Articles

Andreev Nikolay (1892–1942) – specialist in folklore and literature. In 1918, he graduated from the Historical and Philological Faculty of the Kazan’ University. At the same period, he taught at the Kazan’ Teachers-Training Institute, and at the Moslem Teachers-Training Courses. From 1922 till the end of his life, he worked at the Leningrad Herzen Teachers-Training Institute, at the Chair of Russian Literature (Philological Faculty). A. was a member of the Folklore Commission of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R.; since late 1920-s, he has participated in the work of the Folktales Commission of the Ethnographic Department of the Russian Geographical Society; and since 1930-s, he has got a position of the Head of the Folklore Group at the State Institute of Speaking Culture. A. put a special attention to studying of fairy-tales and legends, offered to build a general catalogue of fairy-tales plots. He insisted at the creating summarizing research on the general folklore history.

Anichkov Dmitry (1733–1788) – Russian enlightener, philosopher, logician, and mathematician; Associate Prof. (1771), Full Prof. Of the Chair of Philosophy (logics, metaphysics, moral philisophy) (1777-1788) at the philosophical Faculty of the Moscow University. He gained fame for his thesis ‘Reasoning from natural theology on the origin and developing of the natural veneration of God’ (1769), which induced protests from the most part of professors of the university Conference and from spiritual authorities. In the reworked form it was submitted for defense under a new title: ‘Philosophical consideration on the origin and developing of the natural veneration of God at various, especially ignorant peoples’; A. analyzed problems of the origin of religion in the context of the newest theory – the concept of the ‘natural’ religion.

Anichkov Eugeny (1866–1937) – folklorist, specialist in literature and Slavic mythology, Christial legends, popular religion; he also studied religious ideas in the Russian culture of the second half of the nineteenth century. Disciple of A. N. Veselovsky, he graduated from the Romanic and Germanic Department at the Historical and Philological Faculty of the St. Petersburg University. Since 1895, he has been Ass. Docent at the Chair of the History of Western Literatures of the St. Petersburg University. He actively participated in the research activity abroad: he was one of organizers of the School of High Studies in Paris, made lectures on comparative mythology and folklore in Oxford.

Anisimov Arkadiy (1910–1968) – ethnographer, historian of religion, specialist in the culture of Evenks. In 1927, he entered the Social Disciplines Faculty of the Leningrad State University. From 1932 till 1935, studied at the post-graduate courses of the Institute of the Peoples of the North; his supervisor was Ya. P. Koshkin. In 1935, A. defended his thesis ‘The ancestral society of Evenks’ on the base of materials gathered in the course of his work together with Koshkin in the Turukhansk Region. From 1935 till 1941, A. worked at the Institute of the Peoples of the North, he was the head of the Historical and Ethnographic Section, and the Research Secretary of the Association of researchers of the peoples of the North.

Antonovich Vladimir (1830/1834–1899) – archeographer, church historian, archeologist, ethnographer, specialist in popular religion, research manager, one of founders of the Kievan school of Ukrainian studies. He graduated from the Kievan St Vladimir University, In 1860, he defended his thesis ‘On the Negro Trade’. His Doctor’s thesis was ‘The Essay on the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania up to the death of Grand Duke Olgerd’ (1878). A. taught in the First Kievan Gymnasium and in the Cadets’ Corpus, at the Kievan University; also he worked as researcher and publisher at the Kievan Central Archive and at the Kievan Archeographic Commission. In 1880-1883, he was the Dean of the Historical and Philological Faculty of the Kievan University; he made lectures on the Old Russian history, took part in organization and work of archeological congresses in Russian and in Europe.

Anuchin Dmitry (1843–1923) – geographer, anthropologist, ethnographer, zoologist, specialist in religion. Doctor in Geography without a defense of thesis (1890). In 1896, he was elected for Academician of the Imperial Ac. of Sc. at the Chair of Zoology, but he had to refuse the position because he did not want to leave Moscow; so, he became Honourary Member of the Ac. of Sc. Correspondent Member of the Parisian Anthropological Society (1879); Full Member of the Italian Society for Anthropology and Geography (1880), Member of the American Anthropological Society in Washington (1883), Honourary Member of the Royal Anthropological Institute in London (1897). Order of St Vladimir of the 3rd and 4th Degree, St Anne of the 2nd Degree, Order of the legion of Honour. A. was a friend of such writers as L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, and D. N. Mamin-Sibiriak.

Azarevich Dmitry (1848–1912) – historian, specialist in Roman and Byzantine Law. In 1870, he graduated from the Legal Faculty of the St. Petersburg University and started his work at the Chair of Roman Law. In 1872, he defended his Master thesis ‘On the difference between tutelage and patronage according the Roman law’. From 1873 till 1876, he was at his training period abroad. Since 1876, he has been Ass. Professor at the Demidov Legal Liceum. In February 1876, he finished his Doctor thesis ‘Patricians and plebeians in Rome’; the work was criticized by S. A. Murumtsev, Docent of the Moscow University; as a result, A. defended his Doctor thesis a year later, at the Novorossiisk University and at another topic: ‘Precarium according the Roman Law’. In May 1882, he got a position of Full Professor at the Novorossiisk University, and since April 1887, he has been Professor at the Warsaw University, at the Chair of Civic Court. In 1890-s, he started to make his lecture courses in the Roman Law.

Bardavelidze (Bardavelidze-Lomia) Vera (1899–1970) – ethnographer, specialist in Georgian studies. She was from a family of a railroad worker; in 1918, she finished the Eights Tbilisi Female Gymnasium. In 1925, he graduated from the Philosophical Faculty of the Tbilisi State University. In 1925-1928, she was laboratory assistant, then Senior Researcher of the Department of Ethnography, the State Museum of Georgia. In 1928-1932, she studied at the post-graduate courses of the State Academy on the History of Material Culture in Leningrad, in the field of the Caucasus studies, under the supervision of N. Ya. Marr, I. I. Meshchaninov, and A. A. Miller; at the same time, she took part in the work of the Section of Studying Beliefs of the Peoples of the U.S.S.R. at the State Museum of the History of Religion.

Bartold Vasily (1869–1930) – orientalis, specialist in the history of the Middle and Near East, and in Islamic studies. He graduated from the Oriental Language Faculty of the St. Petersburg University (Arabic-Persian-Tartar-Turkish Part). He got Doctor degree in Oriental History for his thesis ‘Turkestan in the Epoch of Mongolian Invasion’. His supervisors were: Arabist V. R. Rosen and Oriental historian N. I. Veselovsky. In 1901, B. got a position of Ass. Professor, and in 1906, of Full Professor of the St. Petersburg University. In 1904, he made excavations near Samarcand for the Russian Committee of Studying Middle and Eastern Asia. In 1906, from the Oriental Language Faculty he was sent to Constantinople and Cairo for work with manuscripts.

Basilov Vladimir (1937–1998) – ethnographer, researcher of Shamanism. Graduating from school in 1954, he entered the Historical Faculty of the Moscow State University, Department of Ethnography. Graduating from the university, he worked as Junior. Researcher at the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. (group of the History of Religion). From 1964 to 1967, Researcher at the Institute of Scientific Atheism of the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU; Ph.D. thesis ‘Survivals of Pre-Islamic Beliefs in the Muslim Cult of Saints (on the Example of Turkmenistan)’ at the Institute of Economic Sciences of the U.S.S.R. in 1967.