M.M. Bakhtin as perceived by his Saransk students

The article highlights unknown episodes from the Saransk period of M.M. Bakhtin’s biography, associated with his teaching as well as cultural and educational activities in the 1950s - 1960s: at the A.I. Polezhaev Mordovia State Pedagogical Institute (now N.P. Ogarev Mordovia State University), at courses organized under the Ministry / Committee of State Security (MGB / KGB) of the Mordovia ASSR, at the Saransk City University of Culture, in the Mordovia Republican Society «Znaniye». The material of the study is the oral memories of Saransk inhabitants - former Bakhtin’s students and listeners as recorded by the author of the article in the 1990s.