(1869-1925)
Gershenzon Mikhail Osipovich (1869-1925) is a historian of literature and Russian social thought. He graduated from the History and Philology Department of Moscow University (1894). Collaborated in many literary and artistic and scientific journals (“Russian thought”, “Scientific word”, “Herald of Europe”, etc.). He criticized the “positivist” confusion of the history of social, spiritual life and literature proper. He insisted on the need to share the history of literature (the evolution of literary forms) and the history of spiritual life (the mentality of the era). He attached exceptional importance to the latter (historians study society as an abstraction, whereas, according to Gershenzoia, “society does not seek,