Voreki tomu vremeni… Otec i syn Faddej Francevič Zelinskij i Adrian Ivanovic Piotrovskij

Abstract

Voreki tomu vremeni… Otec i syn Faddej Francevič Zelinskij i Adrian Ivanovic Piotrovskij

The present paper analyses how the biography of Tadeusz Zielinski, one of the most famous Polish classicists, was influenced by the history of Poland, Russia and Germany. (He was living in Sanct-Petersburg, Leipzig and Warsaw.) On the basis of his Autobiography and Diary I am trying to seek his real personality apart from the common knowledge about the famous scholar with outstanding publications and thousands of students. In his private papers Zielinski had openly described his “colorful” student life and love affairs, but he concealed his illegitimate children… One of them – Adrian Petrovsky – was a classicist, translator and dramatist. He was the first translator who translated all Aristophanic Comedies into Russian (1934 – first edition). After the premiere of the ballet The Limpid Stream (with music by Dmitri Shostakovich, libretto by Petrovsky), censors banned the piece and Petrovsky was attacked in a “Pravda” editorial. Shortly after that he was arrested by the NKVD (November 1937) and shot in prison (15 November 1937).