Among the outstanding figures of the Russian enlightenment of the XVIII century, the figure of Peter Alekseev is in many ways remarkable for his unusual nature, vivid temperament, theological and generally scientific knowledge, a lively, genuine interest in Russian history and its monuments, and finally for his literary and lexicographic experiments. The latter is mostly interesting for us, the philologists of the XXI century, and, oddly enough, in many ways instructive.

But first we will focus on the dates of his biography. P. A. Alekseev was born in Moscow in 1727. His father was the sexton of the Zamoskvoretsky Church of St. John the Baptist. Peter A. Vengerov // Critical and biographical dictionary of Russian writers and scientists (from the beginning of Russian education to our days). Vol. I. SPb., 1886. p. 393). A. N. Korsakov, the publisher of his papers and one of the first biographers, writes that " without any patronage in the beginning, he managed to create a position in society that is not given without special abilities" (Korsakov A. N. Pyotr Alekseev, Archpriest of the Moscow Archangel Cathedral (1727-1801) / / Russian Archive. Vol. 2. 1880.p. 153). And it really is. He received his initial education at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. In 1752, he was appointed a deacon, in 1857 - a priest of the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow, and later, from 1759, he held the position of catechist at the Imperial Moscow University, remaining in it until his death. In 1762, P. A. Alekseev was transferred to the Assumption Cathedral as a sacristan, and in 1771 Archbishop Ambrose (Zertys-Kamensky) appointed him archpriest of the Archangel Cathedral. In 1783. The Russian Academy of Sciences honored him with its election as a member. P. A. Alekseev died on July 22 (old style), 1801 and was buried in the Donskoy Monastery.

For that time, which sharply regulated the nature of relations among the clergy to which he belonged, P. A. Alekseev was more than progressive. One can also marvel at the breadth of his knowledge, the geography of his contacts, which are very influential, and the numerous "struggles" in which he often finds himself at the center.-

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I was interested in it. Even at the beginning of his pastoral activity (and this fact is noted by all his biographers), he opposed the primacy of monasticism in the affairs of the church, and "to the real existence in the monastic environment of monastic asceticism and humility."..> treated skeptically" (Vengerov S. A. Decree. op. p. 394). Naturally, such views could not suit the conservative majority, accustomed to dominating the white clergy. Denunciations, trials, and trials began... P. A. Alekseev had to go through all this.

There are many other significant facts in the biographical data of the scholar-theologian. Thus, according to G. G. Likhotkin, Archpriest Pyotr Alekseev "in the persecution of N. I. Novikov's circle acted as a voluntary agent-informer, because he saw the Freemasons as a 'sect of heretics and schismatics'. According to a letter from A. [lekseyev] dated February 17, 1785, the confessor of Catherine II, I. I. Panfilov, was forbidden a number of Masonic works published by the Novikov circle" (Likhotkin G. G. Alekseev Petr Alekseevich / / Dictionary of Russian writers of the XVIII century. Issue 1. L., 1988, p. 28). This was followed by his letters to the Empress's cabinet Secretary, A.V. Khrapovitsky, the Moscow provincial prosecutor, M. P. Kolychev, and the Moscow Commander-in-Chief, A. A. Prozorovsky. All this led "to the destruction of the Moscow educational center and the arrest of N. I. Novikov in 1792 "(Ibid.).

P. A. Alekseev participated in the trial of the rebel Pugachev "with comrades". Moreover, according to him, he managed to convince them of the unrighteousness of his actions. So, in the" most humble report " to Bishop Samuel Krutitsky, he writes:: "On the post entrusted to me by your Eminence of this general secretary on the 9th [1775] of the famous villains, Pugachev (so in the text. - O. N.) with the comrades who were condemned to death, I exhorted the named one, bringing to true confession and repentance, who, except Perfiliev, with heartfelt contrition repented of their sins before God, by the Christian sacrament and the authority of your pastoral eminence through me were unworthily released from the church anathema (...)"([Korsakov A. N.] Papers of Archpriest Peter Alekseev / / Russian Archive, 1882, No. 3, p. 70).

P. A. Alekseev did a lot for the preservation and enhancement of monuments of Russian antiquity, showed himself as a zealous archivist and "copyist", more than once sent fragments of ancient texts deciphered by him to A. I. Musin - Pushkin and other collectors of antiquities. So, in one of his letters to the Synodal chief prosecutor, he complains about the loss of valuable chronicles: "In the old days, this would have been considered a miracle, but now we are ashamed to establish ourselves on paterics. I have heard that 12 ancient Russian chronicles were taken to the university by decree not long ago and from there returned to the Synodal Library, but the best of them, they say, disappeared among the hands" (Ibid., p.84).

