Vladimir Veidle Papers, 1920-1979

Vladimir Vasil'evich Veidle (Wladimir Weidlé) was born in St. Petersburg on March 14, 1895. In 1916, he received an advanced degree in art history at Petrograd University. He then taught at the new university in Perm' , Russia, and in 1921-24 at Petrograd University. He left the Soviet Union in the summer of 1924, and arrived in Paris in the fall.

In Paris, Veidle taught art history at the Orthodox Theological Institute (Pravoslavnyi Bogoslovskii Institut) in 1932-52, and wrote art and literary criticism for French and Russian newspapers and journals. From the 1930s to the 1950s, he was probably better known as a French than as a Russian writer. He published in such journals as "Le Mois" and "Nouvelle Revue Francaise", and for such emigre Russian titles as "Vozrozhdenie" and "Posledniia Novosti". His most important single book was published in French in 1936: "Les abeilles d'Aristee: Essai sur le destin actuel des lettres et des arts"; it was subsequently translated into other languages and published in an expanded and revised edition. Another well-known work was "La Russie: Absente et presente" (1949).

In the post-World War II period, although he remained active as a "western" art historian and critic, publishing in French and German titles and teaching at various European and American institutions, his interests increasingly turned to Russian matters. From the 1950s on, he made many broadcasts in Russian for Radio Liberty. In his later years he also wrote many articles for "Novoe Russkoe Slovo" and "Novyi Zhurnal". Books which he published in Russian in this period include "Vechernii den' (1952), and, posthumously"Embriologiia poezii" (1980).

In 1930, Veidle married Liudmila Viktorovna Baranovskaia. He became in a French citizen in 1951. He died on 5 August 1979.