G.F. MILLER — ACADEMICIAN, EDITOR, RESEARCHER OF CULTURE OF CHUVASH PEOPLE

Anatoliy P. Danilov¹, Andrey A. Danilov², Margarita G. Danilova³ Valeriy P. Komissarov⁴, Amin M. Eshkerat⁵, Elvira V. Chueva⁶ *

¹Head of Chair, Chuvash State University, RUSSIA, anatoliy.p.danilov@gmail.com
²Prof. Dr., Chuvash State University, RUSSIA, danilov.andrey@mail.ru
³Assoc. Prof., Chuvash State University, RUSSIA, danilova1956@gmail.com
⁴Assoc. Prof., Chuvash State University, RUSSIA, valerijkomissarov134@gmail.com
⁵Assoc. Prof., Chuvash State University, RUSSIA, eshkeratamin@gmail.com
⁶Assoc. Prof., Chuvash State University, RUSSIA, 570065@mail.ru
*Corresponding Author

Abstract

Article examines the activity of the editor, the researcher of the Chuvash culture, academician G.F.Miller, the member of the Great Northern Expedition. The year 2020 will be the anniversary year, as it will mark the 225th anniversary of G.F. Miller's birthday. The aim of the study is to analyze the creative development of G.F. Miller, academician, editor, famous researcher of culture of the Chuvash people. It is noted in the article that G.F. Miller was the editor-composer of the renovated St. Petersburg Vedomosti newspaper published by the academy; he selected materials, translated news from the foreign press, proofread, and supervised the publication of issues. Miller also edited Primechaniya (Notes) to St. Petersburg Vedomosti. Miller was the editor of the first Russian popular science journal of the Academy of Sciences. The monthly journal was a great success among readers. Essays by Miller, works on the history, geography, and ethnography of Russia were published in it. Miller studied the ethnography of the Chuvash people during the Great Northern Expedition. Getting acquainted with life of different peoples of Russia, Miller wrote down examples of their languages, made up dictionaries. G.F. Miller left a lot of ethnological works. In Kazan, Miller got acquainted with V.G. Putsek-Grigorovich, who worked as a teacher of the seminary at Zilanovsky monastery at that time. It played an important role in the career of Putsek-Grigorovich. He began work on "Essays belonging to the grammar of the Chuvash language", which was destined to go down in history as the first national grammar of the Chuvash language. With Miller's help, he published his work in the printing house of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. With this work, the Chuvash language was presented to the scientific world for the first time. For a long time it remained the main and only source of information about the Chuvash language. The authors conclude that the facts on ethnography of the Chuvash people, obtained by the members of the First Academic Expedition, are fragmentary, and yet they are of great value for the modern science, as they have brought unique information to us. All of Miller’s material was used by the following foreign and Russian researchers of the Chuvash culture. G.F. Miller's researches are of great scientific and historiographic interest nowadays for comparative study of history, material, and spiritual culture of peoples inhabiting the Volga region. The reported study was funded by RFBR and Chuvash Republic according to the research project № 19-412-210003.

Keywords: Ethnic journalism, Chuvashia, Culture, History.