ТРУДНО НАМ СЕЙЧАС

On March 9, 1922, Pitirim Sorokin, living in Petrograd, wrote to the Ukrainian sociologist Nikita Shapoval in Prague:

«Получил сегодня Ваше письмо и немедленно отвечаю. Прежде всего, оно меня искренне и глубоко обрадовало. Зарубежные письма нечасто приходится получать нам, и тем более письма, свидетельствующие о том, что кто-то там интересуется нами и нашими работами. …

Мы по-прежнему оторваны от западной научной литературы по социологии. А тоска по ней огромная … Я до сих пор не имею даже книги Шпенглера, и, конечно, не слышал ничего о социологии Халупного и Фаустки. …

Еще раз спасибо за письмо: оно повлияло на меня, как глоток чистого воздуха в душной комнате.

Трудно нам сейчас живется и дышится. Трудно работать, но раз жизнь требует напряжения, оно должно быть сделано…»

‘

“I have received your letter today and will reply immediately. First of all, it sincerely and deeply pleased me. We rarely get to receive foreign letters to us, and even more so letters indicating that someone there is interested in us and our work. …

We are still divorced from Western scientific literature on sociology. And the longing for it is enormous … I still don’t even have Spengler’s book, and, of course, I have not heard anything about the sociology of Khalupni and Faustka. …

Thanks again for the letter: it affected me like a breath of clean air in a stuffy room.

It is difficult for us now to live and breathe. It’s hard to work, but since life requires energy [literally, voltage], it must be done … ”

translation by Roger W. Smith

— posted by Roger W.  Smith, March 2020;  courtesy Юри Дойков (Yuri Doykov)

Author: Roger W. Smith

Roger W. Smith is a writer and independent scholar based in New York City. His experience includes freelance writing and editing, business writing, book reviewing, and the teaching of writing and literature as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University. Mr. Smith's interests include personal essays and opinion pieces; American and world literature; culture, especially books and reading; classical music; current issues that involve social, moral, and philosophical views; and experiences of daily living from a ground level perspective. Sites on WordPress hosted by Mr. Smith include: (1) rogersgleanings.com (a personal site comprised of essays on a wide range of topics) ; (2) rogers-rhetoric.com (covering principles and practices of writing); (3) roger-w-smiths-dreiser.site (devoted to the author Theodore Dreiser); and (4) pitirimsorokin.com (devoted to sociologist and social philosopher Pitirim A. Sorokin). View all posts by Roger W. Smith