Zelenin Dmitry

Zelenin Dmitry (1878–1954) – ethnographer and folklorist, specialist in Slavic culture.

In 1898, he graduated from the Vyatka Spiritual Seminary and entered the Historical and philological Faculty of the Yuriev University; he graduated from it in 1904. In his student’s years, he started his research in the field of folk culture and language (‘Songs of Countryside Youth. Vyatka’, 1903; ‘Folk Sayings and Anecdotes about Russian People of the Vyatka Region’. Vyatka 1904).

In 1915, at the St. Petersburg University, he defended his Master thesis about the Velikorussian dialects; in 1917, at the Moscow University, he defended his Doctor thesis ‘Essays on Russian Mythology’. He became Ass. Docent of the Petrograd University (1915-1916).

Since 1904, he was Actual Member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society; he described the Research Archive of the Russian Geographical Society. In 1906-1916, he was assigned to the Ac. of Sc. for editing the ‘Dictionary of Russian Language’. Since 1909, he was Actual Member of the Kharkov Historical and Philological research Society, the Society of Archeology, History and Ethnography at the Kazan’ University.

In 1916-1925, he was Professor of the Chair of Russian Language and Literature, Head of the A. A. Potebnya Research Chair of Linguistic at the Kharkov University, a founder of the Cabinet of Slavic and Russian Philology. He participated in the foundation of the Ethnographical Department of the Kharkov Historical Museum (founded in 1920 by N. F. Sumtsov as the G. S. Skovoroda Museum of Slobodskaya Ukraine).

In 1925, on the invitation of V. G. Bogoraz, he moved to Leningrad and became Professor of the Ethnographical Department of the Geographical Faculty of the Leningrad State University. He also headed the Section ‘Zhivaya starina’ (Living Antiquity) at the Research Institute of the Comparative History of Literatures and languages of the West and East at the Leningrad State University (till 1928); since 1926, he was Academic Secretary of the State Academy of the History of Material Culture; in 1926-1933, he was Researcher of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R.; in 1933-1949, he was Researcher of the Institute of Ethnography of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R.

Since 1925, he was Correspondent Member of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R.; he was also Foreign Member of the Bulgarian Ac. of Sc. (1946). In 1945, he was awarded with the Order of Labour Red Banner.

Compositions

Paganism in the Vyatka Region (A Letter from Province) // Zhizn’. 1900, vol. 12. (in Rus.)
Kama and Vyatka: Guidebook and the Ethnographical Description of the Kama Region. Yuriev, 1904. (in Rus.)
New Trands in Folk Poetry. Moscow, 1901. (in Rus.)
Songs of Countryside Youth. Vyatka, 1903. (in Rus.)
Folk Sayings and Anecdotes about Russian People of the Vyatka Region. Vyatka 1904. (in Rus.)
From the Life and Poetry of Peasants of the Novgorod Region. On Materials from the Papers of V. А. Voskresensky ‘Zhivaya starina’. 1905, iss. 1‒2. (in Rus.)
On the Issue of the Process of Russian Colonization to the Vyatka Region // The Memorial Book of the Vyatka Region and the Calendar for 1906. Vyatka, 1906, part 2. (in Rus.)
Russian Plow: Its History and Types. An Essay from the History of Russian Agrarian Culture, 1907. (in Rus.)
A Folk Rite ‘to Warm a Deceased’. Kharkov, 1909. (in Rus.)
A Description of Manuscripts of the Research Archive of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Iss. 1-3. Petrograd, 1914-1916. (in Rus.)
Velikorussian Tales of the Perm’ Region. With a Supplement of Twelve Bashkir Tales and One of Meshcheryaks. Petrograd, 1914. (in Rus.)
Velikorussian Tales of the Vyatka Region. With a Supplement of Six Votyak Tales. Petrograd, Ac. of Sc., 1915. (in Rus.)
Bibliographical Index of Russian Ethnographical Literature on the Life of the Peoples of Russia. 1700‒1910. St. Petersburg. 1913. (in Rus.)
Russische (Ostslavische) Volkskunde. Berlin und Leipzig, 1927.
The taboo of words among the peoples of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Part I. Prohibitions on hunting and other trades // Collection of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. 1929.Vol. 8. 151 p. (in Rus.)
The taboo of words among the peoples of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Part II. Prohibitions in home life // Collection of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. 1929.Vol. 9. 166 p. (in Rus.)
Ideology of Siberian Shamanism // Izvestiya of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R., Dep. of Social Studies, 1936, pp. 709-743. (in Rus.)
The Cult of Ongons in Siberia: Remains of Totemism at Siberian Peoples. Moscow – Leningrad, Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R., 1936. (in Rus.)
V. G. Bogoraz – Ethnographer and Folklorist // In the Memory of V. G. Bogoraz (1965-1936). Moscow – Leningrad, 1937, pp. V-XVIII. (in Rus.)
Totems-Trees in the Legends and Rites of European Peoples. Moscow – Leningrad, 1937. (in Rus.)
East Slavic Ethnography: transl. from German. Moscow, 1991. (in Rus.)
Selected Works: Articles on the Spiritual Culture of 1901-1913. Moscow, Indrik Publishing House, 1994. (in Rus.)
Selected Works: Essays of Russian Mythology; Died with Unnatural Death and Mermaids. Moscow, Indrik Publishing House, 1995. (in Rus.)
Selected Works: Articles on the Spiritual Culture of 1917-1934. Moscow, Indrik Publishing House, 1999. (in Rus.)

About him

Vasina А. I. Zelenin Dmitry Constantinovich: a Survey of His Private Archive // Trudy of the Archive of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. Iss. 19, vol. V, 1963. (in Rus.)
Problems of Slavic Ethnography: By the 100th Anniversary of Correspondent Member of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. D. C. Zelenin). Leningrad, 1979. (in Rus.)
Chistov C. V. ‘East Slavic Ethnography’ by D. C. Zelenin // Zelenin D. C. East Slavic Ethnography: transl. from German. Moscow, 1991, pp. 427-451. (in Rus.)
Reshetov А. М. Dmitry Constantinovich Zelenin: Classic of Russian Ethnography // Outstanding Russian Ethnologists of the Twentieth Century. Moscow, 2004. (in Rus.)

M. Sh.