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Aleksey Shakhmatov

 
Aleksey Shakhmatov

 
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Aleksey Shakhmatov
 
 
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Aleksey Aleksandrovich Shakhmatov (5 June 1864 - 16 August 1920) was an outstanding Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n philologist
Philology

Philology, derived from the Greek language considers both morphology and Meaning in linguistic expression, combining linguistics and literary studies....
 credited with laying foundations for the science of textology
Textual criticism

Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the Writing of manuscripts....
.

Biography
Born in Ivangorod
Ivangorod

Ivangorod is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. Population: 11,900 ; 11,206 . It is situated on the right bank of the Narva River by the Russian-Estonian border 159 km west of Saint Petersburg....
, Shakhmatov was brought up by his uncle near Saratov
Saratov

Saratov is a major types of inhabited localities in Russia in southern Russia. It is the administrative center of Saratov Oblast and a major port on the Volga River....
. He went to a public school in Moscow
Moscow

Moscow is the capital and the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia of the Russian Federation. It is also the largest European cities and metropolitan areas, with the Moscow metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world....
 and developed interest for Old Russian
Old East Slavic language

Old East Slavic, also known as Old Russian or Old Ruthenian, was a vernacular literary language used from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries by East Slavs in Kievan Rus' and states which formed after its collapse....
 language and literature at an early age.






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Shakhmatov
Aleksey Aleksandrovich Shakhmatov (5 June 1864 - 16 August 1920) was an outstanding Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n philologist
Philology

Philology, derived from the Greek language considers both morphology and Meaning in linguistic expression, combining linguistics and literary studies....
 credited with laying foundations for the science of textology
Textual criticism

Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the Writing of manuscripts....
.

Biography


Born in Ivangorod
Ivangorod

Ivangorod is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. Population: 11,900 ; 11,206 . It is situated on the right bank of the Narva River by the Russian-Estonian border 159 km west of Saint Petersburg....
, Shakhmatov was brought up by his uncle near Saratov
Saratov

Saratov is a major types of inhabited localities in Russia in southern Russia. It is the administrative center of Saratov Oblast and a major port on the Volga River....
. He went to a public school in Moscow
Moscow

Moscow is the capital and the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia of the Russian Federation. It is also the largest European cities and metropolitan areas, with the Moscow metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world....
 and developed interest for Old Russian
Old East Slavic language

Old East Slavic, also known as Old Russian or Old Ruthenian, was a vernacular literary language used from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries by East Slavs in Kievan Rus' and states which formed after its collapse....
 language and literature at an early age. At the age of 16, his articles started to appear in the most authoritative journal of Slavic studies of that time - Archiv für slavische Philologie.

Shakhmatov furthered his education at the Moscow University (1883-1887), later delivering lectures in the same institution. His first monograph
Monograph

A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually also by a single author. It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book, journal article, editorial or written rant....
, published in 1886, examined the language of ancient Novgorod charters. In 1891 he became so enthusiastic about zemstvo
Zemstvo

Zemstvo was a form of local government instituted during the great liberal reforms performed in Imperial Russia by Alexander II of Russia. The idea of zemstvo was elaborated by Nikolay Milyutin, and the first zemstvo laws were promulgated in 1864....
 that he gave up his scholarly pursuits for three years and held a minor administrative office in his native village.

In 1894 Shakhmatov returned to Moscow and won great acclaim for his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
 dissertation, entitled Studies in the Sphere of Russian Phonetics. Five years later, he was admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences

The Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
, and over the following years became one of the most reputable academicians. He revived the Academy's linguistic periodicals, edited the academic dictionary of Russian language
Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
 and was elected to represent the Academy at the State Council of Imperial Russia
State Council of Imperial Russia

The State Council was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Russian Empire....
 and Imperial State Duma
Duma

A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament....
.

In 1909, Shakhmatov moved to work in the St Petersburg University as a professor. By that time, he had been elected doctor honoris causa by the Charles University, Berlin University, Polish Academy of Sciences
Polish Academy of Sciences

The Polish Academy of Sciences, headquartered in Warsaw, is one of two Polish institutions having the nature of an academy of sciences....
, and many other scholarly societies.

1917 Revolution

Shakhmatov participated in the Commission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia
Commission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia

The Commission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia was set up in February 1917 by Sergei Fedorovich Ol'denburg under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences....
 set up in February 1917. He also helped prepare sweeping reforms
Reforms of Russian orthography

The Old Russian language adopted the Cyrillic alphabet, approximately during the tenth century and at about the same time as the introduction of Eastern Christianity into the territories inhabited by the Eastern Slavs....
 of Russian orthography
Russian orthography

Russian orthography is formally considered to encompass spelling and punctuation . Russian spelling, which is quite phonemic in practice, is a mix of the morphological and phonetic principles, with a few etymological or historic forms, and occasional grammatical differentiation....
, which would be implemented by the Bolshevik
Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
s in 1918. Shakhmatov refused to leave Petrograd for the West, a fatal decision that led to his premature death from malnutrition in 1920. The Academy subsequently cherished his memory and instituted a special Shakhmatov Prize, to be awarded "for the best works in source science, textology and linguistics".

Research


Shakhmatov is best remembered for having pioneered textological research of early Russian chronicle
Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronology order. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler....
s, notably the Primary Chronicle
Primary Chronicle

The Primary Chronicle , or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113....
. He established with a great degree of precision the stages of evolution of that key document, even attempting to reconstruct the postulated proto-version of Nestor
Nestor the Chronicler

Saint Nestor the Chronicler was the reputed author of the Primary Chronicle, , the Life of the Venerable Theodosius of Kiev the Life of the Holy Passon Bearers, Boris and Gleb, and of the so-called Reading....
's chronicle. His research proved seminal for subsequent generations of historians.

Shakhmatov was also responsible for publication and pioneering studies of minor or derelict Slavic languages. His studies of Slavic etymology
Etymology

Etymology is the study of the roots and history of words; and how their form and meaning have changed over time.In languages with a long detailed history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to culture over time....
 revolved around the idea of close contacts and influences between the ancient Slavs and Celt
Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
s, a hypothesis that was subsequently discarded.

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