Vyacheslav Ivanov, a Russian author, exile, rebel and now reformer, will be this term's Montgomery Fellow.
The College invited Ivanov, who was once dismissed from Moscow State University for associating with an anti-communist Nobel Prize winner, to live and lecture in Hanover through November.
Montgomery Fellows interact with students in the classroom and reside in Montgomery House, located on Rope Ferry Road by Dick's House.
Barbara Gerstner, executive director of the Montgomery Endowment, previously told The Dartmouth that the endowment each year invites several prominent individuals from various disciplines to come to Dartmouth and share their academic experiences in lectures or classes.
While renowned for his work in writing and linguistics, the "personal aspect" of Ivanov's resume adds to the strength and variety of his lectures, Gerstner said.
Ivanov, who was an honors graduate from Moscow State University, said his association with Boris Pasternak, the author of "Doctor Zhivago," ultimately led to Ivanov's being barred from teaching and travel in 1958 and the thirty years to follow.
"Life was not always easy, but still it was interesting and very vivid," Ivanov said. "It was a difficult time. The main thing was that everybody was scared. People were scared to talk to me."
Ivanov said during this time, his telephone conversations were monitored and the secret police followed his movements. He said his study and discussion in new areas of linguistics during this time were seen as contrary to official Marxist ideology.
"I didn't like the regime and I made it known," he said.
Ivanov's research in semiotics, the study of cultural signs and symbols, explored "other branches of culture not according to official dogma."
After Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev's reform in the late 1980s, Ivanov published his works in exile. Ivanov was written 20 books and more than 1,000 articles, including "The History of Slavonic and Balkan Names of Metals" and "The Asymmetry of the Brain and of the Sign Systems."
The Russian Academy of Sciences recognized Ivanov's contributions when it nominated him to be among the members of Gorbachev's first people's congress.
"We discussed everything and made new laws, because everything was being reformed," Ivanov said of his work on the congressional commission on culture and national language until its dissolution in 1991.
When travel restrictions were lifted from Russia, he left to accept visiting professorships at universities in Germany, Hungary, Stanford University and Yale University. He currently serves as head of the study of world culture at Moscow State University.
Ivanov and Professor Yury Lotman of the University of Kartu in Russia have also established a center for the study of cultural semiotics and a journal published by the University of California at Los Angeles, where Ivanov is a professor of Slavic languages and literature.
Ivanov's eight seminars at Dartmouth will include not only linguistic and literary themes, but will also feature his father, Russian author Vsevolod Ivanov, and film maker Andrei Tarkovsky.
Ivanov said he is enjoying his time at the College.
"I enjoy books written by former Montgomery fellows," Ivanov said. The bedroom bookshelves contain the works of Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz and author Toni Morisson, the memoirs of President Gerald Ford, and many others. Before his departure in early December, Ivanov said, he will place his books among them.
The Montgomery Endowment was created "to provide for the advancement of the academic realm of the College," according to a College pamphlet.
The endowment has brought to the College such distinguished writers and orators as Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Toni Morrison, David McCullough and Jorge Castaneda.
Fellows visit the College for periods of three days to three terms, depending on how long the person can stay, the endowment's resources and whether they are able to teach courses.
The Montgomery Endowment, established in 1977, is funded by a grant from Kenneth Montgomery '25 and his wife, Harle.
