Articles

Veselovsky Nickolay (1848–1918) – historian of the Middle Asia, archeologist. In 1869, he enrolled to the Faculty of Oriental Languages of the St. Petersburg University, at the Arabic and Turkish Sector. In 1873, he got the golden medal for the composition ‘On the taxes and duties imposed by Mongols on the defeated nations’, the topic was offered him by his teacher V. V. Grigoriev. Under the influence of the Khiva Campaign 1873, V. took for his Master thesis another theme: ‘An Essay of Historical and Geographical Data on the Khanate of Khiva from the Most Ancient Times till Nowadays’; he defended it in 1877. In 1878, he became Docent; in 1890 – Professor of the St. Petersburg University

Vinogradov Georgy (1886—1945) – Doctor in Philology, folklorist, ethnographer, specialist in traditional beliefs of the people of Siberia. He was from a Siberian peasants family, and did not receive a formal education. He learnt at the comprehensive classes of the Irkutsk Ecclesiastic Seminary, but was quitted for his contacts with workers’ movement. Then, he studied at the High Teachers-Training Courses of the Fröbel Society in St. Petersburg, visited lectures by L. Sternberg, J. Czekanowski, and B. Petri on folk knowledges at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Ac. of Sc. Since 1915, he taught and conducted ethnographic expeditions in the Eastern Trans-Baikalia, worked with the Chita Local Museum, the Russian Geographic Society; he published articles at the ‘Zhivaya starina’ (Alive Antiquity) Magazine.

Vinogradov Nickolay (1875–1938) – historian, ethnographer, folklorist, collector, specialist in local history. He was born in the family of a priest; in 1896, he graduated from the Kostroma Spiritual Seminary; in 1897-1902, he worked as a teacher of the Semilovo Parish school of the Kostroma District. Since 1902, he was Actual Member of the Kostroma District Archive Commission, worked at the shaping of the museum, collected the dialectological and folklore material. Since August 1902, during a year, he was a secretary of Academician A. N. Pypin; he collected exhibits for Emperor Aleksander III in St. Petersburg.

Virsaladze Elena (1911–1977) – folklorist, philologist, Doctor in Philology (1964), Professor (1971), Honoured Researcher (1965), the State Award of the U.S.S.R. (1988). She graduated from the Philological Faculty of the Tiflis (Tbilisi) University in 1930; and in 1936, she passed through the post-graduate courses of the Leningrad Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History. In 1936, she defended her Candidate thesis ‘Problems of the Genesis of Georgian Tale’. In 1936, she started to make lectures at the Tbilisi State University. She was repressed and spent 1937-1942 in the camp; then she returned to her works. Since 1976, she was Head of the Chair of Folkloristic at the Tbilisi State University. She publishe some works in Russia: ‘Georgian Folk Tales and Legends’ (1973) and ‘Georgian Hunting Myth and Poetry’ (1976).

Vitashevsky Nikolai (1857–1918) – revolutionary Narodnik, ethnographer, writer, memoirist. He graduated from a vocational school in Nikolaev and entered the Novorossiysk University in 1875. He was engaged in literary creation (Collection of articles ‘Thoughts of Provincials’, 1876) and amateur theatre as actor and director. Since 1877, he took part in the revolutionary movement, member of the society ‘Land and Freedom’. In 1878, in Odessa, during the arrest of an underground printing house, he came into conflict with gendarmes and was wounded. He was sentenced to six years of hard labor, the first four years he served in the Kariysk penal servitude, where, in 1882, he participated in the preparation of the ‘escape of eight’. Later, he wrote memoirs published in the magazines ‘Byloe’ (1906-1907), ‘Our Country’ (1907), ‘Years Past’ (1908), ‘Voice of the Past’ (1914).

Volkov Ivan (1882–1919) – orientalist: specialist in Egyptology, Assyriology, and Semitology. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy and the St. Petersburg University (1910). Then he travelled to Berlin for his further studies. His supervisors were B. A. Turaev and A Erman. He made the first translation of the Code of Hammurabi, and Aramaic documents of a Judaic colony on Elephantine into Russian (1914-1915). Since 1916, he became Ass. Docent of the Historical and Philological Faculty of the St. Petersburg University. In 1917, he defended his Master thesis in the World History ‘The Ancient Egyptian God Sebek’.

Vostrikov Andrey (1904–1937) – Tibetologist, Indologist, Mongolian, specialist in the field of Indo-Buddhist philosophy. Graduate of the Social Pedagogical Department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Petrograd University, student of F.I. Shcherbatsky and B.Ya. Vladimirtsov. Since 1926, postgraduate student at the Research Institute for the Comparative History of Literatures and Languages of the West and the East named after A.N. Veselovsky at the Leningrad State University, employee of the Asian Museum, the Institute of Buddhist Culture and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., organized in 1930. From 1929, he was engaged in teaching at the Leningrad Institute of Living Oriental Languages and at the Leningrad State University.

Waldenberg Vladimir (1871–1940) – lawyer, specialist in Byzantine studies, historian of philosophy of law. He was born in Moscow. After graduating from gymnasium (VI gymnasium in St. Petersburg), he entered the Law Faculty of the St. Petersburg University (1890-1894). During his studies he attended lectures at the Faculty of History and Philology. He was interested in general history and philosophy, studied Old Icelandic language and medieval Icelandic legislation under the supervision of Professor F.A. Braun, and under the supervision of Professor A.I. Vvedensky he was engaged in the translation of R. Falkenberg's ‘History of New Philosophy’ (W. translated the sections ‘Politics and Philosophy of Law’, ‘Fichte’, and ‘Hegel’). Master thesis ‘Law and Jurisdiction in the Philosophy of Hobbes’ (1900). Major works on the history of philosophy of law in Byzantium and Russia (11th – 19th centuries).

Wipper Robert (1859–1954) – historian, religious historian. Member of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. from September 27, 1943. In 1880, he graduated from the Historical and Philological Faculty of the Moscow University, where his supervisors were V. I. Guerrier and V. O. Kliuchevsky. In 1894, he defended his thesis ‘Church and State in Geneva of the Sixteenth Century in the Calvinist Epoch’. He got a position at the Chair of World History at the Novorrossiisk University in Odessa. From 1897 till 1922, he made lectures at the Moscow University; since 1910 he was State Councilor. He emigrated to Latvia, where in 1924-1941, he made lectures at the Latvian University in Riga.

Wolfius Aleksander (1880–1941) – historian, medievalist, specialist in the history of Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. He learnt at the Petrischule in St. Petersburg. At the St. Petersburg University his supervisors were I. М. Grevs and N. I. Kareev. He also studied under the supervision of E. D. Grimm and F. W. Forsten. In 1911, W. defended his Master thesis ‘Essays on the History of Idea of Religious Tolerance and Freedom of Faith in the Eighteenth Century’; and in 1916 – his Doctor thesis ‘Waldensian Movement in the Development of Religious Individualism’. In 1920-s, he was in the management of Petrischule (since October 1917 – Soviet Labour school No 41). In 1930, he was arrested and accused in the frames of the so called ‘Academy Affair’, and in 1937, he was accused in counter-revolutionary activity. He was rehabilitated in 1958, after his death.