Alexander Panchenko: biography and photos

One of the most famous philologists of the 20th century is Alexander Panchenko. Publications and books of it are now actively cited in scientific works. The scientist left behind a rich heritage, which has yet to be comprehended by new generations. Alexander Panchenko is a philologist whose main area of interest was the 17th century. However, he did not confine himself to studying this era. Academician Alexander Panchenko was interested in Russian culture and history as a whole, its development. This is reflected in his works.

Alexander Panchenko was born in Leningrad in 1937. His parents were literary scholars who worked in the Pushkin House. Therefore, since childhood, he was familiar with the traditions and atmosphere of St. Petersburg philology Alexander Panchenko. Moscow is a city rich in famous scientists, but St. Petersburg has also given us a lot of talented researchers. One of them later became Alexander Mikhailovich.

Period of study

The future scientist in 1953 was enrolled as a student at the Leningrad University. In this school he simultaneously studied Russian and Bohemian studies. Alexander Mikhailovich was lucky with his mentors and professors at the Faculty of Philology. He happened to listen to lectures by such outstanding scientists as I. P. Eremin, V. Ya. Propp, B. V. Tomashevsky, P. N. Berkov. In 1954, Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, who at that time worked in the Pushkin House (headed by the Sector of Old Russian Literature), suggested that Alexander Mikhailovich take up medieval studies. This determined his future professional destiny.

In 1958, Alexander Panchenko graduated from Charles University, located in Prague, where he continued to study Bohemianism. At the same time he became a graduate of the Leningrad University. After that, Alexander Mikhailovich continued his education at the post-graduate school of the Pushkin House. Alexander Panchenko worked here until his death. Photo of the Pushkin House is presented above.

Defense of the master's thesis

In 1964 Alexander Mikhailovich defended his thesis. Its theme is "Czech-Russian Literary Relations of the 17th Century." The peculiarity of this work is that Alexander Panchenko addressed the 17th century to solve academic problems. Since that time, Russian literature of the 17th century - a critical, crisis, transition period - has become the main scientific interest of Alexander Mikhailovich. This century, indeed, is interesting, since it largely determined the development of Russian culture and history in the years to come.

Doctoral dissertation

In 1972, Panchenko defended his doctoral dissertation, the theme of which is "Russian syllabic poetry of the 17th century." This monograph was a great event in Russian science. This is due not only to the novelty of the material involved and the academic thoroughness of the approach used by Panchenko, but also to the methodological innovation of the scientist.

In domestic literary criticism at that time, a long discussion of Slavic baroque, including Russian, continued. Monograph Panchenko made a significant contribution to solving this problem. The scientist did not use Western European standards in analyzing the aesthetic thought and poetic creativity of Russian poets.

The concept of development of Russian literature of the 17th century

Panchenko tried to find another formula for determining the first domestic direction in the literature. For this, Alexander Panchenko developed the concept of literature development in Russia in the 17th century. His scientific views were subsequently set forth in the relevant chapters of The History of Russian Literature, published in 1980. This concept became very popular due to the publication in the same year of the textbook "The History of Russian Literature of the 10th-17th centuries." Under the editorship of Likhachev DS

Works dedicated to Old Russian foolishness

Other important works of Alexander Mikhailovich, on which he worked in the 1970s, are his works devoted to Old Russian foolishness. They were included in the book "The Laughing World of Ancient Russia", published by Panchenko in co-authorship with Likhachev in 1976. Alexander Mikhailovich emphasized that he was studying phenomenology, and not the history of foolishness. The approach he used was the synthesis of methods for studying the poetics of the literature of Ancient Rus and methods for studying various non-traditional genres and forms. Both of these directions Panchenko productively used in the study of foolishness, writing one of the most striking cultural studies in the history of our country.

