Alexis Klimoff
Alexis Klimoff (1939, Riga, Latvia) – a professor, an expert in Russian literature. Was an acting chairman of the Association of Russian-American Scholars in the USA (2011-2018).
Alexis Klimoff was born in Riga in the family of an artist Eugene Klimoff (1901-1990) and his wife Maria (born Morozova, 1902-1978). He was the second child in the family and had an older brother Elijah (1936-2020).
Soviet annexation of the Baltic states in 1940, and the repressions that followed it, forced the family, just like many other Latvian nationals, to leave their motherland in 1944. At first, the Klimoffs settled in Czechoslovakia, where the father worked as an icon restorer at the Kondakov Seminar. From 1945 till 1949 the family had been living in a Bavarian village of Heidenheim, which was situated in the American zone of occupation. There Alexis Klimoff went to elementary school and studied for four years in a German Volksschule.
In the September of 1949, after receiving a permission to enter Canada, the Klimoffs left Europe.
In Quebec Alexis Klimoff received secondary education (1957) and enrolled into the Engineering faculty of the University of Toronto. However, he did not finish it and enrolled into the Philological faculty of the Michigan State University (USA), where he, under the supervision of professor Nikolai Poltoratsky, defended a dissertation on Dostoyevsky, and received a master’s degree (1965). Afterwards, Alexis Klimoff enrolled into the Yale University where, in 1974, he defended a dissertation on the early period poetry of Vyacheslav Ivanov (scientific adviser - professor Victor Ehrlich) and received a PhD degree.
In 1971-2012 Alexis Klimoff was a teacher of Russian literature in Vassar College – a small university not far from New-York. In the course of many years, he was also reading lectures in the framework of summer courses at different American universities. Alexis Klimoff retired in 2012.
Alexis Klimoff was a member of the American Association of Advancement of Slavic Studies and the acting chairman of the Association of Russian-American Scholars in the USA – an organization, which had been publishing a non-periodical digest/almanac “Transactions of the Association of Russian-American Scholars in the U.S.A.” from 1967 till 2016. He had been an editor of this issue in 2008-2016.
Most of his publications are in English, however, after the fall of the USSR, his articles were also published in Russia. The main themes of his articles are the poetry of Vyacheslav Ivanov and the prose of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Among other themes, probably, the most essential is the research of a discussion between G. (later – father George) Florovsky and father Sergey Bulgakov on the matter of sophiology. For more than ten yearsб he had been cooperating with Y. Lisica, who was a Moscow publisher of the collection of works by I. Ilyin, and actively supported the process of repatriation of his archive from Michigan to Moscow (2006).
Alexis Klimoff made a considerable contribution into the popularization of the heritage of his father, the artist Eugene Klimoff. For instance, in 2006 an album of the selected works of E. Klimoff was published in Riga (Latvia). The book was prepared and funded by Alexis Klimoff. In 2018 a Moscow-based publishing house “Russkiy Put” published a book by Valery Sergeev “Eugene Klimoff. A Realistic Painter of Russian Emigration 1901-1990.” In the preface, the author noted that “Alexis Klimoff actively participated in the preparation of the book. From the far-away America, he was sending texts of the unpublished diaries of his father, copies of family photos, various reproductions of father’s works. The book would not appear without this invaluable aid.”
In 1968 Alexis Klimoff married Louise Roome. They have three daughters: Elizabeth (1969), Katherine (1972) and Anna (1977).
PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOK:
-Alexis Klimoff and Edward E. Ericson, Jr., The Soul and Barbed Wire: An Introduction to Solzhenitsyn (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2008).
COMPILATION AND EDITING:
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Critical Essays and Documentary Materials, ed. by John B. Dunlop, Richard Haugh, Alexis Klimoff (NY: Collier Macmillan, 1975).
– Климов Е.Е. Из воспоминаний (Публикация А.Е. Климова) / Записки Русской Академической Группы в США. Т. 28 (1996). С. 97-158.
– One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Critical Companion, ed. with intr. by Alexis Klimoff (Evanston, IL: Northwestern U.P., 1997).
– Eugene Klimoff: Selected Works, compiled by Alexis Klimoff. Е.Е. Климов: Избранные работы. Cоставитель А.Е. Климов (Riga: University of Latvia Journal Press, 2006).
– Мейке Ирина. Воспоминания об А.И. Солженицыне / Записки Русской Академической Группы в США. Т. 36 (2010). С. 9-19.
– Переписка ранних евразийцев / Записки Русской Академической Группы в США. Т. 37 (2011-2012). С. 22-199 (гл. образом совместно с М. Байссвенгером).
– Письма Г.В. Флоровского А.Е. Климову (1966-1975) / Ежегодник ДРЗ за 2016 . – М.: Русский путь, 2016. С. 581-608.
– Материалы к “Спору о Софии” / Записки Русской Академической Группы в США. Т. 39 (2014-2116). С. 5-374. (Совместно с А.П. Козыревым.)
– Указатель к сайту, в котором размещены материалы, опубликованные на страницах «Записок Русской Академической Группы в С.Ш.А.» за все годы существования журнала (1967-2016), 2020. См. https://digitallibrary.vassar.edu/islandora/object/vassar%3Aaras
SELECTED ARTICLES
– "Solzhenitsyn in English: An Evaluation," and "Translating Solzhenitsyn (cont'd.): The Gulag Archipelago," both in: John B. Dunlop et al. eds., Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Critical Essays and Documentary Materials (NY: Collier Macmillan, 1975), рр. 611-49.
– "In Defense of the Word: Lydia Chukovskaya and the Russian Tradition." Foreword in: Lydia Chukovskaya, The Deserted House, tr. Aline B.Werth(Belmont, MA: Nordland, 1978), рр. i-xliv.
