Death of B.N. Putilov

[Jonathan Perkins]

        With regret we announce to SEELANGS the passing, on
16 October 1997, of Boris Nikolaevich Putilov, the foremost
representative
of Russian folkloristics of his generation.
        Born in 1919 in the Caucasus, Putilov spent nearly all his
professional life in Leningrad/St. Petersburg.  From 1954 to 1967 he was

Director of the Folklore Section at the Institute of Russian Literature
(Pushkinskij dom) , and since then Chief Scientific Worker at the Museum
of
Anthropology and Ethnography (Kuntskammer). He authored 15 books and
over
400 articles, and edited 15 anthologies of the folklore of different
peoples.  His latest book appeared one month before his death; he worked
up
to nearly his last moments to prepare yet more of his work for
publication.
He was ready to work for many more years and would certainly have done
so
had his physical body allowed it.  The loss to Slavic and international
folklore scholarship, which will not now see these fruits, is enormous.
        B.N. Putilov was seemingly tireless.  He was one of that rare
breed
of scholars who was equally at home in the field and in the lecture
hall,
and whose writings were both at the highest level of scholarship and
eminently clear and readable.  He did extensive field work in world
areas
as far apart as New Guinea and Montenegro, participated actively in
scholarly life not only in Russia but in all parts of the former USSR
and
many foreign countries, and organized many conferences and symposia,
among
which the series of Albert Bates Lord International Conferences in St.
Petersburg and other cities.  His areas of research included theory and
methodology of folklore and folkloristics, Russian and Slavic folklore,
Oceanic folklore, comparative epic studies, mythology, ritual, and
others.
He survived the Soviet years without compromising his integrity, and
contributed actively to the post-communist renewal of folkore studies in

Russia.
        He was devoted to his family and enjoyed many cultural
activities;
his love for the philharmonic concerts which he attended regularly was
well
known. All who knew him admired his energy, his inner strength, his high

standards, his eloquence, his fine aesthetic sense, and his ability to
laugh.  All who were fortunate enough to have been touched by his life
are
immeasurably the better for it

                                я Slavic and East European Folklore
Association (SEEFA)