Miller, Gerhard Friedrich

His father, Thomas Muller, the rector of the Herford High School, Westfalia , came from a pastoral family from the city of Soest . Mother, Anna Maria Bode, was the daughter of a professor of law and oriental languages ​​and theology in the city of Minden ( Westfalia ), Gerard Bode. The maternal uncle, Heinrich von Bode, was a professor of law at Rinteln and Halle and belonged to the imperial nobility, having the rank of imperial court counselor.

Gerhard received his school education in his father's gymnasium. From 1724 he studied at the University of Leipzig .

On November 5 ( 16 ), 1725 , Miller arrived in Russia and was determined as an adjunct in history at the newly founded Academy of Arts and Sciences . Supported by influential I. Schumacher , whose son-in-law Miller intended to become, he taught Latin for the first years, history and geography at the Academic Gymnasium , kept records of academic meetings and the office (1728-1730), edited the St. Petersburg Gazette with Notes. the first domestic magazine, designed for a wider circle of readers. On July 1 ( 12 ), 1730, 1730, ^[4] Miller was appointed professor of the history of the Academy, and on August 2 he went abroad. After visiting Germany, Holland, England, Miller was recruited to work at the Academy Gotlib Juncker and Georg Jacob Ker . Upon his return in 1732, Miller discovered that he had lost Schumacher’s disposition, with whom he had an irreconcilable enmity. From 1732 he began to publish a collection of articles relating to Russia: “Sammlung Russischer Geschichte” (1732–1765) ^[5] - this was the first edition to thoroughly acquaint foreigners with Russian land and its history.

In 1733, the preparation of the “ Second Kamchatka Expedition ” began, in which Miller took part on behalf of the Academy. Not getting to Kamchatka, Miller traveled around the main points of Western and Eastern Siberia within: Berezov - Ust-Kamenogorsk - Nerchinsk - Yakutsk and carefully examined the local archives, opening, by the way, the Siberian chronicle of Remezov . A ten-year (1733–1743) stay in Siberia enriched Miller with a host of valuable information on the ethnography of foreigners ^{[ who? ] [ clarify ]} , local archeology and the modern state of the region. Especially important was the huge collection of archival documents taken out by Miller, and if he himself used only an insignificant part of them, then in the future they served and continue to serve as an important tool for scientists. Miller returned to St. Petersburg at the height of academic intrigues and, apart from Schumacher , made another irreconcilable enemy - M. V. Lomonosov .

After returning from Siberia, Miller wrote a history of Russian studies. The French edition of his work ( fr. Voyages et decouvertes faites pars le rés Glaciale & sur l'ocean oriental ) helped to bring information about Russian studies to a wide audience in Europe.

In 1747, Miller accepted Russian citizenship, and on November 20 ( December 1 ), 1747 he was appointed historiographer of the Russian state. In 1749, he had a great nuisance about the speech he had prepared for the ceremonial meeting of the Academy : "The Origin of the People and the Name of the Russian." Some of the academicians (Lomonosov, Krasheninnikov , Popov) found her "reprehensible Russia." Miller was accused of “not showing a single case to the glory of the Russian people, but only mentioning more that he can serve infidelity, namely how they were repeatedly smashed in battles, where he was emptied with robbery, fire and sword and the kings robbed their treasures. And at the end of the day he wondered with dignity, with what carelessness he used expression, that the Scandinavians with their victorious weapons successfully conquered the whole of Russia ”.

The fervor and intolerance with which the theory of the Scandinavian origin of the Vikings-founders of the Russian state (the Norman theory ) was adopted was significantly explained by the then political relations of Russia towards Sweden. The speech, already printed, was destroyed, but appeared in 1768 in the Allgemeine historische Bibliothek (vol. V) under the title: "Origines gentis et nominis Russorum".

On October 6 ( 17 ), 1750 , for a quarrel with Lomonosov , Miller was demoted for a year, by President KG Razumovsky , President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts, from professors to associate Academy with a lower salary from 1,000 rubles. up to 860 rubles in year. Soon, however, Miller was forgiven under the condition of first requesting forgiveness.

In 1750, he published the first volume of the Description of the Siberian Kingdom , “the first correct scientific work on Siberian history” (Pypin). The second volume was only published in passages published in “Sammlung russisch. Geschichte "and" Monthly Writings. " Miller was very slow in his work, and the academy commissioned the continuation of her academician Fisher. The Sibirische Geschichte of the latter (St. Petersburg, 1768; Russian translation, St. Petersburg, 1774) is not, however, a continuation, but only an abbreviated retelling of the work of Miller (both printed and remaining in manuscript). The work of Fisher Bushing considered simple plagiarism. Since 1754, in the rank of conference secretary of the Academy, Miller has been conducting extensive correspondence with foreign scholars, summoning professors for Moscow University, taking part in Voltaire's compilation of the history of Peter the Great's reign, providing materials and observations.