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P. A. Alekseev's outstanding literary talent also testifies to his scholarship. He has repeatedly delivered speeches and historical and theological works. Among them, the most famous are the following: Speech on the dignity and usefulness of the catechism. Moscow, 1859; Word of thanks to the Empress Catherine II at the consecration of the Moscow Archangel Cathedral. Moscow, 1772; Consideration of the verbal old printed book of the Apostle, which was corrected by Dr. Francis Skorina from Polotsk (1783), etc. In addition, P. A. Alekseev published several translated works, some of his works are still in manuscript (see also: Rozanov N. Pyotr Alekseevich Alekseev, Archpriest of the Archangel Cathedral in Moscow, and his time). // Spiritual reading, part I. M., 1869, pp. 11-26).

The work of compiling dictionaries and various kinds of lexicons in the XVIII century was not uncommon-from pocket word interpreters to similar scientific works. Many of them, by the way, have remained unpublished and unexplored until now. Those that were published at that time have sunk into oblivion and are known only to a small number of specialists involved in the history of the subject. V. V. Vinogradov sympathetically remarked on this occasion: "The history of explanatory dictionaries of the Russian literary language begins only with the XVIII century. Officially, it opens with the famous "Dictionary of the Russian Academy of Sciences". But the creation of this explanatory dictionary was preceded by a long work of Russian writers and lexicographers on other types of dictionaries. The significance of this preparatory work in the history of the Russian enlightenment, in the history of Russian philological culture is very great" (Vinogradov V. V. Tolkovye slovari russkogo yazyka / / Vinogradov V. V. Izbrannye trudy. Lexicology and Lexicography, Moscow, 1977, p. 210).

Only a few such successful examples entered science and had a significant impact on the development of philology and lexicographic work. Among them, perhaps, the first is the "Church Dictionary..." by P. A. Alekseev (two other dictionaries were published later: "Dictionary of the Russian Academy" in two editions in 1789-1794 and 1806-1822) and" General Church-Slavic - Russian Dictionary... " by P. I. Sokolov (parts 1-2 St. Petersburg, 1834). It was the forerunner of explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language, the only author's work of such high quality, which survived four (!) editions and was also compiled by a clergyman. Its full title in the first "embossment" (1773) is as follows: "Church dictionary, or interpretation of ancient Slavonic utterances, as well as foreign-language utterances without translation laid down in the Holy Scriptures and other church books, composed by Archpriest of the Moscow Archangel Cathedral and member of the Moscow Ecclesiastical Consistory Peter Alekseev, considered by the Free Russian Assembly at the Imperial Moscow Patriarchate.-

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published with the approval of the Most Holy Governing Synod of the Office" (Moscow, 1773, with "Supplement..." - Moscow, 1776, and "Continuation..." - Moscow, 1779; 2nd ed. Parts I-III. St. Petersburg, 1794; 3rd ed. - St. Petersburg, 1815-1818; 4th ed. Part I-V. St. Petersburg, 1817-1819).

The first edition, as well as subsequent ones, opens with a dedication to the Empress Catherine Alekseevna, in which the author writes:: "The love of the Russian word and zeal for spreading useful knowledge in the Russian language prompted the members and participants of the aforementioned meeting (Free Russian Assembly. - O. N.) join this society... "(Alekseev P. A. Church Dictionary ... Moscow, 1773. P. VI; numbering in Roman numerals is ours, the original is missing), through whose efforts, with the participation of Moscow University and the support of influential church figures and the court, this work was prepared. "The use of dictionaries of every kind and in every language is clear to all," he writes further, " although it is not enough for people who have entered into science: all the more is it completely known to Your Majesty, who is enlightened by all kinds of teaching and knowledge of many languages to the Monarch, and all the more do we caress ourselves with the vain hope that our efforts to the church dictionary, both in terms of its content and the language it concerns, will be accepted as a blessing by the most pious patroness of the Greek-Russian Church, and this all-given offering, together with the society that brings it, will be honored with the highest favor and patronage" (pp. VII-VIII).

In the" Preface " to his work, P. A. Alekseev sets out its goals and objectives, the principles of word selection, literary sources, etc., as well as his own view on the nature of language development and its features. The author's arguments seemed to us very interesting and worthy of attention. Let us turn to them in more detail: "It has been noted by learned people that just as other European languages have been enriched above all by the translation of sacred books, so the Russian language, being extensive in its nature, has received a marked beauty, abundance and importance since the time when the church books were translated from Hellenic-Greek into Slavonic (i.e. Slavic - Fr. N.), and the inimitable flourish of the ancient Christian church was transplanted into the Petrograd of the Russian word, which took on the Greek splendor by means of a Slavonic accent very capable of doing so, exalting itself in an unspeakable way.

