N. I. Ilminskiy’s contribution to translating the orthodox literature into the native languages of the peoples of the Volga region and the Urals

The paper considers the activities of the prominent scientist Nikolai Ivanovich Ilminskiy in the education of the non-Russian peoples of the Volga and Ural regions. The attention is focused on the description of the key aspects of his pedagogical work which influenced the spiritual and moral development of the Udmurt people. The paper reveals that N. I. Ilminskiy was engaged in various activities: establishing the network of educational institutions for the Udmurts, developing the training programs and textbooks, and participating in translating the Orthodox texts into the Udmurt language. A detailed account is given of his methodology for teaching literacy to non-Russian peoples. The methodology developed by N. I. Ilminskiy was innovative for his time. Based on psychological and mental aspects, the educational system introduced by N. I. Ilminskiy was a universal project to teach peoples living in the Volga and Ural regions, Siberia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The author substantiates the idea that N. I. Ilminskiy could achieve impressive results thanks to his linguistic intuition. Creating the Orthodox Missionary Brotherhood of Saint Guriy in Kazan stimulated a new stage in the development of school education, translation projects and liturgical practices in the languages of peoples living in Eastern European Russia and Siberia. The author analyzes N. I. Ilminskiy’s scholarly papers and reconstructs how he could translate some parts of the Bible into the Udmurt language. The paper also describes lexical, phonetical, graphical and orthographical features of the first Udmurt books which were written considering the scientific and methodological principles formulated by N. I. Ilminskiy. Hypotheses about neographisms used in those books are proposed. It was revealed that N. I. Ilminskiy’s translations of liturgical literature were directly related to sacred music and contributed to the enlightenment of peoples being Christianized. Moreover, N. I. Ilminskiy actively supported people who became key figures playing a crucial role in the enlightenment of the Udmurts.

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