Vladimir Ivanovich Dal'
Vladimir Ivanovich Dal' (1801-1872) was a prominent Russian writer, lexicographer, and collector of folklore, best known for his dedication to documenting the Russian language and culture, particularly from the perspective of the lower classes. Born in Lugansk, Dal' had a diverse heritage with a Danish father and a German mother, which contributed to his deep appreciation for linguistic and cultural nuances. He served as a naval officer before transitioning to medicine, where he practiced homeopathy in the Imperial Service.
Dal' began to collect Russian words, proverbs, and fairy tales during his administrative assignments in various provinces. His notable works include the fairy tale collections "Russkiia skazki" and "Byli i nebylitsy," both of which showcased his innovative linguistic style. Although he was a contemporary of respected authors like Alexander Pushkin, Dal' focused primarily on short fiction rather than novels, producing psychologically rich sketches of everyday life.
After retiring in 1859, Dal' published the monumental four-volume "Tolkovyi slovar' zhivago velikorusskago iazyka," a comprehensive dictionary of the Russian language. His efforts to preserve and purify the Russian language from foreign influences established him as a significant figure in the field of philology, influencing later literary movements and scholars. Today, Dal' is remembered not only for his literary contributions but also for his role in safeguarding the richness of Russian folk culture.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Dal'
Writer
- Born: November 10, 1801
- Birthplace: Lugansk, Russia (now in Ukraine)
- Died: September 22, 1872
- Place of death: Moscow, Russia
Biography
Vladimir Ivanovich Dal’ is best known for his extensive work as a collector of Russian words, proverbs, songs, and fairy tales. Dal’ was born on November 10, 1801, in Lugansk, then a part of Russia and now located in Ukraine. Dal’s father was a Dane who came to Russia as a Protestant theologian but who ultimately worked as a medical doctor in the Imperial Service; his mother was Maria Ivanovna Freitag, the German daughter of a woman who had translated German works into Russian. Perhaps because his father was an ardent Russian patriot, Dal’ became a diligent and devoted recorder of Russian culture, particularly of the language and customs of the lower classes.
Dal’ entered the Naval Cadet School in St. Petersburg at the age of fourteen and subsequently served for five years as a naval officer. In 1824, he entered medical school in Tartu, Estonia; upon graduation, he worked as a physician in the Imperial Service, preferring homeopathic remedies to more standard methods. When Dal’ was assigned an administrative post in the Orenburg province, and later in Nizhny-Novgorod, he began collecting Russian lexical material and folklore. In 1832, he published his first creative work, a collection of artfully transformed fairy tales called Russkiia skazki . . . Piatok pervyi. The collection was met with misgivings by some, but was heralded by others as exemplary of narodnost’ (native spirit) for its nontraditional use of the Russian language and its focus on the lower classes’s disregard for authority. This volume was quickly followed by another collection of stories, Byli i nebylitsy (1833-1835).
Dal’s prose work includes biographical stories concerned with the interplay of life and language; stories in a non-Russian setting, such as “Tsyganka” (1830); stories of poor officials, such as “Bedovik,” published in Otechestvennye zapiski (1839); and stories with an emphasis on byt (everyday life), such as “Kolbasniki i borodachi,” published in the same journal in 1844. Perhaps the most accomplished stories among Dal’s short fiction are his psychological sketches with their keenly observed depictions of humble people, such as “Denshchik,” published in a Finnish newspaper,Finskii vestnik, in1845. Though much admired and encouraged by his contemporary, author Alexander Pushkin, Dal’ never wrote a novel.
Upon his retirement from government service in 1859, Dal’ settled in Moscow, becoming a spiritualist and publishing his great philological works. The four-volume Tolkovyi slovar’ zhivago velikorusskago iazyka (1863-1866), a dictionary of the Russian language organized by gnezda (word “nests”), was the product of nearly fifty years of work. Though he was not a trained linguist, Dal’ wished to purge all foreign words from the Russian language, hence his invention of such neologisms as iarostivost’ as a possible replacement for energiia. Dal’s greatest achievement, as a recorder and curator of spoken Russian, is still remembered. Twentieth century literary scholar Boris Eikhenbaum has cited Dal’s artistic literature as an influence on the later “philological school,” typified by such writers as Nikolai Semenovich Leskov, Mikhail Alekseevich Kuzmin, and Evgenii Ivanovich Zamiatin.