Wiener Slavistisches Jahrbuch. N.F. 13 (2025) – Abstracts
Ein früher Beitrag zur tschechischen Syntax: Vincenc Bíbas Navedení k písemnostem
Ondřej Bláha / Marie Krappmann / Karsten Rinas (Olomouc)
In 1848, the teacher and later school inspector Vincenc Dominik Bíba published the book Theoreticko-praktické Nawedení k písemnostem in Prague. It deals with writing texts for everyday use, for instance letters, receipts, authorisations, etc. These practical instructions are based on theoretical (grammatical-syntactical) guidelines discussed earlier in the book. Bíba thus makes a contribution to Czech syntax that is older than the “classical” works of Hattala (1855), Zikmund (1863), Bartoš (1878) and Gebauer (1890). So far, however, his work has received little attention. This study addresses several aspects of Bíba's Navedení: (i) the context in which the first edition of this work was written, in particular the influence of German-language works and aspects of the history of education; ii) a comparison of the twelve editions of Bíba's work published between 1848 and 1884 in order to reconstruct the conceptual and terminological development; iii) an assessment of Bíba's work from the perspective of the history of linguistics.
Keywords: Historical linguistics, Czech syntax, intertextuality, letter writer’s guide, old textbooks, old grammar books
Новый ѣ в истории науки и истории языка
Роман Кривко (Вена)
“Tracing the ‘New Jat’: A Study in the History of Linguistics and Language”. – The new ê developed from e before a syllable containing ь in a weak position, as a result of regressive assimilation of e to the (mid-)high vowel ь [ɪ]. It took place before the development of the pleophony *TereT, *TeleT. The earliest examples of the new ê are found in the Byčkov-Sinai Psalter and in the 13 Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus (11th c.). The next oldest examples of the new ê are found in the manuscript GIM, Sin. 262 (early or mid-12th c.), which contains a commentary on the liturgy (a translation of the Historia Mystagogica Ecclesiastica, recension Ψ) and the Didactic Gospel of Constantine the Presbyter. Both texts were created in the southwestern Balkan area and show no traces of Old East Bulgarian (Preslav) influence. The new ê should be regarded as a common South East Slavic, or Old Ukrainian, innovation. From the standpoint of the history of Slavic studies, Sobolevsky’s discovery of the new ê can be seen as a continuation of the grammatical research previously conducted by the philologists of Ukrainian Galicia and by Franz Miklosich. Nonetheless, his historical interpretation of the phenomenon reflects ideologically motivated assumptions, portraying the “Galician- Volhynian dialect” as the sole early base of the Ukrainian language.
Keywords: The new jat’, history of the Ukrainian language, Slavic studies in Austria- Hungary and in the Russian Empire, Didactic Gospel of Constantine the Presbyter, Byčkov-Sinai Psalter
Pamvo Berynda’s Calendar
Ralph Cleminson (Oxford)
The article describes twelve woodcut sheets, each bearing images of saints and festivals for one month, and together comprising a “menology icon” for the whole year. They were printed at the Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv in the 1620s. The visual composition is known from eleventh/twelfth-century icons on Sinai, and reappears in Russia in the fifteenth century. These are the first printed and the first Ukrainian examples. Three copies are known, two complete. Each sheet bears in the upper margin a text from Scripture or from patristic or liturgical texts, not always immediately relevant to the month in question. The lower margins contain texts with seasonal observations and dietary recommendations emerging from a tradition ultimately derived from classical medicine with its preoccupations with both astrology and diet.
Keywords: calendar, menology, Kyiv Caves Monastery, cyrillic printing, woodcuts, medical texts
Deržavin und Horaz
Joachim Klein (Leiden)
The article “Derzhavin and Horace“ analyzes Gavriil Derzhavin’s reworkings (translations and imitations) of Horace and their impact on eighteenth-century Russian literature. In accordance with the principles of imitatio and aemulatio Derzhavin saw himself not only as a translator of Horace, but also as an Horatian poet in his own right. Reading Horace in German, Derzhavin followed the German enthusiasm for Horace, modifying this tradition under the specific conditions of eighteenthcentury Russian culture as well as of his personal inclinations. In addition to the general analysis of Derzhavin’s use of Horace, the article offers detailed comparisons of three of Derzhavin’s Horatian poems with the original texts. It concludes with a reflection on the fundamental change in Derzhavin’s conception not only of translation, but also of poetry which he experienced in the last years of his life under the possible influence of Herder’s aesthetics and early Russian historicism.
