Many people know her as the mother of Anton Nosik, her husbands were the writer Boris Nosik and the artist Ilya Kabakov. Conversation with Victoria Valentinovna Mochalova
Biography
In 1968 she graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University.
Since 1973 he has been working at the Institute of Slavic Studies (Head of the Center for Slavic Jewish Studies). She defended her dissertation for the degree of candidate of philological sciences in 1975. "Ideological and stylistic originality of Polish sovizzhal prose and drama in the second half of the 16th - first half of the 17th century"- M., 1974.
1973-1994 - Head of the department of literary criticism and culture of the journal "Slavic Studies" (until 1992 - "Soviet Slavic Studies"): member of the editorial board.
She gave courses of lectures at universities in Poland.
Awards and prizes
Awarded with the medal "Amicus Poloniae"
Prize of RAS and PAN for contribution to science.
Bibliography
- world inside out: Nar.-gor. lit. Poland XVI-XVII centuries. / Rev. ed. B.F. Stakheev. - M. : Nauka, 1985. - 220 p. - 1600 copies.
- Miejsce anonimowej prozy plebejskiej w rosyjsko-polskich związkach literackich XVII w.// Tradycja i współczesność: Powinowactwa literackie polsko-rosyjskie. Wrocław, 1978.
- Grotesque-fantastic genre of novelties of Polish co-squeals (origins, traditions, meanings)// Slavic baroque: historical and cultural problems of the era. M., 1979.
- "Grassroots Baroque" in Poland: Dramaturgy and Poetry// Baroque in Slavic cultures. M., 1982.
- Russian-Polish Literary Relations of the 17th - 18th Centuries. and the formation of the personal principle in Russian literature// Literary connections and the literary process: from the experience of Slavic literatures. M., 1986.
- "Irrational Grotesque" in Polish and Russian Soviet Literature of the 1920s and 1930s// Comparative Literature and Russian-Polish Literary Relations in the 20th Century. M., 1989.
- Еcha poezij Jana Kochanowskiego w literaturze rosyjskiej// Jan Kochanowski, 1584-1984: Epocha - Twórczość - Recepcja. Lublin, 1989. Vol. 2.
- Stages of development of narrative genres in Polish Literature XII- XVI century.// Development of prose genres in the literatures of the countries of Central and South of Eastern Europe. M., 1991.
- Nieznany egzemplarz siedemnastowiecznego wydania polskiego Sowizrzała odnaleziony w Moskwie a problem edycji naukowej tego utworu// Problemy edytorskie literatur słowianskich. Wroclaw, 1991.
- Transformation of the Perceived in the Process of Literary Relations// Functions of literary connections: on the material of Slavic and Balkan literatures. M., 1992.
- Czech Liberated Theatre: text and context// Literary avant-garde: features of development. M., 1993.
- Historia sub speciae litteraturae// Necessitas et ars: Studia Staropolskie, dedykowane Profesorowi Januszowi Pelcowi… Warszawa, 1993. T. 2.
- Jews in Poland: history in the mirror of literature// Slavs and their neighbors. M., 1994. Issue. 5.
- Philosophy and poetics: casus of Stanisław Ignatius Witkiewicz// History of culture and poetics. M., 1994.
- Totalitarian ideology as a surrogate for religion// Familiar stranger. Socialist realism as a historical and cultural problem. M., 1995.
- Pictures of the world and the language of culture (on the campaigns of Stefan Batory in Polish and Russian literature)// Uzaemadzeyanne literature and mou. On prykladze Belarusian-Polish-Russian connections. Grodno, 1995.
- Boris Fedorovich Stakheev (1924-1993)// "The romantic path has been completed ...": Collection of articles in memory of Boris Fedorovich Stakheev. M., 1996.
- The Moscow School of Postmodernism// Postmodernism in Literature and Culture of Central and Eastern Europe. Katowice, 1996.
- Demonic mediators between the worlds// Myth in culture: a person is not a person. M., 2000.
- "Jews" and "sin" in Polish literature of the 16th - 17th centuries.// The concept of sin in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. M., 2000.
- Pushkin and the Polish theme// A. S. Pushkin and the world of Slavic culture: to the 200th anniversary of the poet. M., 2000.
- Century of Alexander Vata (1.V.1900 - 29.VII.1967)// Slavic almanac 2000. M., 2001.
- Jewish demonology: folklore and literary tradition// Between two worlds: ideas about the demonic and otherworldly in the Jewish and Slavic cultural tradition. M., 2002.
- The image of Marina Mnishek in historiography and literature// Studia polonica II: To the 70th anniversary of Viktor Aleksandrovich Khorev. M., 2002.
- Ideas about Russia and their verification in Poland in the 16th–17th centuries.// Russia - Poland: images and stereotypes in literature and culture. M., 2002.
- Jews between Catholics and Protestants in Poland in the 16th-17th centuries.// Own or someone else's? Jews and Slavs through each other's eyes. M., 2003.
- Time and Eternity of War: Galician Perspective// The First World War in the Literature and Culture of the Western and Southern Slavs. M., 2004.
- The myth of Europe among Polish romantics// The myth of Europe in the literature and culture of Poland and Russia. M., 2004.
- Jewish food prescriptions and prohibitions through the eyes of Polish polemicists of the 16th-18th centuries.// Feast - a meal - a feast in the Jewish and Slavic cultural tradition. M., 2005.
- The crisis of the early twentieth century through the eyes of Jewish intellectuals: assessments, reactions, reflection in creativity// World crisis of 1914–1920 and the fate of Eastern European Jewry. M., 2005.
- Alexander Wat: thirteen prisons// Figures of Slavic culture in captivity and about captivity: XX century. M., 2006.
- “We will be like in a dream...”: the idea of a dream and a dreamer in Jewish tradition // Dreams and visions in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. M., 2006.
- "Pornography" by Witold Gombrowicz: strokes for interpretation// Creativity of Witold Gombrowicz and European culture. M., 2006.
- "Slavic" theme among Polish romantics// The poetic world of Slavism: general trends and creative individualities. M., 2006.
- Julian Tuwim, Alexander Wat, Bruno Jasensky: the drama of the Russian-Jewish-Polish borderlands of cultures// Russian-Jewish culture. M., 2006.
- Poles' perception of Russians in the 17th century.// Russia in the eyes of the Slavic world. M., 2007.
