Biography Oksman Yulian Grigorievich
(11.01.1895 – 15.09.1970)
Oksman Yulian Grigorievich (11.01.1895 (old style 30.12.1894), Voznesensk, Kherson Province – September 15, 1970, Moscow)
The son of an apothecary. In 1912-1913 he studied in Germany, in the Bonn and Heidelberg universities. In 1913-1917 – a student of the History and Philology Faculty of St. Petersburg (Petrograd) University. Another student began to print. In 1917-1918 – assistant to the chief of the archive of the Ministry (Narkomata) of enlightenment, a participant in the preparation and implementation of the reform of archives after the February Revolution (1917). In 1918-1919 – head of the censorship and press sector of the Central Archive of the RSFSR (simultaneously – a member of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’, Peasants’ and Soldiers’ Deputies). In 1920-1923 he worked in Odessa (the head of the provincial archival department, rector of the Archaeological Institute, member of the gubernia
On the night of 5 to 6/11/1936 O. was arrested (he was charged with “attempts to break the jubilee of Pushkin, by slowing down work on the anniversary collection of works”). Condemned by the decision of the Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR of 15.06.1937 to 5 years ITL. He served time on Kolyma (Sevvostlag), worked as a bath-attendant, bondman, shoemaker, watchman. In 1941 he received a new term (5 years) for “slandering the Soviet court.” In conclusion, he continued his scientific work, collecting documents and oral testimonies of Russian culture of the early twentieth century. Released in Magadan (6/11/1946).
In 1947-1957
One of his main life tasks after liberation O. considered “the struggle (albeit hopeless) for the expulsion from science and literature of even the most vilest of the henchmen of Yezhov, Beria, Zakovsky, Ryumin, etc.”, at scientific and writings meetings publicly exposed informers. Since 1958, O. began to establish links with Western Slavists (including emigrants, primarily with Professor Gleb Struve), conducted extensive correspondence with them (including secret ones – through trainees who worked in the USSR). Sent to the West are not published in the USSR texts of poets of the “Silver Age” – Nikolai Gumilev, Osip Mandelstam, Anna Akhmatova – and their memories of them, helping Struve in publishing the collected works of these authors. In the summer of 1963 O. anonymously published in the West the article “Scammers and traitors among Soviet writers and scientists.” In August 1963, after one of the letters abroad was confiscated by the border guards, KGB agencies conducted a search in O. (seized diaries, part of correspondence and samizdat). An investigation was initiated that lasted until the end of the year (the version was verified that O. is published abroad under the pseudonym Abram Tertz). The case against O. was terminated, and materials about O.’s contacts with emigrants were transferred to the Writers’ Union and the Institute for the Elimination of Punishment for the adoption of “measures of social influence.” O. expelled from the Writers’ Union (October 1964), forced to leave the IMLI for retirement, withdrew from the editorial board of the “Short Literary Encyclopedia”, one of the initiators of which he was. continued until the end of the year (the version was verified that O. is published abroad under the pseudonym Abram Tertz). The case against O. was terminated, and materials about O.’s contacts with emigrants were transferred to the Writers’ Union and the Institute for the Elimination of Punishment for the adoption of “measures of social influence.” O. expelled from the Writers’ Union (October 1964), forced to leave the IMLI for retirement, withdrew from the editorial board of the “Short Literary Encyclopedia”, one of the initiators of which he was. continued until the end of the year (the version was verified that O. is published abroad under the pseudonym Abram Tertz). The case against O. was terminated, and materials about O.’s contacts with emigrants were transferred to the Writers’ Union and the Institute for the Elimination of Punishment for the adoption of “measures of social influence.” O. expelled from the Writers’ Union (October 1964), forced to leave the IMLI for retirement, withdrew from the editorial board of the “Short Literary Encyclopedia”, one of the initiators of which he was.
In 1965-1968 O. worked as a professor-consultant of the departments of the history of the USSR and the history of Russian literature at the University of Gorky, was dismissed from there at the request of the KGB and the regional committee of the CPSU. O.’s works either did not appear in the light, or were printed under pseudonyms. The report of his death was not placed in the Soviet press (the only domestic obituary O. published the “Chronicle of Current Events”, No. 16).
He was buried at Vostryakovskoe cemetery in Moscow.
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