There are names in Russian science that, as sad as it is to admit, we rarely remember, on the eve of anniversaries, and years later we sometimes forget what the humble workers of Russian science have done. We hope that our essay will bring back to memory the worthy name of a venerable scholar, whose merits in philology are beyond doubt...

Viktor Borkovsky was born in Minsk in 1900, where his father, Ivan Adamovich (1855-1905), a teacher of ancient languages, shortly before his death became a priest. In 1918, V. I. Borkovsky graduated from the Second Gymnasium in Chisinau with a gold medal and the following year entered the Moscow University at the Faculty of History and Philology. As he later wrote in his autobiography, "in the same year he was called up for active naval service and sent to the Economics Department of the Economic Academy of the Red Army and Navy. He did not stop studying at the university and in particular made a report on the topic "Duel and death of M. Y. Lermontov" (Bibliographic index on Russian and East Slavic linguistics. Academician Viktor Ivanovich Borkovsky. Lviv, 1990. P. 3). In 1921, V. I. Borkovsky held the position of Assistant Head of the Department of Management of Higher Naval Educational institutions, and in 1921-1922, he was Assistant Head of the Department of the Headquarters of the Commander of the Naval Forces of the Republic (Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 68. L. 16 ob.).

At the same time, he married Natalia Evfimievna Karskaya, the daughter of the famous Russian academician, researcher of ancient monuments, paleographer E. F. Karsky.

With the birth in 1924 of his son Anatoly, the only one in the Borkovsky family, new hopes appear, and his loving father-in - law and mother-in-law-Evfimiy Fedorovich and Sofya Nikolaevna-surround their grandson with care and affection.

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Interesting evidence about the years of V. I. Borkovsky's apprenticeship was found in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In our opinion, this important circumstance helps to understand why he is moving to St. Petersburg and taking philology as his life's work.

"I entered the family of Academician Evfimiy Fyodorovich Karsky before entering a higher educational institution.

I dreamed of a university faculty of physics and Mathematics or a technical university.

My meeting with Evfimiy Fyodorovich, conversations with him about language and literature, and first of all about the Belarusian language and literature, and his fervent conviction that the Motherland needs a philologist as much as any other specialist, shook my confidence in my vocation.

I became a philologist and am deeply grateful to Evfimiy Fyodorovich for choosing this path" (Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. f. 1781. Op. I Ed. chr. N 8. l. 1).

In 1923, V. I. Borkovsky was transferred to the Ethnological and Linguistic Department of Petrograd University, where he studied the basics of Russian and Slavic linguistics under the guidance of experienced teachers. Thus, he studied comparative grammar of Slavic languages with Academician P. A. Lavrov and Professor M. G. Dolobko, Russian and Belarusian languages and dialectology with Academician E. F. Karsky. There, now at Leningrad University, he met future academicians V. F. Shishmarev, L. V. Shcherba, S. P. Obnorsky, who invariably "nursed" their pet, and with the latter of them he will be connected for many years by the friendly disposition and special, fatherly attention of Sergei Petrovich, which has always been a feature of an intelligent scientist. academic school.

At the end of the university course, V. I. Borkovsky was left at the Department of Russian to prepare for the professorship and began to communicate even more closely with Academician E. F. Karsky. V. I. Borkovsky later recalled: "Evfimiy Fyodorovich was a strict teacher (I was preparing for the professorship under his guidance), who did not forgive the slightest factual error, did not like verhoglyadstva.

It required knowledge of not only East Slavic languages, but also Polish, Czech, Serbian and Bulgarian.

In his opinion, narrow specialization harms philological science" (ibid.).

The first works of V. I. Borkovsky appeared already in 1926 in the collections "Rabfak at home". Small but informative articles: "How the Russian population of the USSR speaks and writes", "Homonyms", "Synonyms", "Comparisons", "Epithets", etc. - we had the task to help working youth, students learn their native language, instill skills of independent communication with the word. Therefore, the notes are of a popular scientific nature, but they are based on the best examples of ancient writing, in particular, on the Laurentian Chronicle, articles

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In the 1920s, V. I. Borkovsky just taught at the rabfak at the Leningrad Agricultural Institute. Interesting work and practical communication with students for several years connected him with this monthly, where V. I. Borkovsky was a regular contributor.

In 1930, V. I. Borkovsky was awarded the title of professor, and he began to cooperate fruitfully in the institutes of many cities, successfully combining teaching and research activities. He headed Russian language departments at pedagogical institutes and universities in Mogilev (1930-1932), Novgorod (1932-1934), Nikolaev (1934-1935), Simferopol (1935-1940), Yaroslavl (1940-1946), Lviv (1946-1950). In the same years, numerous scientific works of the scientist were published. Among them are the monographic article " On the language of the Suzdal Chronicle according to the Lavrentiev list "(otd. ott. - L., 1931), "Skills in spelling and Punctuation" (M.-L., 1931), "Smolenskaya Gramota 1229-a Russian monument" (Yaroslavl, 1944), "To the history of the Smolensk Principality in Russia". XIII century" (manuscript of 1945) and some others.

