Fyodor Buslaev

Who was Fyodor Buslaev?

Fedor Ivanovich Buslaev was a Russian philologist, art historian, and folklorist who represented the Mythological school of comparative literature and linguistics. He was profoundly influenced by Jacob Grimm and Theodor Benfey.

Buslaev was educated at Penza and Moscow University. At the end of his academical course, 1838, he accompanied the family of Count S.G. Stroganov on a tour through Italy, Germany and France, occupying himself principally with the study of classical antiquities. On his return he was appointed assistant professor of Russian literature at the University of Moscow.

A study of Jacob Grimm's great dictionary had already directed the attention of the young professor to the historical development of the Russian language, and the fruit of his studies was the book On the Teaching of the National Language, which even now has its value. In 1848 he produced his work On the Influence of Christianity on the Slavonic Language, which was considered a milestone in the study of the development of the Slavonic languages.

In this work Buslaev proves that long before the age of Cyril and Methodius the Slavonic languages had been subject to Christian influences. In 1855 he published Palaeographical and Philological Materials for the History of the Slavonic Alphabets, and in 1858 Essay Towards an Historical Grammar of the Russian Tongue, abounding with rich material for students, carefully collected from an immense quantity of ancient records and monuments. In close connection with this work in his Historical Chrestomathy of the Church-Slavonic and Old Russian Tongues. He was elected a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1860.