The Autobiography of Countess Sophie Tolstoi/Appendix I
APPENDIX I
semen afanasevich vengerov
S. A. Vengerov was born April 5, 1855, and died September 14, 1920. On leaving his public school in 1872, he entered the Academy of Medicine and Surgery in Petersburg and took the general course in natural science. He then changed to the Faculty of Law in the Petersburg University and graduated in 1879. A year later he graduated in the Historical and Philological Faculty in the Derpl University, after which he remained at the Petersburg University in order to prepare for the professorship of Russian Literature. In 1897 he began a course of lectures on the history of Russian literature at the Petersburg University, but was soon dismissed by the Minister of Education because of his liberal views. It was only in 1906 that Vengerov was again allowed to lecture in the University, and in 1910 he was made professor of the University for Women and of the Institute of Psychoneurology. At last, in 1919, he was appointed Professor of Russian Literature in the Petrograd University. In addition to his lectures, after 1908 he conducted in the University a special Pushkin school, and the work of this school was published in three volumes, The Pushkinist, 1914, 1916, and 1918. After the Revolution, when the Book Chamber was established, Vengerov was appointed Director and managed the institution, under very unfavourable conditions, until his death.
"I can only remember three days in my whole life when I felt at leisure," Vengerov used to say. The intense industriousness of his life may be seen from the following incomplete list of his works:—
Critico-Biographical Dictionary of Russian Authors and Men of Letters, six volumes, 1889-1904. These six volumes complete the first letter of the alphabet, most of the articles being written by Vengerov.
Russian Poetry, seven volumes, 1893-1901.
Thirty volumes of Russian authors, edited with notes about the writers.
The Sources of the Dictionary of Russian Authors, four volumes, 1900-17.
Library of Great Writers, edited by Vengerov and containing the complete works of Shakespeare, Byron, Molière, and Pushkin.
Outlines of the History of Russian Literature, 1907.
Russian Literature of the 20th Century, 1890-1910.
The Heroic Character of Russian Literature.It will be seen from the above list that Vengerov devoted the whole of his life to Russian literature. As a writer and man of letters, he achieved considerable popularity.