The need to frequently change places of work and residence was caused by one sad circumstance: bright, lively, with unusual eyes and a friendly smile, the Borkovsky son was ill with tuberculosis, he needed a southern temperate climate, the sea, and relatively good food. Since the beginning of the 1930s, Natalia Evfimievna worked for some time as a librarian, then as a teacher of drawing and drawing, but more and more often because of her son's illness and the need to be constantly with him, she left, helping her husband a lot: she printed his works, prepared works for publication.

In 1938, V. I. Borkovsky became a Candidate of Philological sciences. (The Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences has preserved an extract from the minutes of the meeting of the Council of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute on awarding V. I. Borkovsky the degree of Candidate of Philological Sciences without defending his dissertation.)

In the pre-war years, the scientist worked at the Crimean Pedagogical Institute, headed the Department of Russian Language, was the dean of the Faculty of Language and Literature. He released a number of interesting works in the Crimea: "On syntactic phenomena of Novgorod letters of the XIII-XIV centuries "(1940), "Russian-Tatar terminological dictionary of Language and Linguistics", co-authored with A. A. Islyamovym (Simferopol, 1941). Students of V. I. Borkovsky recall: "An exceptionally beautiful voice in timbre, impeccable pronunciation, genuine artistry and passion, brilliant erudition of the young professor created an atmosphere of creative collaboration, scientific search and joy of discovery in the student audience "(Shelepina O. E., Ronginsky V. M. V. I. Borkovsky in the Crimea // Study of the creative heritage of Academician V. I. Borkovsky. Lviv, 1990, p. 64). Giving a lot of effort to communicate with young people,

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V. I. Borkovsky was not just a teacher, professor or desk administrator for his students, but an accessible, friendly and at the same time demanding teacher and interlocutor.

In the summer of 1939, V. I. Borkovsky participated in a dialectological expedition to the villages of the Leningrad region. The scientist's notes convey to us many interesting linguistic details of those places. Looking through them, we drew attention to the thorough analysis of different language levels, which allowed Viktor Ivanovich to carry out a comprehensive study of the system of one dialect.

Since 1940, V. I. Borkovsky has been working in Yaroslavl, where he creates an inter-regional dialectological office for studying Northern Russian dialects. In the Scientific Notes of the Yaroslavl State Pedagogical Institute, works are published that are diverse in content and rich in facts: "From observations on the language of the villages of Volnaya Beryozka and Kirillovshchina (Lychkovsky district) and Rykalovo... Leningrad region "(1944), " Academician E. F. Karsky (1861- 1931)" (1945), "The heroic past of the Russian people in the image of A. S. Pushkin" (1945). Two articles of the scientist of this period, mentioned earlier, on the Smolensk Charter of 1229 and on the Novgorod charters, determined the main direction of all subsequent activities of V. I. Borkovsky - historical syntax: "It is thanks to the consistent and persistent efforts of V. I. Borkovsky (...) this field of science, unpopular in the early 1940s among language historians, took an equal place in the historical grammar of the Russian language along with historical phonetics and morphology" (Morozova S.E. Viktor Ivanovich Borkovsky (1900-1982) / / Izvestiya AN SSSR. Literature and Language Series, vol. 42, No. 2, 1983, p. 189).

After the war, V. I. Borkovsky worked at the I. Franko Lviv State University, heading the Russian Language Department from 1946 to 1950, and the Lviv branch of the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, and also teaches Russian at the Lviv Pedagogical Institute. A grateful memory of the scientist was preserved in these places, and in 1990 a scientific conference was held in Lviv, where unknown facts of the biography of V. I. Borkovsky of the Lviv period were presented and, as I would like to mention, the Bibliographic Index on Russian and East Slavic Linguistics was published (Lviv, 1990) - the most complete list to date works of the scientist and literature about him.

Lviv really turned out to be the place where the scientist's scientific interests and creative search found a successful embodiment and were able to distract him in the most difficult time for him (in 1946, the 22-year - old son of V. I. and N. E. Borkovsky and the mother of Natalia Evfimievna, Sofia Nikolaevna Karskaya, died) at least to some extent with their favorite business. Just in time

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In Lviv, the circle of scientific problems that occupied the scientist for almost 50 years was finally determined. In 1948-1949, in the collection "Questions of Slavic Linguistics", two parts of his work "Syntax of Old Russian Letters" were published, which was immediately published as a separate book " Syntax of Old Russian Letters. A simple sentence " (1949). The research is based on the oldest and later monuments of ancient Russian writing (up to the XVI century inclusive), where the author formulates fundamental propositions that have a very distant historical perspective on the basis of comparisons and analysis of the syntactic structure of rare sources.