But as in the initial translations of the Holy Scriptures there are still utterances that were not translated into our language, for their special respect, or translated, but not intelligible to everyone, because of the strange Hebrew and Greek properties for us; important reasons do not allow changing the ancient Biblical word to a new one, with a concept similar to that of the general people, special to all

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the ecclesiastical Dictionary, which is presented to the pleasure of willing readers and direct lovers of inspired scripture, is either unfamiliar or in unfamiliar force to the utterances taken together, with a brief explanation of them." (pp. IX-X).

It is important to note that the Dictionary was intended not only for the interpretation of" unintelligible speeches " from the books of Holy Scripture and theological works, but also had educational significance and served as an accessible practical guide. From it, by the way, it was possible to take out separate geographical names, names of utensils, etc., in addition to the actual church concepts. In addition, a number of articles provide brief etymological references that make it easier to understand foreign-language calculus. In all significant cases, the author provides citations from the literature that contain context with the word indicated in the title of the article. The dictionary also contains a minimum of grammatical litters, of which we noticed such as "adj.", " simple." ("colloquially, simply"), " ross." ("Russian"), "el." ("Slavensky"), "proper", "sred. rod", " strad.", "diminutive", and some others.

P. A. Alekseev explained the composition and purpose of his work as follows:"...he collected unintelligible and out-of-use ranting utterances from everywhere, attributing interpretations from various books to them as much as possible, and when teaching university students the catechism (so in the author. - O. N.) about them properly informing ( ... ) " (p. X). Among the sources of the dictionary are not only theological works, but also works of ancient authors, ABC books, lexicons of P. Berynda, F. Polikarpov, grammar of M. Smotritsky.

The scientist is well aware that for his time, such work is largely, if I may say so in a modern way, experimental. He adheres to the alphabet structure of the presentation of words of a certain thematic group, clearly selects and classifies them, gives a list of sources used, etc ." But preferring the public benefit to the individual, < ... > out of several thousand words of the church under the alphabet summed up, he compiled this book in a new way " (p. X-XI). P. A. Alekseev, - and this is fundamentally important for revealing the meaning of his work and the philological inspiration of the author himself-he sees in it not only the interpretation of words, but above all tries to show the richness and beauty of the Russian word, through its fate to feel the breath of different eras, each of which brought something new to the field of language education.

We can say with confidence that P. A. Alekseev is a great patriot of his work, who appreciates his native language in its natural form, not spoiled by the abundance of foreign-language Newspeak. He writes eloquently about this:"<...> the collector of this Dictionary has not groundless hope that according to the current generally accepted from

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learned people will not fail to read the holy Bible with proper preparation, and to comprehend the straight mind of the Russian syllable, and the venerable antiquity of the work from under the bush to the light (our italics. - O. N.) language, and those people who have hitherto moved away from it for the dark-translated Slavonic or untranslated utterances found there " (p. XII). "And what is said about the inspired scripture," he continues, " the same thing with a certain cancellation befits other ecclesiastical books of various creators, for the teaching of Christians and the glorification of God from Greek to our translated. In which the diligent reader will discover the unparalleled beauty of the syllable, and especially that the complex utterances are not a model for others, the abundant language of Hellenic-Greek gives Slavensky the ability to express great thoughts in short words, which cannot be expressed in other European languages without a lengthy description " (p. XIII).

The author sincerely believes that his experience will be useful for the development of the Russian syllable, does not perceive his dictionary only as "ecclesiastical" and, therefore, has limited application, but sees in it a prototype of the all-Russian lexicon: "So, in addition to the highest kind of benefit that a true Christian receives from diligent reading and imitation of church books, in the reasoning of the Society there is the fact that our dear fatherland will soon see in its native language worthy Ornate Poets and Famous writers, who, leaving foreign-language accents unfamiliar to us, distort their own beauty of the Russian syllable and, with frequent changes to a tactile decline, incline it, will glorify the high-profile affairs of the current famous century with a pure Russian word." (In the same place).

Compared with the first one-volume edition of the Dictionary (1773), the subsequent ones were significantly supplemented and corrected, many realities were clarified, the presentation of illustrations and grammatical litters was ordered; the fourth "embossment" already included 5 parts, placed in five books. According to the calculations of I. I. Sreznevsky, "it contains more than 20,000 explained words < ... >" (Sreznevsky I. I. Church Slavonic Dictionary of A. H. Vostokov... / / Scientific Notes of the Second Department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Book IV. St. Petersburg, 1858. P. XIX). Here are fragments of dictionary entries:

Abetsadlo, so called the week of pismen in musical singing in one word, koi consist of Roman letters <...>

Abracadabra, the name of the Syrian idol <...>

Abstinents, German lat. Heretics <...>

Abubekir, the name of the Mahometan father-in-law, who, as a zealous follower and champion of his teachings, after the death of the false prophet received the Caliphate, that is, the vicegerency of God <...>

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Abshit, interpreted as: a letter of dismissal, or a vacation certificate with a certificate about someone <...> (Alekseev P. A. Church Dictionary ... Part I. St. Petersburg, 1817, pp. 1-2).

Note that all these words are missing from the first edition. Soon after, the author published "Supplement..." (1776) and "Continuation..." (1779), which included other concepts and terms.

Apparently, even then Alekseyev gained fame and wide recognition as a scholar of lexicography. So in subsequent editions (for example, in the 4th), such dedications were prefaced to him:

Church favor books, in which the importance of the word Rossov,

The great Lomonosov proved it extensively,

Poems of the Russian father,

Left for a century of vitistvo sample

To imitate the descendants of the enlightened.

And to the words extracted from those books

With an explanation we see the full alphabet:

This is the blessing that the sacred husband gives to society.

The learned world honors him for this work.

He keeps a nice memory for himself.

Vasily Ruban

Then there is another inscription "from an unknown writer".:

There is no plot fiction, nor vile flattery

Here Alekseyeva gives talent an honor;

But all Russian countries are scientific luminaries

They say that his words are just and powerful.

(Alekseev P. A. Church Dictionary ... Part I. St. Petersburg, 1817. p. V).

In the preface to the 4th edition, it is written that " not only did we not miss to correct the errors and shortcomings that were seen <...> in previous editions. But they also multiplied it with a new addition of various words and utterances, up to six thousand stretching, collected through reading from the Bible and from many other church books and works that[s] <...> we had the opportunity to acquire some of it from the author himself during his lifetime, and some from other lovers of the Slavonic language < ... > " (Ibid., p. III).

Even in the middle of the 19th century, when the foundations of scientific lexicography were being actively developed and academic dictionaries were already being published and prepared, P. A. Alekseev's work was still treated with great respect. His follower, the famous lexicographer I. I. Sreznevsky, in one of his reviews defined the meaning of this work as follows: "The last remarkable dictionary work for the Russian-Slavic dialect was Peter Alekseev's" Church

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dictionary <...>" (St. Petersburg, 1773). Carefully, with extracts from various books, it explains the words of the Russian-Slavic book language not only by translation, but quite a few more or less clear definition of the concepts contained under them. This is not only a dictionary, which is very complete and to some extent clear in its time, but also a short encyclopedia of learned and ecclesiastical terms, drawing attention to the original (italics ours. - O. N.) the meaning of all those words that may be incomprehensible to the ordinary reader when reading the books of the church press. It could be enlarged in its external volume by words, even more by extracts from books, it could be supplemented in encyclopedic definitions and removed from errors that crept into it; in subsequent editions this was gradually done; but even in its original form, this dictionary provided answers to all the questions that could be solved from it expect" (Sreznevsky I. I. [Rec.] Dictionary of the Church Slavonic and Russian Language, compiled by the II Department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1847 / / Journal of the Ministry of National Education, Vol. 58. N 6. 1848. pp. 221-222). And further: "Corrected and supplemented, it survived to the fourth edition (St. Petersburg, 1817-1819); it served as a source for the best dictionaries of later times and still has not lost its dignity not as a literary and historical monument, but as a useful guide for reference. It's a pity, " I. I. sums up. Sreznevsky-if his fourth edition will be the last: a dictionary of this kind, improved in accordance with modern requirements-a dictionary in which the content of the book Russian-Slavic language would be fully explained, together with the concepts of scientists and ecclesiastics expressed in this language, is a book that is now almost more necessary than before "(Ibid. ibid., p. 222).

Reviewing the academic work of P. A. Alekseev, one cannot fail to notice one feature: he was not just a talented theologian-lexicographer, but also sought to make the Russian word accessible to a wide circle of society, revealing its true meaning, enriching our speech with old "pictures", and sometimes short stories and jokes, and thereby contributing to the " deepening of national foundations Russian Scientific language " (Vinogradov V. V. Decree, op. p. 214).

"Church dictionary..." by P. A. Alekseev combined two emerging types of dictionary: encyclopedic and philological. And if the latter was only at the beginning of its development, then its subsequent movement, the" flow " of lexicographic sources in the XIX century is largely due to the work of P. A. Alekseev, who drew the attention of society and scientific circles to the urgent problem of compiling an explanatory dictionary of the Russian literary language.

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