ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF Yu. M. LOTMAN (TO THE CENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH)

The article highlights the evolution of Yu. M. Lotman from the standpoint of the integrity of his scholarly approach, focused on the dialectical interaction of collective mind and individual freedom. His academic and educational school was based on working with the text as a manifestation of culture, leading to generalization only in the long term. The object of Lotman's research was cultural phenomena in their dynamics, text in progression, meanings in the processes of complication, protagonists of culture in their evolution. Through the eyes of a participant in Lotman's student seminar, it is shown how the principles that the scientist adhered to in his work were reflected in the topics and research methods offered to his students.