It was this area of linguistic research, as well as practical work with students, which allowed the scientist to polish theoretical postulates (in Lviv, he teaches the course "Historical Syntax of the Russian Language"), that became the basis for his further research, and this monograph, published in Lviv, was presented in 1950 at an open meeting of the Academic Council of the Institute of Language and Thinking Marr and the Leningrad Branch of the Russian Language Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences as a doctoral dissertation. According to the LSU Archive, the members of the Academic Council unanimously awarded V. I. Borkovsky the degree of Doctor of Philology.

Since the early 1950s, the scientist's scientific and social activities have been concentrated in Moscow, where he soon moved to work in academic institutes. Perhaps the most striking scientific achievement of V. I. Borkovsky at this time was the linguistic study of birch bark letters. The discovery of the most precious monuments of Russian history and culture was a sensation in the scientific world. They were thoroughly studied from the point of view of paleography, history, and language by A. V. Artsikhovsky, R. I. Avanesov, and V. I. Borkovsky. The first large collective monograph devoted to this issue was called "Paleographic and linguistic analysis of Novgorod birch bark letters" (Moscow, 1955). Later, in 1958-1963, an exemplary scientific publication of birch bark letters from excavations in Novgorod in 1953-1957 was published in 3 volumes by A. V. Artsikhovsky and V. I. Borkovsky.

In the same period, numerous articles about the language of birch bark letters appeared, which aroused great scientific interest. Terra incognita of Russian philology has also attracted the attention of foreign scientists, who are keenly interested in innovative research. Thus, a well-known English Slavist, Professor William Matthews of the University of London, wrote to V. I. Borkovsky on November 8, 1955: "The other day I received your preliminary letter, and then three copies of your compiled book" Paleographic and linguistic analysis of Novgorod birch bark letters " (Moscow, 1955). Thank you so much for the gift.

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I intend to write a review of your highly entertaining work..."(Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 175. L. 1).

I would especially like to mention V. I. Borkovsky as the editor of the works of Academician E. F. Karsky. Edited by V. I. Borkovsky, the major work of E. F. Karsky " Belarusians. The Language of the Belarusian People "(vol. 1, 1955; vol. 2-3, 1956)," Works on Belarusian and other Slavic languages "(1962) and" Slavic Cyrillic Paleography " (1979). Participation in this work, reconciliation of texts, corrections and additions, selection and commentary of scientific works-for the scientist, it was not only a matter of honor, duty and memory to the Teacher who once wrote to the very young V. I. Borkovsky on the gift of the 3rd volume of "Belarusians": "To V. I. Borkovsky from the author for the knowledge of his own of the people" (Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. chr. N 8. L. 2).

In the autumn of 1958, the IV International Congress of Slavists was held in Moscow. After a long and forced separation, scientists from many countries came to the capital and for the first time after a break of more than 30 years, they were able to openly discuss topical issues of the development of Slavic languages and literatures in a broad historical context. V. I. Borkovsky was deputy chairman of the Soviet Committee of Slavists and took an active part in the preparation of this forum: he was engaged in organizational issues, led In 1956, together with other Russian scientists, he received foreign Slavists who came to Moscow for a meeting of the International Committee of Slavists.

Just in those years when the Khrushchev thaw brought a breath of freedom to the exhausted body of Russian science, V.I. Borkovsky received numerous requests with requests to explain this or that word, help in consultations, etc. Especially warm and trusting relations were established between V. I. Borkovsky and a professor of Oxford, a man of a difficult fate, our compatriot Boris Unbegown. In June 1956, he turned to his Moscow colleague with an interesting question. In the letter, Unbegown reported the following:: "One of my colleagues here, who studies the Soviet Union specifically, asked me a linguistic question that I couldn't answer. (...) We are talking about the time when the word "partisanship" appeared. According to my English colleague, this word appeared only in the thirties. I was personally somewhat surprised by this, because I thought that this word was older, but I thought it more prudent to admit my ignorance and ask you to resolve this issue. (...) I will be very grateful to you for the reference" (Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 181. L. 2). The response of the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, compiled at the request of its director V. I. Borkovsky Dictionary Sector staff A.M. Babkin and

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Z. N. Kotelova. It turned out that B. Unbegaun's doubts were quite justified. So. According to the file collection of the Dictionary of Modern Russian, "the earliest uses of the word 'partisanship' date back to 1888 (letter from A. P. Chekhov to A. N. Pleshcheyev) and 1895 (letter from V. I. Surikov to P. F. and A. I. Surikov) " (Ibid., l. 3).

At the congress, V. I. Borkovsky made a report "The use of dialect data in works on the historical syntax of East Slavic languages" and took part in discussions on the reports of B. Gavranek (Czechoslovakia) and F. Leaver (GDR). In the personal fund of the scientist in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, there is evidence of fruitful scientific ties between V. I. Borkovsky and many of those Slavists who visited Moscow at that time. Close long-term cooperation connected him with A. Mazon and A. Vaillant (France), A. V. Isachenko (Czechoslovakia), Boris Unbegaun and W. Matthews (Great Britain), V. Doroshevsky and T. Ler - Splavinsky (Poland), G. Bilfeldt (GDR), R. Jagodich (Austria) and many others. Since the end of the 1950s, for twenty years V. I. Borkovsky was a regular participant in the congresses of Slavists, and his interest in comparative studies determined the further direction of the scientist's activity.

