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Birthday anniversary of the academician Vsevolod F. Miller, philologist and ethnographer
7 (19) April, 1848, in the family of the famous poet and translator Fyodor B. Miller was born future eminent philologist and ethnographer, the head of the historical school in Russian folklore, Vsevolod F. Miller.
Having graduated from the Ennes boarding school - one of the best private schools in Moscow - in 1865, Vsevolod entered the History and Philology Faculty at Moscow University. His teacher was the famous Russian scholar and critic F. I. Buslayev. At the university Miller studied hard Italian language, history of Italian painting and classical art. In 1870, he graduated from the university and stayed at the Department of Comparative Linguistics, to study folklore, ancient literature, ethnography, linguistics and archeology of the peoples of the Caucasus. In 1871, Miller, together with the famous linguist F. F. Fortunatov, went on expedition to Suwalki County (now part of Poland) to collect and analyze local folklore. In 1874-1875, he traveled abroad to complete his education, and in 1877 he defended his master's thesis "Essays of Aryan Mythology (Asviny - Diosury)", which was the result of many years' study of Sanskrit, Indian history and mythology. The same year, Vsevolod was appointed assistant professor of the comparative linguistics department, lecturing on Sanskrit, history of Russian literature and history of the Ancient East.
One of Miller's major works in that period was "An Opinion about the Tale of Igor’s Campaign," in which he argued literacy and enlightenment of the Old Russian author, based on the analysis of the text and content of the work. In the 1880s, Vsevolod became interested in the history of the Iranian branch of Caucasian languages. As a result of his trips to the Caucasus in 1881-1882, he published "The Ossetian Studies", which later became part of his doctoral thesis. And his article, "Epigraphic Iranian traces in the south of Russia" of 1887, logically completed the author's research on the history of the Iranian languages and tribes. For the works in this field, Vsevolod Fedorovich was awarded the Grand Gold Medal of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.
In the early 1890's, the main subject of Miller’s research was the history of Russian true story epos. His "Excursions to Russian folk epos" and "Sketches of Russian folk literature" covered this subject matter. In his works, Vsevolod Fedorovich disclosed an impact of Iran's tales on Russian epos, and formulated the theoretical basis of the historical school of Russian folklore. Miller and his followers, A. V. Markov, S. K. Shambinago, B. M. Sokolov, studied many of the monuments of the Old Russian literature in order to determine historical and literary, cultural parallels and connections with folk tales and historical songs.
Thanks to the work of Vsevolod Fedorovich, the scene composition of Russian epos was systematized, and its historical geography created. One of the most important aspects of his work was the collection and publication of texts. In 1894 was published a collection of "Epics recorded in the old and new manner," composed of the epics, found by Miller in joint effort with the outstanding linguist N. S. Tikhonravov; in 1908 was issued a collection of "Epics recorded newly and recently in different areas of Russia."
Besides an active research, Miller continued to teach and was engaged in social work. He delivered lectures in various universities, including the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, which he headed from the time of its foundation in 1897. From 1885 Vsevolod Fedorovich had also been the curator of Dashkovskaya Ethnographic Museum, and from 1897 he headed the Eastern commission of the Imperial Moscow Archaeological Society. In 1911, Miller was elected ordinary academician in the department of Russian Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences. In his last years of life, the scientist was actively involved in the academic project to publish a collection of historical songs from the times of Ivan the Terrible to Peter the Great, as well as worked on the sequel to "Essays on the History of Russian Epos."
Vsevolod F. Miller died 5 (18) November 1913, in St. Petersburg, at the age of 65 years. He was buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Lit.: Миллер В. Ф. Былины новой и недавней записи из разных местностей России. М., 1908; Он же. Взгляд на «Слово о полку Игореве». М., 1877; Он же. Илья Муромец и Алёша Попович. СПб., 1908; Он же. Исторические песни русского народа XVI-XVII вв. Пг., 1915; Он же. Осетинские этюды. Владикавказ, 1992; Он же. Очерки русской народной словесности: В 3-х тт. М., 1897-1924; Калоев Б. А. В. Ф. Миллер — кавказовед (исследования и материалы). Орджоникидзе, 1963; Марков А. В. Обзор трудов В. Ф. Миллера по народной словесности. Пг., 1916; Миллер Всеволод Фёдорович // Русские филологи XIX века: Библиографический словарь-справочник / Авт.-сост. М. Е. Бабичева [и др]. М., 2006; Сперанский М. Н. Всеволод Фёдорович Миллер. М., 1914.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Миллер В. Ф. Русские и инородческие предания о Казанском походе Ивана Грозного. М., 1914;
Миллер В. Ф. Сборник материалов для описания местностей и племен Кавказа. Вып. IV. Тифлис, 1884.