- Polski tekst literacki w perspektywie recepcji oraz polityki rosyjskiej XVII wieku// Literatura, kultura i język Polski w kontekstach i kontaktach światowych. III Kongres Polonistyki zagranicznej. Poznan, 2007.
- Petersburg Poles (Senkovskiy, Bulgarin) and Mickiewicz// Adam Mickiewicz and Polish romanticism in Russian culture. M., 2007.
- Healing, Salvation, Deliverance in Jewish Tradition and Magical Practice (Jewish Cemetery Wedding Rite and Its Slavic Parallels) // ethnoscience and magic in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. M., 2007.
- Secular and ecclesiastical authorities of the Polish-Lithuanian state and the Jewish minority: politics and ideology// Anfologion: power, society, culture in the Slavic world in the Middle Ages. To the 70th anniversary of Boris Nikolaevich Flory. M., 2008.
- The idea of Russians and the image of Muscovy in the "History of Vladislav, the Polish and Swedish King" (1655) Art. Kobezhitsky// Melodies, colors, smells of Adam Mickiewicz's "small homeland". Grodno, 2008.
- Problems of Jewish emancipation and assimilation in the prose and journalism of Boleslav Prus// Creativity of Boleslav Prus and his connections with Russian culture. M., 2008.
- Ways and means of moving to the Holy Land in the Jewish tradition// Sacred geography in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. M., 2008.
- Participation of Jews in Polish military conflicts of the 17th century// Jews&Slavs. Vol. 21. Jerusalem; Gdansk, 2008.
- The image of Russian, Russian power, Polish-Russian relations in Polish political journalism of the 70s of the 16th century.// Russian culture in the Polish mind. M., 2009.
- Jewish legends about the "initial times" in the Czech Republic and Poland// History - myth - folklore in the Jewish and Slavic cultural tradition. M., 2009.
- The contribution of Meer Balaban to the activities of the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society// Parliamentaryzm - konserwatyzm - nacjonalizm. sefer jowel. Studia ofiarowane Profesorowi Szymonowi Rudnickiemu. Warsaw, 2010.
- Trzy spójrzenia na Polskę z Rosji (1863-1916)// Polonistyka bez granic. Materialy z IV Kongresu Polonistyki Zagranicznej. T. I. Krakow, 2010.
- "Fathers and Sons" in Hebrew// Dialogue of generations in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. M., 2010.
- Reflection of the conflicts of the Jewish world in the prose of Semyon An-sky// On the Evils of the Century: History and Culture of the European Jews (1880-1920): Zb. scientific practice. Kyiv, 2011.
PhD in Philology, Head of the Center for Slavic-Jewish Studies at the Institute of Slavic Studies and Director of the Sefer Center.
Graduated in 1968 Faculty of Philology Moscow State University, studied at the graduate school of the Institute of Slavic Studies. In 1975 she defended her Ph.D. thesis "Ideological and stylistic originality of Polish prose and drama in the second half of the 16th - first half of the 17th centuries."
She was awarded the Amicus Poloniae medal and the RAS and PAN Prize for her contribution to science (2008).
Historian of Polish and Czech literature, researcher of literary relations and intercultural dialogue. Along with Polish literature, he deals with the problems of poetics, the study of inter-Slavic and Judeo-Slavic contacts in the Eastern European region.
Lecture courses:
Course 1. Dialogue between Jews and Christians in Eastern Europe
Course 2. Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox in Eastern Europe: contact, dialogue, conflict
Course 3. History and culture of the Jews of Eastern Europe (Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus)
Course 4. Poland as a center of Jewish learning in the 16th-17th centuries.
Proceedings
The World Inside Out: Folk-Urban Literature of Poland in the 16th-17th Centuries. M., 1985.
Miejsce anonimowej prozy plebejskiej w rosyjsko-polskich związkach literackich XVII w. // Tradycja i współczesność: Powinowactwa literackie polsko-rosyjskie. Wrocław, 1978.
The grotesque-fantastic genre of Polish soviet novels (origins, traditions, meanings) // Slavic Baroque: Historical and Cultural Problems of the Epoch. M., 1979.
"Grassroots Baroque" in Poland: Dramaturgy and Poetry // Baroque in Slavic Cultures. M., 1982.
Russian-Polish Literary Relations of the 17th - 18th Centuries. and the formation of the personal principle in Russian literature // Literary connections and the literary process: from the experience of Slavic literatures. M., 1986.
"Irrational Grotesque" in Polish and Russian Soviet Literature of the 20-30s // Comparative Literary Studies and Russian-Polish Literary Relations in the 20th Century. M., 1989.
Еcha poezij Jana Kochanowskiego w literaturze rosyjskiej // Jan Kochanowski, 1584-1984: Epocha - Twórczość - Recepcja. Lublin, 1989. Vol. 2.
Stages of development of narrative genres in Polish literature of the 12th - 16th centuries. // Development of prose genres in the literatures of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. M., 1991.
Nieznany egzemplarz siedemnastowiecznego wydania polskiego Sowizrzała odnaleziony w Moskwie a problem edycji naukowej tego utworu // Problemy edytorskie literatur słowiańskich. Wroclaw, 1991.
Transformation of the Perceived in the Process of Literary Relations // Functions of Literary Relations: Based on the Material of Slavic and Balkan Literature. M., 1992.
Czech Liberated Theatre: text and context // Literary avant-garde: features of development. M., 1993.
Historia sub speciae litteraturae // Necessitas et ars: Studia Staropolskie, dedykowane Profesorowi Januszowi Pelcowi… Warszawa, 1993. Vol. 2.
Jews in Poland: history in the mirror of literature // Slavs and their neighbors. M., 1994. Issue. 5.
Philosophy and Poetics: Stanisław Ignaty Vitkevich's casus // History of Culture and Poetics. M., 1994.
Totalitarian ideology as a surrogate for religion // Familiar stranger. Socialist realism as a historical and cultural problem. M., 1995.
Pictures of the world and the language of culture (about the campaigns of Stefan Batory in Polish and Russian literature // Uzaemadzeyanne literatur i mou. On the prykladze of Belarusian-Polish-Russian connections. Grodno, 1995.
Boris Fyodorovich Stakheev (1924-1993) // “I made the romantic path ...”: Collection of articles in memory of Boris Fedorovich Stakheev. M., 1996.
The Moscow School of Postmodernism // Postmodernism in Literature and Culture of Central and Eastern Europe. Katowice, 1996.
