Lidiya Ginzburg

Lidiya Yakovlevna Ginzburg (; March 18, 1902, Odessa, Russian Empire – July 17, 1990, Leningrad, USSR ) was a Soviet literary critic, historian, writer of the Russian Formalist school, and survivor of the siege of Leningrad. She is best known among English-reading audiences for her Blockade Diary (alternatively Diary of a Blockade Person), written during and after the Siege of Leningrad. Ginzburg died at the age of 88 from a heart attack proceeded by a stroke. She is buried in a cemetery in Komarovo. modern-day Ukraine. The Ginzburg family owned two homes in Odessa, of which they rented out parts. During the summertime, the Ginzburgs rented out dachas where they hosted scholars living and working in Leningrad.

Childhood and adolescence Ginzburg was well-educated and could read Russian, German, French, and later, English. During this time, she also began experimenting with poetry, but was rejected from various literary circles. After being rejected from Petrograd State University (the same as Leningrad State University and St. Petersburg University), Ginzburg moved back to Odessa in the summer of 1921. From the early 1930s until 1970, Ginzburg lived in a communal apartment in central Leningrad. In 1970 Ginzburg moved into a private, one-room apartment on the outskirts of Leningrad, where she spent the remainder of her life.

Stalinism Ginzburg survived the Great Terror of the 1930s; however, many of her literary friends did not. She was arrested and imprisoned for two weeks in 1933 because of her friendship with Viktor Zhirmunsky, who was under investigation at the time. but was not arrested thanks to Joseph Stalin's death in the spring of 1953 which ended the campaign.

Siege of Leningrad Ginzburg survived the Siege of Leningrad (1941-44) by working as a salaried editor at the Leningrad Radio Committee from 1942 until the end of the war in 1945. Her experience during the war formed the basis for Notes of a Blockade Person.

Career Although Ginzburg would go on to earn her income through her literary scholarship, it wasn't until the spring of 1923, when her first seminar presentation was acclaimed by Yuri Tynianov, that she devoted herself to a career in literature. During this time, Ginzburg was initiated into the literary circles of Leningrad, becoming friends with contemporary Russian writers and poets. In 1984 Neva published Ginzburg's Notes of a Blockade Person, which was widely read. In 1988 Ginzburg received the State Prize in Literature and the Arts.

Literary style Ginzburg was first and foremost a literary scholar, and wrote prose "for the desk drawer." In her prose, Ginzburg was interested in representing everyday Soviet life in anti-romantic terms. In her early work, she experimented with different writing styles, and created a genre-blending "in-between literature": a combination of observations, thoughts, and prose on various topics.

Personal life Ginzburg was a lesbian. Ginzburg enjoyed doing photography. Throughout her entire adult life, Ginzburg was acquaintances and friends with many influential Soviet writers, poets, and scholars including Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, Osip Brik, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolai Zabolotsky, Nadezhda Mandelstam, Varlam Shalamov, Eduard Bagritsky, Nikolai Khardzhiev, Marietta Chudakov, Iurii Lotman, and Alexander Kushner, and many more.

Writings (incomplete)

Published works

The Pinkerton Agency (Agentstvo Pinkertona) (1933) On the Lyric (O lirike) (1964) "About Old Age and Infantilism" ("O starosti i ob infantil'-nosti") "On Satire and Analysis" ("O satire i ob analize") On Psychological Prose (first edition published 1971; published in English in 1991) On the Literary Hero (1979) About the Old and the New (O starom i novom) (1982) Notes of a Blockade Person (1984; published in English as Blockade Diary in 1995) "Generation at a Turning Point" ("Pokolenie na povorote") (1987) Literature in Search of Reality (1987) "At One with the Legal Order" ("I zaodno s pravoporiandkom") (1988)

Archival drafts

"The Return Home" (1929-36) "Delusion of the Will" (c. 1934) "The Thought that Drew a Circle" (c. 1934-36 or 1939) "A Story of Pity and Cruelty" (c, 1942-44) "Otter's Day" (c. 1943-45)