Zhirmunsky V.M., (1891-1971), philologist

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
ZHIRMUNSKY Viktor Maximovich (1891, St. Petersburg - 1971, Leningrad), philologist, Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1966). Graduated from the Tenishev School in 1908 and the Faculty of History and Philology of Petersburg University in 1912. Lectured at Petrograd (Leningrad) University in 1915-17, 1919-49 (Professor from 1919) and 1956-64; headed various departments of the Leningrad State University. Took up a teaching position at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Herzen Institute (1923-31, 1955-56), where he headed the department of Western European Languages. In the 1920s, he served as the Chairman of the Verbal Arts Department of the Art History Institute. Worked as a research assistant of the Scientific Research Institute (NII) of Language and Literature (1921-35), the Institute of Language and Thought (1934-35), and the Pushkin Institute of Russian Literature (1935-49), heading the Western Literature Department. In 1949, in the course of the campaign "against cosmopolitanism," he was relieved of his post at the university and the Pushkin Institute of Russian Literature. He went on to become a research assistant at the Institute of Linguistics, heading the Department of Indo-European Languages (1957-71). Zhirmunsky's most important works are devoted to the history of Russian and Western European Literature, German, Turkish and general linguistics, dialectology, prosody, Russian poetry of the 20th century, and folklore. He also studied the works of Petersburg poets (A.A. Akhmatova, A A. Blok, O.E. Mandelstam). In 1951-71, he lived at 10 Zagorodny Avenue (memorial plaque installed). Buried at the Komarovskoe Cemetery.

References: Лихачев Д. С. В. М. Жирмунский - свидетель и участник литературного процесса первой половины XX в. // Жирмунский В. М. Теория литературы. Поэтика. Стилистика. Л., 1977. С. 5-14; Виктор Максимович Жирмунский (1891-1991): Биобиблиогр. указ. СПб., 1991.

A. A. Kononov. Akhmatova Anna Andreevna
Blok G.P.
Herzen Alexander Ivanovich
Mandelstam Osip Emilievich
Zhirmunsky Viktor Maximovich
Zagorodny Avenue/Saint Petersburg, city, house 10
Виктор Максимович Жирмунский (1891 - 1991): Биобиблиогр. указ. СПб.
Лихачев Д. С. В. М. Жирмунский - свидетель и участник литературного процесса первой половины XX в. // Жирмунский В. М. Теория литературы. Поэтика. Стилистика. Л., 1977 Russian Academy of Sciences
Tenishev's School
State University, St. Petersburg
Pedagogical University
Institute of Art History
Institute of Language and Thought of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Komorovskoe Cemetery