Eliseev, Sergey Grigorevich

Born into the family of a merchant Grigory Yeliseyev , who owned the “Yeliseyevsky shops” famous in Moscow and St. Petersburg . He first discovered interest in the East in 1900, when he visited the International Exhibition in Paris with his father. His interest in the Far East after the Russo-Japanese War intensified even more. On the advice of S. F. Oldenburg, he began studying Japan. He studied at the University of Berlin (then the Japanese education system was influenced by German). Then he studied at the University of Tokyo , becoming the first European to graduate from this educational institution, and the first European to graduate in Japan. After graduating from the university in 1912, Eliseev enters the graduate school of Tokyo University. In 1914 he returned to Russia and married. Since 1916, Yeliseyev has been a private assistant professor at St. Petersburg University and a translator at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Eliseev is elected vice-president of the Far Eastern Section of the Chamber of Commerce, joins the Archaeological Society and the Society of Russian Orientalists, where he becomes chairman of the Japanese section.

In 1920, he was arrested for some time, and soon after his release, in the autumn of the same year, he illegally with his family left Soviet Russia . Through Finland and Sweden, he reached Paris. On the recommendation of the Japanese diplomat H. Asida (later the Prime Minister of Japan), he is arranged at the Japanese Embassy as a translator. For a while, Yeliseyev worked as a house manager for Japanese students in Paris and wrote articles for a French-language magazine about Japanese culture sponsored by the Japanese. In Paris, he teaches Japanese language and literature at the Sorbonne and the school of living oriental languages, as well as the history of Japanese art at the Louvre school. In the early 1930s, along with his wife Vera, he received French citizenship.

In 1932, Eliseev was invited to the United States . In 1934, Eliseev became director of the Yanjing Institute at Harvard University (established on the basis of an agreement with Yanjing-Harvard University in Beijing ) and at the same time the Center for Research of China and Japan, in the same place - at Harvard. For nearly a quarter of a century, S. G. Eliseev led the study of Japan, as well as of China, Korea, and Mongolia at this university.

At the height of the war, in 1944, the Japanese language course for beginners was first published, prepared by S. G. Eliseev together with E. Reishauer and T. Yoshihasi, which was later reprinted several times. It was the first Japanese-language textbook published in large numbers in the United States.

In 1957, S. G. Eliseev, who was 68 years old, resigned, and a year later left Harvard and returned to Paris. Living for many years in the United States, he retained French citizenship, and his children served in the French army during the war.

Family

Wife - Faith. Children:

• Nikita is an Arabist professor who worked in Damascus .
• (1918–2002) - Director of the Chernuski Museum in Paris, Director of Science at the Sorbonne High School.

• Order of the Legion of Honor (February 12, 1949) ^[5] ;
• Order of Academic Palms ^[6] ;
• Order of the Sacred Treasure 2nd Class ^[6] ;
• The award of the Japan Foundation ^[6] .

• Japanese literature // Literature of the East. Pg., 1920. Vol. 2. pp. 38-89.
• Japanese tales. Pg., 1921.
• Diary of a man from red Russia. Osaka, 1921 (in Japanese.).
• La peinture contemporaine au Japon. P., 1923
• Mythologie du Japon // Mythologie Asiatique illustree. P., 1928. P. 363-424 (translated into English: 1932)
• Le Theater japonais (Kabuki). P., 1933
• Stael-Holstein's Contribution to Asiatic Studies // HJAS. 1938. Vol. 3. P. 1-8.
• A Selected List of Books and Articles. Washington, 1940 (with EO Reischauer and H. Borton)
• Elementary Japanese for University Students. 2nd ed. Pts. 1-2. Cambridge (Mass.), 1944 (jointly with EO Reischauer)
• Selected Japanese Texts. Literature and History. Cambridge (Mass.), 1947 (jointly with EO Reischauer)
• The Chinese-Japanese Library of Harvard-Yenching Institute at Harvard University. Cambridge (Mass.), 1956.
• Elementary Japanese for College Students. Vol. 1-3. Cambridge (Mass.), 1957 (compatible with EO Reischauer and T. Yoshihashi).
• Serge Elisseeff et Takaaki Matsushita: Art bouddhique japonis publié par la New York Graphic Society en accord avec l'Unesco
• Elisseeff Serge & Yoshihashi, Takehiko: Elementary Japanese for College Students ; Harvard University Press, 1963

Books

• Marahonov S.I. The Order of the Sacred Treasure of Sergei Eliseev. As the son of a Russian merchant, he became the founder of American Japanese studies. - SPb. : SINEL, 2016. - 432 p. - ISBN 978-5-9908187-6-7 .
• S.G. Eliseev and Japanese studies of the world (Russia, Japan, USA, France, Sweden, Vietnam). Proceedings of the international scientific conference. - M .: Publishing company "Japan Today", 2000. - 288 p. - ISBN 5-86477-087-7 .

Selected articles

• Babintsev A. A. From the history of Russian Japanese study // Japanese philology. - M. , 1968. - S. 133-134 .
• At the Tokyo Imperial University ... // Notes of the Amur Department of the Imperial Society of Oriental Studies. Khabarovsk. 1912. Iss. 1. P. 300.
• Vasilkov Ya., Tigonen T., Shatalov O. About the author of the prison diary and letters of S. G. Eliseev // Lessons from anger and love. Issue 4. SPb., 1993. S. 5-8.
• S.I. Marahonova. The Last Years of Japonologist S. G. Eliseev in Paris (1957–1975) : [ arch. November 1, 2016 ] // Eastern Archive . - 2015. - № 1 (31). - p. 87-93.
• Frolova O. P. Outstanding orientalist S. G. Eliseev // History and Culture of the East of Asia / Materials of the International Scientific Conference (Novosibirsk, December 9 - 11, 2002) / Otv. ed. S.V. Alkin. - Volume 1. - Novosibirsk: Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2002.
• Chigrinsky MF Journey S. G. Eliseev to Taiwan // Maklaevskie readings. SPb., 1992. pp. 28-31.
• Japanese scientist Eliseev // Proceedings of bookstores of the wolf Islands in literature, science and bibliography. SPb., 1912. № 8. S. 123.
• Reischauer EO Serge Elisséeff // Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. - 1957. - Vol. 20, No. 1/2 . - P. 1-35.
• GWB Serge Elisseeff (1889-1975) // Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 1975. Vol. 35. P. 12-13.

• Eliseev S. G. on the website of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts
• Eliseev S.G. Prison Diary (May-June 1919); Memories of Petrograd (1918–20) and escape to Finland / Note. Ya. Vasilkova and O. Shatalova // Lessons from Wrath and Love: Sat. memories of the years of repression (1920s - 80s.) / Comp. and ed. T.V. Tigonen. - SPb., 1993. - Vol. 4. - p. 9-44.
• Eliseev Sergey Grigorievich (1889-1975) // People and destinies. The Bibliographical Dictionary of Orientalists — Victims of Political Terror in the Soviet Period (1917–1991) / Prod. prepared by Ya. V. Vasilkov, M. Yu. Sorokin. SPb .: Petersburg Orientalism, 2003.
• ELISEEV Sergey Grigorievich // Japan from A to Z. Popular illustrated encyclopedia. (CD-ROM). - M .: Directmedia Publishing , “Japan Today”, 2008. - ISBN 978-5-94865-190-3 .
• Sidorchuk I.V., Rostovtsev E.A. Eliseev Sergey Grigorievich // Biografiya SPbSU