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«УШАКОВСКАЯ ЭПОПЕЯ»
THE SPIRITUAL FEAT OF DMITRY NIKOLAEVICH USHAKOV (PREFACE TO THE ANNIVERSARY ISSUE)1
Oleg V. Nikitin2
Petrozavodsk State University (Petrozavodsk, Russia) ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2815-6691
Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri3
University of Turin (Torino, Italy) ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7513-7587
He was a model for us in every way: a model of scientist, a model of citizen, a model of man and gentleman in the highest sense of this word. A. A. Reformatsky
Everyl philologist knows the name of Dmitry Nikolaevich Ushakov (1873-1942). It took root in our memory in an amazing way, has lingered in it for decades and remains there to this day. Since our school days, we used to hear this name as belonging to one of the authors of the Orthography Dictionary of the Russian Language that has now gone through more than 60 editions, which is worthy of mention in The Guinness Book of Records. Then, as university students, we heard this euphonious surname again, looked at the famous portrait in which the Doctor of Linguistic Sciences Dmitry Nikolaevich Ushakov is depicted with the Badge of Honour Order. He was awarded it in May 1940 as a graduate and the oldest teacher in commemoration of the 185th anniversary of the founding of Moscow University that was assigned the name of M. V. Lomonosov at the same time.
1 The authors thank PhD Yu. M. Fatkabrarova (Moscow, Russia) for the edited translation.
2 Oleg V. Nikitin, Guest Editor, PhD., Professor, Department of Russian Language, Petrozavodsk State University (Petrozavodsk, Russia); State University of Education (Moscow, Russia).
3 Vittorio Springfield Tomelleri, Guest Editor, PhD., Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Modern Cultures, University ofTurin (Torino, Italy).
D. N. Ushakov's eyes are especially memorable - they are priestly wise, deep and a little sad™ A wide forehead with a receding hairline - as if we were looking at an ancient philosopher. A neat beard, a stylish, slightly old-fashioned suit. L. V. Shcherba called him "a true Russian gentleman". This was felt, of course, not only in his appearance and professorial, as we say now, charisma. In his difficult life there were bright ups and the struggle against false teachings™
D. N. Ushakov absorbed the living spirit of the language since his childhood: from his grandfather, the archpriest of the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin, his mother and his father's circle of acquaintances.
From his childhood: I'm seeding and winding, I'm seeding and winding [seyu-veyu, seyu-veyu], I'm writing a request to the bishop: my bishop, bishop, give me the money as soon as possible.
The word virtue [dobrodetel'] impressed me in my childhood as a word of the masculine gender.
I used to say sharp [vostryi] in my childhood, mother: Chomp [Chmyk]! The door is closed.. , to one's surprise [pache chayaniya], here and now [vyn' da polozh], to gad (to wonder) [shlyondaf], ask around [posproshat'], zamukhrysh(zh)ka [a scrawny, pathetic man], roared horrorlike [zaryknulo] - and many others [Central State Archives of Moscow. F. L-276. Inv. 1. No. 5].
The expressive shades of sounds, unexpected intonations, his attempts to figure out what they mean™ Subsequently, his natural intuition developed into an enthusiastic craft of an ethnographer, philologist, teacher, lexi-
cographer. From the first major work by D. N. Ushakov Declension in Homer, which has not been printed so far, and a book about ostyaks, which, due to modesty, the author signed with the pseudonym "D. Tursky", to studying Russian dialects and compiling the first textbook on areal linguistics. From the struggle for the reform of Russian orthography, which lasted the whole life of the scientist, to "or-thoepic campaigns" and lexicographic battles. Wherever D. N. Ushakov felt a connection with the real or folk word, he was transformed. It was no coincidence that at the time of his work at the Department of Slavic-Russian Linguistics of the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History students sent him touching notes without fear of irony. They guessed that D. N. Ushakov knew everything.
- Please, explain why the letteryo [e] has now been deleted ... in the Russian orthography? It is even more puzzling considering that this letter forms a part of Russian words.
- Tell me, please, why you say [shygi] and not st/e/ps [shagi]?
- What is the correct way to say: cakes [torty] or [torta]?
- Some of our students say "I miss you" [skuchayu po tebe], some say [skuchayu za toboi]. What is the right way to say?
- Is it true that feta [such spelling is in the note] was excluded from the alphabet before the revolution because of its immorality?
- Why do you say well-well [nu-s] ?
- The word "forbid" [vospreshchat'] is Church Slavonic. But the prefix vos- indicates that it is Russian. What's the matter here?