Demonic intermediaries between the worlds // Myth in culture: a person is not a person. M., 2000.
"Jews" and "sin" in Polish literature of the 16th - 17th centuries. // The concept of sin in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. M., 2000.
Pushkin and the Polish theme // A. S. Pushkin and the world of Slavic culture: to the 200th anniversary of the poet. M., 2000.
Age of Alexander Vata (1.V.1900 - 29.VII.1967) // Slavic Almanac 2000. M., 2001.
Jewish demonology: folklore and literary tradition // Between two worlds: ideas about the demonic and otherworldly in the Jewish and Slavic cultural tradition. M., 2002.
The Image of Marina Mnishek in Historiography and Literature // Studia polonica II: On the 70th Anniversary of Viktor Aleksandrovich Khorev. M., 2002.
Ideas about Russia and their verification in Poland in the 16th-17th centuries. // Russia - Poland: images and stereotypes in literature and culture. M., 2002.
Jews between Catholics and Protestants in Poland in the 16th-17th centuries. // Own - someone else's? Jews and Slavs through each other's eyes. M., 2003.
Time and Eternity of War: Galician Perspective // First World War in Literature and Culture of Western and Southern Slavs. M., 2004.
The myth of Europe among Polish romantics // The myth of Europe in the literature and culture of Poland and Russia. M., 2004.
Jewish food prescriptions and prohibitions through the eyes of Polish polemicists of the 16th-18th centuries. // Feast - a meal - a feast in the Jewish and Slavic cultural tradition. M., 2005.
The Crisis of the Beginning of the 20th Century through the Eyes of Jewish Intellectuals: Assessments, Reactions, Reflection in Creativity // The World Crisis of 1914-1920 and the Fate of Eastern European Jewry. M., 2005.
Alexander Wat: thirteen prisons // Figures of Slavic culture in captivity and about captivity: XX century. M., 2006.
“We will be like in a dream...”: the idea of a dream and a dreamer in the Jewish tradition // Dreams and visions in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. M., 2006.
"Pornography" by Witold Gombrowicz: strokes for interpretation // Creative work of Witold Gombrowicz and European culture. M., 2006.
"Slavic" theme among Polish romantics // The poetic world of Slavism: general trends and creative individualities. M., 2006.
Julian Tuwim, Alexander Wat, Bruno Jasensky: the drama of Russian-Jewish-Polish border cultures // Russian-Jewish Culture. M., 2006.
Poles' perception of Russians in the 17th century. // Russia in the eyes of the Slavic world. M., 2007.
Polski tekst literacki w perspektywie recepcji oraz polityki rosyjskiej XVII wieku // Literatura, kultura i język Polski w kontekstach i kontaktach światowych. III Kongres Polonistyki zagranicznej. Poznan, 2007.
Petersburg Poles (Senkovskiy, Bulgarin) and Mickiewicz // Adam Mickiewicz and Polish Romanticism in Russian Culture. M., 2007.
Healing, Salvation, Deliverance in the Jewish Tradition and Magical Practice (Jewish Rite of the Cemetery Wedding and its Slavic Parallels) // Folk Medicine and Magic in the Slavic and Jewish Cultural Traditions. M., 2007.
Secular and ecclesiastical authorities of the Polish-Lithuanian state and the Jewish minority: politics and ideology // Anfologion: power, society, culture in the Slavic world in the Middle Ages. To the 70th anniversary of Boris Nikolaevich Flory. M., 2008.
The idea of Russians and the image of Muscovy in the "History of Vladislav, the Polish and Swedish King" (1655) Art. Kobezhitsky // Melodies, colors, smells of the "small motherland" of Adam Mickiewicz. Grodno, 2008.
Problems of Jewish emancipation and assimilation in the prose and journalism of Boleslav Prus // Creativity of Boleslav Prus and his connection with Russian culture. M., 2008.
Ways and means of moving to the Holy Land in the Jewish tradition // Sacred geography in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. M., 2008.
Participation of Jews in Polish military conflicts of the 17th century // Jews&Slavs. Vol. 21. Jerusalem; Gdansk, 2008.
The image of Russian, Russian power, Polish-Russian relations in Polish political journalism of the 70s of the 16th century. // Russian culture in the Polish mind. M., 2009.
Jewish legends about the "initial times" in the Czech Republic and Poland // History - myth - folklore in the Jewish and Slavic cultural tradition. M., 2009.
The contribution of Meer Balaban to the activities of the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society // Parlamentaryzm - konserwatyzm - nacjonalizm. sefer jowel. Studia ofiarowane Profesorowi Szymonowi Rudnickiemu. Warsaw, 2010.
Trzy spójrzenia na Polskę z Rosji (1863-1916) // Polonistyka bez granic. Materialy z IV Kongresu Polonistyki Zagranicznej. T. I. Krakow, 2010.
“Fathers and Sons” in Hebrew // Dialogue of Generations in the Slavic and Jewish Cultural Traditions. M., 2010.
Reflection of the conflicts of the Jewish world in the prose of Semyon An-sky // On the evil of the century: History and culture of the European Jews (1880-1920): Zb. scientific practice. Kyiv, 2011.
Publications
Veselovsky A. N. Historical poetics. M., 1989 (compiled, commentary).
Slovak Yu.Benevsky: Poem / Translated by B.F. Stakheev. M., 2002 (compiled by one of the commentators).
Candidate of Philology, head of the Center for Slavic Jewish Studies, has been working at the Institute of Slavic Studies since 1973.
After graduating in 1968 from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, she studied at the graduate school of the Institute of Slavic Studies. In 1975 she defended her Ph.D. thesis "Ideological and stylistic originality of Polish prose and drama in the second half of the 16th - first half of the 17th centuries."
She was awarded the Amicus Poloniae medal and the RAS and PAN Prize for her contribution to science (2008).
Historian of Polish and Czech literature, researcher of literary relations and intercultural dialogue. The monograph by V. V. Mochalova became the result of long-term Polonistic research. Subsequently, along with Polish literature, she dealt with the problems of poetics, the study of inter-Slavic and Judeo-Slavic contacts in the Eastern European region. Published a number of papers on reflection in literature historical events and stereotypes of national perception.
