David Dar papers, 1950s-1980s

This collection represents different segments and loci of the literary life of the USSR and the emigration of the third wave. David Dar, a member of the USSR Union of Writers and husband of the writer Vera Fedorovna Panova, led a literary studio (LITO) in Leningrad and mentored many unofficial poets. Despite his official status, Dar was a true non-conformist: his collection includes letters to the Writers' Union and correspondence with prominent Soviet writers (Fedor Abramov, Lev Ginzburg, Lev Kopelev, Leonid Panteleev, Lydia Chukovskaya, and many others), confirming his uncompromising political and human position. His extensive correspondence with notable representatives of the Leningrad unofficial literary scene (Rid Grachev, Igor Yefimov, Viktor Krivulin, Vladimir Maramzin, Aleksandr Ozhiganov, and many others) documents Dar's authority and his role in the formation of the Leningrad "second culture" identity. The collection is complemented by manuscripts of Dar's artwork, personal documents, and tape recordings of conversations with Levin.

It should be noted that before departing Russia in 1977, Dar stringently pared down his personal papers and passed to Ilya Levin only what he considered to be the most important. His role in Leningrad's unofficial literary life is discussed in the comprehensive Oxford Handbook of the Soviet Underground Culture. Dar was one of the few members of the Soviet Writers Union who publicly defended Joseph Brodsky during his 1964 trial and, six years later, congratulated Alexander Solzhenitsyn on the Nobel Prize. Dar's archive also includes three tapes of his oral history. Since he never wrote, or published, memoirs, this oral history is, to the best of Levin's knowledge, the only extant record of Dar reflecting on his life and work.