Aleksandr Afanasev

Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev was a Russian collector of folklore, a researcher of the spiritual culture of the Slavic peoples, a historian, and a literary scholar. Titular councillor (1859).

Youth

Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev was born into the family of a district attorney, who greatly valued education and instilled this love in his children. He first studied at the Voronezh Gymnasium, then came to Moscow and entered Moscow University. He studied there from 1846 to 1849 in the Faculty of Law, and additionally attended lectures by S. P. Shevyryov, O. M. Bodyansky, and T. N. Granovsky. While still a student, he began contributing to the best Russian literary journals of the time (Sovremennik in 1847 and Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1848), where his first literary-critical articles were published.

1849—1862

After graduating from the university, in 1849 A. A. Afanasyev entered service in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where in 1856 he became head of a department, and soon afterwards administrator of the commission for the publication of state charters and treaties attached to the archive. He held this position until 1862.

A lover of antiquity, Afanasyev often bought old manuscripts and books at the flea market near the Sukharev Tower; these finds made up a large and valuable library, from which Afanasyev drew information on the history of Russian culture.

In the journals Sovremennik (1849—1852), Otechestvennye Zapiski (1850—1860), Arkiv istoriko-yuridicheskikh svedeniy o Rossii, edited by Kalachev, and some other publications, he published more than 68 articles; among his works were:

· “Grandfather the Domovoi,” his first mythological study (in Kalachev’s Arkiv, part 1);
· “The Sorcerer and the Witch” (in the almanac Kometa, published by N. Shchepkin; separately, Moscow