Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon (russian: Михаи́л О́сипович Гершензо́н) ( Kishinev, -

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, 19 February 1925) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

and editor. He studied history, philosophy, and political science at Moscow University, graduating in 1894. From graduation until the Bolshevik revolution he was unable to obtain an official

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

position because he was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. He was a literary reviewer for ''Nauchnoe Slovo'' (Scientific word) from 1903 to 1905 and for ''

Vestnik Evropy ''Vestnik Evropy'' (russian: Вестник Европы) (''Herald of Europe'' or ''Messenger of Europe'') was the major liberal magazine of late-nineteenth-century Russia. It was published from 1866 to 1918. The magazine (named for an earlier ...

'' (Herald of Europe) in 1907–08, and was literary editor of ''Kriticheskoe Obozrenie'' (Critical review), 1907–09. He had a

common-law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

relationship with Maria Goldenveizer from 1904 (Jews and Orthodox Christians were unable to marry legally); they had a daughter and a son. In 1909 he edited the famous essay collection ''

Vekhi Vekhi ( rus, Вехи, p=ˈvʲexʲɪ, t=Landmarks) is a collection of seven essays published in Russia in 1909. It was distributed in five editions and elicited over two hundred published rejoinders in two years. The volume reappraising the Russian ...

'', for which he wrote the introduction and an essay. During the Civil War he worked in various sections of the

People's Commissariat for Education The People's Commissariat for Education (or Narkompros; russian: Народный комиссариат просвещения, Наркомпрос, directly translated as the "People's Commissariat for Enlightenment") was the Soviet agency charge ...

(Narkompros). He was first chair of the Moscow Writers' Union in 1918 and of the All-Russian Writers' Union in 1920–21, during which years he was also a member of the leadership of Narkompros; he was head of the literary section, Moscow Academy of Artistic Sciences from 1922 to 1925.

Selected publications

* “The Destinies of the Jewish People”
''Telos''
58 (Winter 1983-84). New York: Telos Press.

References

* Berman, Iakov, ''Gershenzon, Bibliografiia'', Odessa, Odespoligraf, 1928. * Brian Horowitz, ''The Myth of A.S. Pushkin in Russia's Silver Age: M. O. Gershenzon-Pushinist''. Northwestern University Press, 1997. (Republished in Russian translation: ''Mikhail Gershenzon Pushkinist: Pushkinskii mif v serebrianom veke russkoi literatury'', Moscow: Minuvshee, 2004.) * “M. O. Gershenzon, Alexander Pushkin, the Bible and the Flaws of Jewish Nationalism,” ''Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie'' 'Knowledge. Understanding. Skill'' 4, 2016. * “M. O. Gershenzon and George Florovsky ('Metaphysical Philosophers of Russian History'),” ''Canadian-American Slavonic Studies'', 34, no. 3, 2001, 365–374. * “Unity and Disunity in Landmarks: The Rivalry between Petr Struve and Mikhail Gershenzon,” ''Studies in East European Thought'', 51, no. 1, March 1999, 61–78. * “From the Annals of the Literary Life of Russia's Silver Age: The Tempestuous Relationship of S. A. Vengerov and M. O. Gershenzon,” ''Wiener Slawistischer Almanach'' 35, 1995, 77–95; abridged form in “''Oh Rus!” Festschrift to Honor Professor Hugh McLean'', eds. S. Karlinsky, J. Rice and B. Scheer, Berkeley: Berkeley Slavic Specialties, 1995, 406-419. * “The End of a Friendship: the Russian-Jewish Rift in Twentieth-Century Russian Philosophy: N. A. Berdiaev and M. O. Gershenzon,” ''Russian Review'' 53: 4, October 1994, 497-514. Republished: ''Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism'', ed. Scot Peacock, New York: Gale 67, 1997, 75-83. “Ot Vekh' k russkoi revoliutsii: dva filosofa N. A. Berdiaev i M. O. Gershenzon.”''Vestnik russkogo studencheskogo khristianskogo dvizheniia'' 166, May, 1992, 89-132. * “M. O. Gershenzon and the Perception of a Leader in Russia's Silver-Age Culture,” ''Wiener Slawistischer Almanach'' 29, 1992, 45-73. * “Before the Fall” (On ''Vekhi'' 'Landmarks'', ''The American Scholar,'' Spring, 1992, 290-296. * Memoirs of Gershenzon’s daughter. “Les premiers pas dans la vie: les années de mon immortalité,” ''La revue des études slaves'' 63, 1991, 621–629. * *

External links

* 1869 births 1925 deaths Moscow State University alumni Russian political scientists Jewish Russian writers Imperial Moscow University alumni Vekhovtsy {{polisci-bio-stub