Nikolai Savvich Tikhonravov

Born Oct. 3 (15), 1832, in the village of Shemetovo, in what is now Meshchovsk Raion, Kaluga Oblast; died Nov. 27 (Dec. 9), 1893, in Moscow. Russian literary scholar and archaeographer. Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1890).

Tikhonravov graduated from the faculty of history and philology of Moscow University in 1853. He became a professor at the university in 1859 and served as rector from 1877 to 1883. A leading figure of the school of cultural history in Russian literary scholarship, he wrote works on the history of Russian social thought, notably Boiarynia Morozova (1865) and Muscovite Freethinkers of the Early 18th Century and Stefan lavorskii (1870). He also wrote articles on classic and modern Russian and Western European literature, including works on Dante and Shakespeare.

As a publisher, Tikhonravov was responsible for several works of great scholarly importance, for example, the series Chronicles of Russian Literature and Antiquity (vols. 1–5, 1859–63), Monuments of Apocryphal Literature (vols. 1–2, 1863), and Russian Dramatic Works of the Years 1672–1725 (vols. 1–2, 1874). He did much to further the study of the life and works of M. V. Lomonosov, A. P. Sumarokov, V. K. Trediakovskii, D. I. Fonvizin, and A. S. Pushkin. One of Tikhonravov’s highest achievements as a literary commentator was his edition of the works of N. V. Gogol (vols. 1–5, 1889–93), which was completed by V. I. Shenrok.

Through his various works, including those on Western European literature, Tikhonravov exerted a great influence on his contemporaries and students, including I. E. Zabelin, A. N. Pypin, the Veselovskii brothers, and V. M. Istrin.