Nikonov Vladimir Andreevich was a soviet philologist, poet, geographer, historian, ethnographer, a self-taught scientist without higher education and one of the largest Soviet onomast. Honorary Member of the International Committee of Onomastic Sciences at UNESCO (1972). Author of several books.
Background
Vladimir Andreevich was born on the 14th of July, 1904 in Simbirsk (now Ul`yanovsk), Russian Federation. His father - Andrey Alekseevich Nikonov was a medical assistant at the Simbirsk city government. For services to Simbirsk he received personal nobility. His mother - Lyubov Petrovna Nikonova (nee Voskresenskaya) was a daughter of a village priest, died in childbirth.
Vladimir was a fifth child in the family. Father married again to Tatiana Nikiforovna Borodina. Vladimir was given to raising his aunt’s family, Anna Alekseevny Petrova (nee Nikonova). Their daughter, Vladimir's cousin, the unmarried Vera Nikolaevna Petrova, became his foster mother.
Education
Nikonov did not have a higher education, high school diploma or elementary school diploma. Nikonov's foster mother did not send him to primary school, and the teachers went to his house. Then he studied at the gymnasium, the end of which coincided with the revolutionary events in Simbirsk, which the young Nikonov fully shared.
His passion for geography led him, as a result of revolutionary events, to the geographic committee of the Simbirsk provincial department of education, of which he became a member at the age of 14.
Career
In the 1920s Vladimir Nikonov was at the Komsomol, journalistic and pedagogical work in Simbirsk (Ulyanovsk). In 1931-1932 he was the head of the information department in the editorial office of the newspaper Kommuna (Voronezh). He was a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Pod`yom".
Since October 1932, Nikonov was the executive editor of the district newspaper (the city of Kuntsevo, Moscow Region). Later he worked on toponomics and onomastics. He has published over 300 works, including books.
Achievements
Nikonov also proposed to distinguish between the concepts of toponymy and toponymy, which became generally accepted. Contributed to the formation of new scientific directions - ethnic and areal onomastics. Introduced in onomastics new research methods - statistical and cartographic. Entered into scientific circulation a new circle of sources - censuses, household books, registry data and archives.He created and managed the toponymic commission of the Moscow branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR and the onomastic group at the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. For over 20 years he led a group of onomastics at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He supervised the holding of a number of all-Union conferences on toponymy, anthroponymics, onomastics and the release of more than 20 scientific collections.
International Committee of Onomastic Sciences at UNESCO
1972
Connections
Nikonov was married twice. The only son from his second marriage, Eugene, died at the age of four from scarlet fever when Nikonov was imprisoned in Siberia. Also, before his release from prison, the second wife died.
