Dmitri Vladimirovich Grishin
(1908-1975)
In The Australian People, James Jupp tells us that many Russian immigrants
to Australia after World War II concealed their origins for fear of
being sent from Displaced Persons Camps to live under Stalin. Disillusioned
and afraid because of real or imagined concerns about their past, many
were anxious to start completely afresh and so made few efforts to recover
their ethnic identity.
Dmitri Vladimirov Grishin, whom Jupp describes as "a highly respected
academic teacher and scholar", exhibited no such tendency. In Nina
Christesen's words, "Remembered for the very Russian atmosphere
he created around him, Grishin insisted on speaking his native tongue
to those who could understand the language and teaching it to those
who could not".
Grishin had taught Russian literature at Moscow University before the
War. In 1942 he and his wife were taken prisoner and sent to Berlin.
They escaped to Emden and arrived in Australia in 1949. At the Bonegilla
immigrant camp, Grishin organised protests against the living conditions
there. He took Australian citizenship in 1954 and began tutoring in
Russian at the University while working at Monsanto Chemicals (Australia).
By 1970 he had been appointed Reader.
Grishin's research at Moscow University in the 1940s had been on "Early
Dostoyevsky", and his Melbourne PhD, awarded in 1957, was on Dostoyevsky's
Diary of a Writer. He founded the International Dostoyevsky Society
and published extensively on his work.
Both of Grishin's sons graduated from Melbourne University. Vladimir
Grishin (1945- ) took his MA in 1971 with a thesis on Gogol. Sasha (Alexander)
Grishin (1950-), academic and art critic, took his BA (1972) and MA
(1975) from Melbourne before moving to the ANU. His thesis was on Stroganov
icon-painting and his published books include work on Vadim Sidur, Andrew
Sibley, Leonard French and S T Gill.
