HUMANISM BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN: ITALIAN RENAISSANCE STUDIES IN THE SOVIET UNION

The main goal of the project is to examine the Italian Renaissance Studies in the Soviet Union taken as an independent and considerably isolated scholarly tradition, but placed in the broader context of intellectual history and development of Renaissance historiography in the twentieth century.

The project seeks to comprehend why and how Italian Renaissance philosophy, art and history was extensively studied in Soviet Union, what was the contribution of the Soviet scholars to the field on the international level, that is how they reshaped our understanding of this movement, and how these scholars, whose financial opportunities and academic mobility were significantly limited, participated in the international academic networks.

The project will be the first comprehensive study of the Italian Renaissance scholarship in the Soviet Union examined as independent national tradition, but placed in the international discourse on Renaissance humanism.

The project will contribute to the field of Renaissance Studies, Russian/Soviet studies, comparative and global intellectual history, and gender studies.