Keywords: Gavriil Derzhavin, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, eighteenth-century Russian poetry, imitatio, aemulatio, Johann Gottfried Herder, German Horace reception
«Эликсир жизни» и другие напитки (из опыта чтения рукописных книг XVIII в.)
Александр Лифшиц (Москва)
“The Elixir of Life” and Other Beverages (From the Experience of Reading 18th-Century Manuscripts). – A considerable portion of 18th century Russian manuscripts consists of texts on the estate economy. The Russian nobility adopted the German tradition of Hausväterliteratur. Within this tradition, the “Liefländische Oeconomia” by S. Hubert remains a preeminent example. The Russian nobles considered it necessary to have reference books on medicine, veterinary science, and agronomy. A common feature of these texts is the inclusion of various recipes for vodka. A close analysis of such recipes, however, reveals that they were likely more decorative than functional; they could hardly have been used to make the drink.
Keywords: 18th Century Russia, Manuscripts, Recipes, Vodka, Botanical Nomenclature
Fluchtwege: Eine Typologie der russischen Emigration der ersten Welle (1917–1940)
Manfred Schruba (Mailand)
“Escape routes: A typology of the Russian emigration of the first wave (1917‒1940)”. This paper presents a typology of experience among former Russian Imperial subjects who found themselves abroad after 1917. The author proposes and describes eight categories: 1) Flight and evacuation; 2) Ethnic minorities; 3) Legal and illegal departure; 4) Optants; 5) Foreign residency; 6) Deportation; 7) Denaturalization (revocation of citizenship); 8) “Non-returnees”. The essay outlines key aspects of the Russian emigration of the first wave: quantitative relations, the reasons for leaving post-revolutionary Russia, the social composition of the émigré community in comparison to the situation in tsarist Russia, the home-comers movement, the reasons for returning to Soviet Russia, the number of the repatriates, the quantitative distribution of the émigré flow over the years.
Keywords: Russian culture; Russian emigration of the first wave; exile; deportation; “Philosophy steamer”; “non-returnees”
Старое для нового: Симеон Полоцкий в творческой эволюции Александра Белецкого
Александр Дмитриев (Прага / Франкфурт-на-Одере)
Aleksandr Beletskii / Oleksandr Bilets’kyi (1884–1961) was one of the founders of the new academic Ukrainian literary criticism. He belonged to the same generation of philologists as the Russian Formalists and was also influenced by the new Ukrainian literature of the 1920s. The purpose of the present article is to explore in greater detail Beletskii’s scholarly legacy thorough his engagement with Simeon Polotskii’s work in relation to the East Slavic literature of the late 17th century, as well as possible echoes of the fate of Polotskii in Beletskii’s own biography.
Keywords: Aleksandr Beletskii, Simeon Polotskii, Ukrainian philology, scholarly and folk literature, Baroque, literary adaptation, East Slavic cultural polyphony, modernism, pre-Petrine court culture
Die Sache der Dichtung – dargestellt an den Schriften Horst-Jürgen Gerigks
Urs Heftrich (Heidelberg)
The essay honors the oeuvre of the recently deceased scholar of Russian and Comparative Literature Horst-Jürgen Gerigk (1937–1924). Gerigk became known as a leading Dostoevsky researcher. Contrary to such a narrowing of his research interests to a single author, a broad view of Gerigk’s work in literary theory is presented here. Particular attention is paid to the theoretical concepts against which Gerigk’s approach is directed (especially formalism, Marxism, Freudianism, the Konstanz School, Nietzsche, and deconstruction). Against this background, his own concept of a consistently centripetal reading, which he developed in the footsteps of Gadamer’s hermeneutics as well as in contrast to it, becomes apparent.
Keywords: Deconstruction, Dostoevsky, Formalism, Gadamer, Heidegger, Hermeneutics, Interpretation, Intertextuality, Konstanz School, Marxism, Nietzsche, Psychoanalysis, Schopenhauer
Письма Жана Шюзевиля к Валерию Брюсову (1912–1914)
Наталья Гамалова (Лион)
At t he beginning of t he 2 0th century, t he nearly forgotten French poetsymbolist, critic, and translator Jean Chuzeville (1885–1974) maintained connections with prominent Russian poets and writers. Having lived in Moscow from 1904 to 1906 and again from 1907 to 1910, Chuzeville wrote six letters to Valery Bryusov between January 1912 and May 1914 from various locations in France, Germany, and Italy. The letters revolve around three central themes: the publication of Chuzeville’s Anthology of Russian Poets, his intention to translate Bryusov’s Earth Axis, and his contributions to the Parisian review Mercure de France. This study presents the letters with an introductory section that contextualizes the individuals and events mentioned, particularly focusing on Mercure de France’s “Russian Literature” column.