The task pursued by Alexander Mikhailovich was to make out the essence of the phenomenon, and then the essence of the cultural movement in the history of our country, for supposedly understandable and well-established ideas. Hence Panchenko's attention to such things as stagnancy in the representation of the Old Russian man or to the phraseology "Potemkin villages." In revealing their original meaning, the scientist pointed out that the later liberal historical interpretation of such words and phrases obscured their true meaning, as well as the meaning of the historical phenomenon to which these expressions belonged.

"Russian culture on the eve of Peter's reforms"

The result of the researcher's research, carried out by him in the early 80s of the last century, was his book entitled "Russian Culture on the Eve of Petrine Reforms", published in 1984. This work is probably the most important work of Panchenko about the 17th century in Russia. Although his material was not confined to the "rebellious century" chronologically, the focus of Alexander Mikhailovich was precisely this time and the beginning of the next century.

Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy called the era of Peter I the "knot of Russian culture." Panchenko showed how this knot was tied up earlier. He noted that the origins of the contradictions in the domestic life, which Peter had to face, should be sought in the 17th century. Examining the dissimilar and diverse material (eternity and history in the system of cultural values, the writer and the book, the ancient conception of laughter and fun, etc.), the scientist used new methods of analysis, defined new cultural constants, in particular, the innovation of Archpriest Habakkuk. Alexander Mikhailovich convincingly showed that in the 17th century, Russia, with its own traditions, had several cultural landmarks. Indeed, it was a knot of different cultural traditions. During Peter I the victory was won by one of them, however this did not mean the non-viability of others, for example, the Old Believers. Panchenko believed that all these cultures, although not the same, are equal. It should be noted that in many works Alexander Mikhailovich emphasized the equality of cultures. In the 17th century, the specificity of Russian culture was that at that time different layers coexisted in it.

Cycle of historiosophical works

In the late 80's - early 90's of the last century Panchenko wrote a series of historiosophical works. Reflections of the famous scientist on the ways and origins of Russia were of great importance. Together with LN Gumilev in 1990, Panchenko wrote a book "To prevent the candle from fading away." It should be noted that Alexander Mikhailovich was always interested in the bearers of the old Russian culture, which corresponded to the learned reciprocity. Not necessarily this mutual interest testified to the common position. The dialogues on statehood and important issues of the historical development of the culture of our country, presented in the book, first of all revealed the commonness of concerns and themes.

Proceedings of the last decade of life Panchenko

In 1992, was published an article by Alexander Mikhailovich "On the specifics of the Slavic civilization." It could give the name of a cycle of works of the last years of life of the scientist. This article talks about Russian civilization. Panchenko was interested not only in professional problems. Russian civilization, he considered in different eras, from the beginning to the present state. Panchenko Alexander wrote about such important moments as the adoption of Christianity, the St. Petersburg period of Russian history, the revolution of 1917. Many of his speeches and articles were not accidentally printed at that time in newspapers and magazines. The society needed an authoritative figure capable of judging the deep processes of culture, as well as their origins.

Teaching activities, gear cycles

Alexander Mikhailovich expounded his views on Russian culture and history for many years at lectures. The scientist was a professor at the Russian State Pedagogical University. Herzen. His audience in the last years of life has grown significantly thanks to television. The independence of judgments, originality of thought, the interest of the scientist to understand the logic of the events of history, earned deserved success in these programs. Cycles of telecasts about the nature and meaning of Russian history in 1996 were awarded the State Prize.

It is no accident that a specialist in the literature of Ancient Rus became an interpreter of Russian culture and of history as a whole. Panchenko Alexander Mikhailovich throughout his professional career stressed in his writings, which number more than 300, that the Russian cultural process is characterized by unity. Thanks to his knowledge, Alexander Mikhailovich was able to look at a new angle of view on the newest history, which he revealed to him by some other, previously unknown facets.

Death of Panchenko

May 28, 2002, Alexander Panchenko died, whose biography is marked by major achievements in science. The case of Alexander Mikhailovich was continued by his son, Alexander Alexandrovich, who also became an employee of the Pushkin House and decided to dedicate his life to philology.