Korsh, Fedor

Korsh, Fedor [Корш, Фёдор; Korš], b 4 May 1843 in Moscow, d 1 March 1915 in Moscow. Noted Russian Classical philologist, Slavist, and Orientalist; full member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences from 1900 and of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. A graduate of Moscow University (PH D 1877), he was a professor at Moscow University (1877) and Odesa University (1890–2) and at the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow. In addition to works on Roman metrics and literature, he wrote important studies of Slavic song metrics, O russkom narodnom stikhoslozhenii (On Russian Folk Versification, 1896, 1901) and Vvedenie v nauku o slavianskom stikhoslozhenii (Introduction to the Study of Slavic Versification, 1906), and a monograph on historical-comparative syntax, Sposoby otnositel'nogo podchineniia (Types of Relative Subordination, 1877). As a supporter of the Ukrainian cultural movement and a defender of Ukrainian linguistic rights, he coauthored the memorandum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences urging the repeal of the Ems Ukase, which prohibited the use of Ukrainian in publications (1905). He also wrote articles on the history of the Ukrainian language and literature; eg, on the genesis of Ukrainian, on Turkic elements in Slovo o polku Ihorevi (The Tale of Ihor’s Campaign), and on Taras Shevchenko. He also attempted writing poetry in Ukrainian under the pseudonym Khvedir Korzh.

George Yurii Shevelov

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]