Rusycysta i jego cztery kultury

Abstract

The article is devoted to Marc Szeftel, a distinguished historian – specialist on the Middle Ages – and a Russian language specialist at the same time. The diversity of this scholar’s research interests affected, according to the author of the article, the life vicissitudes of Szeftel, who had been in contact with many cultures and points of view since his childhood. Born in the Russian Empire in a not very religious Jewish family, Szeftel emigrated to Poland before the First World War, where he studied law, and after a few years moved to Belgium. There he received a doctoral degree, and then for several years he taught Russian philology and history at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. During the Second World War the scholar escaped to the United States, where he was first appointed as a Russian language specialist at Cornell University and then at the University of Washington. The author points to the specific suspension of the scholar between the four cultures and the acclimatization difficulties Szeftel encountered during each move. The text quotes passages of his diaries, the autobiography, as well as correspondence of the scientist, regarding the dilemmas of his identity as a Russian Jew, educated in Poland but living in America, who felt best in Europe, and especially in the French-speaking culture.