Bookcover of the biography of Dmitry Mirsky

D.S. Mirsky is the English pen-name of Dmitry Petrovich Mirsky (1890–1939), a Russian political and literary historian who promoted the knowledge and translations of Russian literature in Britain and of the English literature in Soviet Russia. Image File history File links Mirsky_Book_Cover. ... Image File history File links Mirsky_Book_Cover. ... 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union. ... The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian. ... Motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Russian: Workers of the world, unite!) Anthem: The Internationale (1922-1944) Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944-1991) Capital (largest city) Moscow None; Russian de facto Government Federation of Soviet Republics  - Last President Mikhail Gorbachev  - Last Premier Ivan Silayev Establishment October Revolution   - Declared 30...

Life

A scion of the Svyatopolk-Mirsky princely family, son of kniaz Pyotr Dmitrievich Sviatopolk-Mirskii, Imperial Russian Minister of Interior, he relinquished his princely title at an early age. During his school years, he became interested in the poetry of Russian Symbolism and started writing poems himself. He saw service in the Russian army during the World War I, joined the White movement as a member of Denikin's staff and eventually emigrated to Great Britain in 1921. Coat of Arms of Princes Sviatopolk-Mirskiis Nikolai Ivanovitch Sviatopolk-Mirskii and his descendants used BiaÅ‚ynia Coat of Arms Svyatopolk-Mirsky (Russian: , Polish: ) is a family of Russian and Polish nobility that originated from Belarus. ... Kniaz’ or knyaz (князь in Russian and Ukrainian; cneaz in Romanian fem. ... Pyotr Dmitrievich Image:Pyotr dmitrievich svyatopolk. ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start... Mikhail Nesterovs painting Vision to Youth Bartholomew (1890) is often taken as a starting point of Russian Symbolism. ... Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russia Serbia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard... The White movement, whose military arm is known as the White Army (Белая Армия) or White Guard (Белая Гвардия, белогвардейцы) and whose members are known as Whites (Белые, or the derogatory Беляки) or White Russians (a term which has other meanings) comprised some of the Russian forces, both political and military, which opposed the Bolsheviks after the... Anton Denikin on the day of his resignation in 1920 Anton Ivanovich Denikin (Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин) (December 16, 1872 - August 8, 1947) was one of the foremost leaders of the counter-revolutionary White Russian forces in the civil war. ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

While teaching Russian literature in the University of London, Mirsky published his landmark study A History of Russian Literature: From Its Beginnings to 1900, which still remains a standard English-language guide to classical Russian literature. Vladimir Nabokov recommended it to his students as "the best history of Russian literature in any language, including Russian". This work was followed with the Contemporary Russian Literature, 1881–1925, which was somewhat marred by Mirsky's prejudiced view of Chekhov and his inordinate liking for some of the Russian Formalists. The University of London is a federation of colleges and institutes which together constitute one of the worlds largest universities. ... Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union. ... Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Набо́ков, pronounced ) (April 22, 1899 [O.S. April 10], Saint Petersburg – July 2, 1977, Montreux) was a Russian-American author. ... Anton Chekhov, Russian writer Pavel Chekov, character in Star Trek Chekhov, town in Moscow Oblast, Russia Chekhov, town in Sakhalin Oblast, Russia Chekhovo, health resort in Bashkiria, Russia This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Russian Formalism refers to a number of highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars (Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Boris Eichenbaum, Roman Jakobson, Grigory Vinokur) who revolutionised literary criticism between 1914 and the 1930s by establishing the specificity and autonomy of poetic language and literature. ...

Mirsky was a founding member of the Eurasia Movement and the chief editor of the periodical Eurasia, his own views gradually evolving towards Marxism. He also is usually credited with coining the term National Bolshevism. In 1931, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and asked Maxim Gorky if he could procure his pardon by Soviet authorities. The permission to return to the USSR was granted him in 1932. On seeing him off to Russia, Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary that "soon they will put a bullet in his head". Five years later, during the Great Purge, Mirsky was arrested by the NKVD. He died in one of the gulag labor camps in 1939. Although his magnum opus was eventually published in Russia, Mirsky's reputation in his native country remains sparse. Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ... Flag of the National Bolsheviks. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist party in the United Kingdom. ... Gorkys autographed portrait Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov (In Russian Алексей Максимович Пешков) (March 28 [O.S. March 16] 1868–June 14, 1936), better known as Maxim Gorky (Максим Горький), was a Soviet/Russian author, a founder of the socialist realism literary method and a political activist. ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... Virginia Woolf (née Stephen) (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941) is a British novelist who by reputation is regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. ... The Great Purge (Russian: , transliterated Bolshaya chistka) is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the late 1930s. ... The NKVD (Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del )(Russian: НКВД, Народный комиссариат внутренних дел) or Peoples Commisariat for Internal Affairs was a government department which handled a number of the Soviet Unions affairs of state. ... Gulag ( , Russian: ) is an acronym for Главное Управление Исправительно—Трудовых Лагерей и колоний, Glavnoye Upravleniye Ispravitelno-trudovykh Lagerey i kolonii, The Chief Directorate [or Administration] of Corrective Labour Camps and Colonies of the NKVD. Anne Applebaum, in her book Gulag: A History, explains: // Literally, the word GULAG is an acronym, meaning Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp... Magnum opus (sometimes Opus magnum), from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the best, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer. ...

Trivia

There is an unfair aphorism about him: Mirsky had pulled off the unusual feat of managing to be a parasite under three regimes — as a prince under Czarism, as a professor under Capitalism, and as an homme-de-lettres under Communism. Malcolm Muggeridge, who met Mirsky after his return to USSR, apparently heard this adage from a French correspondent to Russia, named Luciani.

Works

• Anthology of Russian poetry 1924
• Modern Russian Literature 1925
• Pushkin, 1926
• A History of Russian Literature: From Its Beginnings to 1900 in two volumes 1926, 1927
• A History of Russia 1928
• Lenin 1931
• Russia: A Social History 1931
• The Intelligentsia of Great Britain 1935, originally in Russian, translated by the author to English
• Anthology of Modern English Poetry 1937 in Russian, published under Mirsky's arrest without acknowledgement of his authorship

1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Further reading

• Gerald Stanton Smith. D. S. Mirsky: A Russian-English Life, 1890–1939. Oxford University Press (August, 2000). ISBN 0-19-816006-2.

External links

• Red Prince, a Radio Liberty publication (in Russian)
• The Strange Case of D. S. Mirsky by Hilton Kramer, in English