This article concerns the multidimensional work of Lydia Ginzburg (1902–1990), a Russian literary and cultural theoretician and author of memoirs and diaries, who witnessed the most momentous events in the Soviet Union. The author of the article discusses the intersection of three dimensions of totality characterizing this remarkable thinker. The first was her biographical experience (the repressions, the siege of the city). The second concerns the institutions within which she worked (the totalitarian Soviet Union, censorship). The third was the nature of her thoughts and concepts, which crossed the boundaries of various disciplines and forms of activity (her academic work aimed at completeness and precision; her emotional, reflective memoirs were open in form). “Totality” is understood in this article as the inseparability of theory and practice, of rationality and emotionality, of abstract ideas and private experience.
