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Birthday anniversary of Ismail I. Sreznevsky, Russian philologist and Slavist
1 (13) June 1812 in Yaroslavl, in the family of professor of ancient languages and literature and Russian rhetoric, Demidov School of Higher Sciences, from Ryazan, was born Ismail I. Sreznevsky, Russian Slavic philologist and ethnographer, paleographer, academician of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1851). He was author of the works on Russian language, archeology, bibliography, teaching of a language, ethnography of the Slavic peoples, history of ancient literature.
Having received his primary and secondary education in a private school, Sreznevsky, at the age of 14 entered the Kharkov University, Faculty of ethical and political science and three years later obtained a PhD for his thesis "On the offense." At the university he was strongly influenced by the lectures of the professor I. N. Danilovich on Russian civil law, criminal law and criminal legal procedure in Russia.
After graduation Sreznevsky joined the Kharkov Noble Deputies Assembly. But civil service did not attract him: in his spare time, he taught at the boarding school de Robertis and private homes, and was engaged in his literary experiments. In 1831, with the support of local authors Sreznevsky issued "Ukrainian Almanac", where, he published some of his poems under a pseudonym. At that time he was seriously engaged in studying jurisprudence, mainly political economy and statistics. In 1837, at the "home" Faculty of the Kharkov University, Sreznevsky presented his master's thesis, "Experience on the nature and content of the theory in political sciences."
The same year that he defended his thesis, Sreznevsky won the seat of adjunct professor at the Kharkov University, at the Faculty of economics and statistics. Two years later, the scientist prepared his doctoral dissertation ("The experience on the subject and the elements of statistics and political economy"), many provisions of which were highly relevant and original at the time. But the novelty of his views was the reason that by the majority vote of the two faculties Sreznevsky’s thesis was rejected, and he was not admitted to the doctoral debate. In January 1839 he accepted the invitation of the Ministry of National Education to go to the Slavic lands to prepare for the title of professor of Slavic philology.
Sreznevsky began studying Ukrainian ethnography, history and folk literature back in his student years. In his travels in Kharkov, Poltava and Yekaterinoslav provinces, he studied people, lifestyle, language, customs, and poetry of Ukraine. During this period, the researcher worked on the study of Little Russian dialect, and even admitted the existence of an independent Little Russian language with the right of self-determination in literature. Later, however, his views on this issue have changed: in 1870s the researcher believed that the Little Russian dialect was part of the Russian language, and argued that "there is no need to destroy written language of these dialects." Collecting Little Russian ideas, Sreznevsky came upon the material of other Slavic cultures too. Young ethnographer was also interested in French philosophy, Egyptian Avesta religion, Scandinavian sagas.
In 1839 Sreznevsky went abroad, where he spent nearly three years, visiting the Czech Republic, Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, Extremely, Styria, Carinthia, Friuli, Dalmatia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slavonia, Serbia, Galicia and Hungary. During the trip, he studied local dialects, collected songs, proverbs, and other monuments of folk literature, learned about the life and customs of the Slavs and other local peoples. Having returned from abroad in the autumn of 1842, the researcher got a chair in Slavic Studies whose department opened at Kharkov University. Being abroad, he began to publish his research papers: reports to the Minister in the "Journal of the Ministry of National Education," travel letters in the "Notes of the Fatherland", in the journal of the Czech Museum. At the same time the scientist wrote a number of articles and papers on Slavic literature and mythology.
In 1847, having obtained a doctorate decree, Sreznevsky was transferred to St. Petersburg, where he got a chair in Slavic Studies at the University of St. Petersburg. From the first years of his stay in St. Petersburg the scientist attracted a number of talented young people who showed themselves later in science and literature. In these years, the scientific community showed a great interest in Old Slavonic language and Old Russian language. Sreznevsky soon joined this scientific movement publishing his "Thoughts on the History of the Russian Language" (1849) which made up the whole era in the historical study of the Russian language and predeceeded the “Experience of the historical grammar of the Russian language" by Russian philologist F. I. Buslaev. Sreznevsky then first stated the need of historical study of a language in relation to the history of the people, and made suggestions about the time of formation of Russian dialects.
Besides philology and history Sreznevsky seriously worked on geography and archeology. In 1847, he was invited to the Pedagogical Institute, and became a member of the Geographical Society. At the same time the scientist was appointed censor of the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee, but had remained in the position only three years. In 1849, the 2nd branch of the Academy of Sciences elected Sreznevsky its adjunct, in 1851 - an extraordinary academician, and in 1854 – full academician. In 1850, he also joined the Archaeological Society, an active member of which he remained until his death. The main activities of the scientist in those years were related to the St. Petersburg University and the Academy. On his initiative were created the "Bulletin of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Department of Russian language and literature.” In addition to the various critical and bibliographical notes and a number of studies by Sreznevsky and other scientists, the "Bulletin..." published some of the monuments of folk literature of various Slavic peoples.
In the second half of 1850s Sreznevsky finally determined the main content and area of his scientific work - popularization of written records of Old Slavonic and Old Russian languages, their philological and paleographic study. In those years he conceived and initiated the publication of the Old Russian dictionary based on the records of the 11th – 14th centuries and partly of the 15th – 16th centuries. However, he did not complete this work: printing of the dictionary began 10 years after his death, entitled "Materials for the Dictionary of the Old Russian language based on written records." Today the publication is the most comprehensive dictionary of the Old Russian language. In the second half of his life the researcher worked especially hard on paleography: after his death among his papers was found a huge collection of paleographic photos from ancient and old Slavic and Russian manuscripts.
Ismail I. Sreznevsky died on 9 (21) February 1880 in St. Petersburg, and according to his will was buried at his family estate Sreznevo, Spassky district of the Ryazan province.
Lit.: Богатова Г. А. Измаил Иванович Срезневский (1812-1880) // Отечественные лексикографы: XVIII-XX века. М., 2000; И. И. Срезневский и история славяно-русской филологии: тенденции в науке, образовании и культуре: материалы Международной научно-практической конференции, посвящённой 195-летию со дня рождения акад. И. И. Срезневского, 25-27 мая 2007 г. / Рязанский государственный университет им. С. А. Есенина. Рязань, 2007; Измаил Иванович Срезневский. Краткий биографический очерк. СПб., 1913; Ламайский В. И. И. И. Срезневский (1812-1880). М., 1890; Памяти Измаила Ивановича Срезневского. Кн. 1. Пг., 1916; Смирнов С. В. Срезневский Измаил Иванович // Отечественные филологи-слависты середины XVIII – начала XX вв. М., 2001. С. 85-102; Срезневский И. И. Древние глаголические памятники, сравнительно с памятниками кириллицы. СПб., 1866; Он же. Древние славянские памятники юсового письма с описанием их и с замечаниями об особенностях их правописания и языка. СПб., 1868; Он же. Древние памятники русского письма и языка (X-XIV веков). СПб., 1882; Он же. Славяно-русская палеография XI-XIV веков. СПб., 1885.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Срезневский И. И. Замечания о книге С. А. Гедеонова «Варяги и Русь». СПб., 1878;
Срезневский И. И. Роженицы у славян и других языческих народов. М., 1855;
Срезневский И. И. Рядная запись XIII века. СПб., 1851;
Based on the materials of the K. G. Paustovsky Ryazan Regional Youth Library