The Irreconcilable “Unofficial Opponent” of M. M. Bakhtin (Reconstruction of the Biography of M. P. Teryaeva)

Introduction. The relevance of the study lies in the need to create the most objectiveand accurate scientific biography of M. M. Bakhtin. One of the conditions for achieving this is the recreation of its context, which implies, in particular, the characterization of the representatives of the thinker’s environment: both friends and ill-wishers. The purpose of thearticle: to givean idea of the personality of the “unofficial opponent” in the defense of M.M. Bakhtin’s dissertation – M. P.Teryaeva. Materials and Methods. The research is based on avariety of sources: the protocol of the defense of M. M. Bakhtin’s dissertation and related materials introduced into scientific circulation by N. A. Pan’kov; texts by M. P.Teryaeva, her sister – V. P.Zazubrina-Teryaeva and her daughter – I. I.Lipilina; scientific, reference, documentary and popular publications, containing information about representatives of the Teryaevs family and persons who were part of their close circle, etc. It employs historical-cultural, comparative-historical and biographical methods. Results and Discussion. The conducted reconstruction of the biography of M. P.Teryaeva shows that her personality was formed in the difficult circumstances of thelife of her family, which found itself involved in the cruel, uncompromising events of the revolution and the Civil War, survived the repressions of the 1930s, thelosses in the Great Patriotic War. Theauthor presents arguments in favor of the fact that the “image” of M. P.Teryaeva, considered in Bakhtin studies as unambiguously negative, deserves more correctassessments: her attitude to the dissertation of M.M. Bakhtin was not determined by any opportunistic considerations, she was aconvinced “fighter” againstany (real or imaginary) deviations from the ideals that she defended from her youth and to which she remained faithful to the end. Conclusion. Thearticle contributes to the reconstruction of the historical, literary and socio-cultural contextassociated with the figure of M. M. Bakhtin, to the elimination of gaps in his scientific biography, to the study of his environment. The conclusions made by theauthor allow to rethink some key episodes in the history of academic life in the Soviet period, avoiding their simplified, unambiguous interpretations. The materials of thearticle can be useful for Bakhtin scholars, specialists in the history of social and humanitarian science in the USSR.