Background
Pavel Vasilevich Shein was born in Mogilev. Since 1881 Pavel Shein lived in St. Petersburg.
teacher researcher of folklore etnographer
Pavel Vasilevich Shein was born in Mogilev. Since 1881 Pavel Shein lived in St. Petersburg.
He studied at German specialized school at the Lutheran Church of Saint Michael in Moscow.
Since 1851 he worked as a teacher in different specialized schools of the district and Tula, Vitebsk, Kaluga gymnasiums.
He started his activity as a collector in the middle of the 1850s.
Shein published “Programme of collecting monuments of folk culture” (Vitebsk, 1867), which was written under the impact of the mythological school, and sent it round Belarus. This work is one of the first folk programmes in Russia.
Shein had a wide network of correspondents, among them were A. Ya. Bogdanovich, Ya. F. Karskiy, Yu. F. Krachkovskiy, Ya. Luchina, M. Ya. Nikiphorovskiy, Z. F. Radchenko etc.
Pavel Shein made several trips over Belarus, the longest one in 1877.
The most complete Belorussian material is presented in the book “Materials for studying the way of life and the language of Russian population of North-Western territory” (vol. 1 – 3, 1887 – 1902). In this book there are descriptions of christening, the ceremonies of Christmastide, Pancake week, St. John's (Midsummer) Day; reaping, wedding, funeral ceremonies of the Belorussians. The book also contains songs, folk texts, mythological tales, tales of everyday life about animals, legends, anecdotes, proverbs and sayings, riddles, information about material culture of the Belorussians (dwelling, clothes, food, activities), etc.
Pavel Shein is the author of the collections like “Russian folk songs” (1870), “Belorussian folk songs…” (1874), “A Great Russian in his songs, ceremonies, customs, beliefs, tales, legends, etc.” (vol. 1, iss. 1 – 2, 1898 – 1902). The texts have high poetic quality, many of them are notable for social topicality. Shein’s archive is preserved in Archives of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.