Fifty-Five Years With Russia

Professor Magnus Ljunggren looks back over his meetings with leading members of the Russian intelligentsia and their struggle with the totalitarian structures of Soviet and post-Soviet society.

The academic career of internationally recognized Professor of Slavic Studies Magnus Ljunggren spans more than a half century. Here he looks back over his meetings with prominent members of the Russian intelligentsia who from the liberalizing XXII Party Congress in 1961 and down to the present have in various forms struggled with the totalitarian structures of Soviet and post-Soviet society. 

As a literary scholar Ljunggren has focused on Andrei Bely’s novel Petersburg, Russian Symbolism and Russian Silver Age literature and culture. His memoirs reflect on how his study of Symbolism and his commitment to the Russian civil rights movement over the years have stimulated each other and contributed to a deeper understanding of Russia’s distinctive character. Ljunggren’s gallery of intimate and colorful portraits includes Bulat Okudzhava, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Joseph Brodsky, Viktor Shklovsky, Lidia Chukovskaya, and Nina Berberova.

Magnus Ljunggren defended his doctoral thesis, “The Dream of Rebirth: A Study of Andrej Belyj’s Novel Peterburg,” at Stockholm University in 1982. He is presently professor emeritus of Russian language and literature at the University of Gothenburg. His most important monograph is The Russian Mephisto: A Study of the Life and Work of Emilii Medtner (1994).