...In science, everything is important.

G. Heine

Recently, many works on the history of Russian studies have been published, which note the characteristic trends in the development of linguistic ideas, and emphasize the role of certain scientists and scientific schools in the formation of various branches of Russian linguistics. However, many aspects of the history of the science of language remain undisclosed, first of all, it concerns the history of creating large file cabinets and dictionaries based on them.

Published in the Nauka Publishing House (Moscow, 2001)," The History of the Russian Language Dictionary card files of the XI - XVII centuries: Author's composition and sources " (compiled by L. Yu.Astakhina) largely fills in this gap. In fact, this is the first monographic description of the past and present of the Old Russian Dictionary (DRS) File System. For the first time, the reader got a clear and distinct idea of the huge painstaking work that preceded the appearance of one of the most striking lexicographic works of the XX century - the Dictionary of the Russian Language of the XI - XVII centuries, which, by all accounts, became an invaluable asset of national science and culture. It should be emphasized that the author not only comprehensively analyzed the history and current state of one of the most important historical files of the Russian language, but also made a significant contribution to the formation of linguistic historiography as an independent scientific discipline. This is extremely important in connection with the discussion on the state and ways of development of Russian linguistics.

"The history of the Russian Language Dictionary card files of the XI-XVII centuries" is full of a large factual material. The book is preceded by a succinct preface, which defines its main tasks: scientific, linguistic, historical and cultural. The main section of the publication contains the history of the DRS File System, which can be traced against the background of not only scientific and academic, but also socio-cultural

page 122

life of the country. Based on important documents and memoirs of the living creators of the file cabinet, the author not only traces the path of the famous file cabinet's formation year after year, but also determines its place in the history of national and world culture. The scope of the study includes a large amount of historical and biographical material. It should be emphasized that a look at the recent history of the File Cabinet is not a look from the outside, but a living testimony of a person directly involved in it. Lyudmila Astakhina has been the permanent head of the DRS File System since 1975, and one of the authors of the Dictionary of the Russian Language of the XI-XVII centuries.

Of undoubted scientific interest is the bibliographic dictionary of the creators of the DRS File Cabinet, which is the first in the history of lexicography. It contains essays about people who are somehow connected with the KDRS: electors, dictionary authors, editors, and technical staff... - 280 names in total! The author managed to convincingly show that the now world-famous file cabinet has become the fruit of hard and purposeful work of several generations of scientists, teachers, and lovers of the Russian word. Among the creators of the Card File are outstanding linguists, and simple, but very conscientious and hardworking people. Along with the names of prominent linguists G. A. Bogatova, A. P. Evgenieva, V. Ya. Deryagin, E. M. Isserlin, E. S. Istrina, S. I. Kotkov, L. L. Kutana, B. A. Larin, B. M. Lyapunov, S. P. Obnorsky, G. P. Smolitskaya, M. P. Speransky, A. I. Sobolevsky and others. we find the names of students, assistants of provincial universities, school teachers of the Russian language, and other people who are very far from the big science, who once contributed a part of their work to the replenishment of the File Cabinet, unknown to anyone before the publication of the bibliographic dictionary by L. Yu.Astakhina. We read with interest essays about the founder of the KDRS, Academician A. I. Sobolevsky, who personally wrote out more than 102 thousand contexts from many monuments of writing; about the grandson of Academician F. I. Buslaev, Fyodor Vladimirovich Buslaev, who corrected 19800 defective cards in 1934; about the son of Academician I. I. Sreznevsky, Vs. I. Sreznevsky, who as a freelance elector He painted the Chronicle of Avraham Novgorodsky for the DRS File Cabinet.

The scientific, historical and cultural value of the book is beyond doubt. And monuments of science, as you know, exist forever.

O. V. Felde (Borhvaldt), Doctor of Philology.

Krasnoyarsk.

Permanent link to this publication: