In and beyond the Russian Academy of Sciences Oleg. ThePerson: Vladimir Dal, biography, life story, facts. Special Assignments Officer

Born in the Yekaterinoslav province in the Lugansk plant. The son of a linguist and physician, Danish by nationality Ivan Matveevich Dahl and a German woman Maria Khristoforovna, née Freytag.

He received his education in the Naval Cadet Corps in Kronstadt, after which he served in the Black Sea Fleet for several years. In 1826 he left the service. Continued his education at the University of Dorpat Faculty of Medicine. He served as a military surgeon and participated in the campaign against the Poles and Turks. After the war, he became a resident at the St. Petersburg military land hospital. In medicine, he was a specialist in ophthalmology and homeopathy.

He began his literary activity in 1832 with the publication of Russian Fairy Tales. The book displeased the authorities, and the writer was arrested. Thanks to the intercession of V.A. Zhukovsky, everything ended well, but Dal could not publish under his own name for several more years. Based on the name of his hometown, he often used the pseudonym Kazak Lugansky.

Due to the close attention of the III Gendarmerie Directorate, he was forced to go to serve in Orenburg, where he worked for seven years. In 1837 he accompanied the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Alexander II, on his journey around the region.

Since the late 1830s. Dahl published many works on ethnography, vocabulary and dialects of the Russian language, textbooks on botany and zoology, essays on Russian life, novels and short stories.

In 1839-1840 participated in the Khiva military campaign, after which he returned to St. Petersburg. Since 1841, secretary of the comrade minister of appanages. In 1849-1859 was the manager of the Nizhny Novgorod specific office. From 1859 he lived in Moscow, in a house near Presnensky Ponds (Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street, building 4/6). A.F. has been here Pisemsky, S.T. Aksakov with his sons and others.

In 1861-1868. Dahl's main creation was published - “ Dictionary living Great Russian language,” for which he began collecting materials while still a naval doctor. In 1868, the ethnographer-collector was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Dal was one of the initiators and organizers of the Russian Geographical Society.

Living in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Ivanovich was close to many writers and poets of his time: V.A. Zhukovsky, I.A. Krylov, N.V. Gogol, Prince V.F. Odoevsky. Was a friend of A.S. Pushkin. After the poet was wounded in a duel, Dahl was constantly at the dying man’s bedside, and after his death, he received a ring and a frock coat, shot through during the duel, as a keepsake of Pushkin.

Dahl was married twice. The first time since 1833 on Julia Andre, who died young from consumption. Had a son Leo, an architect. He married for the second time in 1840 to Ekaterina Lvovna Sokolova, with whom he had daughters: Olga; Maria - married to Bulgarian emigrant Konstantin Stanishev; Ekaterina. Dahl’s passion for the gypsy Cassandra is known, whom he bought while serving in Iasi, and later dedicated the story “Gypsy” to her.

At the end of his life he became interested in spiritualism. Before his death he converted to Orthodoxy. Died in Moscow. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

Made an invaluable contribution to the development of the Russian language. Dahl was born in November 1801 in Ukraine. His family was very educated: his father was born in Denmark, spent his youth in Germany, where he studied theology and different languages; his mother was German, and, like his father, was interested in languages. Why Dahl became interested in literature is not difficult to guess; genes played a role.

As a child, Vladimir was educated at home. From an early age he was engaged in versification and studying languages. When Dahl was 14 years old, Vladimir entered the St. Petersburg cadet corps. Here he received a systematic education. Iron discipline physical exercise and the young man did not like the order that reigned in the “cadet”.

Training in the cadet corps lasted three years. After completing his studies, Dal went to serve in the Black Sea Fleet. In the speech of his colleagues, he often noticed words unknown to him. So, Vladimir Dahl came up with the idea of writing down words in a notebook and explaining them, thereby marking the beginning of compiling his own explanatory dictionary. Service in the Black Sea Fleet quickly ended for Vladimir Ivanovich. By writing an epigram to the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Dahl gave rise to his arrest. Later he was sent to Kronstadt, and there he was acquitted in court. After retiring, at first Vladimir Dal gave private lessons and tutored.

Soon Vladimir Ivanovich decides to enter the University of Dorpat, the Faculty of Medicine. During his years of study, he met Zhukovsky, Yazykov and Voeikov. These were the luminaries of Russian journalism at the beginning of the 19th century. It was a great success for him to meet Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov. Until the end of his life, the famous doctor and Dahl had a strong friendship.