In the years 1755-1765, Miller edited " Monthly Works, To the Benefit and Amusement of the Employees " - the first periodical literary scholar in Russian. It was attended by all modern writers who enjoyed fame; Miller himself has posted there many articles relating to Siberia. Among the historical works of Miller, in addition to "Origines Rossicae", the most important ones are: "About the chronicler Nestor" (1755) ^[6] , "News about Zaporizhzhya Cossacks" (1760), "About the Beginning of Novgorod and the Origin of the Russian People" (1761) and "The experience of a new story about Russia" (1761). Frightened by the fate of his speech in 1749, Miller in 1761 suggested that the founders of the Russian state were Roksolans from the Baltic Sea. Later, in the work "On the peoples that have lived in Russia since ancient times" (Büsching's "Magazin", XV; Russian translation, St. Petersburg, 1773), he pointed out the presence of the Varangian element in the south. In “The Experience of a New Story about Russia,” the author wanted to continue Tatishchev, but Lomonosov did not like that Miller was engaged in research about “the troubled times of Godunov and Rasstriga, the darkest part of Russian history,” and he managed to get this work done.

From January 1 ( 12 ), 1765 , on the recommendation of I. I. Betsky , Miller was appointed by decree of Catherine II the chief overseer of the Moscow Educational House , leaving the Academy of Sciences and Arts as a historiographer, and in March 1766 he was appointed head of the Moscow archive of the Foreign College. affairs In appointing Miller to the archives of the foreign college, Empress Catherine commissioned him to compile a “Collection of Russian diplomacy” following the example of Dumont. As an archive manager, he educated himself a worthy successor in the person of N. N. Bantysh-Kamensky .

Struck with paralysis in 1772, he continued to work tirelessly until his death, which occurred on the night of October 11 ( 22 ), 1783 . The Moscow period in Miller’s life was marked by the publication of such valuable monuments and works of Russian scientists as: The Code of Law of Tsar Ivan the Terrible , The Power Book , Letters of Peter the Great to Count B.P. Sheremetev, The Nucleus of Russian History (Mankeev), History of Russia "(Tatishcheva)," Geographical Dictionary "(Polunin)," Description of Kamchatka "(Krasheninnikov). In “The Experience of the Works of the Free Russian Assembly” (IV, V), Miller placed a number of articles on the birth, upbringing, accession and coronation of Peter the Great, on the establishment of the first guards regiments.

GF Miller collected a collection of documents and memoirs on the uprising of Yemelyan Pugachev , known as "Miller's Pugachev Portfolio." The collection contains copies of letters, news, writings, decrees, manifestos, reports, speeches, and other material for the period 1772-1775 related to the uprising ^[7] . In 1784, an anonymous article “ Reliable news about the rebel Yemelyan Pugachev and the rebellion raised by him ” was published in the German yearbook of A.F. Bushing . According to the researchers (including G. P. Blok and I. M. Gvozdikova ), this work was written by G. F. Miller ^{[8] [9]} .

• State Counselor (1775)
• State Councilor (1783)
• Order of St. Vladimir of the 3rd degree (1783)

• Brother: Heinrich Justus Muller (11.6.1702, Herford - 1783) - senior teacher of the academic gymnasium (1732-1767) (from 1742 he was married to Louise Engelhardt)
• Wife: NN - the widow of a German doctor from Siberia, married in 1742 in Verkhoturye ^[10]
• Son: Karl - Imperial Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, court counselor
• Son: Yakov Fedorovich - Major Seconds

After the death of Miller, a collection of autographs and manuscripts (in 258 portfolios), important for the study of history, ethnography, statistics and industry in Russia and in particular Siberia, remained. Many materials are obliged to Miller Prince M. M. Shcherbatov , I. I. Golikov , Slovtsov , Novikov (in “Ancient Russian Vivliophics”), Count Rumyantsev (in “Collection of State Literacy and Treaties”), and also the Archeographic Commission . Until our time ^{[ when? ]} more than half of the G. Miller Siberian archive has not yet been published.

