Nikolai Ivanovich Il'minskii (; 1822–1892) was a

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 ...

professor of

Turkic languages The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...

at the Kazan University. He is known as the "Enlightener of Natives", due to his work with native

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

on behalf of the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

. Following a highly successful career as an academic linguist, he devoted himself to missionary work on behalf of the

. Based around his view that

mother tongue A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

instruction was the key factor in ensuring that animists, he developed the Ilminsky Method. In 1863, Ilminsky started teaching Oriental languages at the Kazan Theological Seminary, working on teaching materials for Tatars in the

Tatar language Tatar ( ; or ) is a Turkic languages, Turkic language spoken by the Volga Tatars mainly located in modern Tatarstan (European Russia), as well as Siberia. It should not be confused with Crimean Tatar language, Crimean Tatar or Siberian Tatar ...

. It was there that Iliminsky deployed his idea of mother tongue instruction with the Ilminsky method. After this he helped co-found the translation commission under the brotherhood of St. Gurias. Which by 1904, produced works in 23 different languages. Ilminsky is also described by Nicholas Zernov as being a major contributor to translations of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

to many Asiatic languages. Nicholas also comments that Ilmisky could speak Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Tatar, Cheremis, Chuvash, Kirgiz, Mordvin, Yakut and more Asiatic languages. He worked closely with the educator Ilya Ulyanov and his model of education, described as "national in form, Orthodox in content" can be considered an influence on Ulyanov's son

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

who developed an approach which was described as "national in form, socialist in content".

References

External links

Профессор Н.И.Егоров. Выступление на чувашском языке (Круглый стол, посвященный к 195-летию со дня рождения Н.И. Ильминского, 120-летию Н.Н. Поппе и 145-летию К.П. Прокопьева). Чăвашла.

* ttps://chuvash.org/content/3103-Сумбур%20вместо%20гармонии.html Agabazar: Сумбур вместо гармонии 1822 births 1891 deaths Russian orientalists Linguists of Turkic languages Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class Burials at Arskoe Cemetery {{russia-linguist-stub