In 1829, Vladimir Ivanovich Dal completed his studies and, becoming a certified surgeon, went to the Russian-Turkish War. Dahl worked in a field hospital and was in good standing. During his years of service as a doctor in the Russian army, Vladimir Ivanovich seriously expanded his vocabulary.

After graduation Russian-Turkish war, Vladimir Ivanovich continued his medical practice - he dealt with the problems of the epidemic. One can only envy his courage. This courageous doctor more than once visited villages where cholera was rampant. In 1832, Dahl settled in St. Petersburg. In the capital of the Russian Empire, he decided to focus on literary creativity. I publish his poems and works in magazines, of which I have accumulated a lot.

A year later, Vladimir Dal became a civil servant and was appointed an official for special assignments of the Orenburg governor. His work forced him to travel a lot around the provincial lands and observe the life of the common people. Vladimir Ivanovich does not give up literary activity. Over the years of work as a civil servant, such works as “Bikey and Maulina” and “Bashkir Mermaid” came from the pen of the Russian writer. Dahl's scientific and cultural activities were not limited to literature only. Vladimir Ivanovich was a versatile person, and over the years spent in Orenburg, he collected a wonderful collection of flora and fauna of his province. For the work done, Vladimir Dal became an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin traveled to the places of the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev, and in Orenburg he met Vladimir Dahl. Writers quickly found mutual language, and good friendly relations were established between them.

When the Russian army set off on the Khiva campaign, Vladimir Ivanovich returned to medical practice. Upon returning from the campaign, he returns to the capital, where he begins to work at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Vladimir Ivanovich does not abandon literature and continues to write various stories, describe peasant life and the customs of the common people. His work was highly appreciated by his contemporaries, including Belinsky and Gogol. Dahl's short stories were combined into the collection “Pictures from Russian Life.”

In 1849, he at will goes to Nizhny Novgorod. From here he was sent to work as a manager in a specific office; his duties included receiving complaints from peasants, writing and drawing up various acts. Here, Dahl is engaged in medical work free of charge; they say that he even had to perform surgical operations. This amazing man enjoyed his work. Communication with ordinary people was reflected in his work.

The main work of Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl was an explanatory dictionary, which we all have known since childhood. The dictionary contains approximately 200,000 words. At the end of his life he worked on the second part of the dictionary.

Vladimir Dal died in 1872, in Moscow. He was an amazingly versatile person, nature generously endowed Dahl with intelligence, and he, in turn, widely used it for the benefit of society. Vladimir Ivanovich was fond of botany and zoology, and was interested in Dahl and homeopathy and spiritualism. In addition, he knew how to play musical instruments. The talent of Vladimir Ivanovich Dal was always reflected in everything that this wonderful man did.

Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (November 10 (22), 1801 - September 22 (October 4), 1872) - Russian writer, ethnographer, linguist, lexicographer, doctor. He became famous as the author of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language.
Pseudonym - Cossack Lugansky.

Dahl's father came from Denmark and was educated in Germany, where he studied theology and ancient and modern languages. Mother, German, spoke five languages. Dahl was educated at home and wrote poetry. In 1815 he entered the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg. Studying in the corps, later described in the story Midshipman Kisses, or Look Back Toughly (1841), Dahl considered “killed years.” A training voyage to Denmark convinced him that “my fatherland is Russia, that I have nothing in common with the fatherland of my ancestors.” Upon completion of his studies (1819), he was sent to serve as a midshipman in the Black Sea Fleet. At this time, Dal, in his words, “unconsciously” began to write down words unknown to him, thus beginning the main work of his life - the creation of an Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language.

During his service, Dahl continued to write poetry, which brought him trouble: for an epigram on the commander-in-chief of the Black Sea Fleet in 1823, he was taken under arrest. Acquitted by the court, Dahl was transferred to Kronstadt, and in 1826 he retired and entered the medical faculty of Dorpat University. Dahl's financial situation was difficult; he made his living as a tutor, however, his years of study remained one of the brightest memories of his life. Dahl wrote poetry and one-act comedies, met the poets Yazykov and Zhukovsky, the surgeon Pirogov, as well as the publisher of the magazine “Slav” Voeikov, who first published Dahl’s poems in 1827.

