Dmitry Konstantinovich Zelenin (; November 2, 1878 – August 31, 1954) was a Russian and Soviet

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

. He was born in an Udmurt village near

Sarapul Sarapul ( Udmurt and ) is a city and a river port in the Udmurt Republic, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kama River, southeast of Izhevsk, the capital of the republic. Population: History Sarapul is one of the oldest cities of the Ka ...

, where his father was a parish clerk. He attended the Vyatka seminary and the

Dorpat University The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

. As of 1915, he read lectures on Slavic dialects at the Petrograd University. He argued that the

East Slavs The East Slavs are the most populous subgroup of the Slavs. They speak the East Slavic languages, and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state Kievan Rus', which they claim as their cultural ancestor.John Channon & Robert Huds ...

comprise four distinct branches (North Russians, South Russians,

Little Russians Little Russia, also known as Lesser Russia, Malorussia, or Little Rus', is a geographical and historical term used to describe Ukraine. At the beginning of the 14th century, the patriarch of Constantinople accepted the distinction between what ...

and White Russians) and outlined some subtle differences between East Slavic dialects. In the early 20th century, Zelenin collected

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

s and

chastushka Chastushka ( rus, частушка, , tɕɪsˈtuʂkə, plural: chastushki) is a traditional type of short Russian humorous folk song with high beat frequency, that consists of one four-lined couplet, full of humor, satire or irony. It may be descr ...

s in his native region and the Northern Urals. This collection of folk tales was extensively used by his disciple

Vladimir Propp Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (; – 22 August 1970) was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible structural units. Biography Vladimir Propp was ...

. He was also the first to explore the concept of " unclean dead" in the Slavic folklore. In 1927,

Max Vasmer Max Julius Friedrich Vasmer (; ; 28 February 1886 – 30 November 1962) was a Russian and German linguist. He studied problems of etymology in Indo-European, Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages and worked on the history of Slavic, Baltic, ...

published Zelenin's magnum opus, ''Russische (Ostslavische) Volkskunde''. It was "the most comprehensive survey of research works and data on East Slavic folk culture" available at the time. Between 1916 and 1925 Zelenin lived in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, teaching at the local university and helping to set up the Museum of the Sloboda Ukraine. In 1925 he joined the staff of the

Leningrad University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public university, public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the uni ...

and the Kunstkammer Museum. In the late 1920s and 1930s Zelenin developed an interest in

Turkology Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and the Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative c ...

. Every summer he would roam the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

and Kazakh steppes, collecting materials for his work. In 1936 he managed to publish a pioneering study of Siberian

shamanism Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

("The Cult of

Ongon Ongon (Mongolian; plural ongod) is a type of spirit in the shamanistic belief system of Mongolia. It is a common term in Mongol mythology. After death, all shamans become shamanic souls, ongod. Idols can be consecrated to them within three years ...

s in Siberia"). Zelenin led the European Brigade of the

Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography The Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography or N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (; abbreviated as ИЭА in Russian and IEA in English) is a Russian institute of research, specializing in ethnographic studies of cultu ...

, which was formed in 1938 to formulate the list of nationalities to be officially recognized by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Despite his adoption of Marr's theories, Zelenin was attacked by Soviet Marxist ethnologists as a Russian nationalist and racist "in disguise", which made the publication of his new works impossible. His later works are thought to be lost. In November 2004 the Anthropology Forum of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

honored Zelenin with some readings dedicated to him.

Publications

* , Moscow, 1901. (''The international language of science and cultural relations'') * , Berlin und Leipzig, de Gruyter, 1927. * , Leningrad, 1934. (''Property Restrictions as Survivals of Primitive Communism'') * , Moscow, 1936. (''The Cult of Ongons in Siberia'') ** French translation: , Paris : Payot, 1952.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zelenin, Dmitrii 1878 births 1954 deaths People from Sarapulsky Uyezd People from Udmurtia Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Ethnographers from the Russian Empire Linguists from the Russian Empire Researchers of Slavic religion Slavists Soviet ethnographers Soviet ethnologists Soviet folklorists