She participated in the preparation of the collective works of the Institute of Slavic Studies “Writers of People's Poland” (M., 1976), “Literary Relations and the Literary Process. From the experience of Slavic literatures” (M., 1986), “Functions of literary connections. On the Material of Slavic and Balkan Literature" (M., 1992), "Studia Polonica. To the 60th Anniversary of Viktor Aleksandrovich Khorev” (M., 1992), “Essays on the History of the Culture of the Slavs” (M., 1996), “The History of the Literature of the Western and Southern Slavs” (M., 1997, vol. 1–2).
In 1973-1994, she headed the department of literary criticism and culture of the journal Slavyanovedenie (until 1992 - Soviet Slavonic Studies), a member of the editorial board of the journal.
Editor-in-Chief of the Judaic-Slavic Journal.
Proceedings
The World Inside Out: Folk-Urban Literature of Poland in the 16th–17th Centuries. M., 1985.
Miejsce anonimowej prozy plebejskiej w rosyjsko-polskich związkach literackich XVII w. // Tradycja i współczesność: Powinowactwa literackie polsko-rosyjskie. Wrocław, 1978.
The grotesque-fantastic genre of Polish soviet novels (origins, traditions, meanings) // Slavic Baroque: Historical and Cultural Problems of the Epoch. M., 1979.
"Grassroots Baroque" in Poland: Dramaturgy and Poetry // .
Russian-Polish Literary Relations of the 17th – 18th Centuries. and the formation of the personal principle in Russian literature // Literary connections and the literary process: from the experience of Slavic literatures. M., 1986.
"Irrational Grotesque" in Polish and Russian Soviet Literature of the 20-30s // Comparative Literary Studies and Russian-Polish Literary Relations in the 20th Century. M., 1989 .
Еcha poezij Jana Kochanowskiego w literaturze rosyjskiej // Jan Kochanowski, 1584–1984: Epocha – Twórczość – Recepcja. Lublin, 1989. Vol. 2.
Stages of Development of Narrative Genres in Polish Literature of the 12th – 16th Centuries //
Nieznany egzemplarz siedemnastowiecznego wydania polskiego Sowizrzała odnaleziony w Moskwie a problem edycji naukowej tego utworu // Problemy edytorskie literatur słowiańskich. Wroclaw, 1991.
Transformation of the Perceived in the Process of Literary Relations // Functions of Literary Relations: Based on the Material of Slavic and Balkan Literature. M., 1992 .
Czech Liberated Theatre: text and context // Literary avant-garde: features of development. M., 1993.
Historia sub speciae litteraturae // Necessitas et ars: Studia Staropolskie, dedykowane Profesorowi Januszowi Pelcowi… Warszawa, 1993. T. 2.
Jews in Poland: history in the mirror of literature // .
Philosophy and Poetics: Stanisław Ignaty Vitkevich's casus // History of Culture and Poetics. M., 1994.
Totalitarian ideology as a surrogate for religion // Familiar stranger. Socialist realism as a historical and cultural problem. M., 1995 .
Pictures of the world and the language of culture (about the campaigns of Stefan Batory in Polish and Russian literature // Uzaemadzeyanne literatur i mou. On the prykladze of Belarusian-Polish-Russian connections. Grodno, 1995.
Boris Fyodorovich Stakheev (1924–1993) // “I made the romantic path ...”: Collection of articles in memory of Boris Fedorovich Stakheev. M., 1996 .
The Moscow School of Postmodernism // Postmodernism in Literature and Culture of Central and Eastern Europe. Katowice, 1996.
Demonic intermediaries between the worlds // .
"Jews" and "sin" in Polish literature of the 16th-17th centuries // .
Pushkin and the Polish theme // A. S. Pushkin and the world of Slavic culture: to the 200th anniversary of the poet. M., 2000.
Age of Alexander Vata (1.V.1900 - 29.VII.1967) // Slavic Almanac 2000. M., 2001 .
Jewish Demonology: Folklore and Literary Tradition // .
The Image of Marina Mnishek in Historiography and Literature // Studia polonica II: On the 70th Anniversary of Viktor Aleksandrovich Khorev. M., 2002.
Ideas about Russia and their verification in Poland in the 16th–17th centuries. // Russia - Poland: images and stereotypes in literature and culture. M., 2002.
Jews between Catholics and Protestants in Poland in the 16th–17th centuries. // .
Time and Eternity of War: Galician Perspective // First World War in Literature and Culture of Western and Southern Slavs. M., 2004 .
The myth of Europe among Polish romantics // The myth of Europe in the literature and culture of Poland and Russia. M., 2004.
Jewish food prescriptions and prohibitions through the eyes of Polish polemicists of the 16th–18th centuries. // .
The Crisis of the Beginning of the 20th Century through the Eyes of Jewish Intellectuals: Assessments, Reactions, Reflection in Creativity // The World Crisis of 1914–1920 and the Fate of Eastern European Jewry. M., 2005.
Alexander Wat: thirteen prisons // .
“We will be like in a dream...”: the idea of a dream and a dreamer in the Jewish tradition // .
"Pornography" by Witold Gombrowicz: strokes for interpretation // .
"Slavic" theme among Polish romantics // .
Julian Tuwim, Alexander Wat, Bruno Jasensky: the drama of Russian-Jewish-Polish border cultures // Russian-Jewish Culture. M., 2006.
Poles' perception of Russians in the 17th century. // Russia in the eyes of the Slavic world. M., 2007 .
Polski tekst literacki w perspektywie recepcji oraz polityki rosyjskiej XVII wieku // Literatura, kultura i język Polski w kontekstach i kontaktach światowych. III Kongres Polonistyki zagranicznej. Poznan, 2007.
Petersburg Poles (Senkovskiy, Bulgarin) and Mickiewicz // .
Healing, Salvation, Deliverance in the Jewish Tradition and Magical Practice (Jewish Rite of the Cemetery Wedding and Its Slavic Parallels) // .
Secular and ecclesiastical authorities of the Polish-Lithuanian state and the Jewish minority: politics and ideology // Anfologion: power, society, culture in the Slavic world in the Middle Ages. To the 70th anniversary of Boris Nikolaevich Flory. M., 2008 .
The idea of Russians and the image of Muscovy in the "History of Vladislav, the Polish and Swedish King" (1655) Art. Kobezhitsky // Melodies, colors, smells of the "small motherland" of Adam Mickiewicz. Grodno, 2008.
Problems of Jewish emancipation and assimilation in the prose and journalism of Boleslav Prus // .
