My friend and colleague Valentina Polukhina, who has died aged 85, was the leading authority on the life and work of the Nobel Laureate poet Joseph Brodsky. She wrote more than 20 books of literary criticism and did much to foster new Russian poetry. After arriving at Keele University as a language assistant, she rose to become its professor of Russian literature.
Valentina was born in a poor Siberian village to Polina and Platon Borisov, who were farmworkers. She studied Russian language and linguistics at Tula University, graduating in 1962, and there met and married an engineering student, Vladimir Polukhin. Although their marriage did not last long, Valentina retained the surname of Polukhina throughout her life.
For a while she taught in a remote school in Dagestan, then at Moscow University of Friendship. In 1973 she lived briefly in Kenya, before going to work as a Russian language assistant at Keele University.
Valentina made an immediate and unforgettable impact. Students loved her flamboyant character, her very un-English directness, and the fact that she cared deeply about their progress and general well-being. She was an invaluable colleague, supportive and generous, and did all she could to promote Russian studies, nationally and internationally.
Thanks to her, many distinguished Russian writers went to Keele, most notably the poet who became the subject of her life’s work, Brodsky. Valentina rose in 20 years to become a lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, and finally, in 1997, professor.
Upon retirement in 2001, she moved to London, where she married the poet and translator Professor Daniel Weissbort. Valentina considered her dozen years of marriage to Daniel to be the happiest period of her life. They were able to share their love of poetry, travelling, and the intellectual life more generally, and Daniel dedicated a number of moving poems to her.
Daniel died in 2013. Valentina continued working, travelling, publishing, and corresponding with poets and others connected to literature. She was also in close and frequent contact with her family in Russia. Her last article – about Brodsky, naturally – was published in the Russian literary journal Novy Mir – New World - in 2021.
She loved Siamese cats and fashion – Issy Miyake was a favourite designer – and collected antique furniture. In her last years she became a devout Orthodox Christian.
Valentina is survived by her stepchildren, Ben, Naomi and Rebecca, and by a half-sister, Tamara.
