Alexander Afanasyev-Chuzhbinsky

Alexander Stepanovich Afanasyev (Russian: Александр Степанович Афанасьев, 12 March 1817 – 18 September 1875) was a Russian and Ukrainian poet, writer, editor, ethnographer and translator (from Polish and English). In 1853 he started using the pseudonym Чужбинский (Chuzhbinsky) and has been known mostly as Afanasyev-Chuzhbinsky since.[1]

Alexander Afanasyev-Chuzhbinsky
Born
Александр Степанович Афанасьев

(1817-03-12)12 March 1817
Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire
Died18 September 1876(1876-09-18) (aged 60)
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Occupationpoet • writer • editor • ethnographer • translator

Afanasyev was born in village Iskovtsy, Lubensky region, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire, now Ukraine. He made his debut as a published poet in 1837 ("The Ring", Кольцо, Sovremennik); his first Ukrainian poem came out in 1841 (Saint Petersburg almanac Ластівка, Swallow). His Ukrainian poems were collected in From My Heart (Що було на серці) and published in 1855.[1]

Afanasyev-Chuzhbinsky's two-volume ethnographic work, A Journey to the Southern Russia (Поездка в Южную Россию, Saint Petersburg, 1861) came as a result of his 1856 journey to Pridneprovye (Dnieper River region) which he made as part of an ambitious Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich-inspired ethnographical campaign which involved several major Russian authors, including Alexander Ostrovsky and Alexey Pisemsky.[1]

He took part in compiling the Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language (Словарь малорусского наречия, А – З; 1855) which was endorsed by the Russian Academy of Sciences, even if criticized by several Ukrainian language scholars.[1]

Afanasyev launched Peterburgsky Listok (Petersburg Leaflet) in 1867, and later, in the 1870s Magazin Inostrannoi Literatury (Magazine of Foreign Literature) which he was also the editor of. Afanasyev-Chuzhbinsky translated the works by James Fenimore Cooper, Henryk Rzewuski, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski and Józef Korzeniowski. In 1851 he compiled and published the Gallery of Polish Writers in 5 volumes.[1][2]

He died in Saint Petersburg, aged 59.

References
  1. "Александр Степанович Афанасьев-Чужбинский". www.rulex.ru / Russian Biographical Dictionary. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  2. Baskakov, V.N. Афанасьев-Чужбинский Александр Степанович. Russian Writers, 1800—1917. Biographical Dictionary. Sovetskaya Encyclopedia Publishers, pp. 124—125
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