Irina Belobrovtseva

Irina Belobrovtseva (born 1 April 1946) is a literary scholar and translator in Estonia. She is professor emeritus at Tallinn University, where her research has focused on 20th- and 21st-century Russian literature and culture, Estonian–Russian cultural relations, and biographical studies. With Svetlana Kuljus, she co-authored a scholarly commentary on The Master and Margarita, for which they received Estonia's 2010 state science prize in the humanities.

Education and career Belobrovtseva studied Russian philology at the University of Tartu, graduating in 1968.

According to her ERIS curriculum vitae, she worked as a senior teacher at Tallinn Pedagogical Institute from 1971 to 1975 and as a translator at the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR from 1979 to 1986. Since 1986 she has worked at Tallinn University and its predecessor institutions, later becoming professor of Russian literature and professor emeritus. Her best-known scholarly project is the commentary on Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, published in Tallinn in 2006 and in Moscow in 2007.

She has also translated Estonian literature into Russian, often with Vitali Belobrovtsev. Radio Svoboda has described her as a co-founder of the Tallinn publishing houses Aleksandra and Avenarius.

Honours In 2010 Belobrovtseva and Kuljus received Estonia's state science prize in the humanities for their commentary on The Master and Margarita. She received the Tallinn Decoration in 2016 for her scholarly work and for introducing Estonian literature to Russian-language readers. In 2019 Tallinn University awarded her its Badge of Merit.

Selected works Mihhail Bulgakovi romaani "Meister ja Margarita" kommentaarid (with Svetlana Kuljus, 2006); Russian edition: Roman M. Bulgakova "Master i Margarita". Kommentarij (2007) "The Bilingual Writer: Two Estonian-Russian Cases and One Russian-Estonian Case / Kakskeelne kirjanik: kaks eesti-vene kirjanikku ja üks vene-eesti kirjanik" (2018) 20 intervjuud 20 aastat hiljem (2024)