Traditionally, on June 6 — Pushkin Day — Russian Language Day is also celebrated. The connection is not accidental — Alexander Sergeyevich is considered the creator of the modern Russian literary language. By the way, the holiday has international status, since there are 250 million speakers of our native tongue worldwide. Today there are thousands of manuals, textbooks, reference books, and dictionaries intended to help people express their thoughts correctly and preserve the purity of the language.
The collection of the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda museum-reserve also includes two curious editions. One of them, published in 1922, is the "Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Bibliographic Institute, Bros. A. and I. Granat & Co." Moreover, the title page notes that this is the "seventh, completely revised edition." "I have in my hands the sixth volume 'Biometrika — Bruan'. It is 167 leaves of black printed text and 2 leaves with black-and-white illustrations, in a thin gray cover. On the front is an image of a person gathering flowers and fruits. Some pages are even uncut, meaning the book was used little, only occasionally. Although before (especially in times of information scarcity) encyclopedic dictionaries were also read 'from cover to cover', gaining diverse knowledge. In addition to reference entries on countries, cities, historical facts and drawings showing bolt constructions, in this volume you can learn that 'Bo-mondъ — высшiй свѢтъ' (Bo-mond — high society), and 'Bon mot — (Fr. "bon mot") a winged word, a witticism'," comments Elena Zhestkova, curator of collections at the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda museum-reserve.
By the way, nowadays a person overly absorbed in studying is sometimes called a "botan" (nerd). In this dictionary we even find an explanation of that word: "Botanъ, yarn made from English long wool...".
We open the next museum rarity from 1937 — the orthographic dictionary by D. N. Ushakov. Schoolchildren make active use of such books, and this one was published "for primary, incomplete and secondary schools." It was approved by the People's Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR, thanks to which a "unification of contradictory spellings, quite numerous in our orthography" was worked out. At the beginning there is a preface signed by Dmitry Nikolaevich Ushakov himself, in which he explains the method by which the dictionary was compiled. By the way, the owner is known. He was a local resident, Aleksey Zhizhimontov, one of the first Komsomol members who went off to war. He was awarded the Orders of the Patriotic War, 1st and 2nd class, and the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad." In 1943, at the age of 20, Aleksey died near the village of Staroe Dnepropetrovskoye while liberating Ukraine. In this context it is especially touching, when leafing through the pages, to see his ink notes "for business" or lyrical in nature, which reveal the dreams of the young man (the author's style is preserved): "You sail, our boat, sail; my heart longs for a tender song and a good, great love." The last two words are crossed out, possibly because at that time he had just suffered a disappointment in love. It is very sad that this boy's life became heroic yet so short: from the school bench to the front! Still, thanks to a simple dictionary, even across decades we "see" its owner, who, like us, delved into the rules and difficulties of Russian pronunciation and spelling.
Press Service of the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda Museum-Reserve
