Ahatanhel Yukhymovych Krymsky ( uk, Агатангел Юхимович Кримський, russian: Агафангел Ефимович Крымский; – 25 January 1942) was a Ukrainian
Orientalist, linguist, polyglot (knowing up to 35 languages), literary scholar, folklorist, writer, and translator. He was one of the founders of the
All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (VUAN) in 1918 and a full member of it and of the
Shevchenko Scientific Society
The Shevchenko Scientific Society () is a Ukrainian scientific society devoted to the promotion of scholarly research and publication that was founded in 1873.
Unlike the government-funded National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the society ...
from 1903.
Although Krymsky had no Ukrainian origin he described himself as "
Ukrainophile
Ukrainophilia is the love of or identification with Ukraine and Ukrainians; its opposite is Ukrainophobia. The term is used primarily in a political and cultural context. "Ukrainophilia" and "Ukrainophile" are the terms used to denote pro-Ukrainia ...
".
[
In 1941, he was arrested by the Soviet authorities as "Ukrainian nationalist," an "ideologist of Ukrainian nationalists," and a "head of nationalistic underground".][Ahatanhel Krymsky: 10 interesting facts of his life (Агатангел Крымский: 10 интересных фактов из жизни)]
Avdet. 24 June 2015 He was convicted in "Anti-Soviet nationalistic activities" and imprisoned in Kustanay General Prison No.7 (today near Kustanay, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
).[
]
Life and career
Krymsky was born in Volodymyr-Volynskyi
Volodymyr ( uk, Володи́мир, from 1944 to 2021 Volodymyr-Volynskyi ( uk, Володи́мир-Воли́нський)) is a small city located in Volyn Oblast, in north-western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Volodymyr R ...
to a Tatar father with Belarusian descent and an ethnic Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
mother.[Сходознавець Агатангел Кримський знав до сотні мов](_blank)
/ref> In 1915 in interview to the newspaper, Krymsky identified himself as a Crimean Tatar.Ahatanhel Krymsky considered himself a Crimean Tatar (Агатангел Крымский считал себя крымским татарином)
Crimean Tatars.[ His surname "Krymsky" ( uk, Кримський) means "Crimean," and was received by an ancestor in the 17th century who was a Crimean Tatar ]mullah
Mullah (; ) is an honorific title for Shia and Sunni Muslim clergy or a Muslim mosque leader. The term is also sometimes used for a person who has higher education in Islamic theology and sharia law.
The title has also been used in some Miz ...
from Bakhchysarai
Bakhchysarai ( crh, Bağçasaray, italic=yes; russian: Бахчисара́й; ua, Бахчисара́й; tr, Bahçesaray) is a town in Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Re ...
.[Енциклопедія історії України: Т. 5: Кон - Кю / Редкол.: В. А. Смолій (голова) та ін. НАН України. Інститут історії України. - К.: В-во «Наукова думка», 2008. - 568 с.: іл.]
/ref>[ He was baptized into ]Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first m ...
.[
His family moved soon to ]Zvenyhorodka
Zvenyhorodka ( uk, Звенигородка ; pl, Zwinogródka; russian: Звенигородка) is a city located in the Cherkasy Oblast (province) in central Ukraine on the Hnylyi Tikych river. The town is the administrative center of the Z ...
in Central Ukraine.
Krymsky graduated from Galagan College in Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
in 1889, from the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages
The Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, ( hy, Լազարևի արևելյան լեզուների ինստիտուտ) established in 1815, was a school specializing in orientalism, with a particular focus on that of Armenia, and was the princi ...
in Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
in 1891, and subsequently from Moscow University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
in 1896. After graduation, he worked in the Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
from 1896 to 1898, and subsequently returned to Moscow, where he became a lecturer at the Lazarev Institute, and, in 1900, a professor. Krymsky taught Arabic literature
Arabic literature ( ar, الأدب العربي / ALA-LC: ''al-Adab al-‘Arabī'') is the writing, both as prose and poetry, produced by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is '' Adab'', which is derived from ...
and Oriental history. In Moscow, he was active in the Ukrainian pro-independence movement and was a member of Moscow's Ukrainian Hromada
A hromada ( uk, територіальна громада, lit=territorial community, translit=terytorialna hromada) is a basic unit of administrative division in Ukraine, similar to a municipality. It was established by the Government of Ukra ...
.[Krymsky, Ahatanhel. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine](_blank)
/ref>
In July 1918, Krymsky returned to Kyiv and took part in the foundation of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; uk, Національна академія наук України, ''Natsional’na akademiya nauk Ukrayiny'', abbr: NAN Ukraine) is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine th ...
(VUAN). Eventually, he became the director of the academy. He edited 20 of the 25 volumes of ''Записки Історично-філологічного відділу'' ("Notes of the History and Philology Department") of the academy (1920–29) and was a professor at Kyiv University
Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...
, as well as vice-president of the Ukrainian Science Society
Ukrainian Scientific Society ( uk, Українське наукове товариство) was a learned society established in Kyiv in 1907. It was predecessor of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and later in 1921 it fully integrated ...
in Kyiv from 1918.
