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Birthday anniversary of the Russian literary critic, bibliographer and editor Semen Afanasievich Vengerov
On April 5 (17), 1855 in the town of Lubny, Poltava province, in a family of a bank director was born the Russian literary critic, historian of literature, bibliographer and editor Semen Afanasievich Vengerov.
Vengerov received a good education at home and in 1868 entered St. Petersburg school N 5. In 1872-1874 he studied at the Medical and Surgical Academy, then he entered the Law Department of St. Petersburg University. Having graduated from the University in 1879, Vengerov served as a barrister for some time. In 1880 he passed the examinations without attending lectures to the History and Philology Department of Yurievsky (Tartu) University and from 1897 he began lecturing on the history of the Russian literature in St. Petersburg University. However in 1899 Vengerov was removed from teaching as a ‘disloyal’ person. Having returned to the University in the middle of 1900s he continued lecturing. One of his lectures ‘Basic features of the history of the modern Russian literature’ covered the topic of opposition between realism in the Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century to decadence of the time. In 1909 Vengerov was conferred the doctor’s degree of the Russian language and literature of Kharkov University and in 1910 was elected a professor of history of the Russian literature in the Higher Women School and Psychoneurological Institute. In 1916-1919 he presided the Literature Fund and in 1917 founded and became the director of the Russian Book Chamber.
Vengerov devoted himself to literature and science at the time when he was a student. His first significant research was the book ‘Russian literature in its contemporary representatives. Critique and biographical studies. I. S. Turgenev’ (1875). Vengerov’s major works were dedicated to the history of the Russian literature. He also wrote valuable bibliography works which are still much in demand including the ‘Critique and biographical dictionary of the Russian authors and scholars’ and the ‘Sources of the Russian authors dictionary’. In 1891-1897 Vengerov worked as the editor of the literature department for the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary which included over 100 of his articles. Vengerov’s critique and bibliography work was highly appreciated by his contemporaries who called him the symbol of the Russian bibliography.
Vengerov believed that his primary task was to write the biographies of the Russian authors which later served the basis for the ‘Critique and biographical dictionary of the Russian authors and scholars from the beginning of the Russian scholarship to our times’. He had written over 600 articles for the dictionary. Textual works also occupied an important place in his life. In 1901 he issued the collected works ‘Russian poetry’ which included poetic texts with biographic articles, comments and extracts from critique and scientific articles on the authors. Vengerov also worked as the editor of the ‘Great writers’ library’ in Brockhaus and Efron publishing house. The Library included the collected works of A. S. Pushkin, W. Shakespeare, F. Schiller, G. Byron, J.-B. Moliere supplied with comments. He also was the head of the ‘Russian literature of the 20th century (1890-1910)’ – the first large code of crique, research and bibliography materials on literature of the period. He was the chief-editor of the issue of the first complete works of V. G. Belinsky supplied with comprehensive historical and literature annotations and editor’s studies. On Vengerov’s initiative in 1906 under the St. Petersburg University was created Pushkin circle for the philology students which included S. M. Bondi, Yu. N. Tynyanov, N. V. Ismailov, V. M. Zhirmunsky, B. M. Eikhenbaum. The circle started to compose the dictionary of Pushkin poetic language and issued a series of works on the poet included into the collected works edition ‘Pushkinist’ in 1914-1918.
From 1911 ‘Prometheus’ publishing house had been issuing the collected works of S. A. Vengerov. In the first volume the author expressed his concept of the Russian literature history development: ‘The Russian literature had never pursued only esthetic interests, on the contrary it has always been a rostrum from which a teaching word was pronounced. And it did not just contradict with the literary perfection, but on the contrary made the Russian literary word especially moving. This is where its charm comes from [of the Russian literature] and this is where the pride of the Russian spirit lies’.
Semen Afanasievich Vengerov died on September 14, 1920 in Petrograd.
Lit.: Баскаков В. Н. Венгеров Семён Афанасьевич // Русские писатели, 1800-1917: Биографический словарь. М., 1989. Т. 1: А-К. С. 411-412; Венгеров С. А. Собрание сочинений. СПб., 1911-1913. Т. 1-3, 5; Венгеров С. А. Автобиография. Пг., 1920; Еголин А. М. О С. А. Венгерове // История русской критики. Т. 2. М.; Л., 1958.; Калентьева А. Г. Влюблённый в литературу. М., 1964; Труды проф. С. А. Венгерова. Библиографический перечень / Сост. А. С. Поляков. М., 1916; Фомин А. Г. С. А. Венгеров как профессор и руководитель Пушкинского семинария // Пушкинский сб. памяти профессора Семёна Афанасьевича Венгерова. М.; Пг., 1922; Фомин А. Г. С. А. Венгеров как организатор и первый директор Российской книжной палаты. Л., 1925; Яковлев Н. У истоков пушкиноведения: О Пушкинском семинарии Венгерова // Ленинградский университет. 1962. 9 февраля.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: