Ivan Tolstoi

Tolstoi, Ivan Ivanovich 

Born Aug. 14 (26), 1880, in St. Petersburg; died Oct. 27,1954, in Leningrad. Soviet classical philologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1946).

In 1903, Tolstoi graduated from the faculty of history and philology of the University of St. Petersburg, where he taught beginning in 1908. He was a professor of classical philology at Leningrad State University from 1918 to 1953.

Tolstoi made an important contribution to contemporary knowledge of ancient Greek literature by studying folklore, including Russian folklore. Investigation of these sources enabled him to discover the preliterary origins of many classical works and to determine the social orientation of a number of classical genres. Tolstoi also studied the linguistic sources of the ancient Greek epic, as well as ancient Greek texts from the Northern Black Sea Shore. He edited translations of works by many classical authors.

WORKS

“Nachalo komedii i drevniaia atticheskaia komediia.” In Istoriia grecheskoi literatury, vol. 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1946.
“Aristofan.” Ibid.
“Novaia atticheskaia komediia.” Ibid., vol. 3. Moscow, 1960.
Grecheskie graffiti drevnikh gorodov Severnogo Prichernomor’ia. Moscow-Leningrad, 1953.
Khariton: Povest’ o liubvi Khereia i Kalliroi. (Translated from ancient Greek and with commentary by Academician I. I. Tolstoi.) Moscow-Leningrad, 1954.
Aedy: Antichnye tvortsy i nositeli drevnego eposa. Moscow, 1958.
Stat’i o fol’klore. Moscow-Leningrad, 1966.

REFERENCE

I. I. Tolstoi (1880–1954). Moscow, 1958.

V. N. IARKHO