Literary scholar Sergei Kryzhitsky was born in 1917 on his grandfather’s Nikolai Staritsky estate in the Semenovka village of Poltava province.
Sergei Pavlovich studied at the classical Russian gymnasium, and graduated from the law faculty of the university in 1939. During the First World War, the literary scholar lived in Warsaw, Galdeirys, Grandeberg, and in 1946, together with his wife Galina Volochkova, left to the USA, where he entered Yale University.
In 1965, Kryzhitsky defended his doctoral dissertation on the life and work of Ivan Bunin. His book “The Creativity of Ivan Bunin”, the first monograph about the writer published abroad in a foreign language – English – was published in Paris, in 1972.
For many years Sergei Pavlovich and Galina Viktorovna taught Russian language and literature at the Oberlin University College in Ohio. After retirement, the family moved closer to the Russian community and settled in the Tolstoi Centre near New York.
Kryzhitsky was familiar with the writer Boris Zaitsev and his daughter Natalia Sollogub, the prose writer and heir to the Bunin archive Leonid Zurov, the poet Gleb Struve and other writers.
During his life, Kryzhitsky collected many books autographed by Ivan Bunin, Boris Zaitsev, Nikolai Poltoratsky, Roman Gul, Zinaida Shakhovskaia and other emigrant writers. The literary scholar transferred his collection to the Museum of Ivan Bunin wishing “his books did not become “dead” exhibits, but were available to everyone who is interested in them’. He wrote: ‘I want to emphasize it once again: all my books and archival materials are intended exclusively for the Museum of I.A. Bunin with the “order-request” – “Keep forever”… But they must be available to the Russian reader’. The museum staff fulfilled the request of Sergei Pavlovich and in 2000 opened an exhibit and reading room, where publications from his collection are kept. This library consists of 82 magazines and 494 books, 108 of which are autographed.
His father Pavel Kryzhitsky served as a magistrate in the Kingdom of Poland, and when the RSFSR, the USSR and the Polish Republic signed the Treaty of Riga in 1921, the Sarny town, where the Kryzhitsky family lived, ended up on the territory of Poland after the redistribution of borders.
Sergei Pavlovich studied at the classical Russian gymnasium, and graduated from the law faculty of the university in 1939. During the First World War, the literary scholar lived in Warsaw, Galdeirys, Grandeberg, and in 1946, together with his wife Galina Volochkova, left to the USA, where he entered Yale University.
In 1965, Kryzhitsky defended his doctoral dissertation on the life and work of Ivan Bunin. His book “The Creativity of Ivan Bunin”, the first monograph about the writer published abroad in a foreign language – English – was published in Paris, in 1972.
For many years Sergei Pavlovich and Galina Viktorovna taught Russian language and literature at the Oberlin University College in Ohio. After retirement, the family moved closer to the Russian community and settled in the Tolstoi Centre near New York.
Kryzhitsky was familiar with the writer Boris Zaitsev and his daughter Natalia Sollogub, the prose writer and heir to the Bunin archive Leonid Zurov, the poet Gleb Struve and other writers.
During his life, Kryzhitsky collected many books autographed by Ivan Bunin, Boris Zaitsev, Nikolai Poltoratsky, Roman Gul, Zinaida Shakhovskaia and other emigrant writers. The literary scholar transferred his collection to the Museum of Ivan Bunin wishing “his books did not become “dead” exhibits, but were available to everyone who is interested in them’. He wrote: ‘I want to emphasize it once again: all my books and archival materials are intended exclusively for the Museum of I.A. Bunin with the “order-request” – “Keep forever”… But they must be available to the Russian reader’. The museum staff fulfilled the request of Sergei Pavlovich and in 2000 opened an exhibit and reading room, where publications from his collection are kept. This library consists of 82 magazines and 494 books, 108 of which are autographed.
