Ahatanhel Krymsky
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Ahatanhel Yukhymovych Krymsky (, ,
romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...
: ''Agafangel Yefimovich Krymsky''; ; – 25 January 1942) was a Ukrainian Orientalist, linguist, polyglot (knowing up to 35 languages), literary scholar, folklorist, writer, and translator. He was one of the founders of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN) in 1918 and a full member of it and the Shevchenko Scientific Society from 1903. Although Krymsky was not ethnically Ukrainian, he described himself as a " Ukrainophile". In 1941, he was arrested by the Soviet authorities as "Ukrainian nationalist," an "ideologist of Ukrainian nationalists", and a "head of nationalistic underground".Ahatanhel Krymsky: 10 interesting facts of his life (Агатангел Крымский: 10 интересных фактов из жизни)
Avdet. 24 June 2015
He was convicted in "Anti-Soviet nationalistic activities" and imprisoned in Kustanay General Prison No.7 (today near Kostanay,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
).


Life and career

Krymsky was born in
Volodymyr-Volynskyi Volodymyr (, ), previously known as Volodymyr-Volynskyi () from 1944 to 2021, is a small city in Volyn Oblast, northwestern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre of Volodymyr Raion and the center of Volodymyr urban hromada. It is one ...
to a Tatar father with Belarusian descent and an ethnic Polish mother.Сходознавець Агатангел Кримський знав до сотні мов
/ref> In 1915 in interview to the Terciman newspaper, Krymsky identified himself as a Crimean Tatar. His surname "Krymsky" ( / Krymski, ) means "Crimean," and was received by an ancestor in the 17th century who was a Crimean Tatar
mullah Mullah () is an honorific title for Islam, Muslim clergy and mosque Imam, leaders. The term is widely used in Iran and Afghanistan and is also used for a person who has higher education in Islamic theology and Sharia, sharia law. The title h ...
from Bakhchysarai.Енциклопедія історії України: Т. 5: Кон - Кю / Редкол.: В. А. Смолій (голова) та ін. НАН України. Інститут історії України. - К.: В-во «Наукова думка», 2008. - 568 с.: іл.
/ref> He was baptized into
Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
. His family moved soon to
Zvenyhorodka Zvenyhorodka (, ) is a city in Cherkasy Oblast, central Ukraine, situated on the Hnylyi Tikych River. The town is the administrative center of Zvenyhorodka Raion. It hosts the administration of Zvenyhorodka urban hromada, one of the hromadas ...
in Central Ukraine. Krymsky graduated from Galagan College in
Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
in 1889, from the
Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages The Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, () established in 1815, was a school specializing in orientalism, with a particular focus on that of Armenia, and was the principal cultural center of the Armenian diaspora in Moscow, Russia. Many Russi ...
in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
in 1891, and subsequently from
Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...
in 1896. After graduation, he worked in the
Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
from 1896 to 1898, and subsequently returned to Moscow, where he became a lecturer at the Lazarev Institute, and, in 1900, a professor. Krymsky taught
Arabic literature Arabic literature ( / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is ''Adab (Islam), Adab'', which comes from a meaning of etiquett ...
and Oriental history. In Moscow, he was active in the Ukrainian pro-independence movement and was a member of Moscow's Ukrainian
Hromada In Ukraine, a hromada () is the main type of municipality and the third level Administrative divisions of Ukraine, local self-government in Ukraine. The current hromadas were established by the Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, Government of Uk ...
.Krymsky, Ahatanhel. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine
/ref> In July 1918, Krymsky returned to Kyiv and took part in the foundation of the
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; , ; ''NAN Ukrainy'') is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine that is the main center of development of Science and technology in Ukraine, science and technology by coordinatin ...
(VUAN) and its library and served as the first VUAN permanent secretary and de facto director until the Soviet government brought about his defeat in the VUAN elections of 1929. Eventually, he became the director of the academy. He edited 20 of the 25 volumes of ''Записки Історично-філологічного відділу'' ("Notes of the History and Philology Department") of the academy (1920–29) and was a professor at Kyiv University, as well as vice-president of the Ukrainian Science Society in Kyiv from 1918.