In 1829 Dahl successfully defended his dissertation and was sent to the Russian-Turkish war in the active army. Working in a field hospital, he became a brilliant surgeon. Dahl continued to collect material for the future Dictionary, recording “regional sayings” from different areas from the words of soldiers. Then the impressions of his childhood were confirmed - that

“the speech of a commoner with its peculiar turns of phrase was always almost distinguished by brevity, conciseness, clarity, definition, and there was much more life in it than in book language and in the language spoken by educated people.”

At the end of the Russian-Turkish War of 1828–1829, Dahl continued to serve as a military doctor and epidemiologist. In 1831 he worked on the cholera epidemic and also took part in the Polish campaign. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1832, he worked in a military hospital.

In 1830, Dahl's first story, The Gypsy, was published. In 1832, Dahl published the collection "Russian fairy tales from oral folk traditions translated into civil literacy, adapted to everyday life and embellished with walking sayings by the Cossack Vladimir Lugansky. The first heel." The censor saw the book as a mockery of the government; Only his military merits saved Dahl from prosecution.

In 1833 Dahl was sent to serve in Orenburg, where he became an official special assignments under the military governor. The performance of official duties was associated with frequent travel around the province, which gave the writer the opportunity to study the life and language of the people who inhabited it. During his years of service, Dahl wrote stories about the Kazakhs - "Bikey" and "Maulina" (1836) and about the Bashkirs - "The Bashkir Mermaid" (1843). He collected collections of flora and fauna of the Orenburg province, for which he was elected corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences (1838). During Pushkin's trip to Pugachev's places, Dahl accompanied him for several days. In 1837, having learned about Pushkin’s duel, he came to St. Petersburg and was on duty at the poet’s bedside until his last minute. In 1841, shortly after the Khiva campaign of the Russian army (1839–1840), in which he took part, Dahl moved to St. Petersburg and began working as a secretary and official for special assignments under the Minister of Internal Affairs, on whose behalf he wrote “A Study on the Skoptic Heresy” (1844 ).

Throughout his years of service, Dahl continued to work on the Dictionary, collecting material for it during trips around the Orenburg province, and upon moving to St. Petersburg, receiving letters with samples of local dialects, fairy tales and proverbs from all over Russia. While living in the capital, Dal met Odoevsky, Turgenev, Pogorelsky and other writers. He published in St. Petersburg magazines and in separate collections the stories Bedovik (1839), Savely Grab, or the Double (1842), The Adventures of Christian Christianovich Violdamur and his Arshet (1844), Unprecedented in the Past, or Past in the Unprecedented (1846) and other works, written in the spirit of the “natural school” - with an abundance of accurate everyday details and ethnographic details, with descriptions real cases. Their hero was, as a rule, a simple person, possessing “the habits and customs of his homeland.” Folk words and expressions were organically woven into Dahl's language. His favorite prose genre soon became the physiological essay ("The Ural Cossack", 1843, "The Orderly", 1845, "The Chukhons in St. Petersburg", 1846, etc.). Belinsky, highly appreciating Dahl’s skill, called him “living statistics of the living Russian population.” Dahl also wrote short stories, united in the cycles “Pictures from Russian Life” (1848), “Soldier’s Leisure” (1843), “Sailor’s Leisure” (1853), “Two Forty Experienced Women for Peasants” (1862). Gogol wrote about him: “He should, without resorting to either the beginning or the denouement, over which the novelist so racks his brains, take any incident that happened in Russian soil, the first case, the production of which he was a witness and eyewitness, so that it comes out by itself the most entertaining story. For me, he is more significant than all the storytellers and inventors.”

In 1849 Dahl was appointed to the position of manager of the Nizhny Novgorod specific office. This was a significant demotion that Dahl accepted voluntarily in order to be closer to the peasants. He was in charge of the affairs of almost 40,000 state peasants. In addition to his immediate official duties (writing peasant complaints, etc.), Dahl performed surgical operations. In 1862 he published a collection of Proverbs of the Russian People, in which the proverbs were arranged not alphabetically, but by topic (God, love, family, etc.). Despite his cultural activities and deep democracy, Dahl opposed teaching peasants to read and write, because she, in his opinion, “without any mental and moral education almost always leads to bad things.” With these statements, he incurred the wrath of representatives of the democratic camp Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov and others.

