Sreznevsky Ismail

Sreznevsky Ismail (1812–1880) – philologist, specialist in Slavic studies, ethnographer, paleographer.

In 1826, he enrolled to the Kharkov University; in 1829, he got the Candidate degree; in 1837, he defended his Master thesis ‘An Etude on the Essence and Content of the Theory in the Political Disciplines’ (Kharkov, 1837). Adjunct at the Chair of Political Economy and Statistics at the Kharkov University (1837).

His amateur interest to ethnography and folklore was getting more and more professional. In 1839, he went to the South-Western Europe and spent three years there, studying folklore, life and popular religious beliefs of Slavs; and he sent regular reports and travel notes to Russian and European magazines.

In 1846, he defended his Doctor thesis ‘Sanctuaries and Rites of Paganism of Old Slavs’ at the Kharkov University.

In 1847, he moved to St. Petersburg. Since 1847, he taught at the Main Teachers-Training Institute, later – at the St. Petersburg University. In 1855-1880, he was Dean of the Historical and Philological Faculty of the St. Petersburg University. In 1861, he was temporary Rector. In 1862-1863, he was a member of the Administrative Board of the University.

Adjunct (1849), Academician of the Ac. of Sc. (1854); Member of the Russian Geographical Society; Member of the Russian Archeological Society (1850).

Compositions

Ukrainian Affairs of the Time of Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Kharkov, 1935. (in Rus.)
On the Sun Veneration of Old Slavs // ZhMNP. 1846, part 51, dep. 2, pp. 36-60. (in Rus.)
The Architecture of Temples of Pagan Slavs // Chteniya of the Imperial Society of the History and Antiquities at the Moscow University. 1846, No 3, pp 34-54. (in Rus.)
Sanctuaries and Rites of Paganism of Old Slavs According the Contemporary Testimonies and Legends. Kharkov University. 1846. (in Rus.)
On the Pagan Beliefs of Old Slavs in the Immortality // ZhMNP. 1847, part 53, dep. 2, pp. 185-196. (in Rus.)
Research on the Pagan Rites of Old Slavs // Finskyi vestnik. 1847, vol. 21, No 9, pp. 1-36; vol. 22, No 10, pp. 1-20; vol. 23, No 11, pp. 1-40. (in Rus.)
A Charter of Great Prince Mstislav and His Son Vsevolod of Novgorod to the Yuriev Monastery (1130). St. Petersburg, Ac. of Sc., 1860. (in Rus.)
Ancient Glagolic Monuments. St. Petersburg, Ac. of Sc., 1861-1862. (in Rus.)
Ancient Monuments of Russian Writing and Language (Tenth-Fourteenth Centuries). St. Petersburg, Ac. of Sc., 1863. (in Rus.)
Ancient Monuments of Writing and Language of South-Western Slavs (Tenth-Eleventh Centuries). St. Petersburg, Ac. of Sc., 1865. (in Rus.)
Ancient Glagolic Monuments in Comparison with Cyrillic Monuments. St. Petersburg, Ac. of Sc., 1866. (in Rus.)
Bylina on the Liubusha Trial. Warsaw, 1878. (in Rus.)

Bibliography

A List of Works by Sreznevsky // Supplement V to the Report on the Activity of the Department of Russian Language and Literature for 1880 and Obituary of Acad. Sreznevsky, comp А. F. Bychkov. Sbornik of the Department of Russian Language and Literature. Vol. XXII, St. Petersburg, 1881. С.79-212. (in Rus.)

About him

Bogatova G. А. Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky (1812– 1880) // National Lexicographers of the Eighteenth – Twentieth Centuries. Moscow, Nauka Publishing House, 2000. (in Rus.)
Lapteva L. P. The History of Slavic Studies in Russia in the Nineteenth Century. Moscow, Indrik Publishing House, 2005. (in Rus.)
I. I. Sreznevsky and the Russian Historical Linguistik: By the 200th Anniversary of I. I. Sreznevsky: Collection of Articles of the International Research Conference, September 26–28, 2012. Riazan’, 2012. (in Rus.)

M. Sh.