Korkunov, Mikhail Andreevich

The son of bergveshwen of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs .

He lived in the house of Kozma Korkunov’s grandfather, who certainly wanted to identify his grandson in the mining department after he graduated from the Perm Theological Seminary , which he attended as a free-coming student. Mikhail, however, wished to continue his studies at the university and planned to file a petition about this with the Highest Name, but the petition he had already prepared was found by someone from his family and destroyed at his home council. Then he found an opportunity to turn to P. P. Svinin , who accidentally was in Perm; Svinin, through the superiors of Korkunov's father, achieved that his father and grandfather allowed the young Korkunov to go to the Imperial Moscow University .

"Russian Biographical Dictionary" indicates that he was born in Penza and all the events described took place in Penza . The dictionary “Moscow professors of the 18th – early 20th centuries” indicates that M. A. Korkunov “studied at the Perm District Theological School and at the Perm Theological Seminary (1820-1824). At the same time, in 1827-1824, he worked as a non-commissioned master at the Goroblagodatsky factories, and then at the Perm Mining Administration. ”

After graduating in 1827 at the Department of Moral and Political Sciences , he received a medal for a historical composition that attracted the attention of a young historian, but in August 1828 he received a different assignment at the university as a teacher of the Arabic language. Since 1830, he simultaneously began to teach geography at the University Noble hostel (until 1836).

A professor from 1830, from October 1832, instead of Arabic, he began to teach geography to first-year students, and in 1834 he lectured on general history, geography and statistics for officials.

In 1835, on the occasion of Professor Pogodin's departure abroad, he was instructed to teach Russian history at Moscow University; at the same time he was an assistant student inspector and was in charge of the mintz cabinet .

Since 1827 he was an employee of the Moscow Society of History and Antiquities , on February 22, 1836 he was elected its full member.

On January 7, 1837, M. A. Korkunov left the service at Moscow University and moved to St. Petersburg, where on March 13 of the same year he was appointed official of the Archaeographic Commission , and on May 15 - ruler of its affairs.

In 1848 he was elected a member of the Archaeological Society, in 1856 - in its full members.

In 1847 he was elected to the Adjunct of the Academy of Sciences in the II division, and in 1851 to the extraordinary academics and the head of affairs of the II division. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1857.

The activities of M. A. Korkunov were aimed primarily at the collection and publication of literary monuments; distinguished by remarkable industriousness and high conscientiousness in work, Korkunov in his chosen field made himself an honorary name. Under his closest office are published III and V volumes of “ Acts of Historical ” and several volumes of “Supplements” to them; For eight years he headed the publication of the Dictionary of Church Slavonic Language. He was one of the most thorough connoisseurs of Russian diplomacy, and without his more or less active participation at that time almost no work was done on the publication of ancient monuments. His scientific and literary activity did not have such an important value, although it was also noted by its inherent features - conscientiousness and thoroughness in the work. The first articles of Korkunov: “The News of the City of Okhansk” and “On the Population of the Perm Province” were published in the Bulletin of Europe for 1827 (No. 11 and 24); in the Works and Chronicle of the Moscow Society of History and Antiquities (parts IV and VIII) his descriptions of several manuscripts are printed. Then, during his stay in Moscow, Korkunov published in his “Scientific Notes of Moscow University” articles: “Geographical information of Homer” and “On the imaginary journey of the Phoenicians around Africa”, and in “Telescope” - an article “On the location of Tarsis”. In 1836 he published the Journey to the Holy Places, completed in the 18th century. Hierodeacon of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. "

He began to collaborate with the move to St. Petersburg in the Journal of the Ministry of Public Education . From 1835 to 1855, Korkunov published in this journal: “The Search for a Journey to Ophir” (translation from Gosselin’s book, “Recherches sur la geographie”, in part VI, 1835), “Map of hostilities between Russians and Poles in 1579 and the then plans of the city of Polotsk and its environs ”(part XV, 1837),“ Description of the old Russian ring ”(part XXYII, 1840), as well as critical articles about the publication of Mukhanov’s“ Manuscripts of Filaret "And about books: Dosifey," Description of the Solovetsky Monastery ", Borisov," Description of the city of Shui ", about the work of Kotoshikhin" About Russia in the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich " , about the "Dictionary" of Bantysh-Kamensky, and some others, also some small notes. In the first volume of the Izvestia of the Archaeological Society, Korkunov’s message was published about the so-called Bashmakov discharge book, an interesting and important monument that had just been opened, and several reviews of it about different manuscripts; The Archaeological Society at the end of 1857 elected Korkunov as a member of the commission to compile the “Archaeological Dictionary”, but Korkunov was no longer invited to participate in it.

• Volkov V.A. , Kulikova M.V., Loginov V.S. Moscow professors of the 18th - early 20th centuries. Humanities and social sciences. - M .: Janus-K; Moscow Textbooks and Cartolithography, 2006. - S. 132-133. - 300 s. - 2,000 copies. - ISBN 5-8037-0164-5.
• A biographical dictionary of professors and teachers of the Imperial Moscow University ... - Moscow, 1855. - T. I. - S. 423-429.
• Korkunov, Mikhail Andreevich // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Korkunov, Mikhail Andreevich // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Profile of Mikhail Andreevich Korkunov on the official website of the RAS