Literatureמיכאל אגורסקי

Mikhail Agursky

Mikhail Agursky was a Soviet cyberneticist and dissident who emigrated to Israel and became a historian of Soviet affairs and National Bolshevism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

1933 to 1991Soviet dissident activityResearch on National BolshevismFrom under the Rubble

Died: 21 August 1991, Moscow
Occupation: writer, literary historian, physicist
Education: School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences

Mikhail Agursky was born in 1933 in Moscow

Agursky was born in Moscow in 1933 to a Jewish family. His father, Samuil Agursky, was a revolutionary and later a historian. He was exiled during the Stalin era and never returned.

He studied engineering and worked in research institutes, including one tied to the Soviet military industry. In 1969 he completed a doctorate in cybernetics. He married and had a son and a daughter.

In 1970 he left his job and could not find work in his field, so he supported his family as a translator. He grew close to Alexander Men, Zionist activists and Russian dissidents. He wrote for the samizdat collection From under the Rubble, edited by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

In 1975 he emigrated to Israel and joined the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned a doctorate at the Sorbonne and taught Slavic studies. He also advised the Israeli government and commented on Soviet affairs in the media.

In 1991 he was invited to Moscow and arrived during the August coup attempt. He died there of a heart attack on August 21, 1991. He was buried at Har HaMenuchot.