Vostokov, Aleksandr

(pseudonym of A. Kh. Ostenek). Born Mar. 16 (27), 1781, in Arensburg, present-day Kingisepp, Estonian SSR; died Feb. 8 (20), 1864, in St. Petersburg. Russian philologist and Slavist; poet. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1841).

Vostokov studied at the cadet school in St. Petersburg and later at the Academy of Arts. In 1805 and 1806 he published Lyrical Essays and Other Short Works in Verse (two parts), and in 1812 he published Essay on Russian Prosody (separate edition 1817), one of the first scholarly studies on the structure of Russian tonic versification. In 1815 he began to work for the St. Petersburg Public Library where he undertook the study of Old Slavic written records and the grammar of the Slavic languages. His Discourse on the Slavic Language (1820) laid the foundations for comparative Slavic philology in Russia. He was the author of two grammars of the Russian language, one “extensive” and one “concise” (1831), Description of Russian and Slovenian Manuscripts in the Rumiantsev Museum (1812), and Grammar of the Church Slavonic Language (1863). He also published The Ostromir Gospel (1843). He edited and participated in the compilation of the Dictionary of the Church Slavonic and Russian Languages (vols. 1-4, 1847). The Attempt at a Provincial Great Russian Dictionary (1852) and its Supplement (1858) were published under his editorship. Vostokov compiled the Dictionary of the Church Slavonic Language (vols. 1-2, 1858 and 1861).