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Birth of Alexey A. Shakhmatov, Russian linguist, teacher, academician of St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences
5 (17) June 1864 in Narva, in a noble family was born Alexey Shakhmatov, Russian linguist, educator, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1894), a member of the State Council of the Russian Empire (1906), scholar of ancient Russian literature, Russian chronicles, problems of Russian and Slavic ethnogenesis, and questions of ancestral home and parent language of Slaves.
Shakhmatov lost his parents early and was brought up in his uncle's family in the village of Gubarevka, Saratov province. In 1876, the young man went abroad on a trip to Europe (Austria, Germany, France). In Leipzig, he enrolled in private school, on his return to Russia he continued his studies in Moscow private school of F. I. Kreyman, in 1879-1883 - in Moscow High School , and then - at History and Philology Faculty of Moscow University, where he was strongly influenced by courses in general and comparative linguistics given by philology professor F. F. Fortunatov.
The first scientific works of Shakhmatov, which treated of the language of ancient Russian literature, appeared in the «Archiv für slavische Philologie» journal in the years of his studies at school, and at university he started studying living folk dialects. After graduation, the researcher remained at the Department of Russian Language and Literature in order to prepare for a professorship. In 1890 he passed the master's examination and, as a docent, began to lecture on the history of the Russian language, but at the end of the year he left the university and went to the Saratov province, where he was appointed District Commander.
In the province Shakhmatov continued work on his thesis "Investigation of Russian phonetics", in 1894, was awarded the degree of Ph.D. in Russian language and literature, and then took the place of an adjunct at the Academy of Sciences and moved to St. Petersburg. Five years later he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1906 - Chairman of the Department of Russian Language and Literature and also a member of the State Council and State Duma of the academic Curia. Under the leadership of Shakhmatov the Department of Russian language and Literature resumed publication of their “Izvestia” (“News”) and "Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles" and prepared a multi-volume "Encyclopedia of Slavic Studies." In 1897 he led the scientist working on the academic dictionary of the Russian language, and from 1904, together with his teacher, Academician F. F. Fortunatov, participated in the work of the Commission on the reform of orthography adopted in January 1918.
Shakhmatov is the founder of the historical study of Russian literary language. He began his career in the framework of Moscow school of philology, but eventually developed his own research methods. The scientist had analyzed many ancient chronicles, laid the foundations of the science of textual criticism, proposed a method for determining the time of creation and sources of the oldest chronicles, in particular, the "Primary Chronicle." Shakhmatov also wrote works on specific cases of the sound and grammatical structure and an overall analysis of gradual changes in the linguistic system, from the pre-Slavonic era. The origin and development of Russian literary language were fully analyzed by him in a course of lectures "Essay on the modern Russian literary language."
At the beginning of the 20th century Shakhmatov, as a member of many foreign academies of sciences, along with linguists from Russia and foreign countries spent a lot of effort on creation of a Union of Slavic Academies for the integrated study of important scientific problems. In his last years, the academician was engaged in the study of Russian syntax and the construction of the general syntactic theory. "The syntax of Russian Language", published after his death in 1925-1927, had a significant influence on the development of syntactic theory in Russia.
Alexey Shakhmatov died August 16, 1920 and was buried at Volkovo cemetery in Petrograd.
Lit.: А. А. Шахматов. 1864–1920. Л., 1930; Лихачёв Д. С. Шахматов – текстолог // Известия АН СССР. Серия литературы и языка. 1964. Т. 23, вып. 6; Виноградов В. В. Шахматов А. А. как исследователь истории русского языка // Вестник АН СССР. 1964. № 10. С. 118; Гудзий Н. К. А. А. Шахматов о «Слове о полку Игореве» // Известия Отделения литературы и языка АН СССР. 1965. Т. 24, вып. 1. С. 3–6; Макаров В. Шахматов в Губарёвке // Волга. 1990. № 3; Обнорский С. П. Академик А. А. Шахматов // Вестник АН СССР. 1945. № 10–11; Поппэ А. В. А. А. Шахматов и спорные начала русского летописания // Древняя Русь. Вопросы медиевистики. 2008. № 3 (33). С. 76–85; Шахматов А.А.: Биография [Электронный ресурс] // Фундаментальная электронная библиотека «Русская литература и фольклор». Наука о литературе и фольклоре. Personalia. М., 2002-2014. URL: http://feb-web.ru/feb/person/person/feb/shaxmatov.htm.
Works: Введение в курс истории русского языка. Ч. 1. Пг., 1916; Исследование о Двинских грамотах XV в. Ч. 1. СПб., 1903; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://webirbis.aonb.ru/irbisdoc/kr/07kp008_1.pdf; То же. Ч. 2. СПб., 1903; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://webirbis.aonb.ru/irbisdoc/kr/07kp008_2.pdf; Исследования в области русской фонетики. 1893—1894; Историческая морфология русского языка. М., 1957; О государственных задачах русского народа в связи с национальными задачами племён, населяющих Россию // Московский журнал. 1999. № 9; Обозрение русских летописных сводов XIV—XVI вв. М.; Л., 1938; Шахматов А. А. Очерк древнейшего периода истории русского языка. Пг., 1915; Очерк современного русского литературного языка. М., 1941; Повесть временных лет. Т. 1 // Летопись занятий Археографической комиссии за 1916 г. Вып. 29. Пг., 1916; Разыскания о древнейших русских летописных сводах. СПб., 1908; Сборник статей и материалов. М.; Л., 1947; Синтаксис русского языка. Вып. 1–2. Л., 1925–1927.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Шахматов А. А. Древнейшие судьбы русского племени. Пг., 1919;
Шахматов А. А. Мордовский этнографический сборник. СПб., 1910.