rebuff to the attacker and pursues him with yards. In the same years, a search was carried out in Likhachev's apartment, and then several times they tried to set it on fire.

Around the name of Dmitry Sergeevich there was many legends. Some were suspicious of his early release from the camp, others did not understand his attitude to the Church, others were alarmed by the unexpected popularity of the academician in power in 1980-1990s. However, Likhachev was never a member of the CPSU, refused to sign letters against prominent cultural figures of the USSR, was not a dissident and sought to find a compromise with the Soviet authorities. In the 1980s he refused to sign the condemnation Solzhenitsyn letter from "scientists and cultural figures" and opposed the exclusion Sakharov from the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Likhachev loved his work. Chosen in his student years as a field of scientific interests, literature and culture of Ancient Russia, Dmitry Likhachev was faithful all his life. In his writings, he wrote why he chose to study exactly Ancient Russia: " It is not for nothing that journalism was so developed in Ancient Russia. This side of ancient Russian life: the struggle for a better life, the struggle for correction, the struggle even just for a military organization, more perfect and better, which could defend the people from constant invasions - this is what attracts me. I really love the Old Believers not for the very ideas of the Old Believers, but for the hard, determined struggle that the Old Believers waged, especially in the early stages, when the Old Believers were a peasant movement, when it merged with the movement of Stepan Razin. After all, the Solovetsky uprising was raised after the defeat of the Razin movement by fugitive Razintsy, ordinary monks who had very strong peasant roots in the North. It was not only a religious struggle, but also a social one.".

Dmitry Likhachev on Rogozhsky

Dmitry Likhachev and Archbishop Alimpiy (Gusev) of the Russian Orthodox Church

July 2, 1987 Dmitry Likhachev, as chairman of the board of the Soviet Cultural Fund, came to the Old Believer center of Moscow, Rogozhskoye. Here he was handed a signed church calendar for the deputy chairman of the board of the Soviet Cultural Fund Raisa Maksimovna Gorbacheva. Dmitry Likhachev began to intercede for the Old Believers before M. S. Gorbachev, and less than two weeks after Likhachev's visit, Archbishop Alympius called and asked about the needs of the Old Believers. Soon, Rogozhskoye received the necessary building materials, gold for finishing crosses, and the buildings began to be gradually returned.

Dmitry Likhachev in the spiritual center of the Old Believers of the Russian Orthodox Church - Rogozhskaya Sloboda

Dean of the Old Believer communities of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Region, rector of the Orekhovo-Zuevsky Old Believer Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, member of the Public Chamber of the Moscow Region Archpriest Leonty Pimenov in the newspaper "Old Believer" No. 19 for 2001 wrote:

« Today's Orthodox Old Believers, who are trying to find out what kind of agreement he had, a member of which community, what he did or didn't do, I would like to answer like this: "Know them from their deeds" - this is well known. Judging by his labors and hardships, he was of the same faith with Nestor the Chronicler and Sergius of Radonezh, Archpriest Avvakum and the noblewoman Morozova, he miraculously came to our time from pre-Nikonian Holy Russia».

Archpriest Leonty Pimenov

In almost all of his interviews, Dmitry Sergeevich constantly emphasized that real Russian culture is preserved only in the Old Believers:

« The Old Believers are an amazing phenomenon of Russian life and Russian culture. In 1906, under Nicholas II, the Old Believers finally ceased to be persecuted by legislative acts. But before that, they were oppressed in every possible way, and these persecutions forced them to become isolated in old beliefs, in old rituals, in old books - in everything old. And it turned out amazing! With their perseverance, their commitment to the old Faith, the Old Believers preserved the ancient Russian culture: ancient writing, ancient books, ancient reading, ancient rituals. This old culture even included folklore - epics, which were mainly preserved in the North, in the Old Believer environment.».

Dmitry Sergeevich wrote a lot about moral stamina in the faith of the Old Believers, which led to the fact that both in work and in life's trials the Old Believers were morally steadfast: " This is an amazing layer of the population of Russia - both very rich and very generous. Everything that the Old Believers did: whether they caught fish, carpentry or blacksmithing, or trade - they did it in good faith. It was convenient and easy to conclude various transactions with them. They could be made without any written agreements. The word of the Old Believers, the merchant's word, was enough, and everything was done without any deceit. Thanks to their honesty, they made up a rather prosperous stratum of the Russian population. The Ural industry, for example, rested on the Old Believers. In any case, before they were especially persecuted under Nicholas I. The iron foundry industry, fishing in the North - all these are Old Believers. The merchants Ryabushinsky and Morozov came out of the Old Believers. High moral qualities are beneficial for a person! This is clearly seen in the Old Believers. They grew rich and created charitable, church, hospital organizations. They didn't have capitalist greed".

Dmitri Sergeevich called the difficult Petrine era with its grandiose transformations, which became a difficult test for the people, the revival of ancient Russian paganism: “He (Peter I - ed.) arranged a masquerade from the country, these assemblies were also a kind of buffoon actions. The most jesting cathedral is also a buffoon demonism.

The gift of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev to his people - his books, articles, letters and memoirs. Dmitry Likhachev is the author of fundamental works on the history of Russian and Old Russian literature and Russian culture, the author of hundreds of works, including more than forty books on the theory and history of Old Russian literature, many of which have been translated into English, Bulgarian, Italian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian , Czech, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, German and other languages.

His literary works were addressed not only to scientists, but also to the widest range of readers, including children. They are written in a surprisingly simple and at the same time beautiful language. Dmitry Sergeevich was very fond of the book, in books he cared not only for words, but also for the thoughts and feelings of the people who wrote these books or about whom they were written.

No less significant than scientific, Dmitry Sergeevich considered educational activities. For many years, he devoted all his time and energy to convey his thoughts and views to the broad masses of the people - he hosted programs on Central Television, which were built in the format of free communication between an academician and a wide audience.

Until the last day, Dmitry Likhachev was engaged in publishing and editorial activities, personally reading and correcting the manuscripts of young scientists. He considered it obligatory for himself to answer all the numerous correspondence that came to him from the most remote corners of the country.

September 22, 1999, just eight days before the death of his earthly life, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev handed over to the book publishing house the manuscript of the book "Thoughts about Russia"- a corrected and expanded version of the book, on the first page of which it was written: " I dedicate to my contemporaries and descendants”, - this means that even before his death, Dmitry Sergeevich thought most of all about Russia, about his native land and native people.

He carried his Old Believer vision throughout his long life. So, when asked what ritual he would like to be buried, Dmitry Sergeevich answered: “ The old way».

He died September 30, 1999, only about two months short of reaching 93 years old.

The grave of Academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev and his wife Zinaida Alexandrovna in the cemetery of the village of Komarovo

In 2001 was established D.S. Likhachev International Charitable Foundation, also named after him square in the Petrogradsky district of St. Petersburg.

Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin 2006, the centenary year of the scientist's birth, was declared Year of Academician Dmitry Likhachev.

In their "Good Letters", addressing all of us, Likhachev writes: “ There is light and darkness, there is nobility and meanness, there is purity and dirt: one must grow to the first, and is it worth descending to the second? Choose the good, not the easy».