«The Best Years of Life». The Childhood and Youth of Vladimir Dahl in the Focus of Historical Research

Abstract

The article, based on a wide range of archival and published sources, examines the early years of the famous lexicographer, writer, ethnographer and official V.I. Dahl. This period is of particular importance for understanding the origins of the formation of the characteristics of his personality and worldview, which he carried throughout his life. The training of V.I. Dahl in the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg (1815-1819) is analyzed not only from the point of view of the content of the educational process, but also in the context of relationships with peers and teachers. These factors seem to have had a significant impact on the formation of character and socio-psychological attitudes inherent in V.I. Dahl in subsequent years. It is in the circumstances of childhood and youth that one should look for the roots of various turns of fate and career of V.I. Dahl, as well as some difficult situations that sometimes developed between him and his contemporaries. A number of aspects of the biography of the lexicographer and his immediate relatives have been studied for the first time.