In the early 1860s, Dahl retired and settled in Moscow. By this time, the first edition of his Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language was prepared, containing 200 thousand words. The work to which Dahl devoted 50 years of his ascetic life was published in 1867. In 1868 Dahl was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences.

IN last years During his life, Dahl worked on the second edition of the Dictionary, replenishing his vocabulary, and wrote children's stories. He translated the Old Testament “in relation to the concepts of the Russian common people,” wrote textbooks on zoology and botany, and handed over folk songs and fairy tales he collected to folklorists Kireyevsky and Afanasyev. In addition, Dahl played several musical instruments, worked on a lathe, was interested in spiritualism and studied homeopathy. “Whatever Dahl undertook, he managed to master everything,” wrote his friend, the great surgeon Pirogov.

Shortly before his death, Dahl converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy. Dahl died in Moscow on September 22 (October 4), 1872. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

Vladimir Ivanovich Dal(November 10 - September 22 [October 4]) - Russian writer, ethnographer and lexicographer, collector of folklore, military doctor. The greatest fame was brought to him by the unsurpassed in volume “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language,” which took 53 years to compile.

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Origin

Vladimir Dal was born in the village of Lugansk Zavod (now Lugansk) of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire November 10 (22), 1801 in the family of the mining department doctor Ivan Matveevich Dahl and his wife Maria Khristoforovna, née Freytag.

When Dahl was only four years old, his family moved to Nikolaev. Having served the nobility in 1814, Ivan Matveevich, senior doctor of the Black Sea Fleet, received the right to educate his children in the St. Petersburg Naval Cadet Corps at public expense.

After several years of service in the navy, Vladimir Dal entered the Faculty of Medicine at Dorpat University on January 20, 1826. He lived in a cramped attic room, earning a living by teaching Russian. Two years later, in January 1828, V.I. Dal was included in the number of government-funded pupils. According to one of Dahl’s biographers, he immersed himself in the atmosphere of Dorpat, which “mentally encouraged versatility.” Here, first of all, he had to intensively study the Latin language, which was necessary at that time for a scientist. For his work on a topic announced by the Faculty of Philosophy, he received a silver medal.

Medical practice

His studies had to be interrupted in 1828, with the outbreak of the war with the Turks, when, in connection with the spread of plague cases beyond the Danube, the active army demanded the strengthening of the military medical service. Vladimir Dal ahead of schedule “passed with honor the exam for a doctor not only of medicine, but also of surgery” on the topic “On the successful method of craniotomy and on hidden ulceration of the kidneys.”

Here he worked tirelessly and soon gained fame as a wonderful surgeon, especially an ophthalmologist. He has performed more than forty cataract removal operations in his lifetime, and all have been quite successful. It's great that he has left hand was as developed as the right one. He could write and do anything with his left hand, just like with his right. This lucky ability was especially useful for him as an operator. The most famous operators in St. Petersburg invited Dahl in cases where the operation could be done more dexterously and more conveniently with the left hand.

Later, after leaving surgical practice, Dahl did not leave medicine altogether. He retained his interest in ophthalmology and developed a passion for homeopathy. In Sovremennik (No. 12, 1838) he published one of the first articles in Russia in defense of homeopathy.

First book

In 1832 Dahl published “ Russian fairy tales from oral folk traditions translated into civil literacy, adapted to everyday life and embellished with current sayings by the Cossack Vladimir Lugansky. Friday one" This work brought him fame in the literary circles of the Russian capital.

After reading Dahl’s book, the rector of the University of Dorpat decided to invite his former student to the department of Russian literature. At the same time, the book was accepted as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philology. The Minister of Education, however, considered “Russian Fairy Tales” unreliable due to the denunciation of the author of the book by the manager of the III department, Alexander Mordvinov.

In the fall of 1832, Dahl was arrested while visiting patients and taken to the Third Department. He was saved from repression by the intercession of the poet Zhukovsky, who, being the mentor of the heir to the throne, presented to him everything that happened to Dahl in an anecdotal light as a complete misunderstanding. The charges against Dahl were dropped, but the unsold edition of Russian Fairy Tales was destroyed.

Dahl in Orenburg

Having married in 1833, Dahl was transferred to Orenburg in July as an official of special assignments under the military governor V. A. Perovsky. He remained in this position for about eight years.