Activity
Krymsky was an expert in up to 34 languages; some sources report that he had at least an average knowledge of 56 languages.[Видатний орієнталіст України — Агатангел Кримський](_blank)
Krymsky contributed few hundred entries to the Brockhaus, Efron, and Granat Russian encyclopedias and wrote many other works on Arabic, Turkish, Turkic, Crimean Tatar, and Iranian history and literature, some of which were pioneering textbooks in Russian Oriental studies.
In particular he wrote, in Russian, histories of Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
(1904–12); of the Arabs, Turkey, Persia and their literatures, Dervish theosophy, and a study of the Semitic languages and peoples. In the 1920s and 1930s he also wrote in Ukrainian histories of Turkey and Persia and their literatures; monographs on Hafiz and his songs and on the Turkic peoples, their languages, and literatures; and edited a collection of articles on the Crimean Tatars. With O. Boholiubsky he wrote a study of Arab higher education and the Arabian Academy of Sciences. During the last years of his life he wrote a six-volume history of the Khazar
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
s, which was never published.
In Kyiv until 1931, under the leadership of Krymsky, the Turkological Commission at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; uk, Національна академія наук України, ''Natsional’na akademiya nauk Ukrayiny'', abbr: NAN Ukraine) is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine th ...
published "History of Turkey", "History of Turkey and its Literature", "Introduction to the History of Turkey", "Turks, their language and literature" and others.
Krymsky researched the history of the Ukrainian language
Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state langu ...
. As he was an opponent of Aleksei Sobolevsky's claim that the language of the ancient Kyivan Rus’
Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
was more Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, than Ukrainian, he wrote three polemical studies from 1904 to 1907 on this question, later his views on the language of the Kyivan Rus were summarized in ''Українська мова, звідкіля вона взялася і як розвивалася'' ("The Ukrainian Language: Whence It Came and How It Developed"). Krymsky researched Ukrainian dialects
In the Ukrainian language there are three major dialectal groups according to territory: ( uk, південно-західне наріччя, translit=pivdenno-zakhidne narichchia), ( uk, південно-східне наріччя, translit ...
and was actively involved in the work of standardizing the vocabulary and orthography of literary Ukrainian in the 1920s. In this activity he rejected the Galician orthographic tradition. He was the editor of the first two vols of the four-volume Russian-Ukrainian dictionary (1924–33) and of the Russian-Ukrainian dictionary of legal language (1926).
Krymsky wrote three books of lyrical poetry and some novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
s, and translated many Arabic and Persian literary works into Ukrainian, including The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam
Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū al-Fatḥ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Nīsābūrī (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131), commonly known as Omar Khayyam ( fa, عمر خیّام), was a polymath, known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, an ...
, One Thousand and One Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...
, and Hafez
Khwāje Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī ( fa, خواجه شمسالدین محمّد حافظ شیرازی), known by his pen name Hafez (, ''Ḥāfeẓ'', 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper'; 1325–1390) and as "Hafiz", ...
's songs. He also translated the poetry of European writers such as Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...
, Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
, Sappho
Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
, Friedrich Rückert
Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages.
Biography
Rückert was born in Schweinfurt and was the eldest son of a lawyer. He was educated at the local '' Gymnasium'' ...
. He published articles and reviews on Ukrainian writers, their works and on Ukrainian theater.
As an ethnographer, Krymsky was an adherent of migration theory. He translated into Ukrainian and annotated W.A. Clouston's ''Popular Tales and Fictions'' (1896) and also wrote many Orientalist works and articles about Ukrainian ethnographers.
Death
Although Krymsky survived the Great Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
of the 1930s, he was removed from scholarly and teaching activity for about 10 years. Since 1930, the works of Krymsky were banned and he was forbidden to publish his works. In 1939, he was rehabilitated, but in July 1941 after the German-Soviet war
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...
began, the NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
arrested him as "especially unreliable" on charges of "anti-Soviet nationalistic activities", and imprisoned him in Kostanay General Prison, where he died at the age of 71. Officially, Krymsky died from exhaustion in a prison hospital, but there is a version that he might have died due to cruel torture. His case was finally discontinued in 1957 and he was officially rehabilitated in 1960. Some manuscripts of his works are still unpublished.
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Гурницький, К. Кримський як історик (Київ, 1971)
* Скокан, К.; Деркач, Н.; Ісаєва, Н,; Мартиненко, Г. Агатангел Кримський: Бібліографічний покажчик (1889–1971) (Київ, 1972)
* Білодід, І. Агатангел Кримський — україніст та орієнталіст (Київ, 1974)
* Павличко, Соломея. Націоналізм, сексуальність, орієнталізм: Складний світ Агатангела Кримського (Київ, 2000)
* Babyshkin, O. Ahatanhel Kryms’kyi: Literaturnyi portret (Kiev 1967)
Krymsky's works in E-library "Chtyvo"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krymsky, Ahatanhel
1871 births
1942 deaths
People from Volodymyr-Volynskyi
People from Zvenyhorodka
People from Volhynian Governorate
Ukrainian people in the Russian Empire
Crimean Tatar people
People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent
Ukrainian people of Polish descent
Soviet people of Polish descent
Ukrainian poets
Ukrainian ethnographers
Ukrainianists
Linguists from Ukraine
Ukrainian orientalists
Russian orientalists
Semiticists
Iranologists
Ukrainian Arabists
Full Members of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Soviet people of Belarusian descent
Ukrainian people of Belarusian descent