Academician Mikhail Leonovich Gasparov (1935-2005) was a prominent Soviet and Russian classical philologist, translator, historian of ancient literature, literary critic and poet, who made a significant contribution to the theory of Russian and European versification. His research constitutes a real epoch in Russian literary criticism. Many of Gasparov’s translations are still unsurpassed not only in accuracy, but also in stylistic elegance. Gasparov was a major translator of classical literature, providing Russian versions of Horace’s The Art of Poetry (1970), Cicero’s Orator (1972), Tusculan Disputations (1975), Ovid’s The Art of Love, The Cure for Love (1973), The Ibis (1978), Aristotle’s Poetics (1978), Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ The Arrangement of Words (1978) and many others.
He graduated from Moscow State University in 1957 where he studied Classics. Then he worked for thirty three years at the A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Science. For the greater part of his active life as a scholar, from the late 1950s to 1991, Gasparov worked within the Soviet literary and educational system. Gerald S. Smith introducing Gasparov’s Translations for non-Russian readers points out that Gasparov as a non-Party person always spoke of himself with irony as alienated from the system he found himself in, but “throughout his career he was a fully functioning participant, occupying a permanent post at an elite institution and membership of several powerful editorial boards” [1] (e.g. the series “Literary Monuments”).
Gasparov used to say that he had never been into politics. Despite his self-proclaimed apolitical stance, the collapse of the USSR really bothered him. For a long time the scholar corresponded with Maria-Luisa Bott, and now Gasparov’s letters are published [2]. As Maria-Luisa Bott notes in the foreword, these letters are his «personal chronicle of “perestroika”». In a letter of 4 July 1992, Gasparov reflects on the communist idea:
“We were all sitting in one cell, and all – under [the influence] of one and the same propaganda: 1) Communist ideal – the most beautiful goal of humankind (and so it is!), and 2) on the way there, hard sacrifices are inevitable (and this is understandable too).” [2]
During his lifetime Gasparov suffered from severe depression. Only in the last ten years of his life was he truly recognised for the scholar he was.
This profile was written by Anastasiya Davydova
[1] Gerald S. Smith, «M. L. Gasparov’s “Translations”», in M. Tarlinskaya, M. Akimova, ed. M.L.Gasparov. O nyom. Dlya nego: Stat’i i materialy, Moskva: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2017. P. 104–106.
[2] http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2006/77/ga19.html or («“Chitat’ menya podryad nikomu ne interesno…” : Pis’ma M. L. Gasparova k Marii-Luize Bott, 1981–2004 gg.» [«“To read me straight is not interesting for anyone…” : Letters of M. L. Gasparov to Maria-Luisa Bott, 1981–2004»], in Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, № 77, 2006), p. 182.
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For details of the biography and classics in Gasparov’s life: Gasparov, M. L. Zapisi i vypiski, Moskva: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2001.
For Gasparov’s reflection on Soviet Marxism: Gasparov, M. L. “Lotman i marksism” [Lotman and Marxism], in Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, № 19, 1996.
For the list of his works: http://philologos.narod.ru/mlgaspar/gasparov.htm
