Pyotr Alexeyevich Bessonov or (in the pre-1917 spelling) Bezsonov (Пётр Алексе́евич Бессо́нов; 1828–1898) was a leading
Russian folklorist
Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...
who collected and published many East Slavic and South Slavic
folk song
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...
s.
The son of a priest, Bessonov was born in
Moscow. He graduated at
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 1851. After five years of graduate work in ancient and modern languages, he earned the government printing commission. From 1864 to 1867 he was
supervisor
A supervisor, or lead, (also known as foreman, boss, overseer, facilitator, monitor, area coordinator, line-manager or sometimes gaffer) is the job title of a lower-level management position that is primarily based on authority over workers or ...
of the
Vilna Museum and Public Library, besides serving as director of
education in the same city. For the two following years he was
librarian at Moscow University.
Having received an honorary doctor's diploma in Slavonic
philology from
Kazan University, he became
professor of Slavic languages at the
University of Kharkov in 1879, remaining in the position till his death. He published:
* ''Bolgarskiya Pyesni'' (1855), the first great collection of Bulgarian folk songs;
* a collection of Serbian folk songs, under the title ''Lazarica'' (1857);
*
Pyotr Kireevsky's collections of Russian songs (1861–71);
* a number of treatises on the Bulgarian, Serbian, and Russian languages and literatures.
References
*
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bezsonov, Pyotr
1828 births
1898 deaths
Writers from Moscow
People from Moskovsky Uyezd
Philologists from the Russian Empire
Folklorists from the Russian Empire
Librarians from the Russian Empire
Imperial Moscow University alumni
Academic staff of the National University of Kharkiv