Ways and means of moving to the Holy Land in the Jewish tradition // .
The participation of Jews in Polish military conflicts of the 17th century // Jews & Slavs. Vol. 21. Jerusalem; Gdansk, 2008.
The image of Russian, Russian power, Polish-Russian relations in Polish political journalism of the 70s of the 16th century. // .
Jewish legends about the "initial times" in the Czech Republic and Poland // .
The contribution of Meyer Balaban to the activities of the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society // Parlamentaryzm - konserwatyzm - nacjonalizm. sefer jowel. Studia ofiarowane Profesorowi Szymonowi Rudnickiemu. Warsaw, 2010.
Trzy spójrzenia na Polskę z Rosji (1863–1916) // Polonistyka bez granic. Materialy z IV Kongresu Polonistyki Zagranicznej. T. I. Krakow, 2010.
"Fathers and Sons" in Hebrew // .
Reflection of the conflicts of the Jewish world in the prose of Semyon An-sky // On the evil of the century: History and culture of the European Jews (1880–1920): Zb. scientific practice. Kyiv, 2011.
Polish "King-Prince" - Russian Tsar: Literary Portrait // Text of Slavic Culture. For the anniversary of L.A. Sofronova. M.: InSlav., 2011.
Jewish Studies in Russia in the Post-Communist Era // Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. Vol. 10. No. 1. March 2011.
The Russian theme in "Benevsky" by J. Slovatsky // Juliusz Slovatsky and Russia. M.: Indrik, 2011.
Politics - Literature - Censorship: Echoes of the 17th Century Scandal // Russian-Polish Linguistic, Literary and Cultural Contacts. Moscow: Quadriga, 2011.
The Polish question as Slavic and European: Russian view (1863–1916) // Slavic world in the eyes of Russia. Dynamics of perception and reflection in artistic creation, documentary and scientific literature / Ed. ed. L.N. Budagov. Ser. Slavica et Rossica. M., 2011.
About Malgorzata Baranovskaya // New Poland. 2011. No. 7–8 (132).
Jews and Christians of Eastern Europe: Attitude to Alien Wisdom // Wisdom - Righteousness - Holiness in the Slavic and Jewish Cultural Traditions. Sat. articles. Acad. Series. Issue. 33. M., 2011.
Judeo-Christian dialogue in the Polish-Lithuanian state of the XVI century. // Belarusian-Jewish dialogue in the context of world culture. Proceedings of the I International Scientific Conference. Minsk, April 28–30, 2008. Minsk: BSU, 2011 (deposited with BelISA on December 30, 2011, no. D201182).
Trzy spójrzenia na Polskę z Rosji (1863–1916) // Polonistyka bez granic. IV Kongres Polonistyki Zagranicznej. UJ, 9-11.10.2008 / Pod red. R. Nycza, W.T. Miodunki i T. Kunza. Krakow, 2011. T. I: Wiedza o literaturze i kulturze. S. 231–239.
Polish Horace in a Moscow Prison // Victor Chorev - Amicus Poloniae. To the 80th anniversary of Viktor Aleksandrovich Khorev. M., 2012.
Polacy i Rosjanie: wspóldzialanie na tle rosyjskiego Zamętu, czyli Smuty // Studia Rossica XXII. Polska - Rosja: dialog culture. Tom poświęcony pamięci Prof. Jeleny Cybienko / Red. A. Wołodźko-Butkiewicz, L. Lucewicz. Warszawa, 2012, pp. 55–65.
New national holiday in Russia: November 4 versus November 7 // "Old" and "new" in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. Sat. articles. Acad. Series. Issue. 39. M., 2012. S. 103–119.
Slavic theme in Gogol // N.V. Gogol and Slavic Literature. Moscow, 2012, pp. 44–63.
Paradisus Judaeorum: the Jewish elite in the Renaissance Commonwealth // Jews: another story / Comp., otv. ed. G. Zelenina. M.: ROSSPEN, 2013. S. 163–181.
Heard vs written (rumors about other peoples in written literary genres) // Oral and book in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition / Otv. ed. O. Belova. Sat. articles. Acad. series. Issue. 44. M., 2013. P. 66–85.
Polish Horace in a Moscow Prison // Amicus Poloniae. In memory of Viktor Khorev. M., 2013. S. 249–258.
GD Hundert Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian state in the XVIII century. Genealogy of modern times. M., 2013. Scientific editor V. Mochalova 17.6 a.l.
Translation of Polish articles in the collection Amicus Poloniae. In memory of Viktor Khorev (articles by I. Grali (1.4 al. l.), M. Baranovskaya (0.4 al. l.)).
Translation of the article Art. Ign. Vitkevich "On the work of Bruno Schulz" // Collected. Op. S. I. Vitkevich. 0.9 a.l.
Slivovskaya V. Escapes from Siberia. St. Petersburg, 2014. 5.6 a.l.
“It should not be that the sons of the Highest work with opposite goals” // Norm and anomaly in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition / Otv. ed. O. V. Belova. M., 2016. S. 97–112
Jews and Tolerance in the Polish-Lithuanian State of the Renaissance // Academic Research and Conceptualization of Religion in the 21st Century: Traditions and New Challenges. Collection of materials. T. 5. Vladimir, 2016. S. 129–149.
Jewish Orpheus in Hell of the 20th century: Józef Wittlin // Proceedings of the XXIII International Annual Conference on Judaica. M., 2017. S. 494–521.
Glubokoe - pages of history // Glubokoe: memory of a Jewish shtetl. M., 2017. S. 23–48.
Konflikt – wyobcowanie – wrogość – obojętność w środowisku żydowskim w Europie Wschodniej w zwierciadle literatury, publicystyki, pamiętnikarstwa // Żydzi wschodniej Polski. Bialystok, 2017. S. 81–96.
Reprehensible sexual contacts as a source of conflict // Contacts and conflicts in the Slavic and Jewish cultural tradition. Moscow, 2017, pp. 93–111.
Bartholomew Novodvorsky - the ideal of a Christian knight // Vertograd multicolor. Collection for the 80th anniversary of B. N. Flori. M., 2018. S. 423–440
Jewish Museums in Moscow (Russian Science Foundation Grant No. 15-18-00143) // New Directions in the History of the Jews in the Polish Lands / Ed. by A. Polonsky, H. Węgrzynek, A. Żbikowski. Boston, 2018. P. 150–169.
