Vladimir Saitov


Vladimir Ivanovich Saitov was a Russian bibliographer and literary historian, secretary of the Imperial Russian Historical Society. Actual State Councilor.

Biography

He studied at the 2nd Saint Petersburg Gymnasium, graduated from the 5th grade, left the gymnasium due to illness in 1867, after which he took up self-education. He began his creative activity in 1875: he collected and described literary and historical monuments, since 1877 he published articles.
Since 1888, he served in the Imperial Public Library as an assistant librarian of the Russian language book department, with work in which all of Saitov's further activities were connected. In 1909, he headed this department, in 1916 he was granted the rank of acting state councilor. Since 1928, in which Saitov retired, the Russian branch at the initiative of Nikolai Marr received his name.
The most important of the works of Saitov is the editorial board of "Works of Konstantin Batyushkov", jointly with Leonid Maykov. Under the modest name of "notes", this publication contains detailed biographies of Saitov's pen of almost all the most important figures of Russian literature of the early 19th century. Saitov received an incentive Pushkin Prize for this work.
Some of these biographies are extensive, the first in literary studies of Russian writers; such, for example, are the biographies of Alexander Turgenev, Prince Peter Shalikov, Dmitry Dashkov, Mikhail Muravyov, Vladislav Ozerov, Vasily Kapnist, Vasily Pushkin, Alexander Gruzintsev. According to a general review by critics of the late 19th century, these "notes" by Saitov constitute the decoration of the publication, which thanks to them is a handbook for the historian of Russian literature.
Saitov's notes on the publication of Count Sergei Sheremetev: "Ostafevsky Archive", edited by Saitov, are equally thoroughly distinguished.
Under the leadership of Saitov, many young scientists began their historical and literary works, striving for the same accuracy and completeness of research as Saitov's works differ.
The Academy of Sciences attracted Vladimir Ivanovich Saitov to the staff of the publication of the works of Pushkin undertaken by it. Saitov owned one of the most comprehensive private libraries dedicated to the history of Russian literature.
Saitov had a reputation as a conscientious historian of literature, a bibliographer, a fanatic of his craft. He told Korney Chukovsky, having seen in one of the pamphlets a stamp placed directly on the portrait of Leon Trotsky: "I myself do not like Trotsky, I would have gladly hung him. But why should iconography suffer?".
Saitov also found information about the remarkable pre-revolutionary burials at the Bogoslovskoe Cemetery, and included 39 personalities in the Saint Petersburg Necropolis compiled by him.

Family

Vladimir Ivanovich was buried in the Smolensky Orthodox Cemetery, his grave was lost over time, but in the 2010s the search group Memorial, Educational and Historical and Cultural Center "Beloye Delo" located his grave on Straight Track, plot 173; next to the grave of his wife Elena Konstantinovna. In 2017, the Saitov's family burial was restored by the Sobor Limited Liability Company, and in December of the same year, a funeral service was served at their graves by Archpriests Igor Yesipov and John of Moscow.

Works