During his stay in the Southern Urals, he traveled a lot to the districts, collected folklore materials, and studied natural sciences. For his collections on the flora and fauna of the Orenburg region, he was elected in 1838 a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the physics and mathematics department.

In addition to Russian, Dal knew at least 12 languages, understood Turkic languages, collected Turkic manuscripts in Orenburg, thanks to which he is considered one of the first Turkic scholars in Russia. In the image and likeness of his explanatory dictionary, Lazar Budagov began to compile his own dictionary of Turkic dialects.

In 1835, Dahl was elected a corresponding member of the first composition of the Ufa Provincial Statistical Committee. He continued his literary studies and actively collaborated in the magazine “Rural Reading”. In 1833-1839. “There were also fables of the Cossack Lugansk” were published.

In 1839-40. Dr. Dahl took part in the Khiva campaign. Dahl’s military activities are covered in a number of his memoirs, such as “Don Horse Artillery” and “Letters to Friends from the Campaign to Khiva.”

Meeting Pushkin

A year later, on September 18-20, 1833, V.I. Dal accompanied Pushkin to Pugachev’s places in the Orenburg region. It was from Pushkin that he learned the plot of “The Tale of St. George the Brave and the Wolf.” Together with Dahl, the poet traveled everywhere the most important places Pugachev's events. In gratitude, he sent Dahl in 1835 a gift copy of his “History of Pugachev.”

From Dahl's memoirs about Pushkin

“Pushkin arrived unexpectedly and unexpectedly and stayed in a country house with the military governor V. Al. Perovsky, and the next day I transported him from there, went with him to the historical Berdskaya village, explained, as much as I heard and knew the area, the circumstances of the siege of Orenburg by Pugachev; pointed to the St. George bell tower on the outskirts, where Pugach was about to raise a cannon to fire at the city, to the remains of earthworks between the Orsky and Sakmara gates, attributed by legend to Pugachev, to the Trans-Ural grove, from where the thief tried to break through the ice into the fortress, open on this side; spoke about the priest who recently died here, whose father flogged him because the boy ran into the street to collect nickels, with which Pugach fired several shots into the city instead of grapeshot, about Pugachev’s so-called secretary Sychugov, who was still alive at that time, and about the old women of Berdino, who still remember the “golden” chambers of Pugach, that is, the hut upholstered in copper brass.
Pushkin listened to all this - excuse me, if I can’t express myself differently - with great fervor and laughed heartily at the following anecdote: Pugach, having burst into Berdy, where frightened people had gathered in the church and on the porch, also entered the church. The people parted in fear, bowed, and fell on their faces. Taking on an important air, Pugach walked straight to the altar, sat down on the church throne and said out loud: “It’s been a long time since I sat on the throne!” In his peasant ignorance, he imagined that the church throne was the royal seat. Pushkin called him a pig for this and laughed a lot.”

At the end of 1836, Dahl came to St. Petersburg. Pushkin joyfully welcomed his friend’s return, visited him many times, and was interested in Dahl’s linguistic discoveries. Alexander Sergeevich really liked what he heard from Dahl, the previously unknown word “crawl” - the skin that snakes and snakes shed after winter, crawling out of it. Once visiting Dahl in a new frock coat, Pushkin joked cheerfully: “What, is the crawl good? Well, I won’t be crawling out of this hole any time soon. I’ll write this in it!” - the poet promised. He did not take off this coat even on the day of the duel with Dantes. In order not to cause the wounded poet unnecessary suffering, the “crawl” had to be torn off from him. Dal was also present here at the tragic death of Pushkin.

Dahl participated in the poet’s treatment of the fatal wound received in the last duel, until Pushkin’s death on January 29 (February 10), 1837. Having learned about the duel, Dahl came to his friend, although his relatives did not invite him to the dying Pushkin. I found a dying friend surrounded by famous doctors. In addition to the family doctor Ivan Spassky, the poet was examined by the court physician Nikolai Arendt and three other doctors of medicine. Pushkin joyfully greeted his friend and, taking him by the hand, asked pleadingly: “Tell me the truth, will I die soon?” And Dahl answered professionally correctly: “We hope for you, really, we hope, don’t despair either.” Pushkin shook his hand gratefully and said with relief: “Well, thank you.” He perked up noticeably and even asked for cloudberries, and Natalya Nikolaevna joyfully exclaimed: “He will be alive!” You’ll see, he will live, he won’t die!”