Gdy polityka chce rzadzic historia Słowiańska Wieża Babel. Filologia Słowiańska nr 41. T. II: Język i tożsamość / red. J. Czaja, I. Jermaszowa, M. Wójciak, Bogusław Zieliński. Poznan, 2018. S. 147–160.
Jewish minority in the Polish legal field // Prohibitions and prescriptions in the Jewish and Slavic cultural tradition. M., 2018. S. 76–91. DOI 10.31168/2658-3356.2018.7
Publications
Veselovsky A. N. Historical poetics. M., 1989 (compiled, commentary).
Slovak Yu. Benevsky: Poem / Translated by B.F. Stakheev. M., 2002 (compiled by one of the commentators).
"Mochalova Victoria Valentinovna" - as a property value
Unique designation: Mochalova Victoria Valentinovna (May 7, 1945)
Designation: Mochalova Victoria Valentinovna
%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0 %B7%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%82 %D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%81%5B>(>%D0%A1%D1%83% D1%89%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0% B0Entity ⇔ Person
Description:
| Date of Birth: |
May 7(1945-05-07 ) (72 years old) |
|---|---|
| Place of Birth: |
Moscow, USSR |
| Country: |
USSR |
| Scientific area: | |
| Alma mater: | |
Victoria Valentinovna Mochalova(born May 7, Moscow) - Russian philologist, head of the Sefer Jewish Studies Center, candidate of philological sciences, employee since 1973.
Engaged in her genealogy, created %D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B9%D1%82<=>%5B>https:%E2%95%B1%E2%95%B1www.myheritage.com%E2%95%B1site-20466151%E2%95%B1kersteinmargolin%E2%81%87lang=RU<%5D<)+%7D">website of the Kershtein and Margolin families and is its administrator
She was awarded the Amicus Poloniae medal and the RAS and PAN Prize for her contribution to science (2008). Laureate of the FEOR award for 2013 in the nomination "Aidish Mother".
Works
- The World Inside Out: Folk-Urban Literature of Poland in the 16th-17th centuries. M., 1985.
- Miejsce anonimowej prozy plebejskiej w rosyjsko-polskich związkach literackich XVII w. // Tradycja i współczesność: Powinowactwa literackie polsko-rosyjskie. Wrocław, 1978.
- The grotesque-fantastic genre of Polish soviet novels (origins, traditions, meanings) // Slavic Baroque: Historical and Cultural Problems of the Epoch. M., 1979.
- "Grassroots Baroque" in Poland: Dramaturgy and Poetry // Baroque in Slavic Cultures. M., 1982.
- Russian-Polish Literary Relations of the 17th-18th centuries. and the formation of the personal principle in Russian literature // Literary connections and the literary process: from the experience of Slavic literatures. M., 1986.
- "Irrational Grotesque" in Polish and Russian Soviet Literature of the 20-30s // Comparative Literary Studies and Russian-Polish Literary Relations in the 20th Century. M., 1989.
- Еcha poezij Jana Kochanowskiego w literaturze rosyjskiej // Jan Kochanowski, 1584-1984: Epocha- Twórczość- Recepcja. Lublin, 1989. Vol. 2.
- Stages of development of narrative genres in Polish literature of the 12th-16th centuries. // Development of prose genres in the literatures of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. M., 1991.
- Nieznany egzemplarz siedemnastowiecznego wydania polskiego Sowizrzała odnaleziony w Moskwie a problem edycji naukowej tego utworu // Problemy edytorskie literatur słowiańskich. Wroclaw, 1991.
- Transformation of the Perceived in the Process of Literary Relations // Functions of Literary Relations: Based on the Material of Slavic and Balkan Literature. M., 1992.
“There are fools among the Jews too”
Polonist philologist, Candidate of Sciences, Head of the Center for Slavic Judaic Studies at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All these strict scientific titles lose their impregnability after meeting her. Moreover, the acquaintance took place against the backdrop of an impressive panorama of Moscow - this Academy of Sciences is a romantic place. And, of course, we can agree that the Fiddler on the Roof award given to her belongs to the entire staff of the Sefer Center for Researchers and Teachers of Jewish Studies at Universities. But as soon as you start talking to her, everything immediately becomes interesting and you want to immediately start studying it all. With her cheerfulness, energy, laughter, wit, she simply pushes to do great things and discoveries. Many people know her as the mother of Anton Nosik, her husbands were the writer Boris Nosik and the artist Ilya Kabakov. But perhaps, if not for this woman, these famous names would not exist. Being engaged in the genealogy of her family, she created a website for the Kerstein and Margolin families, thanks to which she was able to find more than 900 relatives in the United States.
The conversation with Viktoria Valentinovna Mochalova took place in between reports, during the regular conference of the Center for Slavic Jewish Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"MOSCOW - THE KREMLIN - STALIN ... IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET AWAY FROM THESE GROWING, GROWING, HEAVYING HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS"
RUSSIA AND HANUKKAH CANDLES
- How do you feel about the fact that the ceremony of presenting the Jewish award "Person of the Year", which has now been renamed "Fiddler on the Roof", is held in the Kremlin?
— Of course, I take this extremely negatively, because the Kremlin is not a neutral place, this place is very loaded in a semantic sense, and negatively at that. There was the residence of a cannibal and a bloody tyrant, who hatched all his villainous plans there: the murder of Mikhoels, the execution of members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, the process of "poison doctors", plans for the deportation of the Jewish population - it was all there. And you cannot get rid of this villainous aura, the atmosphere of this place, it is present. In addition, this place seems to me completely non-kosher: there are Christian shrines around, Christian churches, crosses, it is completely inappropriate for Jews to be there. It's not that some anti-Semites can feel offended and blame it, although that too.
- And to a very large extent.
“But now I am speaking from a slightly different angle, from an internal Jewish point of view. I’m not talking about the fact that since this is the Kremlin, since it is the “heart of our Motherland”, there is a very complicated access system: queues, checkpoints, even on tickets they write that they start to pass 1 hour 45 minutes before the start. That is better people come in an hour forty-five, because if they come, as they come to a normal theater, in 15-20 minutes, they simply will not get in - after all, it is written on the tickets that latecomers are not allowed into the hall. That is, it is inconvenient even for the public. Of course, I do not like it at all, and I would prefer it to be some kind of neutral place. For example, the Solomon Mikhoels Festival was held at the Bolshoi Theatre, the theater is such a neutral place. Either a neutral place, or some Jewish place, the same MEOC.