– "Своевольный Лазарь" // Русское возрождение № 14 (1981). С. 27 – 51.
– "The First Sonnet in Vyacheslav Ivanov's Roman Cycle," in: Robert Louis Jackson and Lowry Nelson, Jr., eds., Vyacheslav Ivanov: Poet, Critic, and Philosopher (New Haven: Yale Center for International and Area Studies, 1986), рр. 123-33.
– Отказ от принципа “Ad Realiora”? / Вячеслав Иванов – творчество и судьба. – М.: Наука, 2002. С. 43-49.
– "Solzhenitsyn and the Jews: A Reply to Lev Navrozov," Midstream, June/July 1986: 38-41.
– "Is it Levin or Lyovin?" Tolstoy Studies Journal, vol. XI (1999): 108-11.
– Г.В. Флоровский и С.Н. Булгаков: История взаимоотношений в свете споров о софиологии / С.Н. Булгаков. Религиозно-философский путь. Сб. под ред. М.А. Васильевой и А.П. Козырева. – М.: Русский путь, 2003. С. 86-114. [Обновлённый англ. перевод выйдет предположительно в 2021 г.]
– Тема нравственного пробуждения у Солженицына / Между двух юбилеев,1998-2004. Сб. под ред. Н.А. Струве и В.А. Москвина – М.:Русский путь, 2005. С. 315-321.
– “From Blind Faith to Clear-Eyed Remorse: Remarks on Two Early Works by Solzhenitsyn,” in: Transactions of the Assn of Russ.-Amer. Scholars, vol. 36 (2010), pp. 141-162.
– “Russian Literature and Orthodoxy: Outline of Main Trends to 1917,” in: Augustine Casiday, ed., The Orthodox Christian World (London: Routledge / Taylor & Francis, 2012), pp. 517-30.
– Колебание вектора истории в «Kрасном Колесе» / Жизнь и творчество Александра Солженицына: на пути к «Красному Колесу». – М.: Русский путь, 2013. С. 72-79.
- “«Стучит!»: Poetics and Politics,” in: Transactions of the Assn. of Russ.-Amer. Scholars, vol. 38 (2013), pp. 193-209.
– «Ивана Денисовича» читают на Западе / «Ивану Денисовичу» – полвека. Международная научная конференция под ред. И.Е. Мелентьевой. – М.: ВИКМО-М, 2013. С. 97-106.
– В сумраках призрачного города: «Белые ночи» Достоевского // Филологические науки. 2014, № 6. С. 44-52.
– Иконопись и мозаика в рижский период творчества Е.Е. Климова: к 25-летию со дня кончины // Православие в Балтии [Рига]. № 5 (14), 2016. С. 57-69.
– Солженицын смотрит на Америку // Новый журнал. Кн. 293 (2018). С. 348-362.
– «Незабываемая ночь» (О повести «Адлиг Швенкиттен») / Личность и творчество А.И. Солженицына в современном искусстве и литературе. Сб. материалов международной научной конференции, посвященной столетию со дня рождения А.И. Солженицына. Составитель Л.И. Сараскина. – М.:Русский путь, 2018. С. 348-358.
– Четырнадцатитомное Собрание сочинений прот. Георгия Флоровского: критические замечания // Вопросы богословия. 2020 – 1 (3). С. 115-133.
– История «Записок РАГ» // Новый журнал. Кн. 300 (2020). С. 415-420.
MAIN TRANSLATIONS
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Nobel Lecture [Нобелевская лекция],” tr. by Alexis Klimoff in: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Critical Essays and Documentary Materials, ed. by John B. Dunlop, Richard Haugh, Alexis Klimoff (NY: Collier Macmillan, 1975), pp. 557-575.
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Misconceptions About Russia Are a Threat to America [Чем грозит Америке плохое понимание России],” tr. by Michael Nicholson and Alexis Klimoff, originally in Foreign Affairs, vol. 58, No. 4 (1980), pp. 797-834, with the response to criticism, “The Courage to See [Иметь мужество видеть]” in vol. 59, No. 1 (1980), pp. 196-210. Both texts republished in paperback format as The Mortal Danger: How Misconceptions About Russia Imperil America (NY: Harper Torchbooks, 1986).
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Men Have Forgotten God” (The Templeton Lecture [Темплтоновская лекция], 1983), tr. by A. Klimoff. Available at https://www.templetonprize.org/laureate-sub/solzhenitsyn-acceptance-speech/
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals [Как нам обустроить Россию?], tr. and annotated by Alexis Klimoff (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1991). 118 рр.
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Invisible Allies [Невидимки], tr. and annotated by Alexis Klimoff and Michael Nicholson (Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1995). 344 pp.
– Natalia Solzhenitsyn, “The Gift of Incarnation [Дар воплощения]” tr. by Alexis Klimoff in: Appendix to Daniel J. Mahoney, The Other Solzhenitsyn: Telling the Truth about a Misunderstood Writer and Thinker (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2014), pp. 206-230.
– Eugene Vodolazkin, “The Age of Concentration [Эпоха сосредоточения],” tr. by Alexis Klimoff, First Things, June/July 2017, pp. 33-38.
– Georges Florovsky, “Breaks and Links [Разрывы и связи]” [сoncluding chapter from Florovsky’s «Пути русского богословия»] tr. by Alexis Klimoff with Olena Gorbatenko in: Brandon Gallaher & Paul Ladouceur, eds., The Patristic Witness of Georges Florovsky: Essential Theological Writings (London: t&t clark, 2019), pp. 156-183.
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See: Transactions of the Association of Russian-American Scholars in the U.S.A.”: https://digitallibrary.vassar.edu/islandora/object/vassar%3Aaras
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Photo: Alexis Klimoff in Pushkinskiye Gory (Russia), 2003.