• Description of the Tomsk district of the Tobolsk province in Siberia in its current situation, in October 1734 // Sources on the history of Siberia in the pre-Soviet period. - Novosibirsk: Science, 1988. - p. 65-101.
• Historical writings on Little Russia and Little Russians, Moscow, 1846
• History of Siberia : In 3 volumes.
  • Description of the Siberian kingdom and all the cases that occurred in it from the beginning, and especially from the conquest of Russia by the Russian state in these times . - SPb. , 1750. - 510 s.
  • History of Siberia . - M. - L .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1937. - T. I.
  • History of Siberia . - M. - L .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1941. - T. II.
  • History of Siberia . - M .: Eastern literature , 2005. - T. III.
• Works on the history of Russia. Favorites / Comp. A. B. Kamensky. M .: Science, 1996. 448 p.
• Voyages et decouvertes fales paris les les le des des cotes de la mer Glaciale & sur l'ocean oriental, Volume 1, Volume 2, Amsterdam, 1766.
• Description of the pagan peoples living in the Kazan province, supposedly Cheremis, Chuvash and Votyaks. - SPb., 1791. - 131.
• About peoples since ancient times in Russia. - 1773
• The news of the Russian nobles. - 1790
• News of the former city of Nienshants - 1755
• About the first chronicler of the Russian Rev. Nestor - 1755
• On the first Russian travels and embassies in China - 1755
• Painted provinces, provinces, cities, fortresses and other famous places in Russia located - 1757
• Amendments to the errors committed by the city of de Buffon in the first part of his natural history when announcing different countries and places of the Russian state - 1757
• Explanations of the sums, which are at the decision of the borders between the Russian and the Chinese state 7197 (1689) - 1757
• About whale fishing near Kamchatka - 1757
• Description of sea voyages on the Arctic and Eastern Sea, made from the Russian side - 1758
• The news about the gold pitch in Bukhara, about the shipments for him, and about the structure of the fortresses at Irtysh - 1760
• News of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks - 1760
• News of Land Cards relating to the Russian state - 1761
• Explanations about some antiquities found in the graves - 1764 ^[11]

• Miller, Gerard Friedrich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extras). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Pekarsky P.P. History of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. T. I, 1870. pp. 308-430.
• A. B. Kamensky. “... This city can be honored for the center of the entire state ...”: Gerard Friedrich Miller. 1705-1783 // Moscow historians: Collection. Issue 1 / Comp.: L.V. Ivanova , S.O. Schmidt . - M .: Moscow Worker , 1991. - P. 32-44. - 288, [16] s. - 10 000 copies - ISBN 5-239-01132-X .
• Elert A.Kh. Siberia of the 18th century in the travel description of G. F. Miller. - Novosibirsk: "Siberian Chronograph", 1996. (series "History of Siberia. The original sources").
• Fomin V. V. Lomonosov and Miller: Lessons from the Controversy // Questions of History . - 2005. - № 8. - p. 21-35.
• G. F. Miller - an outstanding scientist of Russia of the XVIII century // “Historical Archive”. 2006, № 1. P. 3-63.
• Konstantinov M.V., Konstantinova T.A. Archaeological research of G.F. Miller in Transbaikalia // Works of the III (XIX) All-Russian Archaeological Congress. T. I. - SPb.-M.-Veliky Novgorod, 2011. 424 pp.: Ill.
• Blok G.P. Pushkin in his work on historical sources. - M. - L .: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1949. - 216 p.
• Gvozdikova I. M. “The Pugachev Portfolio” by Academician Miller // Belsky Prostory . - Ufa, 2003. - № 2 . - pp . 116-119 .
• Ovchinnikov R.V. On Searching for the Pugachev Portfolio of Miller // Historical Archive. - 1962. - № 5 . - p . 216-219 .
• Gerard Friedrich Miller and Russian culture: Sat. Art. = GF Muller und die russische Kultur / Ed. Editor: Dittmar Dahlmann and Galina Smagina ; RAS, Institute of the History of Science and Technology , St. Petersburg. branch, B-ka Acad. Sciences, Seminar "Germans in Russia: Russian-German scientific and cultural ties." - SPb. : Rostock , 2007. - 512 p. - (Dialogue of two cultures). - 1000 copies - ISBN 5-94668-056-1 .

In foreign languages:

• Beiträge zu der Lebensgeschichte denkwürdiger Personen "(Halle, 1785, Vol. III, 1-160; Miller’s biography, compiled by Büsing).
• Literarischer Briefwechsel von JD Michaelis "(Leipzig, 1795, II, 511-536; correspondence for 1762-1763);
• AL Schlozer's öffentliches u. privates Leben, von ihm selbst beschrieben "(Göttingen, 1802; Russian translation in" Collection of 2 dep. Academy of Sciences ", t. XIII);
• Neue Deutsche Biographie. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot Verlag, 1997. - Bd. 18, p. 394-395.

• Miller, Gerhard Friedrich (Neopr.) . Eastern literature . The appeal date is March 29, 2011. Archived August 21, 2011.