But it can't accommodate that many people.
“Yes, I have heard the notion that a hall that could accommodate six thousand people is very difficult to find. But there are some Luzhniki Stadiums, stadiums... You can find places with which there are fewer associations, and such mourning, such bloody ones, as with this place. Of course, when I speak negatively about the Kremlin, I do not mean the wonderful Italian architecture, wonderful historical monuments, this architectural beauty.
Emmanuil Vitorgan, who performed on the stage of the Kremlin Palace "The blue ball is spinning and spinning", and one of the hosts of the ceremony, Valdis Pelsh
- The atmosphere there is still special, it’s not just that the Kremlin was built on this very spot.
- It is, of course, very beautiful, it is historically valuable. But now I am talking about these overgrown, stratified, heaped upon historical associations, from which it is still impossible to get rid of: Moscow - the Kremlin - Stalin.
- Then why is the award given in the Kremlin? Is it done on purpose?
- I think so, although it is difficult for me to interpret the motives of the organizers. Maybe these are some kind of galutny complexes: before we were driven, persecuted - and now we are in a central place. But to me personally it seems inappropriate.
- Do you feel like "Person of the Year"?
- No, of course ( laughs).
Victoria Mochalova, Director of the Sefer Center for Researchers and Teachers of Jewish Studies at Universities, winner of the award in the category "EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES"
What does this award mean to you?
— I was very touched and grateful, but I consider this award a recognition of the achievements of our entire association for Jewish studies, all our colleagues, the Sefer Center as a whole, and I received it symbolically - just as the director of Sefer. I could not have done anything like this on my own, created such a network, developed such successful programs - after all, we have been existing for twenty years!
Israeli violinist Sanya Kroitor, who repeatedly soloed on the stage of the Kremlin Palace during the ceremony
“JEWISH INTELLIGENCE, SCIENTISTS ARE THE BEST THING EVER EXISTS”
— Tell us how your project was created?
- It was born in the head of a great dreamer - a dreamer. This is an absolutely amazing person - Ralph Goldman, honorary vice president of the Joint. He was very closely associated with and collaborated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. And there, in particular, there is such an International Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization (International Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization, ICUPETS - ed.), once it was headed by Moshe Davis, and in our time by Professor Nehemiah Levtzion, may their memory be blessed. Ralph Goldman and Moshe Davis were very passionate about Jewish research and education - all over the world, and this function was performed by the International center. They had a center in Jerusalem, there was a branch in Oxford - for Western Europe, in Budapest - for Eastern Europe, and for the collapsed Soviet Union, for all this vast space, they had no center. But this activity had to be adjusted, coordinated (lectures, students, universities, etc.) - that is, this is a huge job. By this time, Jewish universities had already opened in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem helped us a lot. They gathered us, brought us, arranged seminars, lectures were given to us, we were supplied with literature on Jewish history - in general, they took care of us. And during one of these seminars, they told us that there is such a problem: in the entire post-Soviet space there is no center that would deal with all this, think about whether you want to create one in your country. For us, this was a very new thing, completely incomprehensible, unusual, but we are all academic scientists, rather an armchair type ...
- It is not clear what and how to start.
- Yes Yes. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee "Joint" was very inspired by this idea. Our founding fathers are the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the MTSUPEC (scientific, academic part), and the Joint as an organizer and financier. And so they proposed to create such an organization. It's a good thing, of course. Just imagine: perestroika, everything suddenly became possible...
- Hope...
Yes, some hope. Jewish universities were opened in our country, the wonderful Project Judaica program was opened at the Russian State Humanitarian University - this was also a joint venture, it is clear that without the help of the West we could not have done anything at that time. That is, there were several higher educational institutions, where there were either departments of Jewish studies, or, as was the case in St. Petersburg and Moscow, entirely Jewish universities. We knew that there was a huge rich tradition of Jewish studies in pre-revolutionary Russia, and even before the Stalin period, when he crossed it all out, killed everyone and buried them. But before that, it existed, there was high science. The Jewish Encyclopedia was published here, the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society worked here, An-sky was here, Ginzburg was here - there was wealth. And then such a caesura, such a surgery - and that's it, and a dead desert. It is impossible, of course, to say that there was a desert-desert ...
Viktor Vekselberg, winner of the CHARITY award for the creation of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow
Everything has gone underground.
Yes, everything was underground. There were no institutions, there were no institutions, but scientific thought cannot be stopped. Therefore, there were apartment seminars ...
- Did you visit them?
- I visited something. Mikhail Anatolyevich Chlenov (now he is the chairman of the Academic Council of "Sefer"), for example, had underground seminars, Hebrew courses. For me personally, active attendance was rather difficult (when you have a small child, when you don’t really belong to yourself, and at the same time you need to study, you need to finish graduate school). But in any case, there was Jewish samizdat, and, for example, Tarbut, all this was distributed. This life existed, it was just visible only to us - and to the KGB officers. It seemed to them that they banned everything, they shot everyone, destroyed everything, and nothing happened.
“But the thought won’t kill you.
- Of course. Everything was, only it had a hidden, underground form. And after perestroika, all this broke out, so there was great enthusiasm, there was inspiration. And what else was remarkable about all this was the contingent that was both a consumer and a producer. It was a very nice contingent... This is the Jewish intelligentsia, these are scientists - it seems to me that this is the best thing that exists.
- Now this contingent has somehow changed compared to those who started?
No, now something else has changed. The atmosphere has changed, enthusiasm has moderated, and it has become, I won’t say, a routine, but an ordinary one. scientific work.
- Is there awareness?
“Awareness has always been there. But earlier it was a forbidden fruit, for the first time it was possible to learn something - and then there was, perhaps, more enthusiasm than science.
— What programs are carried out by Sefer today?
— We hold conferences, we organize winter and summer schools for students, and they happen different types. There are stationary schools when we bring 150 people from everywhere, place them in Moscow, in the Moscow region, in Kyiv, and lectures are given to them from morning to evening - Israeli teachers, our teachers. There are other schools as well – these are field schools, expeditions, when we get together and, as, for example, this year, we go to Georgia and study the topic “History of the Jews of Georgia”. Some students are engaged in epigraphy: they clear matzevs and read them, it's like a chronicle that they read. There are ethnographers who work with the population, they have developed special questionnaires...
