“It is necessary to put in order not ONLY the literature brought from Moscow, But also thoughts, impressions, incentives...”: from the correspondence of A.V. Isachenko with Soviet colleagues

In this paper the letters of A.V. Isachenko (1910-1978), the Czechoslovak-Slovenian-Austrian linguist of Russian origin, to ethnographer P.G. Bogatyrev and philologist A.V. Fedorov, his Soviet colleagues, was analyzed. At the same time these letters are published with scholarly commentaries. If Isachenko met Bogatyrev in interwar Czechoslovakia, then a personal meeting with Fedorov took place in 1958 in the USSR. These letters are in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg. They cover the period 1945-1965, reflecting the different stages of the post-war career of Professor Isachenko. So, the letter of 1945 to Bogatyrev shows Isachenko's intention to return to his homeland and integrate into the Soviet humanities. In letters to Fedorov in 1958, Isachenko shares his impressions of the journey to the International Congress of Slavists in Moscow, described the successes and difficulties of his work in Slovakia. In the messages of the 1960s Professor Isachenko wrote Bogatyrev on his work in East Berlin at the invitation of the German Academy of Sciences, discussed a scientific problem. The analyze of the presented correspondence contributes to the study of the biography of the famous linguist, whose scientific profile was formed at the intersection of different intellectual traditions - Russian, Czechoslovak, Slovenian and Austrian. Moreover, the Professor's fate fully reflected the sharp turns in the history of the 20th century. At the same time, the analysis of correspondence also contributes to the understanding of the relationship and interaction between the two Russias - Abroad and Soviet.