Mikhail Pavlovich Alekseev

Born May 24 (June 5), 1896, in Kiev. Soviet literary critic. Became academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (AN SSSR) in 1958; Corresponding Member, 1946; professor at Leningrad State University since 1932.

Alekseev holds honorary doctorates from Oxford, Paris, Bordeaux, Rostock, and Budapest universities. He is the director of the section on relations between Russian and foreign literatures at the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the AN SSSR. He has been president of the Pushkin Commission of the AN SSSR since 1959. Many of Alekseev’s works are devoted to the study of the role of Russian and other Slavic literatures in the history of world culture. He is also the author of works on English, German, French, Spanish, and other literatures and their relation to Russian literature. Alekseev was editor-in-chief of the academic edition of the works of I. S. Turgenev. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.