Under the guidance of N. F. Arendt, he kept a diary of his medical history. Later, I. T. Spassky, together with Dahl, performed an autopsy on Pushkin’s body, where Dahl wrote the autopsy report.

The dying Alexander Sergeevich handed over his gold talisman ring with an emerald to Vladimir Dahl with the words: “Dal, take it as a souvenir.” And when Vladimir Ivanovich shook his head negatively, Pushkin insistently repeated: “Take it, friend, I won’t write anymore.” Subsequently, regarding this Pushkin gift, Dahl wrote to V. Odoevsky: “When I look at this ring, I want to start doing something decent.” Vladimir Ivanovich tried to return it to the widow, but Natalya Nikolaevna protested: “No, Vladimir Ivanovich, let this be a keepsake for you. And I also want to give you Alexander Sergeevich’s frock coat, pierced by a bullet.” This was the same frock coat that crawled out. In the memoirs of Vladimir Dahl

“I received an expensive gift from Pushkin’s widow: his ring with an emerald, which he always wore Lately and called it - I don’t know why - a talisman; Pushkin's last clothes were given to him by V.A. Zhukovsky, after which they dressed him only to put him in a coffin. This is a black frock coat with a small hole, about the size of a fingernail, against the right groin. You might want to think about this. This frock coat should also be saved for posterity; I don’t know how to do this yet; in private hands it can easily get lost, and we have nowhere to give such a thing for permanent preservation [I gave it to M.P. Pogodin].”

Return to St. Petersburg

In 1841, Dal, on the recommendation of his boss V. Perovsky, was appointed secretary of his brother L. A. Perovsky, and then headed (privately) his special office as Minister of Internal Affairs. From 1841 to the summer of 1849 he lived in St. Petersburg in a government house at the address: Alexandrinskaya Square, 11. Together with N. Milyutin, he compiled and introduced city regulations in St. Petersburg.

By this time, Dahl’s literary activity flourished, and he published essays in the spirit of the natural school. Each “physiological essay” by Dahl is, according to D. Mirsky, a short descriptive sketch of a particular social environment. He published his stories, essays and articles in the “Library for Reading”, “Notes of the Fatherland”, “Moskvitian” and Bashutsky’s collection “Ours”.

At the same time, on behalf of the military department, he compiled textbooks of botany and zoology, which stood out in lively, figurative language. A.P. Sapozhnikov completed no less than 700 highly artistic illustrations for them.

Nizhny Novgorod

Although correspondents from different parts of Russia regularly sent Dahl samples of proverbs, fairy tales and folk dialect, his stay in St. Petersburg alienated him from the elements of living peasant speech. He began to think about returning from the capital to the province, although from a career point of view this meant a step back.

In 1849, Dahl was appointed manager of the Nizhny Novgorod appanage office, which was in charge of the affairs of 40 thousand state peasants, and served in this post, which gave him the opportunity to observe a variety of ethnographic material, for ten years, after which he retired and settled in Moscow.

It was in Nizhny that Dahl's many years of work on collecting Russian proverbs was completed. When in 1853 censorship began to prevent the publication of the collection, Dahl inscribed on it the words: “A proverb is not judged.” This publication - a genuine ethnographic encyclopedia of Russian life - saw the light in the author's edition only with the beginning of the liberal period of Alexander's reforms, in 1862. Dahl brought the processing of the explanatory dictionary in Nizhny to the letter P.

Living in Nizhny Novgorod, Dal did a lot of damage to himself in the eyes of society with his “Letter to the publisher Alexander Koshelev” and “Note on Literacy”, in which he spoke out against teaching peasants to read and write, since it “without any mental and moral education... almost always reaches bad..." On the pages of the Sovremennik magazine, Evgeniy Karnovich, Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolai Dobrolyubov sharply objected to him.