Activity

Krymsky was an expert in up to 34 languages; some sources report that he had at least an average knowledge of 56 languages.Видатний орієнталіст України — Агатангел Кримський
Krymsky contributed few hundred entries to the Brockhaus, Efron, and Granat Russian encyclopedias and wrote many other works on Arabic, Turkish, Turkic, Crimean Tatar, and Iranian history and literature, some of which were pioneering textbooks in Russian Oriental studies. In particular he wrote, in Russian, histories of
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
(1904–12); of the Arabs, Turkey, Persia and their literatures, Dervish theosophy, and a study of the Semitic languages and peoples. In the 1920s and 1930s he also wrote in Ukrainian histories of Turkey and Persia and their literatures; monographs on Hafiz and his songs and on the Turkic peoples, their languages, and literatures; and edited a collection of articles on the Crimean Tatars. With O. Boholiubsky he wrote a study of Arab higher education and the Arabian Academy of Sciences. During the last years of his life he wrote a six-volume history of the
Khazar The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, an ...
s, which was never published. In Kyiv until 1931, under the leadership of Krymsky, the Turkological Commission at the
Ukrainian Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; , ; ''NAN Ukrainy'') is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine that is the main center of development of Science and technology in Ukraine, science and technology by coordinatin ...
published "History of Turkey", "History of Turkey and its Literature", "Introduction to the History of Turkey", "Turks, their language and literature" and others. Krymsky researched the history of the
Ukrainian language Ukrainian (, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Ukraine. It is the first language, first (native) language of a large majority of Ukrainians. Written Ukrainian uses the Ukrainian alphabet, a variant of t ...
. As he was an opponent of Aleksei Sobolevsky's claim that the language of the ancient Kyivan Rus’ was more
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
, than Ukrainian, he wrote three polemical studies from 1904 to 1907 on this question, later his views on the language of the Kyivan Rus were summarized in ''Українська мова, звідкіля вона взялася і як розвивалася'' ("The Ukrainian Language: Whence It Came and How It Developed"). Krymsky researched
Ukrainian dialects In the Ukrainian language there are three major dialectal groups according to territory: the Southwestern Ukrainian dialects, southwestern group (), the Southeastern Ukrainian dialects, southeastern group () and the Northern Ukrainian dialects, ...
and was actively involved in the work of standardizing the vocabulary and orthography of literary Ukrainian in the 1920s. In this activity he rejected the Galician orthographic tradition. He was the editor of the first two vols of the four-volume Russian-Ukrainian dictionary (1924–33) and of the Russian-Ukrainian dictionary of legal language (1926). Krymsky wrote three books of lyrical poetry and some
novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...
s, and translated many Arabic and Persian literary works into Ukrainian, including The Rubáiyát of
Omar Khayyam Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīshābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131) (Persian language, Persian: غیاث الدین ابوالفتح عمر بن ابراهیم خیام نیشابورﻯ), commonly known as Omar ...
,
One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...
, and
Hafez (), known by his pen name Hafez ( or 'the keeper'; 1325–1390) or Hafiz, “Ḥāfeẓ” designates someoone who has learned the Qurʾān by heart" also known by his nickname Lisan al-Ghaib ('the tongue of the unseen'), was a Persian lyri ...
's songs. He also translated the poetry of European writers such as
Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...
,
Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...
,
Sappho Sappho (; ''Sapphṓ'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; ) was an Ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sapph ...
,
Friedrich Rückert Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translation, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. Biography Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert was born 16 May 1788 in Schweinfurt and was the e ...
. He published articles and reviews on Ukrainian writers, their works and on Ukrainian theater. As an ethnographer, Krymsky was an adherent of migration theory. He translated into Ukrainian and annotated W.A. Clouston's ''Popular Tales and Fictions'' (1896) and also wrote many Orientalist works and articles about Ukrainian ethnographers.