Since the early 1960s, V. I. Borkovsky has been interested in comparative historical studies of the syntax of East Slavic languages. The scientist organized and until the end of his life was the head of the eponymous sector at the Institute of the Russian Language of the USSR Academy of Sciences, developed the theoretical basis and methods for studying the syntax of closely related languages, under his leadership a file of monuments of various genres of East Slavic writing was created, interdisciplinary research was conducted, which brought together a young and talented team of like-minded people. The result of many years of work was the monograph " Comparative historical syntax of East Slavic languages "(vol. 1-4, 1968-1974), where two volumes belong to the pen of V. I. Borkovsky, and the rest were co-authored with the staff of his department.

V. I. Borkovsky, being already a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and later an academician, made his contribution to the development of education. In 1963, in collaboration with P. S. Kuznetsov, he published "Historical Grammar of the Russian Language" (2nd ed., supplemented, 1965), which turned out to be a very useful methodological guide in teaching and teaching not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders. Thus, a long-time colleague of V. I. Borkovsky, Professor B. Unbegownn, wrote to him from New York on February 6, 1966: "Dear Viktor Ivanovich, Thank you for the second edition of your and P. S. Kuznetsov's "Historical Grammar", which you so kindly sent me. It's nice to see the second edition coming out so soon after the first-proof of the book's undoubted success. I recommend it here to my students and teach gl[avn] obr[azom] on it myself" (Ibid., l. 10).

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Classes in historical grammar and later fascinated the scientist. In recent years, under his leadership, the Historical Grammar of the Russian Language was published. Syntax. A simple sentence" (1978), where the results of a large work on the study of the syntactic structure of monuments of the XI - XVII centuries, published in recent years, were shown. Among them: the Sinaitic Patericon. Izbornik 1076, Uspensky sbornik XII-XIII centuries., as well as a collection of manuscripts of Moscow business and everyday writing and Vesti-chimes 1630-1639. Based on the studied documents, the authors analyzed in detail the main directions of development of a simple sentence. In the pages of this work, we admit that we were not without joy to find a mention of the forgotten, "closed" and unpopular emigrant"anti-Soviet" P. M. Bicilli: one of his works was also not ignored by the authors of the book.

Published a year later, the book " Historical Grammar of the Russian language. Syntax. A complex sentence" (1979) continued the tradition of studying the monuments of ancient writing in the presented direction. The final monograph of this cycle ("Sentence Structure in the History of East Slavic Languages"), which develops the problem on a different, broader background, was published after the death of V. I. Borkovsky, in 1983, and is interesting because its authors were able to penetrate into the layers and genres of historical syntax that were (and still are) in the past.) on the periphery of linguistic research.

V. I. Borkovsky never focused on syntactic and grammatical studies in general, but was constantly in search of new directions and sources, sometimes unexpected, but probably interesting topics. His last book was published in 1981 and was called "Syntax of Fairy Tales: Russian-Belarusian Parallels" (according to our research, many equally interesting works of the scientist and rough sketches have not yet been published, and they could become an integral part of modern linguistics). Here is one of these testimonies: the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences has preserved the "Prospectus and project" Encyclopedia of Slavic Linguistics " compiled by V. I. Borkovsky in 1961, which outlined the main directions of research in the field of language culture of the Eastern, Western and Southern Slavs - something that finds such a vivid expression in the works of modern researchers (See Fig. Slavyanskie drevnosti: etnolinguisticheskii slovar ' v 5-ti tomakh [Slavic antiquities: an ethnolinguistic dictionary in 5 volumes]. Ed. by N. I. Tolstogo, vol. 1, Moscow, 1995; Stepanov Yu. S.Constants. Dictionary of Russian Culture. Research experience, Moscow, 1997; Collection: Eastern Slavs. Languages, history, and culture. To the 85th anniversary of Academician V. I. Borkovsky, Moscow, 1985).

V. I. Borkovsky held major administrative positions: in 1930-1950 he headed departments in higher education institutions of the country, in 1950-1954.

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He was Deputy Director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and in 1954-1960 - director of the same Institute. V. I. Borkovsky was editor-in-chief of the journal "Russian Speech" and led the linguistics part in other publications. The scientist was the first deputy chairman of the Soviet Committee of Slavists. In 1958, V. I. Borkovsky was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1972-an academician.

V. I. Borkovsky was a versatile person. The Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences has preserved poetic humorous sketches, which, apparently, were composed by him at endless meetings and were dedicated in most cases to his colleagues. Here is one of them:

For quiet souls, for violent laziness

Vitia came to the Department.

Here eloquence is not in the damage:

As they say, like "cicerone"!

