Dictionary of memorable people of the Russian land

The title page of the Dictionary of the Memorable People of the Russian Land by D. N. Bantysh-Kamensky. 1836

The dictionary of the memorable people of the Russian land is a biographical guide compiled by Dmitry Nikolayevich Bantysh-Kamensky .

Contains 630 biographies indicating "memorable people." The main place is reserved for military and church leaders, favorites of kings. In compiling the dictionary, Bantysh-Kamensky used numerous archival materials, family documents and oral traditions.

At 5 o'clock Moscow , 1836 (with additions it was reprinted in three parts in St. Petersburg in 1847 ).

The idea of ​​the famous monument of Russian historiography, on which D. N. Bantysh-Kamensky worked on for more than twenty years, arose in the wake of interest in Russian history caused by the appearance of N. M. Karamzin's “ History of the Russian State ”. Many of these dictionaries that came out later, including the famous Russian Biographical Dictionary , are based on biographies once compiled by D. N. Bantysh-Kamensky.

The Dictionary of the Memorable People of the Russian Land included expanded biographies of 630 prominent statesmen, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, military leaders, naval commanders, scientists, doctors, writers, poets, composers, artists, stage figures, architects and many others. It is remarkable that in some cases the author wanted to give not just biographies, but a kind of literary portraits. It is also important how Bantysh-Kamensky assessed contemporary historical events, primarily the Patriotic War of 1812 , and how he conveyed impressions of personal meetings with contemporaries, heroes of biographies.

The sources used by D.N. Bantysh-Kamensky when compiling biographies are very diverse. These are state and family archives ( N. N. Bantysh-Kamensky , academician G. F. Miller ), unpublished notes of contemporaries, periodicals, printed works of historians and simply oral “stories of reliable persons”.

The Dictionary of the Memorable People of the Russian Land, a unique work created by the efforts of one person and representing the history of Russia in persons, has still not lost its reference value.