Some publications of the Nizhny Novgorod period

“On the adverbs of the Russian language” (“Bulletin of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society”, 1852, book 6; reprinted in the “Explanatory Dictionary”)
“Sailor’s Leisure”, written on behalf of Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich (St. Petersburg, 1853)
a number of articles about the dangers of literacy alone without education (“Russian Conversation”, 1856, book III; “Notes of the Fatherland”, 1857, book II; “SPb. Ved.”, 1857 No. 245)
a series of 100 essays from Russian life (separate publication “Pictures from Russian Life”, St. Petersburg, 1861)

Moscow period

In addition to vocabulary and proverbs, Dahl collected folk songs, fairy tales and popular prints throughout his life. Realizing the lack of time to process the accumulated folklore material, he gave the collected songs to Kireyevsky for publication, and the fairy tales to Afanasyev. The rich, best collection of Dahl's popular prints at that time entered the Imperial Public Library and was subsequently included in Rovinsky's publications.

At the end of his life, Dahl rearranged the Old Testament “in relation to the concepts of the Russian common people.” He “played several musical instruments, worked on a lathe, was interested in spiritualism and studied homeopathy.” He was introduced to spiritualism in Nizhny by the famous mystic A. N. Aksakov. Dahl told his acquaintances that he once managed to summon the spirit of the late Zhukovsky and get from him an answer to a question to which only he could know the answer.

In the fall of 1871, Vladimir Ivanovich suffered his first slight stroke, after which he invited an Orthodox priest to join the Russian Orthodox Church and bestow the sacrament of holy communion according to the Orthodox rite. Thus, shortly before his death, Dahl converted from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy.

Vladimir Ivanovich Dal died at the age of 70 and was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery along with his wife. Later, in 1878, his son Lev was buried in the same cemetery.

Family and descendants

In 1833, V.I. Dal married Julia Andre(1816-1838). Together they move to Orenburg, where they have two children. Son Lev was born in 1834, daughter Julia in 1838 (named after her mother). The impressions of Dahl's wife about Pushkin's Orenburg days are conveyed in letters to E. Voronina (Russian Archive, 1902, No. 8. P. 658).

Widowed, he married in 1840 Ekaterina Lvovna Sokolova(1819-1872), daughter of the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812. Three daughters were born in this marriage: Maria (1841), Olga (1843), Ekaterina (1845). Ekaterina Vladimirovna subsequently published memories of her father (magazine “Russian Vestnik”, 1878).

His daughter Maria (1841-1903) married the outstanding Bulgarian educator Konstantin Stanishev (1840-1900, uncle of A. Stanishev). Her granddaughter Olga Stanisheva (1903-1985) kept many of her great-grandfather’s personal belongings, which after her death she bequeathed to the Dahl House Museum in Moscow.

Another daughter, Olga, married Moscow prosecutor Platon Aleksandrovich Demidov (1840-1899). Her daughter Olga Weiss was a famous singer in her time, headed the Yaroslavl Women's School of the Theological Department, and corresponded with her relative S. M. Lyapunov. Her grandson Lev Sergeevich Zhuravsky (1918-1978), professor of medicine, headed the department of hospital surgery in.

Essays

Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language

Dahl's dictionary, despite the deliberate amateurism of the author and his indifference to the scientific linguistics of his time, remains for scientists the basis of knowledge about the Russian language that the people spoke before standard schooling spread. It served as a reference book for Andrei Bely, Vladimir Nabokov and other outstanding literary artists. Thus, Bely saw in the dictionary, organized according to the nesting principle, an endless labyrinth of interconnected words:

Proverbs of the Russian people

In 1862, V. Dahl published the work “Proverbs of the Russian People.” A collection of proverbs, sayings, sayings, proverbs, sayings, riddles, beliefs, etc.” The collection contains about 32,000 phrases representing small genres of folklore. This is one of the most important sources on the everyday side of life and philosophy of the Russian people. The collection was reprinted many times, including with a preface Nobel laureate M. Sholokhov, entitled “Treasury of Folk Wisdom.”

"Note on Ritual Murders"

One of the most likely authors is usually called V.I. Dahl, but this issue remains controversial. As the author, a number of researchers named the director of the Department of Spiritual Affairs of Foreign Denominations, Privy Councilor V.V. Skripitsyn, or the Volyn governor I.V. Kamensky, who in 1844 anonymously published the brochure “Information about the murders of Christians by Jews for obtaining blood.” Dahl’s authorship was also rejected by the historian Savely Dudakov (he considered the author not Skripitsyn himself, but one of the employees of his department), and an expert on Dahl’s work, Yu. P. Fesenko (he wrote: "by careless style, by the absence of signs scientific research“, due to its absolute compilation, “secondary” nature, this “work” cannot in any way belong to Dahl.”), the most authoritative biographer of Dahl, V.I. Porudominsky.

