Diatel by Mikhail Panov

At Panov’s apartment. Standing: E. N. Shiriaev e S. M. Kuz’mina; sitting: L. L. Kasatkin, M. V. Panov, R. F. Kasatkina. © Photo by E. A. Zemskaia. From Kalenchuk M., Zemskaia E. (eds.), Zhizn’ iazyka II: Pamiati Mikhaila Viktorovicha Panova, Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury, Moskva 2007, p. 962.

Years: 1970s-1990s

Place: Moscow

Description:
“Diatel” was the name acquired by a group of Muscovite linguists, assembled around the charismatic figure of Mikhail Viktorovich Panov (1920-2001). A brilliant and versatile scholar, with a broad spectrum of scientific interests ranging from linguistics to literary theory and metricology, Panov attended the Philology Faculty of the Moscow City Pedagogical Institute (MGPI), where he became a student of the most important representatives of the Moscow Phonological School (R. I. Avanesov, V. N. Sidorov, A. M. Sukhotin, A. A. Reformatskii, P. S. Kuznetsov). He pursued his doctoral studies at the same Institute and from the Fifties, he flanked his teachers in didactics and research, becoming the main guardian of the Muscovite phonological tradition.
In 1958 he was appointed to an important post at the Russian Language Institute of the Academy of Science, following an invitation by the academic F. F. Fortunatov. Here, he was initially in charge of the Phonetics Work Group and would later lead the Section for Contemporary Russian Language and Literature; he lectured at the Philology Faculty of Moscow State University (cf. Novikov 2017: web). In these surroundings, he soon stood out for his intellectual and professional skills, becoming a role model for colleagues and students.
During the Khrushchev Thaw, his fervent activity at the Institute seemed to promise major developments, but it would soon suffer a setback (cf. Novikov 2018: 269-270, 288). With the advent of the Era of Stagnation, Panov manifested signs of intolerance for the renewed ideological control over culture, which he believed would unavoidably impact the Academic environment  (cf. Klobukov 2007: 22); he dared to take an antagonistic stance: in 1966, after the trial of the writers Iu. M. Daniėl’ ad A. D. Siniavskii, he sent a letter to L. I. Brezhnev, requesting a full pardon for the two convicted writers (cf. Novikov 2017: web), and in 1968, he appealed to the Head of the Language and Literature Department in defence of a group of colleagues, who risked losing their jobs for having signed an open letter against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (cf. Novikov 2018: 270). Due to his criticism, he soon aroused suspicion and hostility among the authorities controlling the Academic institutions. Tensions rose when in the same year F. P. Filin took over as director of the Institute. A corresponding member of the Academy, Filin had been a loyal follower of Marr’s linguistic theory in his youth, as well as the main promoter of the repressive campaign against dissident linguists carried out in Leningrad in 1948 (cf. Druzhinin 2012: 170). In Moscow, he would use his management position to obstruct scholars he considered to be ideologically subversive from doing their work. That did not stop Panov from expressing his dissent towards the new director. He sent a letter to the Central Committee to denounce the situation which the Institute was experiencing (cf. Krysin 2002: 289), showing considerable moral courage. This move would have dire consequences, leading to an irremediable conflict: in 1971 Panov was forced to leave the Institute due to mounting and unbearable pressure by Filin and political leaders. Soon afterwards, his party membership was revoked (cf. Novikov 2018: 271). This marked the end of Panov’s scholarly activity in official academia. In addition, for a period, Panov’s works were prevented from circulating and being published by the Academy. Panov fell back on a humbler and more marginal research institute (cf. ibid: 272-273), but he continued to work with the same dedication, soon distinguishing himself in the new context (cf. Klobukov 2007: 24) and eventually finding alternative ways to continue his relationships and scientific research of the previous period.
These are the preconditions which led to the founding of “Diatel”. From the Seventies, any kind of scientific reflection that was officially suppressed found expression in the private rooms of Panov’s flat, situated in Otkrytoe shosse, no 21 (cf. Ivanova-Luk’ianova 2007: 29). Regularly visited by friends, colleagues, and students from the sixties, Panov’s apartment became a space for informal meetings among a group of linguists, made up of former colleagues and students who started meeting once a month, over a span of thirty years, engaging in free dialogue with Panov in a spontaneous and independent manner. The name “Diatel” (The Woodpecker), chosen by the group, symbolically refers to the characteristics distinguishing their work, carried out with perseverance and determination and “with the shared aspiration to dig down to the essence of the things” (by correspondence, CM). The circle included specialists from different branches of linguistics, such as scholars like E. A. Zemskaia, M. Ya. Glovinskaia, G. N. Ivanova-Luk’ianova, N. E. Il’ina, L. L. Kasatkin, R. F. Kasatkina (Paufoshina), I. I. Kovtunova, E. V. Krasil’nikova, L. P. Krysin, S. M. Kuz’mina, E. N. Shiriaev. Meetings consisted of seminars aimed at stimulating debate and encouraging reflection on linguistic topics. Seminar materials were collected in a handwritten periodical also named “Diatel” (cf. Novikov 2018: 284), assembled by the members under the careful guidance of Panov. The decoration of the front cover with participants’ signatures in different colours, symbolises the ritual nature of the meetings, where the sense of belonging to a shared experience was strongly felt (cf. Ivanova-Luk’ianova 2011: 36). In spite of its ‘homespun’ features and its naïve graphic design, the periodical is of a genuine scientific nature, with contributions which take up and further explore the most important topics of the Moscow School of Linguistics, paying particular attention to phonological theory nodal points (phoneme, positional alternations, reduction and hyperphoneme) and to their application among other linguistic branches (cf. Bulatova et al. 2001: 9).
The periodicals are partially stored in the archives of the Russian Language Institute Vinogradov in Moscow (by correspondence, CM); it has not proved possible up to now to scrutinize them, nevertheless, it is known that the periodical has at least a hundred issues. Panov wished for them to become material of interest and usefulness for future linguists (cf. Ivanova-Luk’ianova 2011: 36). This was precisely the purpose of the seminar: it aimed to gather together voices possessing the same interests and scientific views (cf. Bulatova et al. 2011: 9), which eventually ensured the continuity of Muscovite linguistic traditions, inherited by Panov, and transmit them to successive generations of scholars. Besides these informal meetings Panov kept on giving lessons in the Seventies and Eighties at MGU which became a real cultural phenomenon of Muscovite intellectual life. These lessons represent a further dimension in which continuity with the past was not broken (cf. Parubchenko 2011; Sedakova: web).

