Tatiana Uliankina

This publication sheds light on the little-known late period in the life of a prominent Russian scientist Mikhail Novikov (1876-1965), famous for his work in histology, cytology, and comparative anatomy. A well-known public figure in pre-revolutionary Russia (he happened to be the last rector of Moscow University, appointed to this post as a result of democratic elections), Novikov left the country after the Bolshevik Revolution, along with many other men and women of learning. Notwithstanding their eventual dispersal across the world, some of these people maintained close relationships that were to last until the end of their lives, albeit mostly in the epistolary form. Focusing on the hitherto unknown letters written to Novikov during 1946-1961 by a number of Russian intellectuals living in exile, this publication reveals the lasting circle of his epistolary friends and their shared concerns and interests in the years after the end of World War II.