In Russia, by the decision of the Leninsky District Court of the city of Orenburg dated July 26, 2010, a brochure with a similar title “Notes on Ritual Murders” (in plural, without indicating the author and imprint) is recognized as extremist and included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the Federal List of Extremist Materials under number 1494. It is difficult to unambiguously determine the content of a printed book publication banned in Russia, since this court decision is in the database of the State Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation “Justice” and on The court website is not available.

Honors

Dahl is one of the twelve founding members of the Russian Geographical Society. Member of the Society of Russian History and Antiquities. Member (from 1868 honorary) of the Society of Amateurs of Russian Literature.

In 1861, for the first issues of the explanatory dictionary, Dahl received the Konstantinovsky medal from the Imperial Geographical Society, in 1868 he was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the historical and philological department, and upon the publication of the entire dictionary he was awarded the Lomonosov Prize (1869).

Even earlier, since 1863, Vladimir Dal was listed as an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences in the Department natural sciences. When the Academy of Sciences merged with the Russian Academy, he was transferred to the Department of Russian Language and Literature:

Memory

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Dahl, UNESCO declared 2001 the year of V. I. Dahl. In the 1980s The Dahl Prize was awarded in Paris. Many cities have Dahl streets (for example, in St. Petersburg).

In memory of the writer and scientist, whose life and work was closely connected with the city of Nikolaev, where he lived for a total of about 16 years, Lekkert Street was renamed Dalya Street on March 28, 1985. Memorial plaques in honor of Dahl are installed at the intersection of Dahl and Budyonny streets and along Navarinskaya street.

In Nizhny Novgorod, a street in the Kanavinsky district is named after V.I. Dal. On the house where he lived (the corner of Bolshaya Pecherskaya and Martynovskaya streets, now Semashko), there is a memorial plaque with bas-relief forms by the Nizhny Novgorod sculptor V.I. Purikhov.

Literature

Dahl, Vladimir Ivanovich- article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Books about V. I. Dal

Bulatov M. A., Porudominsky V. I. A man collected words... The Tale of V.I. Dal. - M.: Children's literature, 1966. - 224, p. - 50,000 copies.(in translation)
Bessarab M. Ya. Vladimir Dal. - M.: Moskovsky worker, 1968. - 264 p. - 50,000 copies.(region)
Porudominsky V. I. Dahl. - M.: Young Guard, 1971. - 384 p. - (Life of wonderful people). - 200,000 copies.(in translation)
Begisheva A. Enchanted wanderer // GEO: magazine. - 2008. - December (No. 129). - pp. 235-245. - ISSN 1029-5828.
Bessarab M. Ya. Vladimir Dal: A book about a valiant citizen of Russia and a great fighter for the Russian language. - Ed. 2nd, rev. and additional.. - M.: Sovremennik, 1972. - 288 p. - (Library “For Lovers of Russian Literature”). - 50,000 copies.(in lane, superreg.)
Porudominsky V. I. Life and Word: Dahl. Narration / Afterword. V. P. Anikina.. - M.:

Born in the Yekaterinoslav province in the Lugansk plant. The son of a linguist and physician, Danish by nationality Ivan Matveevich Dahl and a German woman Maria Khristoforovna, née Freytag.

He received his education in the Naval Cadet Corps in Kronstadt, after which he served in the Black Sea Fleet for several years. In 1826 he left the service. He continued his education at the University of Dorpat at the Faculty of Medicine. He served as a military surgeon and participated in the campaign against the Poles and Turks. After the war, he became a resident at the St. Petersburg military land hospital. In medicine, he was a specialist in ophthalmology and homeopathy.

Since the late 1830s. Dahl published many works on ethnography, vocabulary and dialects of the Russian language, textbooks on botany and zoology, essays on Russian life, novels and short stories.

In 1861-1868. Dahl’s main creation, “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language,” was published, materials for which he began collecting while still a naval doctor. In 1868, the ethnographer-collector was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Dal was one of the initiators and organizers of the Russian Geographical Society.

At the end of his life he became interested in spiritualism. Before his death he converted to Orthodoxy. Died in Moscow. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.