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Petr BogatyrevSoviet folklorist, ethnographer, translator
Date of Birth: 28.01.1893
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Content:
- Pyotr Bogatyrev: Renowned Soviet Folklorist
- Diplomatic and Academic Career
- Academic Distinctions
- Suppression and Rehabilitation
- Research and Academic Legacy
- Notable Figures Associated with Bogatyrev
Pyotr Bogatyrev: Renowned Soviet Folklorist
Early Life and EducationPyotr G. Bogatyrev was born in 1893. In 1918, he completed his studies in history and philology at Moscow University.
Diplomatic and Academic Career
From 1922 to 1939, Bogatyrev served as a diplomat in Czechoslovakia. During this time, he also lectured at Bratislava University. Upon his return to the USSR in 1940, he became a professor at Moscow University and head of the Department of Folklore.
Academic Distinctions
Bogatyrev earned his doctorate in 1941 with a dissertation on Czech folk theater. In 1943, he became head of the Folklore Sector at the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He received honorary doctorates from Charles University in Prague and Ján Amos Komenský University in Bratislava.
Suppression and Rehabilitation
In the late 1940s, Bogatyrev faced persecution. He was dismissed from Moscow University and the Academy of Sciences. From 1952 to 1959, he taught at Voronezh State University. After his rehabilitation in the late 1950s, he became a researcher at the Institute of World Literature and, in 1964, resumed his professorship at Moscow University.
Research and Academic Legacy
Bogatyrev's research centered on народные обряды (folk rituals) and magic. He conducted expeditions to Zakarpattia, culminating in the publication of "Magic Actions, Rituals, and Beliefs of Zakarpattia" (1929). He also studied folk theater and compared Slavic folklore traditions.
Bogatyrev's prolific publications, spanning over 300 works, covered folk theater, folklore poetics, and semiotics. His influential textbook, "Russian Folk Poetic Creativity," remains a classic. He translated Jaroslav Hašek's "The Good Soldier Švejk" into Russian, becoming its first and renowned translation.
Notable Figures Associated with Bogatyrev
Bogatyrev's students included the renowned folklorist P. D. Ukhov (1914-1962). His son, Konstantin Bogatyrev, was a poet and translator.
