Open AccessVasily Ilmenev “Explanatory Dictionary”
Author(s) -
Alla M. Gracheva
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
studia litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 2541-8564
pISSN - 2500-4247
DOI - 10.22455/2500-4247-2020-5-3-378-391
Subject(s) - denunciation , pseudonym , linguistics , explanatory model , value (mathematics) , attribution , politics , history , epistemology , psychology , philosophy , computer science , social psychology , theology , machine learning , political science , law
This publication introduces a hitherto unknown text by Alexey Remizov, previously not included in bibliographic references. Remizov’s “Explanatory Dictionary,” published under the pseudonym “Vasily Ilmenev” is a review of the first volume of the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language edited by D.N. Ushakov (Moscow, 1935). The attribution and analysis of the “Explanatory Dictionary” have allowed me to qualify it as a work with artistic value that may be thematically and stylistically included in a series of Remizov’s prose miniatures in the two volumes of Remizov’s book Russia in Letters. As his sources, Remizov used a number of dictionary articles that recorded and explained words that were relevant in the USSR before 1937 (“to brand,” “to slander,” “denunciation,” etc.). The inclusion of the miniature “Explanatory Dictionary” in the writer’s legacy better understanding of the writer’s attitude to the Stalin regime. It is an unusual work for Remizov as it openly expresses the author’s political views.