Cecilia Martino
[30th June 2021]

Bibliography

• Bulatova L., Kuz’mina S., Novikov V., Zemskaia E, Diapazon darovaniia. K 80-letiiu M. V. Panova, “Voprosy jazykoznanija”, 1(2001): 3-13.
• Druzhinin P., Ideologiia i filologiia. Leningrad, 1940-e gody. Dokumental’noe issledovanie, t. II, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, Moskva 2012.
• Ivanova-Luk’ianova G., M. V. Panov v kaleidoskope vospominaniia, in L. Parubchenko (ed.), Lingvistika i shkola-IV. K 90-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia Mikhaila Viktorovicha Panova (1920-2001), Izd-vo Alt. un-ta, Barnaul 2011: 29-42.
• Klobukov E., Pamiati Mikhaila Viktorovicha Panova, in M. Kalenchuk M., E. Zemskaia (eds.), Zhizn’ iazyka II: Pamiati Mikhaila Viktorovicha Panova, Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury, Moskva 2007: 17-29.
• Krysin L., Pamiati Mikhaila Viktorovicha Panova (1920-2001), “Russian Linguistics”, 26(2002): 289-292.
• Novikov V., Stat’ia o M.V. Panove dlia biobibliograficheskogo slovaria «Russkie literaturovedy XX veka», in O. Kling, A. Kholikov (eds.), Russkie literaturovedy XX veka. Biobibliograficheskogo slovar’. V 3 t., Nestor-Istoriia., Moskva – Sankt-Peterburg 2017, http://novikov.poet-premium.ru/texts/349/, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).
• Novikov V., Povest’ o Mikhaile Viktoroviche Panove, in Liubov’ lingvista, Izdatel’stvo “Ė”, Moskva 2018: 251-362.
• Parubchenko L., Uroki Mikhaila Viktorovicha Panova, in L. Parubchenko (ed.), Lingvistika i shkola-IV. K 90-letiiu so dnja rozhdeniia Mikhaila Viktorovicha Panova (1920-2001), Izd-vo Alt. un-ta, Barnaul 2011: 47-65.
• Sedakova O., Nashi uchitelia. Mikhail Viktorovich Panov. K istorii rossiiskoi svobody. Posledniaia vstrecha, http://www.olgasedakova.com/Moralia/291/search, online (last accessed: 30/06/2021).