But not to smoke the sky,

Is it not possible to immediately "uytit"?

In addition, Viktor Ivanovich was very musical, had a big and beautiful voice, was seriously engaged in singing all his life and participated in concerts. Already a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, he often performed at the House of Scientists with a permanent concertmaster. They say that once he sang together with I. Kozlovsky. V. I. Borkovsky was particularly good at performing Russian romances.

In his youth, Viktor Ivanovich received offers to work professionally in the theater. The scientist recalled how in the hungry post-war period, when there were once again products that could be bought with money, and not received on cards, he worked part-time as a concert activity [1] to improve the nutrition of his tuberculosis-stricken son and elderly mother-in-law, for which he and his wife denied themselves everything.

V. I. Borkovsky said that he inherited his southern temperament and musical abilities from his Moldovan mother. The future scientist began to work almost from childhood. This was preceded by one tragic event, which explains the reasons for such an early maturation of a very young boy. According to Viktor Ivanovich, his father, a man of strong build and remarkable health, was insured for a large amount of money. In 1905, when Victor was in his sixth year, he witnessed a terrible sight: a large fire broke out in a neighboring house. Shocked by what he saw, my father suddenly died. With the insurance paid, V. I. Borkovsky's older brothers were able to get an education and live a long time without deprivation. He also had to earn extra money in private lessons "already from the 6th grade" (See: Bibliographic index... p. 3).

In recent years, Viktor Ivanovich and Natalia Evfimievna often visited the sanatorium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR "Uzkoe", which was then already in Moscow.

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within the city limits of Moscow, in the area of the Warm Camp. One of V. I. Borkovsky's last letters to his student S. E. Morozova, dated July 18, 1980, is touching. It contains the following words: "The weather did not please us, but even now it is not very good, and in Narrow, as you know, it is damp.

The food is satisfactory, especially generously fed with cabbage ( ... ). The same soup is wittily given different names, including French, and this contributes to our linguistic horizons.

The next topic is mosquitoes (Mikhalkov wrote a play about ants, forgetting about mosquitoes).

I'm bitten, my skin is inflamed. Natalia Evfimievna suffers less from them. In the room on one and the other window (courtesy of the administration) iron mesh. But there is also a park. There is plenty of room for mosquitoes, especially since all the birds have disappeared, except for sparrows and crows. Neither repellent agents, nor allergy-treating tablets, ointments help" (2) (from the home archive of S.E. Morozova).

In October 1982, he is still working, answering letters from close friends, who probably were almost the only support in difficult moments. Nina Vladimirovna Alekseyeva, the widow of the famous literary critic from St. Petersburg, wrote to V. I. Borkovsky: "How do you feel, dear Viktor Ivanovich? Mikhail Pavlovich sincerely loved you, and you are also very dear to me. I always remember your sincere gentleness and attention. Try not to get sick and live long - there are so few good and honest people in the world" (Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. f. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 142. l. 4 vol. V. I. Borkovsky made a postscript: "Answered 30 / IX-82 g.").

Viktor Ivanovich Borkovsky died in Moscow on December 26, 1982.

The best monument to a scientist is his school, his students. One of the students, Professor Sofia Petrovna Lopushanskaya, created a memorial office of Viktor Ivanovich Borkovsky at Volgograd University, on the basis of which readings dedicated to the scientist are held annually.

The author sincerely thanks S. E. Morozova, a student of the V. I. Borkovsky Academy, for her great help in writing the essay.

In conclusion, we publish unknown fragments of the scientist's correspondence with Russian and foreign scientists, which in many ways complement the human and scientific appearance of V. I. Borkovsky. All letters are published for the first time with the author's spelling and punctuation preserved (in some cases, where coordination with modern standards is required, our inserts are placed in square brackets). For the convenience of reproducing emails, the date is given before the text. The author's selection of words and text fragments (underscores, etc.) is indicated in italics.

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V. V. Vinogradov to V. I. Borkovsky

[Sochi, Maly Akhun], 1. IX. 1952 Dear Viktor Ivanovich,

Thank you for your detailed email. I am very glad that you have brought the ashes of your relatives to Moscow. Despite the difficulties of character and so on, he is a respectable and necessary scholar, and it is inexcusable for him to mix personal and national values. B. A. Serebrennikov needs to pay special attention to the preparation of the collection "Questions of Lexicology". The Culture of Speech Sector requires lively, able-bodied and creative personnel. In addition, it would be good to rally around the Sector the active supporters of the purity of the Russian language. Here you need business and different "combinations"are undesirable. If you are preparing a work plan for the Academic Council, please send it to me. I will be in Maly Akhun until September 15. I decided not to go anywhere from here, as I was sent here the proofreading of the university course "Modern Russian" (3). Therefore, it is impossible to travel. And I spend the afternoon working all the way up to dinner. Before lunch-the sea and so on. I'll be in Moscow on the 18th (...)

