Sakharov, Ivan

Born Aug. 29 (Sept. 10), 1807, in Tula; died Aug. 24 (Sept. 5), 1863, in St. Petersburg. Russian ethnographer, folklorist, archaeologist, and paleographer.

Sakharov graduated from a theological seminary in 1830 and from the faculty of medicine of Moscow University in 1835; he subsequently practiced medicine in St. Petersburg. He was known as a collector and researcher of folkloric materials and of Russian antiquities. His principal works were Legends of the Russian People About the Family Life of Their Ancestors (parts 1–3, 1836–37), Songs of the Russian People (parts 1–5, 1838–39), Russian Folktales (1841), and Ancient Russian Artifacts (issues 1–3, 1842). As a self-taught scholar and an exponent of official concepts concerning Russia’s national spirit, Sakharov often deviated from scientific principles of text publication, changing and reworking material. Hence, the valuable materials he assembled demand critical evaluation.