- What is the mechanism of the language and the forms of its changes (from Shakhmatov)? What is psychologism? [Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 502. Inv. 3. No. 56].
He was idolised by his students, adored by real philologists. Actors listened to him. And he was also blessed with an artistic gift: his heavenly watercolours, pastoral landscapes, even simple sketches of mushrooms and flowers imperceptibly marked the talent of the master who could not but go beyond just book learning. He saw the world around him in unusual ways, listened, experimented... D. N. Ushakov mastered the brush language as skilfully as the word.
D. N. Ushakov. Watercolour sketch. 1915. Central State Archives of Moscow. F. L-276. Inv. 1. No. 105, l. 7. Published for the first time
And yet there are such features in his human appearance that distinguish the personality of D. N. Ushakov from the generation of old-school students who possessed no fewer talents.
M. V. Panov designated this property as follows: "constant strength of spirit", dignity and "unwillingness to play along with the forces of the uncultured".
What was D. N. Ushakov's spiritual feat?
His feat was in his high moral qualities of a scientist who did not compromise his principles in the struggle for truth. Let us recall the episodes of "Ushakov Epic" of the 1920s - his attempt to create the first explanatory dictionary of the modern Russian literary language. And its continuation in the 1930s when, in joint effort of the talented philologists G. O. Vinokur, V. V. Vinogradov, B. A. Larin, S. I. Ozhegov and B. V. To-mashevsky, yet another lexicographical campaign was undertaken and was crowned with success. But such trials awaited them along that way! Had there been no wise will of D. N. Ushakov and his immersion in literally all the problems: from organizational and ideological to editorial, the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, which we now call Ushakov's, could have drowned in a series of slanders by opponents, in the indifference and envy of colleagues in the academic workshop. Some accused the Dictionary of "sabotage and political criminality", others spoke of a "popish and petty-bourgeois ideological basis"... And D. N. Ushakov stood fast in such a suffocating atmosphere, each time saving his Dictionary from destruction. Is that not a feat?
His feat was in his self-sacrifice. While some were hiding, others were denouncing and the rest were grovelling before the achievements of Marrism, D. N. Ushakov was defending science, perhaps at the cost of his own reputation and even life. Such was his review of the disgraced A. M. Selishchev - "the most prominent Slavist" (Otsy i deti Moskovskoi lingvisticheskoi shkoly [Fathers and Sons of the Moscow Linguistic School]. Moscow, 2004, pp. 333-334). Such was, for example, his letter sent to I. V. Stalin dated May 10, 1941 about the fate of his former student V. N. Sidorov (Ibid., p. 357). He helped with wise advice and in deed the exiled V. V. Vinogradov, his closest associates I. G. Golanov and G. O. Vinokur and many more students, teachers and textbook authors. And D. N. Ushakov actually saved R. O. Yakobson's life by recommending him staying in Europe in response to the latter's question whether or not to accept an invitation to professorship at Saratov University, "When you want to dance, you should remember not only about the stove from which you dance, but also about the wall to which you dance". D. N. Ushakov's selflessness was
manifested not only in respect of people. He was an enthusiast in everything: a tireless researcher of dialects, an organiser of new trends in linguistics, a valiant follower of Acad. Fortunatov's ideas, a fighter for vocabulary, a knight both in life and in science.
His feat was in his understanding the value of genuine scientific knowledge as a product of intellectual labour that can have no untested hypotheses, fantastic theories and charlatanism. S. B. Bernstein recalled: "It was from Dmitry Nikolaevich that I once heard for the first time a new word graphomaniac [grafoman], which he usually pronounced very emotionally. Ushakov successfully illustrated the danger of grapho-mania in science with many examples. He put graphomaniacs in contrast with Fortunatov who is known for having published very few of his works, but having made a major contribution to the history of Russian linguistics" (Bernstein S. B. (1973). Dmitry Nikolaevich Ushakov (Pages of Memoirs). In Bulletin of the Moscow University. No. 1, p. 79). No matter what he did, D. N. Ushakov never lost touch with the great School from which he came. V. O. Klyuchev-sky, F. E. Korsh, F. F. Fortunatov were his moral beacons. Their high service to science, people and their Fatherland might have served as a model for the formation of D. N. Ushakov's "moral philology". Their personalities did not fade in his memory and passed that fire on to the new generation - the "Ushakov sons".