Greetings to Natalia Efimovna. Write to us. Bow down to Bor [is] Alexandrovich].

Vash V. Vinogra[dov]

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 152. L. 1. Autograph.

S. P. Obnorsky to V. I. Borkovsky

[Moscow], October 3, 1952 Dear Viktor Ivanovich,

I just received your letter.

First , the table of contents (4). However, I always passed before these things. Let it be as it will be. Do you want a short one (mine?) title, if you want-more complete. I have no say in these matters.

Second , "highly respected" (*). I was wrong even now! Consider it a cold form for me and nothing else. Otherwise, I wouldn't be wrong now. After all, as you write, we have a long acquaintance in the past. In general, I was not indifferent to Evf [Imiy] Fyodorovich], Sofya[Olaevna], and the Karskys ' house in general. Should I tell you that when I was in Leningrad, I was always at the Smolensk cemetery on Sundays - at my mother's grave, close to it-Shakhmatova and Yevf [imiy] Fed[orovich]. I don't know what it was, but there was something very attractive about it. And now, when I'm in L [eningra] de, I'll definitely be there...

Therefore, do not pay attention to the "highly respected". This is for

* The letter opened with the phrase: "Dear Viktor Ivanovich!" In the autograph, the first word is crossed out, the top is written: "Dear".

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I just have a familiar form. And what's there to think about? I left the Institute altogether and retained a good memory only of V. I. Borkovsky. And I didn't hide it in conversations.

So don't think about these things, but just think about one thing: how to get the best rest possible.

I. B. Kuzmina stayed up for tea with me. She talked about her father, about the academy. Pryanishnikov (I was with him for a long time in Narrow), about you. About you said that you do not take care of yourself, etc. In fact, she told me what I knew, the best things about you. Take care of yourself! I, too, have never been seriously ill, and suddenly fuck...

Rest and relax, and don't think about anything else.

Hello to Nat [alya] Evf[imievna], who also forgot the hustle and bustle of the city, and let her come to her senses and set you up for one rest.

I myself am going to Kislovodsk - not to be treated, but just to have a rest.

Your S. Obnorsky

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 177. Ll. 1-1 vol. - 2-2 vol. An autograph.

S. P. Obnorsky to V. I. Borkovsky

[Moscow], 3. III. 1953

Dear Viktor Ivanovich,

I am writing to you on a domestic issue. I am a recent resident of Leningrad. There was a high-profile case. The daughter of some famous doctor (professor as if), a student, 18 years old, took a bath, and then, to speed up, she wanted to dry her hair with an electric device (You know it?), but it was unsuccessful or something. And this caused her instant death. I remembered that you use an electric razor. Be careful with it. There's nothing dangerous there at all. But I was told that all this happened from moisture, from the connection of something (in the device) with moisture. Therefore, just in case you use an electric razor, make sure that nothing is wet at the same time.

I wanted to let you know all about it.

Greetings to Natalia Yefimovna.

Your S. Obnorsky

In the same place. Ll. 7-7 vol. An autograph.

S. P. Obnorsky to V. I. Borkovsky

[Moscow], February 6, 1956 Dear Viktor Ivanovich,

Thank you very much for the copy of Karsky (5). All this is so important for Belarus. But, of course, also wider. Publications of this kind will generally increase our knowledge of the Russian language itself. There is so much factual information here that is also necessary for a Russian-language teacher.

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You have skillfully combined morphology, phonetics, and paleography, where E. F. Karsky was such a master. (...)

Please accept my warmest thanks. This is the best memory of Evfimiya Fyodorovich.

Nat[aliyah] I bow to Yefimovna. She must be pleased. Your edition is also a gift to her.

Your S. Obnorsky

In the same place. Ll. 16 -16 vol. An autograph.

W. K. Matthews - V. I. Borkovsky

November 8, 1955

Dear colleague,

The other day I received your preliminary letter, and then three copies of your compiled book " Paleographic and linguistic analysis of Novgorod birch bark letters "(Moscow, 1955). Thank you so much for the gift. I intend to write a review of your highly entertaining work and publish it in S. E. E. R. (6).

At your request, today I sent a copy of your book to Prof. S. A. Konovalov (4 Oriel Street, Oxford) and Prof. Elizabeth Hill (10 Croft Gardens, Barton Road, Cambridge). The latter is still in Belgrade, because this academic year she is on vacation.

By the way, in the near future we are expecting guests from the USSR, namely the Rector of Moscow University and Professor N. K. Gudzi.

With greetings and best wishes

Dear W. K. Matthews

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 175. Ll. 1-1 vol. An autograph.

W. K. Matthews - V. I. Borkovsky

February 21, 1956

Dear colleague,

The other day I received a package sent by you, in which I found an excellent edition of E. F. Karsky's book "Belarusians", along with a copy of" Reports and Communications of the Institute of Linguistics " and a print of your very interesting article (7). I express my deep gratitude for your attention and books.

The Belarusian part of my bibliography has now been expanded with capital work, which will give me the opportunity to seriously study this language in the future.

