S. A. Vengerov was born 5 April, 1855 and died 14 September, 1920. On
leaving his public school in 1872, he entered the Academy of Medicine
and Surgery in Petersburg and took the general course in natural
science. He then changed to the Faculty of Law in the Petersburg
University and graduated in 1879. A year later he graduated in the
Historical and Philological Faculty in the Derpl University, after which
he remained at the Petersburg University in order to prepare for the
professorship of Russian Literature. In 1897 he began a course of
lectures on the history of Russian literature at the Petersburg
University, but was soon dismissed by the Minister of Education because
of his liberal views. It was only in 1906 that Vengerov was again
allowed to lecture in the University, and in 1910 he was made professor
of the University for Women and of the Institute of Psychoneurology. At
last in 1919 he was appointed Professor of Russian Literature in the
Petrograd University. In addition to his lectures, after 1908 he
conducted in the University a special Pushkin school, and the work of
this school was published in three volumes, _The Pushkinist_, 1914,
1916, and 1918. After the revolution, when The Library was established,
Vengerov was appointed Director and managed the institution, under very
unfavourable conditions, until his death.
"I can only remember three days in my whole life when I felt at
leisure," Vengerov used to say. The intense industriousness of his life
may be seen from the following incomplete list of his works: "Russian
Literature in her Contemporary Representatives: I. S. Turgenev, 1875; I.
I. Lazhechnikov, 1883; A. F. Pisemskii, 1884.
"Critico-Biographical Dictionary of Russian Authors and Men of Letters,"
Six volumes, 1889-1904. These six volumes only complete the first letter
of the alphabet, most of the articles being written by Vengerov.
Russian Poetry. Seven volumes, 1893-1901.
Thirty volumes of Russian authors edited with notes about the writers.
"The Sources of the Dictionary of Russian Authors," four volumes,
1900-1917.
"Library of Great Writers," edited by Vengerov and containing the
complete works of Shakespeare, Byron, Moliere, and Pushkin.
"Outlines of the History of Russian Literature," 1907.
"Russian Literature of the Twentieth Century," 1890-1910.
"The Heroic Character of Russian Literature." It will be seen from the
above list that Vengerov devoted the whole of his life to Russian
literature. As a writer and man of letters, he achieved considerable
popularity.