The first biography of D.P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky in homeland

Abstract

A review of the book “Svyatopolk-Mirsky” (Moscow, 2021) by a well-known researcher of Russian émigré literature and culture M.V. Efimov and the oldest English expert of Russian literary studies G. Smith is presented. The authors based their research on the Russian and European tradition of biographical studies and used the methods of literary history and sociocultural theory. The book is the first full-scale reconstruction of prince D.P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky’s biography in Russia. The authors widely used archival materials, testimonies and memoirs of contemporaries, hardly accessible English and émigré periodicals, which enable them to present the main events of Mirsky’s life and work. The biographers’ interest to the inner world and psychology of the hero’s acts is combined with a subtle philological analysis of his literary studies and critical essays. At the same time, the obvious sympathy for the hero did not prevent the authors from maintaining a research objectivity, which ensured the credibility and persuasiveness of their conclusions. According to the reviewers, the book is an event in national literary studies, political and cultural history of Russia and Russian emigration.