With best wishes and sincere respect

W.K. Matthews

Ibid., l. 2. Autograph.

page 63

V. Kiparsky to V. I. Borkovsky

Helsinki, June 8, 1956

Meritullinkatu 11 A 12

To Mr. Director of the Institute of Linguistics

Academy of Sciences of the USSR,

Prof. V. I. Borkovsky,

18/2 Volkhonka Street, Moscow

Dear colleague,

I am sending you my recently published article on "Russian Names of Steam Locomotives and Steamships" and the abstract of my report to the local Historical Society. I hope that your colleague Prof. B. Serebrennikov, who, as we have seen here, understands perfectly Finnish, will be able to translate the contents of the abstract for you. It has something new, among other things, an explanation of the name Igugmoro. You should also read Gugmoro, and the last o stands, as in many Novgorod documents of this era, instead of b. Gugmor is the Finnish Huhmar (in Karelian Humbar) "mortar", which is very often found in Finland and Karelia as a proper name and as a surname. Finnish h, as we know, was often reproduced in borrowed words (for example, girvas, garjus, gorma, galli, etc.) and in proper names (in the old transcription) like X. - Finnish a often corresponds to Russian O.

I very much hope that I will be able to receive further editions of the birch bark certificates, which may help us solve many of the complicated problems of Slavic-Finnish relations.

With heartfelt greetings, also from my wife, and from Professor Roman Jakobson, who visited us on the way back from Moscow and was absolutely delighted with you. In his words: "Borkovsky-shirt-guy".

Someone who respects you

V. Kiparsky

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 164. Ll. 1-1 vol.

Authorized typescript signed by V. Kiparsky.

J. Nemeth - V. I. Borkovsky

Budapest, July 18, 1956

Dear and highly respected colleague,

You probably have a lot of work to do, and so do I, and I didn't bother you with letters, but I still think that as a sign of friendship and gratitude, I should already write to you. It's been a year since I left Moscow, but not an insignificant part of my heart has remained there.

I don't think you've had any trouble getting your article printed. My technical editor, D. Fuchs, is a prominent scientist and

page 64

a thorough employee. Your article is very popular with all the Hungarian linguists I talked to about it.

I am very sorry that I did not have the privilege of visiting you this year and working for a few more months in your libraries. A person works according to their capabilities. In the fall, I will begin to process my work on Soviet Turkology. I'm in a difficult position. And the subvention of our Academy has decreased.

I will leave for Albania in mid-August. I have studied a lot of the Turkish dialects of the Balkan Peninsula, and Albania also forms a big gap for Turkologists. At the end of September, I will fly from Tirana to Sofia to take part in the Bulgarian-Hungarian "science week"9.

Sorry for my language mistakes. Big greetings to your spouse and Everyone, and I wish you all the best.

J. Nemeth Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. On. 1. Ed. hr. N 176. Ll. 2-2 vol. An autograph.

A. V. Isachenko - V. I. Borkovsky

Olomouc, January 2, 1957 Dear Viktor Ivanovich!

Thank you very much for your attention and for a wonderful gift. The second and third volumes of Belarusians came in handy. I don't know how to thank you enough. I'll have to wait until the second volume of my Slovak-Russian dictionary is published (I edit the proofs).

I hope you received an invitation from H [exo] sl [ovatskaya] Academy and that you will arrive in March-April. Acad. Gavranek promised to arrange everything according to your wishes.

We are here preparing for the Slavist conference in January. Roman Osipovich and many other Slavists, whom I have not seen for more than ten years, are due to arrive.

I would very much like to come to you, but only [not] for three days, as last time, but for a month or two. After all, it is quite difficult to work here without materials.

Please accept my most sincere wishes for the New Year!

Deeply respecting you

A. Isachenko

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 160. Ll. 1-1 vol.

Authorized typescript signed by A. V. Isachenko.

D. B. Kabalevsky to V. I. Borkovsky

20 Aug [usta] 1960 Dear Viktor Ivanovich,

Thank you for the memory, for the good example and for the poems. Most of all, I liked the "Road" by Iv. Ryadchenko. "Ruchey" and "Obelisk"

page 65

they seemed somewhat far-fetched. The idea is too simple in them to be put in such a "philosophical-poetic" form. Konysheva's poems "When on the Tower" seemed far-fetched to me. However, b[o] m [ozhet], this is only a first impression. Now I am very busy with all sorts of things that have befallen me after I finally settled in Moscow (after Oreanda, Masha and I stayed in Artek for a few days; then I flew from Moscow to Artek for the 35th anniversary of the camp for the second time; and then I also went to Riga, where I conducted two author's concerts). As soon as I've sorted out the most pressing matters, I'll take up these poems and try to "conjure" them - m[ozhet] b[ozhet] b [ozhet], something will work out.

I send you and Natalia Yefimovna my greetings and best wishes. I remember with pleasure, Viktor Ivanovich, how we played music together in Oreanda. It's just a pity that it's not enough.

