Vasily Alekseevich Desnitsky (30 January 1878, Sergachsky Uyezd Nizhny Novgorod Province — 22 September 1958, Leningrad) was a revolutionary, literary scholar, and educator. He was born into the family of a clergyman in the village, now part of the Gaginsky District. A historian by education and a literary scholar by specialty, he played, in the assessment of book scholar P. N. Berkov, "a notable role in the history of Russian culture of the 20th century."[1]

Revolutionary activity

Having graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary in 1899, Desnitsky enrolled at the University of Yuryev (Tartu), where he completed two faculties at once — history-philology and law.[4] Already during his seminary years, from 1897, he conducted Social Democratic propaganda among the Sormovo (disambiguation) and Nizhny Novgorod.[2] In 1899 he Maxim Gorky; he later became one of the links between Gorky and the Nizhny Novgorod organization of the RSDLP.[2]

In 1900–1901 Desnitsky took part in organizing a conference of Volga party organizations in Nizhny Novgorod. From 1902 he was a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Committee of the RSDLP, and in 1904–1905 one of the leaders of the Nizhny Novgorod Social Democratic organization, an agitator and party writer.[2] He was delegated to the 1st Congress of RSDLP) (1898, Minsk) but did not make it there — he did not receive the safe address in time.[1] In 1903 he was sent as a delegate to the 2nd Congress, but on 25 June he was arrested while crossing the Russian-Austrian border and exiled to Nizhny Novgorod.[2] At the 3rd (April 1905), 4th, and 5th Congresses of the RSDLP he took part as a full delegate; at the 4th Congress (1906) he was elected a member of the party's Central Committee.[3] From November 1905 he was part of the Moscow Bureau of the Central Committee and was represented on the editorial boards of the party newspapers Borba and Izvestia.[1]

In 1909 Desnitsky, together with other Otzovists, organized the Capri party school, where he gave a course of lectures titled "Church and State in Russia."[2] In 1910–1916 he lived mainly in Yuryev, taught at private schools and a teachers' institute, and edited the legal Social Democratic newspaper Okraina.[2] After the The February Revolution of 1917 he took part in founding the Menshevik-leaning newspaper Novaya Zhizn (New Life) and was elected a member of the 2nd convocation of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) from the party of Social Democratic Internationalists (the "Novozhiznentsy").[3] When Lenin returned to Russia, Desnitsky refused to join the RSDLP(b) because of ideological disagreements. In December 1922 he was exiled to Vyatka Governorate for anti-Soviet activity.[4] From 1920 until the end of his life he remained non-party.[4]

Academic and teaching career

From 1918 to 1946 (with interruptions) Desnitsky was a professor at Petrograd/Leningrad University.[4] At the same time, from 1922 until the end of his life, he worked at the Herzen Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute, as head of the Department of Russian Literature and dean of the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature.[4] From 1931 he worked at the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House), holding the posts of curator, senior research specialist of the modern Russian literature sector, and head of the department of contemporary Russian literature.[4] He was one of the organizers of the Gorky Commission at IRLI. In 1934 Desnitsky was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences.[4]

He edited the journals Vestnik Prosveshcheniya, Voprosy Pedagogiki, Literaturnaya Ucheba, and Uchenye Zapiski of the Herzen Pedagogical Institute, as well as the collection series "A. M. Gorky: Materials and Research" and "The A. M. Gorky Archive."[2] His main works are devoted to the Marxist methodology of literature and to the history of Russian and foreign literature of the 18th–20th centuries. His publications include "On Literary Themes" (vols. 1–2, 1933–1936), "A. M. Gorky: Sketches of His Life and Work" (1959), and "Selected Articles on Russian Literature of the 18th–19th Centuries" (1958).[3] In his work he used the Golovinsky.[3]

For his scholarly work Desnitsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.[4] He died on 22 September 1958 in Leningrad and was buried at Shuvalovo Cemetery.[1]

Sources

  1. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Revolutionary, educator, writer (archive)
  2. names52.ru — Desnitsky Vasily Alekseevich (archive)
  3. ngounb.ru — Literary Map of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
  4. booksite.ru — Desnitsky