Rzhiga, Fyodor Vyacheslavovich (Czech: Říha; 1847, near the town of Ledeč nad Sázavou, Bohemia — 5 March 1926, Nizhny Novgorod) — educator, philologist, historian, and author of gymnasium textbooks; member of the Nizhny Novgorod Provincial Learned Archival Commission, who spent the last decades of his life in Nizhny Novgorod and made a significant contribution to regional archival and scholarly work.[2]

Biography and Teaching Career

Born into a peasant family in 1847 (1848 by the New Style calendar) near the town of Ledeč nad Sázavou in Bohemia.[2] In 1874 he graduated from the History and Philology Faculty of Prague University.[1] In 1877 he moved to Russia, converted to Orthodox Christianity, took Russian citizenship, and married Yekaterina Nikolayevna Zhukova, daughter of a Rybinsk merchant.[2] He began his teaching career that same year of 1877 at a progymnasium in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Governorate, where he taught classical languages.[1] From 1882 to 1887 he served at a gymnasium in Warsaw.[1]

In 1887 he was appointed to the 1st Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Gymnasium, where he taught Ancient Greek and Latin until his retirement in 1912 with the civil rank of State Councillor.[2] During his years at the gymnasium he kept daily journals (six calendars survive, covering the periods 1884–1885, 1900–1912, and 1917–1918) containing information about his professional, pedagogical, cultural, and family life.[1]

Scholarly Works and Public Activities

From 1888 Rzhiga was a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Learned Archival Commission (NGUAK), and after the Revolution a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Archaeological and Ethnological Commission.[1] In his political views he was an advocate of pan-Slavic unity.[2]

During his Nizhny Novgorod period he published a number of scholarly and educational works: "An Outline of the Life and Work of Johann Amos Comenius" (Nizhny Novgorod, 1892), "Syntax of the Russian Language" (Nizhny Novgorod, 1906; 2nd ed. — Moscow, 1908), "A Textbook of the Russian Language. Part 1. Etymology" (Nizhny Novgorod, 1909), an adaptation of the Serbian epic "The Building of Skadar" (Nizhny Novgorod, 1913), and the two-volume publication "Slavic Songs in Eight Dialects" (Nizhny Novgorod, 1914–1915).[2] Among his other works are a description, with historical commentary, of a collection of casts of foreign tokens and medals Maxim Gorky to the Nizhny Novgorod Governorate Learned Archival Commission, as well as translations of documents from Swedish archives.[2] His earlier works include "Comparative Etymological Tables of the Slavic Languages" (St. Petersburg, 1877–1878) and "Basic Types of Sentence" (Moscow, 1890).[2]

Archival Legacy and Family

Rzhiga's personal archive was transferred to the Central Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Region: it comprises approximately 400 paper documents (predominantly handwritten) and 32 photographic prints dating from 1871 to 1930. A distinctive feature of the collection is the considerable number of documents in foreign languages — German, Czech, and Serbian, as well as Ancient Greek and Latin.[1] The earliest identified document is a certificate in German dated 12 April 1871, issued to Franz Rzhiga.[1]

Rzhiga's children also left a notable mark in their respective professional fields: his son Vyacheslav Fyodorovich Rzhiga (1883–1960) became a Slavic philologist and professor at Moscow State University; his son Nikolay Fyodorovich Rzhiga (1886–1954) became a captain (first rank) in the engineering corps and served in the People's Commissariat of the Navy; his daughter Nadezhda Fyodorovna Rzhiga (1892–1944) became a local historian and bibliographer who founded the local-history bibliography department of the Gorky Regional Library.[1]

He died on 5 March 1926 and was Bugrovsky Cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod. His grave has not survived.[2]

Sources

  1. archives.nobl.ru — Activities / State Archival Service of Nizhny Novgorod Region
  2. e-heritage.ru — Scientific Heritage of Russia