In Memory of the Teacher

Abstract

The article is devoted to the centenary of the birth of academician Nikita Ilyich Tolstoy (1923–1996), who played an important role in the formation and development of Slavic studies in the USSR and Russia. The authors of the article, who are his students and colleagues, offer two short essays in which they reveal the relevance of the ideas of their teacher and their place in modern Slavic studies. The first part of the publication lists the main areas of scientific interests of N.I. Tolstoy and talks about the importance of creating a new discipline, Slavic ethnolinguistics. The author focuses on the activities of the scholar in the field of Bulgarian studies, which in the post-war years of the 20th century is experiencing in the USSR and in Bulgaria the "Silver Age". The scholar's love for the living facts of language and culture is noted, the fundamental provisions developed by N.I. Tolstoy in dialectology and lexicology of the Bulgarian language are exposed. The second part of the anniversary publication is devoted to arealstudies and linguistic geography. The importance of theoretical and practical developments of N.I. Tolstoy, in particular the usage of the isoglosses and isodoxes for the study and analysis of Slavic cultural traditions and their vocabulary; a number of works of the scientist are characterized, demonstrating the fruitfulness of the areal approach to the exploration of the phenomena of traditional culture. Focusing on the works of colleagues who continue N.I. Tolstoy’s research direction, the author also offers some of her own observations in the field of lexical, onomastic and mythological parallels between Slavic traditions.