The Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language (1929-1937) Edited by N.S. Derzhavin in the History of Russian Explanatory Lexicography

This summarizing article briefly covers the history of the little-known Dictionary of the Russian Language that was edited by N.S. Derzhavin and created in the USSR Academy of Science in 1929-1937, and states its role in the history, theory and practice of Russian explanatory lexicography. The aim of the article is to discuss the previously unexamined and insufficiently studied (because its creation was ceased due to political reasons in 1937) Dictionary of the Russian Language edited by N.S. Derzhavin, whose official history “dissolved” in the history of the late years of the Shakhmatov Dictionary’s existence. The article describes the place and role of Derzhavin’s Dictionary in the history of explanatory lexicography. Despite the fact that the Dictionary, as well as its precursor, the Shakhmatov Dictionary, was not completed, a certain range of lexicographic techniques and methods that had been applied to it later became traditional. An important fact is that the Dictionary became a laboratory for making preparations for the Dictionary of the Modern Russian Standard Language and an essential link between the Shakhmatov Dictionary and the latter. The article adopts a descriptive method. Based on the materials of the Dictionary, historical and linguistic primary and secondary sources, a brief pre-history and history of the Dictionary is described. The following parameters are analyzed in detail: (1) the methodological basis (creation and, for the first time in history of Russian lexicography, publication of instructions for working with the Dictionary and a set of policy papers), (2) the word-list and illustrations (lexis and quotations from newspapers of the 1930s caused it to become a unique source of genuinely rare language material); (3) the uncommonly deep semantic development of words (among the authors of the Dictionary in the 1930s were L.V. Scherba, S.I. Ozhegov and some other outstanding Russian linguists: their high professional level as well as the forerunning traditions of the Shakhmatov Dictionary enabled an especially thorough development of semantics in the Dictionary); (4) certain facts witnessing that the material of the Dictionary and the range of its lexicographic achievements were used in the Dictionary of the Modern Russian Standard Language. While the history of the Dictionary is covered to some extent in certain sources, the four parameters of the Dictionary that were mentioned above may be characterized as scientifically new. The conclusion at the end of the article is noteworthy for its scientific novelty. The main conclusion is that the academic explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language (1929-1937) edited by N. S. Derzhavin may confidently be regarded as an independent lexicographical project and may be characterized as an independent lexicographical publication that has made a significant contribution in the history, theory and practice of Russian lexicography.

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