YURII ALEXANDROVICH NOVIKOV

The article reveals the major milestones of the academic life of the recently deceased famous folklorist Yurii Alexandrovich Novikov, a distinguished specialist and thoughtful textual critic of Russian oral epic poems (byliny), who authored several monographs on the subject. Although after the collapse of the Soviet Union Novikov became a Lithuanian citizen, he continued his studies in the field of Russian folklore until the end of his life. Novikov collaborated in publications of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkinskii Dom) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, particularly in the «Byliny» series of the Svod russkogo folklora (Code of Russian folklore). The article provides a brief description of Novikov’s scholarly works and highlights his folklore collecting activities in Lithuania and Estonia