Keywords: Jean Chuzeville, Valery Bryusov, correspondence, poetry, anthology, Mercure de France, translation
Записные книжки к роману Дмитрия Мережковского «Воскресшие боги. Леонардо да Винчи»
Анастасия Федорова (Флоренция)
The article “Dmitrii Merezhkovky’s Notebooks for the Novel Resurrected Gods: Leonardo da Vinci” provides a detailed examination of the corpus of literary sources the writer employed. The corpus comprises over thirty titles in both Russian and Western European languages, covering a wide range of topics from the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci to the history of Russian iconography. The article establishes the editions which Merezhkovsky cited and explains his selection criteria for the composition and nature of excerpts, as well as the organization of the sources within the notebooks.
Keywords: Merezhkovsky, notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci, trilogy, Christ and Antichrist, literary source, intertextuality, textual analysis, source study
Материалы к изучению биографии и творчества Михаила Горлина из архива Institut d’études slaves (Париж). Часть четвертая
Федор Поляков (Вена)
The publication “Materials Pertaining to the Life and Works of Mikhail Gorlin from the Archive of the Institut d’études slaves. Part 4 (No 8: Jucunda et tristia: The Latin World of Mikhail Gorlin)” presents some previously unpublished documents shedding light on Mikhail Gorlin’s background in Classic Languages originating from the renowned Berlin Kaiser-Friedrich-Schule, and resulting in his seminal work on the late Roman poet Claudius Claudianus. The documents published also concern the use of the Latin language in personal correspondence (letters by him and by his wife, a poet Raisa Blokh).
Keywords: Mikhail Gorlin, Raisa Blokh, Berlin-Charlottenburg, Kaiser-Friedrich-Schule, Russian reception of Claudius Claudianus, Walter de Châtillon, 20th-Century Russian literature
Исаак Бабель и Григорий Беседовский (по материалам архива французской полиции)
Александр Строев (Париж)
“Isaac Babel and Grigory Besedovsky (Based on the Materials from the French Police Archive).” – Diplomat Grigory Zinovievich Besedovsky (1896 – 1975), the First Counselor of the Soviet Embassy in France (1927–1929), sought political asylum in France, fearing forced repatriation to Moscow. He subsequently founded the newspaper and movement of non-returnees, Borba (Struggle, 1930–1932), and wrote his memoirs. Isaac Babel lived in Paris in 1927–1928 and had connections with Besedovsky, including financial dealings. Besedovsky himself acted as an informant for French state security (Sûreté) in the 1930s–1950s, was arrested during the war, and provided information to the police as well as to the American consul. He also fabricated numerous fake memoirs of real and fictional individuals. These forgeries served the purposes of Soviet propaganda.
Keywords: Isaac Babel, Grigory Besedovsky, Russian emigration, France, GPU, Sûreté.
Из Именного указателя к «Записным книжкам» Ахматовой: крепкие и железные
Роман Тименчик (Иерусалим)
“Towards the Index of Anna Akhmatova’s Notebooks: The Resilient Ones and the Hardy Ones”. – This part of the series of historical and literary commentaries to the Akhmatova’s notebooks examines three women mentioned in her diary entries: the poet and GULAG survivor Elena Il’zen-Grin, the translator Rita Rait, and the wife of Igor Stravinsky, Vera Stravinsky.
Keywords: Anna Akhmatova, Elena Il’zen-Grin, Rita Rait, Vera Stravinsky
«Михаилу Афанасьевичу Булгакову лично»: к истории одной литературной мистификации
Павел Глушаков (Рига)
In the archive of the writer Viktor Nekrasov, an anonymous document has been preserved: the manuscript of a letter to V. M. Lisovich dated October 31, 1927. This letter is from Vanda Lisovich, a literary character in the novel The White Guard – she is the wife of the engineer Vasily Lisovich. The prototypes of the Lisovich couple were Vasily Pavlovich Listovnichy (1876–1919) and Yadviga Viktorovna Listovnichy (1863–1936). There is still no conclusive evidence about the authorship of the letter and the time of its writing, nor is there any proof that the text of the letter belongs to Viktor Nekrasov. But the fact that the letter has been preserved in his archive suggests that it is not a document alien to the writer, originating, at the very least, in his circle of friends.
Keywords: Viktor Nekrasov, Mikhail Bulgakov, “The White Guard”, hoax, Vanda Lisovich, Vasily Lisovich