Fifty-Five Years with Russia

"The academic career of Professor Magnus Ljunggren spans more than a half century. Here he looks back over his meetings with leading members of the Russian intelligentsia who, from the liberalizing Twenty-Second Party Congress, in 1961, to the present, have struggled with the totalitarian structures of Soviet and post-Soviet society. As a scholar, Ljunggren has focused on Andrei Bely's prose, Russian symbolism, and the Russian silver age. He reflects 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 prominent cultural figures such as Bulat Okudzhava, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Joseph Brodsky, Viktor Shklovsky, Lidia Chukovskaya, and Nina Berberova"--