Description
Grigory Solomonovich Pomerants was born 13 March 1918 into a secular Jewish family in the city of Wilno (now Vilnius). In 1925 his family moved to Moscow. There he completed school and graduated in Russian language and literature from the Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History (MIFLI). In 1939 his thesis on Dostoyevsky was judged anti-Marxist. As a result he was not admitted to post-graduate studies after graduation in 1940.
After Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941 he fought as a Red Army infantryman, was twice wounded and twice decorated. In 1946 he was expelled from the Communist Party (which he had joined at Stalingrad) for 'anti-Party statements'. Three years later he was arrested and sentenced to five years imprisonment for 'anti-Soviet agitation'. He was released in the amnesty of 1953, but did not rejoin the Party and so was not permitted to teach at tertiary level. His writings and research were unpublished in his own country until 1990, during Perestroika.
Despite these severe privations Pomerants became one of Russia's well-known writers and public intellectuals. Today he is a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences (in the section Man and Creativity), also a member of the Writers' Union and of the Pen Club. His published works are lively and autobiographical as well as erudite in the areas of philosophy and religion, sociology and cultural history.
ISBN:2880376009
