Afanasyev Alexander

Born July 11, 1826 in g. Boguchar Voronezh. While studying at the Moscow University, and. placed in the "Contemporary" (1847, VI - VII) - "The political system under Peter the Great" and "Notes of the Fatherland" (1848, VI - VII) - "On the estates and the estates'. Later, as governor of affairs consisting in the General Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Commission of the printing of government charters and treaties,. interested in folk art, and who has devoted mainly their strength. In 1849 - 1854 years A. put a lot of articles in The Contemporary, . Fatherland Notes, . "Archives of Historical and legal information about Russia" and "Annals of the Society of History and Antiquities, . which in 1851 published his article: "The pagan traditions on the island of Buyan", . in which first formulated his view of folk art,
. In 1855 A. published a valuable work: "Russian journals 1769 - 1877 years" (Fatherland Notes ", III - IV and separately M., 1859). In the same year a. published the first issue of a large labor: "Russian Folk Tales" (just came out 8 issues, 1855 - 1863 years). In 1858 - 1859 years A. edited the "Bibliographic Notes", which published many articles of historical and literary character. Published articles in the "Contemporary", "St. Petersburg Vedomosti," Athenaeum "," Moscow News "," Readings of social history and antiquities "," Archive "Kalacheva," Russian Messenger "," Russian Speech "," Library for Reading "," Philological notes ". In 1862, implicated in a political case, A. was forced to leave the service. In 1866 appeared the first volume of his remarkable work: "Poetic views of the nature of the Slavs" (2-nd t. released in 1868, third in 1869). Died A. in 1871 of tuberculosis. He belonged to the school I. Grimm and was a follower of Kuno-Schwartz, Max Muller and Mayngradta. All the one-sidedness of this school affected the writings of a. Now, after a study of folk art very moved, Trudy A. lost their scientific value. But for the time they were very valuable contributions to the area that in Russia, then still just beginning. Having collected an extremely rich material, A. was one of the first major workers in this area. As a rich collection of material, his works still have considerable value. Academician I.V. A Jagic calls. "the first true representative of Comparative Slavic Studies in Russia", . notice on the "Poetic views on the nature of the Slavs", . this work, . "Despite the one-sidedness, . suggestion to the author the theory of his samples, . remain for a long time still a rich source for a variety of references and a brilliant monument to his wide acquaintance with the appropriate literature Slavic works ",
. - Wed. I.V. Jagic, "Encyclopedia of Slavic Philology," No.. I. A.G. Fomin