Mykola Krushevskyi

The word "krusz" in Old Polish meant a lump of salt. The surname of the Kruszewski family comes from the name of the locality Kruszewo in Poland, the most prominent of whom is the native of Lutsk Mikołaj Kruszewski, an outstanding Polish linguist and a representative of the Kazan Linguistic School. The fate of Kruszewski’s scholarly legacy is one of the most tragic: archival materials are scattered across institutions in Russia (from Moscow and St. Petersburg to Kazan), Poland, and Ukraine. Ukrainian archives hold materials for the biography of the scholar and his family. It so happened that, born in Ukraine and Polish by nationality, he was forced to write in Russian and work in Kazan. That is why Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and Tatar scholars do not always “get around to” his works. One of the important stages in bringing the scholar’s name back from oblivion in our country was the work of Zinaida Pakholok, associate professor at Lesya Ukrainka Volyn State University: the first Ukrainian translation of M. Krushevsky’s diploma thesis on incantations (Mykola Krushevsky. Incantations as a Type of Russian Folk Poetry. — Lutsk, 2002); the republication of the eight hymns of the Rigveda translated by M. Krushevsky, accompanied by other translations of these hymns (Mykola Krushevsky. Eight Hymns of the Rig-Veda. — Lutsk, 2003); appearances on radio and television, and publications in academic editions of Ukraine, Russia, and Poland, as well as in periodicals. It is noteworthy that for the history of Volhynia, important is not only the biography of the scholar but also that of his father—a prominent figure in the public life of our region in the mid-19th century. Wacław Kruszewski (1808–1878) was born in Zaslav in Volhynia. He studied at the Lubar School and at the Cadet School in Warsaw, which produced many ardent Polish patriots, including Tadeusz Kościuszko. It is therefore not surprising that in 1831 he took part in the Polish uprising, was taken prisoner, Mykola Krushevskyi was born on December 6 (18), 1851, in Lutsk. He graduated from the Lutsk School (modern address: 17 Kafedralna Street — a complete complex) and the Kholm Gymnasium, and in 1871 he entered the Faculty of History and Philology at the University of Warsaw. While still a student, Mykola became interested in linguistics, which became his lifelong calling. The topic of the thesis ("Incantations as a Type of Russian Folk Poetry") was chosen by Krushevsky as incantations, in which he tried to reproduce as far as possible the original meaning of the roots of Slavic (primarily Russian and Ukrainian) words in order to understand the worldview of primitive man. Such "literary algebra," under the pen of the still young scholar, resulted in an interesting work, since Krushevsky employed not so much a poetic or stylistic analysis as the mythological-psychological aspect of incantations. The work, carried out in compliance with the necessary scholarly requirements and with the appropriate apparatus, looks like a fascinating narrative, mediated through science, about one of the most secret manifestations of Slavic witchcraft—incantations. And therefore it is not without reason that it was published in 1876 in the "Warsaw University News." In particular, of interest is the frog incantation: "If you thread a certain individual's hair through a frog's head and bury it in the ground, then along with the rotting of the hair, that person from whose head it was taken will also wither, and, finally, she must die." So, Volhynians, as soon as you start "withering" (spit-sp We all also know the interpretation of the dream about fish (a woman is to become pregnant); and, as became clear thanks to Krushevsky, it comes precisely from Volhynia. In the modern edition, Krushevsky’s text itself (Mykolai Krushevsky. Incantations as a Type of Russian Folk Poetry. Lutsk, 2002) constitutes only 35% of the entire book, and therefore Zinaida Pakholok’s work is more an authored work than an editorial compilation. Work on this book—and on bringing the scholar’s name back from oblivion—continued over many years. Krushevsky’ Thus she found the materials of the Krushevsky family in the archive of the church of the Franciscan Sisters in Laski near Warsaw. For some time, Stanisława, the scholar’s granddaughter, was the superior of this monastery. Individual materials were collected bit by bit by Z. Pakholok in Chełm and Warsaw. In Moscow, in the Roerich archive, Z. Pakholok discovered 12 letters from M. Krushevsky to I. Tsvetaev, an expert in Roman literature and the father of the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva. The scholar’s manuscripts are kept in St. Petersburg, Kazan, and Lviv; materials about the family are in Zhytomyr M. Krushevsky's thesis demonstrated his high scientific potential; the path into science was open, but Krushevsky's ... nationality stood in the way. First he ended up in distant Troitsk, Orenburg Governorate, as a teacher at the local gymnasium, and later as a lecturer at Kazan University. Here the string of the young connoisseur of Slavic melos broke—he died in 1887 at the age of thirty-six... M. Krushevsky was a full member of the Kazan Society of Archaeology and Ethnography, at whose meetings he presented scholarly papers. The scholar worked much and fruitfully despite poor health M. Krushevskyi dreamed of transferring to Kyiv University: “Don’t you have in the Kyiv council any friends,” he asked his faithful comrade, “to whom you could recommend me, in case I, having received a master’s degree..., began looking for a docentship in Kyiv? My family and I have already endured so much from the local climate, and we are so drawn closer to our homeland, that moving to Kyiv is my greatest dream...” M. Krushevsky wanted to be closer to Volhynia, to Lutsk, where his childhood and youth had passed, where he later came almost every summer to his family to rest. But he was never destined to return to Ukraine for good. Only his younger daughter, Berta-Justyna Krushevska (1885–1944), a philologist and public figure, was able to return to Ukraine and work at the Zhytomyr gymnasium. Modern linguists from many countries around the world cite Mykola Krushevsky’s works in their writings, noting the importance of his scholarly legacy even today. The publication in Lutsk of the book “Mykola Krushevsky. Eight Hymns of the Rig Veda” is no accident for several reasons: its author, practically the first translator of the Rigveda hymns into Russian (Kazan, 1878), was born in Lutsk, and it was in Lutsk that the Rigveda first sounded in Ukrainian, because Lesya Ukrainka produced a poetic rendering of twelve hymns in 1890. The publication "Mykolai Krushevskyi. Eight Hymns of the Rigveda" was funded by the compiler (Z. Pakholok), since the university could not find the funds to publish 300 copies of the book, which is connected, in particular, with the work of Lesia Ukrainka, whose name, in fact, Volyn State University bears... Mykolai Krushevskyi is mentioned only on the occasion of his anniversary. But both a street in the native city of this scholar, who is honored throughout the world, and the university library should have been named after him... Nataliia Pushkar, Oleksii Zlatohorskyi