Death

Although Krymsky survived the
Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
of the 1930s, he was removed from scholarly and teaching activity for about 10 years. Since 1930, the works of Krymsky were banned and he was forbidden to publish his works. In 1939, he was rehabilitated, but in July 1941 after the
German-Soviet war The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...
began, the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
arrested him as "especially unreliable" on charges of "anti-Soviet nationalistic activities", and imprisoned him in Kostanay General Prison, where he died at the age of 71. Officially, Krymsky died from exhaustion in a prison hospital, but there is a version that he might have died due to cruel torture. His case was finally discontinued in 1957 and he was officially rehabilitated in 1960. Some manuscripts of his works are still unpublished.


Bibliography

* Гурницький, К. Кримський як історик (Київ, 1971) * Скокан, К.; Деркач, Н.; Ісаєва, Н.; Мартиненко, Г. Агатангел Кримський: Бібліографічний покажчик (1889–1971) (Київ, 1972) * Білодід, І. Агатангел Кримський — україніст та орієнталіст (Київ, 1974) * Павличко, С. Націоналізм, сексуальність, орієнталізм: Складний світ Агатангела Кримського (Київ, 2000) * Бабишкін, О. Агатангел Кримський: літературний портрет (Київ, 1967) * Епістолярна спадщина А. Кримського К., 2005. – Т. І (1890-1917). 500 с. * Епістолярна спадщина А. Кримського К., 2006. – Т. ІІ (1918-1941), 359 с. * Кримський А. Ю. Енциклопедична сходознавча спадщина К.: Інститут сходознавства ім. А. Ю. Кримського НАН України, 2018. – 588 с. * Агатангел Кримський. Нариси життя і творчості Київ: Інститут сходознавства ім. А. Кримського НАН України; Відп. ред.: Василюк О. Д. та ін. – К.: идавничий дім „Стилос” 2006. – 564 с.: іл. * Кримський А. Ю. «Історія хазар» К.: Інститут сходознавства ім. А. Ю. Кримського НАН України, 2018. – 216 с. * А.Ю. Кримський. Бібліографічний покажчик/ Київ: Інститут сходознавства ім. А. Ю. Кримського НАН України 2016. – 276 с. * Кримський А.Ю. Вибрані сходознавчі праці в п’яти томах. Т. I. Арабістика. К.: Стилос, 2007. – 432 с. * Кримський А. Ю. Вибрані сходознавчі праці в п’яти томах. Т. II. Тюркологія. К.: Стилос, 2007. – 528 с. * Кримський А. Ю. Вибрані сходознавчі праці в п’яти томах. Т. ІІІ. Тюркологія. К.: Стилос, 2010. – 416 с. * Кримський А. Ю. Вибрані сходознавчі праці в п’яти томах. Т. IV. Іраністика. К.: Стилос, 2008. – 388 с. * Кримський А. Ю. Вибрані сходознавчі праці в п’яти томах. Т. V. Іраністика. З неопублікованих та малодоступних творів А. Кримського”.  К.: Стилос, 2010. – 428 с. * Огнєва О. Д. Агатангел Кримський: учитель та учні. Одеса : Астропринт, 2019. - 32, с.
Krymsky's works in E-library "Chtyvo"


References

Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Krymsky, Ahatanhel 1871 births 1942 deaths People from Volodymyr-Volynskyi People from Zvenyhorodka People from Volhynian Governorate People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent Full Members of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire Crimean Tatar people Ukrainian people of Belarusian descent Ukrainian people of Polish descent Soviet people of Polish descent Ukrainian ethnographers Ukrainianists Linguists from Ukraine Ukrainian male poets Ukrainian orientalists Orientalists from the Russian Empire Semiticists Iranologists Ukrainian Arabists Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Linguists of Ukrainian Executed Renaissance Ukrainian translators Ukrainian Gulag detainees Arabic–Russian translators