Does the local population object?
- They are even very glad that they are asked, both old men and old women. Where Jews survived - in Chernivtsi, in Balti - they also willingly communicate.
Ambassador of the State of Israel Dorit Golender with laureates in the nomination "CULTURAL EVENT OF THE YEAR": for organizing the exhibition " White City. Bauhaus Architecture in Tel Aviv" was awarded to the initiator and curator of the exhibition Nitz Metzger Schmuck, exhibition co-curator Tal Iyal and production director Smadar Timor
“THINKING OF YOURSELF NOT AS A VICTIMISE BUT AS AN EXECUTIONER IS VERY DIFFICULT, THESE ARE COMPLEX PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES”
— Most of your research is the history of the Holocaust. How can one explain the fact that on the territory of many republics former USSR for locality two SS men were enough - everything else was done by the local population?
— This is rather characteristic of Poland. And, again, it is impossible to say for sure. We cannot say that everyone acted like this, and someone hid, and the largest number of the Righteous Ones, in Poland. These are complex things. In 1939, Stalin chopped off the eastern part of Poland, then he bet on the Jews as strangers among the locals. They were recruited into the KGB services, and they took an active part in Stalin's politics, the local population called them that - the Jewish commune. Therefore, the entire Stalinist communist regime was associated with the local population with the Jews.
- FROM scientific point vision cannot be said. There is no "if" in science. But mine personal point view is as follows: everything that has happened in history indicates that this can happen in principle. All this concerns not only Jewish history. And we can see it all ourselves. When we were young, we had an illusion: it seemed to us that if only the Soviet regime and communism were eliminated, everything would be fine. But much of what was inherent in Soviet power and ideology is inherent in human nature. For example, the same concept of an external enemy that unites the people. Now Putin is rallying the Ukrainian opposition, this is a common enemy for them - a Muscovite who does not let them into Europe.
— What does the problem of repentance mean for contemporary Poles?
- This is a sore point for them. It is very difficult. Over the years, they have developed such a national mythology that Poland is a victim.
- How did it happen?
- This has gone, probably, since the partitions of the Commonwealth in 1772 between Austria, Prussia and Russia. Then this messianic idea was born that Poland is a victim, it is the “Christ of the Nations”. If we talk about the quality of life, then the best life was for those who ended up on the territory of Austria-Hungary, then came Prussia and, finally, Russia: there were the worst, most inhuman conditions, constant exile to Siberia - we know what Russia is . Therefore, the idea of sacrifice dominates in Polish historical consciousness. The Germans came and again confirmed this theory. And suddenly, for example, a certain Jan Tomasz Gross appears with his book Neighbors about the events in Jedwabna. It was an exploding bomb. Thinking of yourself not as a victim, but as an executioner is very difficult, it is very difficult psychological processes. Of course, many resist this, calling it slander and slander against the Polish people. But many understand that it is difficult to move forward if there are skeletons in the closet. In Poland, this is a subject of public discussion; a lot of literature has been published on this topic.
— How could it happen that in the 1950s there were already international trials of the Nazis, concentration camps were already open as museums and visited by foreigners, and many Poles learned only in the 1990s what terrible events took place in their own cities?
- This is a property of human consciousness, human psychology: people do not want to know some unpleasant things. Everyone knows, for example, that there are prisoners in Russia now, that this is a country in which there are camps similar to Stalin's. And reading, for example, the letter of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, we understand the terrible, inhuman conditions in which people are kept there. It's all happened, and it's all happening. And what, modern Russian society is starting to beat its chest? What, those who now live in the area of Kommunarka or the Butovo training ground remember that their houses are on the bones? The modern city of Auschwitz, three kilometers from which there is a former concentration camp, is an ordinary European town, gracious and provincial. The human psyche cannot withstand this, and the law of repression of what cannot be realized is triggered. The banality of evil is all very scary. People who managed to survive the Tragedy then committed suicide, and there are many such cases. I knew one Polish Jew who managed to escape. He was a very thin boy, and when they were taken on a train to a concentration camp, they managed to squeeze out a board and help him get out. He was alone, in the middle of the forest, hungry, cold. He came across a hut, a Pole opened it for him and said: if you are a Pole, then leave, I have nothing for you, if you are a Jew, then come in. This is how he got through the years. After the war, along with many surviving Jewish children, he was transported to Israel, he married, he had three children. And then one day he rented a hotel room in Tel Aviv and committed suicide. What these people carry in themselves is simply impossible for us to imagine.
– By profession you are a Slavic scholar, at what point did you develop a scientific interest in Judaism proper?
— I am a philologist by profession. I also had a personal interest, in addition to purely academic interest, in Jewish studies, because these are my roots, great-grandfather Yankel Leib Kershtein and all his descendants, including me. Here the scientific multiplied by the personal.
— Why did your relatives leave the Belarusian town for Moscow in the 1920s? Why to Moscow, and not to America or Palestine, where almost everyone went?
“That was a big mistake on their part. My great-grandfather Yankel Leib Kershtein had seven brothers and sisters, and they all went to America, he alone remained in Belarus. Among the Jews, too, there are fools, seven smart ones left, one remained. There are now more than 900 of our relatives in America, the Kershteins, and many of those who remained in Belarus died in the Minsk ghetto. And now you can't find graves. And my grandfather's brother, Meer, has a grave in one of the best Jewish cemeteries in New York, on Long Island, and we received an inheritance from him: each of the twenty-nine people left in the galut. And the younger generation of my mother exploded at one time in big cities, including Moscow.
- In your family, the Jewish spirit and Jewish atmosphere were preserved, but did the tradition survive?
- Of course. My grandmother baked watering cans, teiglah, my mother made tsimes, I just love gefilte fish.
- Do you cook yourself?
- I work forty-eight hours a day, and it's just impossible, but the fish that my aunt makes, I'm ready to eat in huge quantities.
— What happened to religious tradition in your family?
- My great-grandfather observed it, but in my family they did not adhere to it even in Belarus.
- Why?
- I don’t know this, in our family it was strictly behind the scenes.
— What does the concept of Jewry mean to you?
– You can’t express it in a nutshell… This is, perhaps, a special state of mind, the wakefulness of a non-lazy mind, so to speak, intellectual liveliness, a kind of warehouse of the emotional sphere and inexhaustible energy.
