From the Presidential Library fund: in recognition of what a lexicographer and a physician Vladimir Dal was awarded the St. Vladimir’s Cross for

November 22, 2017, marks the 216th anniversary of the birth of the Russian writer, lexicographer and ethnographer Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (alternatively transliterated as Dahl) (1801—1872). The Presidential Library presents in free access on its website the digital copies of rare editions of works written by a prominent scholar, which are of great importance for Russian science, as well as some rare books and memoirs of his contemporaries about different periods of the extraordinarily productive life of Vladimir Ivanovich.

Dahl’s magnum opus, indisputably, is The Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language — the work of all his life, published in 1903—1911 under the editorship of a linguist Ivan Aleksandrovich Baudouin de Kurtene (Jan Baudouin de Courtenay). 200 000 words, collected by one person! This is a feat — Vladimir Ivanovich worked on the dictionary for 53 years.

Dal’s talent is complex, which enabled the scientist to take place in several spheres of activity. But the collecting of words was in the first place. Being thirteen years of age, Dahl entered the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps; it was there that he got engaged in words, in their meaning. Life itself had given him a reason for this, which is convincingly described in the historical essay by N. Modestov The proceedings of the Orenburg Scientific Archive Commission. Issue 27. Vladimir Ivanovich in Orenburg (1913), an electronic copy of which is in the Presidential Library fund: “Dal’s father was the Dane, his mother was also of no Russian origin… Dal, as is very natural to think, initially had a very limited Russian vocabulary. This shortcoming of Dal, in all probability, was particularly sharply revealed when he entered the naval cadet corps and met there with a kind of cadet slang and a local dialect of his fellows. In order not to get into an embarrassing situation, an inventive Dal began to betake himself to the simplest method — writing down popular cadet words along with their meanings. While in the service, Dahl enriched his vocabulary and acquired a habit of writing down and collecting the words.”

Thus, the future scientist began to collect words for his vocabulary during his adolescence, while the latest entries were literally made a week before the author’s death, in September 1872. Chained to a bed, Dal instructs his daughter to add four new words to the manuscript of the dictionary, which he heard from the servants.

Dal, of course, did not start from scratch. In his work he used previous released works, and above all the Dictionary of the Russian Academy, published at the end of the XVIII century and available in the Presidential Library fund. Dal also had some helpers who sent him the words. But he did all the preparatory work alone.

In 1863—1865 the first edition of the dictionary came out. For the second one Dal had managed to make about five thousand corrections and additions, included in the dictionary over one and a half thousand new words. The second edition — “corrected and significantly multiplied according to the author’s manuscript” — was released after the death of Dal, in 1880—1882. At the beginning of the XX century, the third edition of the dictionary of Dal came out. At least 20,000 new words were added in it, including expletive and abusive vocabulary. For these additions, the editor was severely criticized. However, in 1912—1914 the fourth edition of Dal’s dictionary came out. In Soviet times, the “Baudouin Dictionary of Dahl” was not republished.

The Presidential Library is offering readers all four editions.

Another large-scale work by Dal, which is represented in the Presidential Library stock, is The proverbs of the Russian People (1904), some of which the author used in the explanatory dictionary. In addition to proverbs, the collection includes sayings, bywords, tongues, jokes, and riddles that vividly and accurately reflect the customs and ways of the Russian people. The first edition was published in 1862 and was subsequently reprinted many times. The third edition of “Proverbs” is available on the Presidential Library website.

Among the works of Vladimir Dal there are the essays, articles on medicine, linguistics, ethnography, verses, one-act comedies, fairy tales, novels. So, for instance, Dahl will open from his unexpected side for such reader, who will familiarize himself with the book named A description of the thrown through the Vistula River bridge for passing it over of Lieutenant-General Ridiger’s detachment, published in 1833. In 1831, during the Polish uprising, Dal, who took part in the campaign as a physician, also applied his engineering skills, mining the crossing over the Vistula and undermining it after the retreat of the Russian division across the river. On report to the authorities on the decisive actions of the division military medic Dal, the corps commander General Ridiger imposed a resolution: “For the feat to recommend for the order. Give a reprimand for non-compliance and evasion of direct duties.” Emperor Nicholas I awarded Vladimir Dal with the Order of Saint Vladimir — the Cross of Saint Vladimir in a buttonhole (for fastening in the left chest).

…Marked with awards, on his return to St. Petersburg, Dal became acclaimed as a brilliant surgeon. During this period the writer wrote several articles, sketches for future works. In 1832, “The Russian Fairy Tales. First five” were published.

“Pushkin adorned Dal’s tales so much, — writes N. Modestov in the above mentioned essay, — that under the influence of the first five tales of the Cossack Lugansky (pseudonym of Dal) he wrote the best tale “On the Fisherman and the Golden Fish” and offered it as a gift to Vladimir Ivanovich in a manuscript format with the inscription: “Yours is from another yours. To storyteller Cossack Lugansky — from storyteller Alexander Pushkin.”

At the same time, Vladimir Ivanovich was a man of extraordinary modesty. About himself and his own dictionary, in particular, he said: “Nether a teacher, nor a mentor or someone, who knows it better than others, wrote this, but the one, who worked on this more than any other; a disciple, who collected his entire century in a grain all that, what he had heard from his teacher — a living Russian language.”