His feat was in his pedagogical talent to see personalities in his students and educate them in the spirit of philological non-possessiveness, experiments, ideological integrity and deep faith in the triumph of true knowledge. In the days of D. N. Ushakov's earthly life, the names of many of them became symbols of our science, though it was under the pressure of the "revolutionary era". R. I. Avanesov, A. A. Buslaev, G. O. Vinokur, S. S. Vysotsky, I. G. Golanov, S. I. Ozhegov, V. N. Sidorov, A. A. Reformatsky... Everyone was an "Ushakovite" in his own way - he absorbed the atmosphere of artistic creativity that reigned next to D. N. Ushakov. "Dmitry Niko-laevich's wisdom as a teacher is evidenced by the fact that he never demanded that his students ... continue and popularise his ideas... he sympathised with us, understanding that the future lies with the new, that there will always be a problem of "fathers and sons" in science and that the future always belongs to the "sons"
(Avanesov R. I. (1973). Dmitry Nikolaevich Ushakov. In Russian speech. No. 3, p. 105).
His feat was in enlightenment. The Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language edited by D. N. Ushakov defined this word prosveti-tel'stvo as a "cultural activity" - the masses were enlightened. After the Russian Revolution, D. N. Ushakov devoted a lot of effort to the formation of a language education system in secondary and higher schools. Teachers created new programs "according to Ushakov", students studied linguistics also "according to Ushakov". "It is the author's talent to talk briefly and simply about things that are not at all simple sometimes", M. N. Peterson recalled about him. D. N. Ushakov's books Russian Orthography (l9ll), Russian Language. A Brief Systematic School Guide to Grammar, Orthography and Pronunciation (1926) and, especially, A Brief Introduction to the Science of Language (1913) became the main source of accessible and, moreover, objective information about the events in science and promoted For-tunatov's ideas. During the period of the "-ism"s propaganda, the scientist was spreading clear knowledge, enlightening with linguistics. He did not abandon the "hooligan-tavern terminology", religious vocabulary and merchant phrases - the stylistic richness of his Dictionary is amazing. D. N. Ushakov was tirelessly teaching the correct speech. His archive contains thick notebooks with his recommendations to the Radio Committee speakers. Each time he solved a new task and nurtured with the genius intuition of a philologist that cultural space of the Russian language that the fate entrusted him with. * * *
"[...] the scientific study of the language (which must be distinguished from, for example, the practical language teaching for the purposes of people's communication) can be of deep interest and has an important educational value, since the subject of this science is such an important aspect of human spiritual activity as the language. By its origin and usage, the language is closely related to both human thinking andphys-ical structure and, in its historical development, the language is connected with the history of the people who speak it. Therefore, the science of the language is connected with other sciences that study both the spiritual and physical nature of human beings and the history of peoples, namely psychology and physiology, on the one hand, and
history, on the other hand. Hence, scientific information about the language takes an important place in the ambit of general education".
From the "Preface" to the first edition of D. N. Ushakov's book A Brief Introduction to the Science of Language (1913)
Our anniversary issue is a tribute to the works and days of Dmitry Nikolaevich Ushakov. The entire issue is devoted only to him for the first time in the journal format.
The scientific personality of the "hero of the day" is highlighted and evaluated here, and the focus is on different aspects of his painstaking work in the field of Russian linguistics. Along with the articles devoted to orthographic, lexicographic, phraseological and dialectological issues, an important place is occupied by the study of the archival heritage of the scientist, which opens new observation windows that allow you to follow specifically the labourious work of D. N. Ushakov in compiling the Dictionary and get acquainted with his contacts with other researchers.
It is well known that the personal fate of a researcher, which does not necessarily have to influence our objective perception of scientific achievements, very often determines the path (s)he has taken in science. In this regard, a forward and backward look deserves special attention, since the analysis of the continuity of the Fortunatov School and the field research of the Moscow Dialectological Commission outlines the future development of the Moscow Linguistic Circle and the Moscow Linguistic School. There is no need to point out the special context in which Soviet linguists worked in the 1920s and 1930s despite their origins and political beliefs. Whereas, on the one hand, they played a key role in the creation of new terminology and new linguistic behaviour, their shoulders, on the other hand, bore a huge load of responsibility not only to the newly created society, which could not but complicate and condition their daily work. And this aspect has been duly appreciated here.
By submitting this monographic issue into print, we sincerely hope that it will accomplish a double task: to honour a major representative of Soviet and Russian linguistics, as well as to offer valuable material for deeper reflection on his scientific legacy that continues to inspire linguists of various fields, as this issue clearly and pleasantly testifies.
