Olga Aleksandrovna Schor (Russian: Ольга Александровна Шор, also known as Olga Deschartes, 1894–1978) was an art and literary historian. She was also the companion of poet, writer and philosopher Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov during his Italian exile.
About
Born into a prominent Moscow family of musicians and intellectuals, Olga Schor received her philosophical training in Russia and Germany. After the Revolution of 1917, she worked in the People's Commissariat of Education and the State Academy of Arts and met Vyacheslav Ivanov in 1924, on the eve of the poet's departure to Italy. For three years, O. A. Schor was his official representative in the USSR, responsible for copyright protection, publications, and forwarding the Central Commission for the Improvement of the Welfare of Scientists' grant to Italy, as V. I. Ivanov was considered to be on a business trip abroad. In 1927 she moved to Italy with the Ivanovs, worked as a guide in Rome and as a clerk in Pavia, in 1928–1932 she worked on the preface of the Italian edition of Correspondence from Two Corners by V. I. Ivanov and M. O. Gershenzon, after 1934 she devoted herself entirely to maintaining Ivanov's household and working capacity. After his death in 1949 she wrote a continuation of the philosophical poem The Story of Svetomir the Tsarevich, calling it the fulfillment of the poet's will, began to publish the collection of works of V. Ivanov. Ivanov, for which she wrote a biography-prediction (1971). She died and was buried in Rome; she never took Italian citizenship. O. Schor's own works on the Italian Renaissance and religious philosophy remained mostly in manuscript, the work on Michelangelo was published in 2011 and 2017 as a whole and in fragments; in 2023 manuscript materials on O. Schor's own philosophical system Mnemology were published. Olga Alexandrovna's archive is stored in the Vyacheslav Ivanov Research Center in Rome and has been dismantled since 2023.
Biography
Formative period Olga Schor Schor was born into a famous Moscow artistic family: she was a cousin of the Zionist intellectual E. D. Schor and a niece of the pianist . Her father Aleksandr Solomonovich Schor (1864–1939) owned a piano factory and worked as a tuner in Soviet times. Her mother Rosa Moiseyevna was a member of the Society of Free Aesthetics, her sister Vera was a violinist, and her brother Yuri (1896–1960) was a cellist. Olga herself graduated with honors by the Moscow Women's Gymnasium of Princess S. N. Golitsyna. During her high school years, Olga Schor, as she put it, "smuggled" (as it was forbidden by the rules of the educational institutions of the Russian Empire), attended lectures by Vyacheslav Ivanov, who gave classes at the Society of Free Aesthetics. Leo Tolstoy visited Schor's house, and Olga, despite her young age, remembered her parents' interaction with him. She was baptized in the in Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street; it was a conscious choice of Olga Alexandrovna. Since 1911 she studied at the philosophical faculty of the Higher Women's Courses, where G. Speth taught; in the summer semester of 1912 she attended a series of lectures by Rickert at the University of Freiburg and joined the circle of Russian neo-Kantians (S. Hesse, F. Stepun). In 1916, she presented her dissertation on Fichte's gnoseology theory. In 1918–1922, she worked as a lecturer at the People's University under the People's Commissariat of Education, in 1923–1926 – at the State Academy of Arts and Sciences (according to some information she cooperated with the State Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1921 and even participated in its foundation). According to Lydia Ivanova, during the World War I, Olga Schor was acquainted with the Indians who came to Russia, one of whom was even going to marry, nursed from typhoid Suhrawardy, friendship with whom she maintained for many years. F. Stepun's memoirs mention the "academy" that met at Berdyaev's house in the first post-revolutionary years, and whose meetings were always attended by the "intelligent, versatile, educated and very talented" Olga Alexandrovna Schor. It was from her that Stepun learned of the publication of Spengler's The Decline of the West.
Life period with Vyacheslav Ivanov
The acquaintance with V. I. Ivanov took place in Moscow in the house of M. Gershenzon in 1924, when the poet moved from Baku to the capital, preparing to leave for Italy. Until 1927, on behalf of Ivanov Olga Alexandrovna was engaged in publishing his books in the USSR, copyright protection, represented the interests of Vyacheslav Ivanovich in the Central Commission for the Improvement of the Welfare of Scientists and Narkompros (the poet was considered to be on a foreign business trip). Between 1924 and 1926, O.A. Schor regularly reported to Vyacheslav Ivanovich from Moscow to Rome. In 1927, O.A. Schor left Moscow and traveled to Italy via Dresden, where she stayed with F. Stepun for several weeks. According to F. Stepun's letter of January 8, 1934, her correspondence with O. Schor had been interrupted for several previous years. The correspondence published in 2012 shows that Olga Schor owed her relatively painless move to Italy and obtaining (and permanently renewing) a residence permit to Olga Resnevich-Senorelli (1883–1973), a Latvian citizen and prominent figure in Russian emigration. Senorelli met Vyacheslav Ivanov in the fall of 1924, felt great piety for him, and helped him in every possible way to adapt to the intellectual circles of Rome.Тройная переписка: Вяч. Иванов и Ольга Шор в переписке с Ольгой Ресневич-Синьорелли (1925—1948) // Archivio italo-russo IX = Русско-итальянский архив IX / предисл. и подгот. текста К. Кумпан; коммент. А. д’Амелия, К. Кумпан, Д. Рицци [A Triple Correspondence: Vyacheslav Ivanov and Olga Schor in Correspondence with Olga Resnevich-Signorelli (1925–1948)]. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici – Università di Salerno (in Russian). Салерно: Europa Orientalis. 2012. pp. 251–253.