Sincerely yours,

D. Kabalevsky

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 162. Ll. 1-1 vol. - 2. Autograph.

G. Jacobsson to V. I. Borkovsky

Gothenburg, October 7, 1965

To Professor V. I. Borkovsky

Russian Language Institute

Academy of Sciences of the USSR

Moscow G-19

Volkhonka, N 18/2.

Dear colleague,

I was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet you personally at the meeting of the International Committee of Slavists in Vienna, and I only regret that I did not have the opportunity to discuss with you some issues on which you, thanks to your outstanding competence, could have given me valuable advice.

For several years now, I have been concerned with the problem of adverbial participles in Slavic languages, and it is natural that I have found much in your research of Russian literates that has greatly helped me in this work.

Allow me to enclose a few prints of my work with this letter.

With a heartfelt greeting

(Gunnar Jacobson)

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 189. L 1.

Authorized typescript signed by G. Jacobson.

page 66

A. Gallis to V. I. Borkovsky

Oslo, 7.11.1966

Dear Professor V. I. Borkovsky,

Thank you very much for your and Kuznetsov's "Historical Grammar" (10), so kindly sent by you. I am very glad that I now own this excellent book myself, which is already doing me a lot of good.

After Moscow, I also spent a very good and interesting time in Leningrad and Vilnius. In Leningrad, I found a lot of material for my "unlimited dative case of direction". Like our Bulakhov, does he have some examples of this kind from Belarusian dialects for me? What's his address?

Warm greetings and best wishes to you and all your colleagues in and out of the Institute.

Your Arne Gallis

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 154. L. 1. Autograph.

W. Doroszewski to V. I. Borkowski

[Warsaw] 25.XII.1967

Dear and highly respected Viktor Ivanovich,

First, I congratulate you on your election to the German Academy of Sciences ( * ) and the award of an honorary doctorate (I received news of this only the other day, since I was not in Warsaw), and secondly, I send you and Natalia Efimovna (I often use a knife) from my wife and myself, the most heartfelt wishes for the New Year and the most heartfelt greetings.

Your V. Doroshevsky

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 157. L. 1. Autograph.

W. Doroszewski to V. I. Borkowski

[Warsaw] 23. CP. 1969

Dear Viktor Ivanovich and His Wife ( * * ), I send my heartfelt greetings and wish you a lot of happiness in the New Year.

Witold Doroszewski

Ibid., l. 3. Autograph.

* Here you "surpassed" me (I hope you don't resent this expression): degree of Honorary doctor of the Un [university] im. Gumb [oldt] I have (footnote by V. Doroshevsky. - O. I.).

** I was afraid to misinterpret my first and middle name, but I remembered: Natalia Yefimovna. Don't charge me, Natalya Yefimovna! Otherwise, I will consider it my duty to pierce myself with your knife, because of its size, I would have to repeat the needlework several times, and I do not have samurai endurance (footnote by V. Doroshevsky. - O. P.).

page 67

notes:

1 We found documentary evidence in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences: "Extract from the protocol of the Department for Arts Affairs under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on payment for the performance of the concert performer V. I. Borkovsky dated July 14, 1945 (f. 1781. Op. 1. Ed. hr. N 81).

2 V. I. Borkovsky was ill with lymphocytic leukemia, and many European scientists tried to help him, bringing new medicines from abroad.

3 Vinogradov V. V. Modern Russian language. Course of lectures, Moscow, 1952.

4 V. I. Borkovsky edited S. P. Obnorsky's monograph " Essays on the Morphology of the Russian Verb "(Moscow, 1953).

5 This refers to the reprint of E. F. Karsky's work " Belarusians. The Language of the Belarusian people "(Issue 1. Moscow, 1955; issue 2-3. Moscow, 1956).

6 A review of this work was published in The Slavonic and East European Review (vol. 35, No. 85, June 1957, pp. 608-610).

7 See: Borkovsky V. I. Soyuzy pri gomogodnykh chlenyakh v drevnerusskikh gramotakh [Unions with homogeneous members in Old Russian grammars]. Doklady i soobshchie Instituta yazykoznaniya AN SSSR, vol. 8. Moscow, 1955, pp. 42-68.

8 This refers to V. I. Borkovsky's article "Stand und Aufgaben der Erforschung des Russischen in der Sowjetunion". See: Acta Linguistica Academiae scientiarom hungaricae, t. VI, fasc. 1-3. Budapest, 1956, pp. 53-83.

9 See: Nemeth J. Zur Einteilung der tiirkischen Mundarten Bulgariens. Sofia, 1956 (Bulgarische Akad. Der Wissenschaften).

10 See: Borkovsky V. I., Kuznetsov P. S. Istoricheskaya grammatika russkogo yazyka [Historical Grammar of the Russian language]. 2nd ed. Moscow, 1965.

Introductory article, publication of letters and comments by O. V. Nikitin

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