Meletinsky in Karelia

Abstract

The paper dwells upon the lesser known facts of Eleazar M. Meletisnky’s life and work during his stay in Petrozavodsk (1946-1949), re-creating those from archived materials and press. This postwar period enabled E.M. Meletinsky to continue working upon his postdoctoral thesis and implement his skills of research team management while working as Chair of the Department of Literature of the Karelian-Finnish State University and Chair of the Department of Literature of the Karelian-Finnish Base of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The Karelian period in E.M. Meletinsky’s life proved to be brief and rather unhappy, since at that time in the country the fight against “rootless cosmopolitans” intensified and Eleazar Moiseevich, accused of “manifestations of cosmopolitism in the work of the Department of Literature”, was not only removed from office but arrested as well. The paper provides evidence for E.M. Meletinsky friendships in Petrozavodsk as well, namely, with the Dean of the Faculty of History and Philology I.I. Käiväräinen, L.Y. Ginzburg, K.V. Chistov and his wife, with V.M. Morozov. Those were the friendships he kept for the rest of his life.