In Rome, Olga Alexandrovna Schor became close to the entire Ivanov family, where she lived until her death. She studied the art of Michelangelo and Leon Battista Alberti, worked on the treatise Mnemology, which remained unfinished and unpublished during her lifetime. In February 1929, O. Schor tried to get to Sorrento to see Gorky, to plead with the Soviet government for a pension and the possibility of publications to Vyacheslav Ivanovich. She traveled in the company of the Samoilovich —polar explorer—, Chukhnovsky —the pilot—, and Srednevsky – the doctor of the icebreaker Krassin. In 1931-1934 O. Schor served as the secretary of the Higher Institute of Finance in Pavia (Ivanov worked at the same time at the Collegio Borromeo — an elite educational institution in the same city). In 1934, O. Schor actively participated in the publication of a special issue of the Milanese magazine Il Convegno, entirely dedicated to V. I. Ivanov. In this issue, an extensive article by F. Stepun was published. In Russian translation it was published two years later in the Paris Sovremennye zapiski and then included in his memoirs Encounters. Continued friendship with O. Senorelli, conducted on equal terms (on the contrary, Olga Senorelli kept a respectful distance from Vyacheslav Ivanov, although he himself became more and more irritated with time). The two women shared an interest in medicine, art and anthroposophical practices: despite her Orthodoxy, Olga Alexandrovna led meditation sessions. In the early 1930s, Signorelli was working on a book about the actress Eleonora Duse, for whom Olga Schor searched for literature in various languages and consulted on various artistic and scientific innovations. It was Olga Alexandrovna who introduced her namesake to the publisher Herbert Steiner and tried to get the book published in the magazine Corona.Тройная переписка: Вяч. Иванов и Ольга Шор в переписке с Ольгой Ресневич-Синьорелли (1925—1948) // Archivio italo-russo IX = Русско-итальянский архив IX / предисл. и подгот. текста К. Кумпан; коммент. А. д’Амелия, К. Кумпан, Д. Рицци [A Triple Correspondence: Vyacheslav Ivanov and Olga Schor in Correspondence with Olga Resnevich-Signorelli (1925–1948)]. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici – Università di Salerno (in Russian). Салерно: Europa Orientalis. 2012. pp. 254–456.
In her memoirs, Lidia Ivanova repeatedly emphasized the nomadic life and the restlessness of the entire Ivanov family until the mid-1930s. The scandal of the expulsion of Italian subjects from the USSR in 1932 increased the pressure of Mussolini's authorities on the emigrants who still retained Soviet citizenship. This was an important reason for the Ivanov family's conversion to Italian citizenship. Finally, without a permanent job, Ivanov decided to rent an apartment and live at home in a family style. Lydia Vyacheslavovna and Olga Schor managed to find a modest apartment on Monte Tarpeo Street at the top of Capitol Hill. It became known jokingly as Tarpeian Rock. The house belonged to the elderly Marquis Guglielmi; it turned out that Eleanor Duse had once lived in the house, from which the Ivanovs inherited the furniture. Since March 1934 Vyacheslav Ivanov found a separate house. It was here that Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius visited in August 1937; the latter described the poet's apartment in the magazine (January 1, 1938) and, without the author's knowledge, published the poem The garden, and behind it // Your naked relics, Rome! In the material support of the Ivanovs, a huge role was played by O. Signorelli, who helped Lydia Ivanova to get a job at the Conservatory to Respighi, obtained an award for her, treated all members of the family, and so on. Vyacheslav Ivanovich became her granddaughter's godfather. Apparently, Olga Signorelli repeatedly provided O. Schor with money, and on the occasion of Ivanov's report in Sanremo in March 1933, she even borrowed a dress for a gala banquet.Тройная переписка: Вяч. Иванов и Ольга Шор в переписке с Ольгой Ресневич-Синьорелли (1925—1948) // Archivio italo-russo IX = Русско-итальянский архив IX / предисл. и подгот. текста К. Кумпан; коммент. А. д’Амелия, К. Кумпан, Д. Рицци [A Triple Correspondence: Vyacheslav Ivanov and Olga Schor in Correspondence with Olga Resnevich-Signorelli (1925–1948)]. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici – Università di Salerno (in Russian). Салерно: Europa Orientalis. 2012. pp. 256.
The house was kept almost exclusively by Olga Alexandrovna Schor, who also accompanied Ivanov to and from his work at the Collegium Russicum; Lydia Ivanova cooked, and the house was cleaned by a servant girl, Katerina. Olga Schor never took Italian citizenship, although it caused many difficulties. The family customs of the Ivanovs can be judged from the memoirs of L. V. and D. V. Ivanov, as well as from the correspondence of V. I. Ivanov with O. A. Schor. In the life of all of them was strongly artistic, playful beginning, up to the fact that they used a special language. Their nicknames were also characteristic: Olga Schor immediately became Flamingo (she had a habit of standing on one leg for a long time after thinking about it).