On the Beginning of Author’s Lexicography in Russia

The article presents an overview of the updated history and chronology of the initial stage of the author’s lexicography in Russia, based on a corpus of previously unknown archival documents, as well as some lost publications of the 19th century. It seems that the beginning of academic author’s lexicography can be traced since 1842, when Moscow academicians led by Ivan Davydov put forward the idea of the need for the participation of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in compiling dictionaries of the language of writers. In 1848 they formulated the “Rules for compiling dictionaries or indices of the classical Russian writers&8j1;, having completed the first indexes of words of the works of Lomonosov and Karamzin. It is established that the activity of the Academy of Sciences on the creation of Pushkin’s language dictionary was started in 1848; and by 1849, according to the program of Moscow academicians, the first indexes of words were compiled for the works of Gavriil Derzhavin and Vasily Zhukovsky. The project of Piotr Bilyarsky to create the dictionary of the language of Mikhail Lomonosov is described in detail and the true reasons for the failure of this large-scale project are explained. Another attempt to compile the dictionary of Lomonosov’s language, by Anton Budilovich (1871), is regarded as the first published dictionary of the writer’s language in Russia. The article presents the analysis of the significant lexicographic work conducted by Mikhail Sukhomlinov both before being elected to the Academy of Sciences (1850s) and already as a member of the Academy (1870–1880s). The paper is completed by a description of the first index in the history of Russian lexicography for literary translations – Nikolay Gnedich’s Iliad and Vasily Zhukovsky’s Odyssey (1885).

author’s (writer’s) lexicography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakov Grot, Piotr Pletnev, Izmail Sreznevsky, Ivan Davydov, Piotr Biliarsky, Anton Budilovich, Mikhail Sukhomlinov