At the Origins of Russian Latin American Studies. Lev Samoilovich Ospovat — on the Centenary of His Birth. Lev Ospovat. As I Remember

The article is a tribute to the famous scholar Lev Samoilovich Ospovat, who together with his wife Vera N. Kuteishchikova, paved the way for the Latin American literary studies in the USSR. Lev Samoilovich started with his studies of Pablo Neruda’s life and work; he was the first to write and publish a book in Russian on the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda: A Survey of His Work (1960). A year later on the basis of this book, he defended his PhD dissertation. Subsequently, its author, critically reflecting on his experience, admitted that he often followed some officially imposed stereotypes in the interpretation of Neruda’s work and evolution. At the same time, even in this book one clearly sees an attempt to overcome the stereotypes, especially with regard to the attribution of Neruda's poetry to the method of socialist realism, and to understand the poetic world of the Chilean poet not only in connection with his political activities. L.S. Ospovat became widely known as the author of two books from the series “Life of Outstanding People” — Federico Garcia Lorca and Diego Rivera and a number of brilliant articles and prefaces. The result of Lev Ospovat’s Latin American studies was the book New Latin American Novel he co-authored with his wife; the book retains its value up to nowadays. At the end of his life Ospovat became interested in Pushkin studies and published several articles containing interesting discoveries in this area. The article is accompanied by fragments from Lev Ospovat’s memoirs that of L.S. Ospovat, which allows the reader to get an idea of the kind, highly intelligent, honest and very attractive person.