Alexander Samoylovich
Encyclopedia
Alexander Nikolaevich Samoylovich was an important Russia
n Orientalist
-Turkologist, academician of USSR Academy of Sciences (1929), Rector of Leningrad Oriental Institute (1922–1925), academic secretary of Humanities Branch of USSR Academy of Sciences (1929–1933), director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1934–1937). Alexander Samoilovich was arrested by NKVD
in the beginning of October 1937 in the wave of Stalinist repressions, and executed on February 13, 1938.
, in the family of the director of the Nizhny Novgorod grammar school
, and graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Institute for Nobles
, and then the Oriental department of the Saint Petersburg University, majoring in Arabo-Persian-Türkic-Tatar languages. From 1907 A.Samoilovich taught Türko-Tatar languages at the St. Petersburg University. In 1920 he joined Vasily Bartold
and Ivan Zarubin in providing Narkomnats
with an ethnographic analysis of Turkestan and the Kirgiz steppe. In 1921 and 1922 A.Samoilovich went to Turkestan ASSR, after which he became a rector of a "Türkological seminar". A.Samoilovich was a supporter of unifying the Russian Turkologists. In 1924 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1929 a full member ("academician") of the USSR Academy of Sciences. With an anthropological group of the Kazakhstan expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1927 A.Samoilovich traveled in the Altai Mountains, where he studied locations of ethnic groups of the Kazakh people.
A. Samoilovich conducted linguistic and ethnographic study of the Kazakh people
. He is credited with the creation of a "scientific definition" of the ethnonym "Kazakh". A. Samoilovich participated in the Stalin government's campaign of replacement the Arabic-script-based writing systems used for the languages of the Türkic peoples in the former USSR with a Latin-based alphabet
.
After his election as a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Presidium of the academy involved him in organizational work in science. His academical position involved him in the state relations with the USSR regions, he was heading the Kirgiz, Kazakh
, and Uzbek
sections of the Council on study of productive forces in the regions of national minorities. In 1932 Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences created a Kazakhstan base, and A.Samojlovich was appointed its chairman. A.Samojlovich continued to live in Leningrad
, where he was in charge of the most perspective for the Kazakhstan region direction in the development of global expansion of studies of mineral deposits, and assistance for the industry in extraction of minerals. A.Samojlovich was an initiator of scientific sessions gathered to address these production problems of Russian all-Union rate.
In 1933 the Kazakhstan base of the USSR Academy of Sciences held a session devoted to the development of the Karaganda
coal basin, the state plan of creation Uralo-Kuznetsk combinate
. Then A.Samojlovich chaired a session of the Academic council of the Kazakhstan base of the USSR Academy of Sciences with a special-purpose of studying the deposits of nonferrous metals in Altai and Zhezkazgan, for the development of the polymetallic industry, search and study of minerals (oil and others) in the western Kazakhstan. In these scientific forums A.Samojlovich involved leading scientists of that time, academicians Alexander Fersman
, Ivan Gubkin
, Andrey Arkhangelsky
, and yet unknown geologists V.Nehoroshev and N.Kassin, engineers K.Satpaev and M.Gutman.
A.Samojlovich was instrumental in organization in Kazakhstan of a National Culture scientific research institute, with a view that in the further the development of the academic science in Kazakhstan should be directed to the prospecting of utilization, among them the to the geology. From his base in Leningrad, A.Samojlovich believed that creation of branches and bases of the USSR Academies of Sciences, and their growth will contribute to the scientific and cultural life in the USSR in general.
of the Academy of Sciences from the "enemies of people
". In October 1937 A.Samojlovich was arrested, and found himself in the torture chambers of the USSR People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs
. In February 1938 he was sentenced to "10 years without a right of correspondence", and immediately shot dead. He was excluded from the USSR Academy of Sciences by a General meeting in April 1938.
Documents from the archives of Russian FSB show that A.Samojlovich case was signed to "reprisal of the first category" (execution) in the list No 123, called "Moscow-center", dated January 3, 1938, with names of 163 persons, initiated by GUGB NKVD
chief V.E.Tsesarsky, and approved by signatures of Andrei Zhdanov
, Molotov
, Kaganovich
, and Voroshilov
. A.Samojlovich was sentenced on accusation of espionage for Japan, and creation of counter-revolutionary Pan-Türkic nationalist organization..
, Volga, Northern Caucasus
, South Caucasus
, Middle Asia
, Kazakhstan
, and Altai. A. Samoilovich authored major works on language, literature, folklore and ethnography of Türkic peoples, general problems of Turkology, genetic classification of Türkic languages, and many others. Among dozens of various classifications of the Türkic languages, the classification developed by A.Samoilovich is most widely recognised (Samoilovich A.N. "Some additions to the classification of the Türkic languages", St. Petersburg, 1922). However, the regime-proscribed handling of "repressed" people was an obliteration of any memory of them, removal of any traces from printed media, photographs, libraries, and history. The scientific works of A.Samojlovich underwent a nearly complete eradication, they were totally unknown to the following generation of the Orientalists and Turkologists, until the present they have not been re-published, the citations of his observations and studies are practically non-existent, and only single copies of his books have or have not been preserved in special storage archives for prohibited material organized within the secret police authority. The practical result is that no information collected and processed by A.Samojlovich is available for modern researchers.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
-Turkologist, academician of USSR Academy of Sciences (1929), Rector of Leningrad Oriental Institute (1922–1925), academic secretary of Humanities Branch of USSR Academy of Sciences (1929–1933), director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1934–1937). Alexander Samoilovich was arrested by NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
in the beginning of October 1937 in the wave of Stalinist repressions, and executed on February 13, 1938.
Career
A.Samoilovich was born in Nizhny NovgorodNizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
, in the family of the director of the Nizhny Novgorod grammar school
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, and graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Institute for Nobles
Institute for Nobles
Institute for Nobles was a form of boys-only boarding school in the Russian Empire that provided secondary education in the 19th century. It was similar to a high school or gymnasium but was only open to boys from noble families, and students were usually required to live on the premises...
, and then the Oriental department of the Saint Petersburg University, majoring in Arabo-Persian-Türkic-Tatar languages. From 1907 A.Samoilovich taught Türko-Tatar languages at the St. Petersburg University. In 1920 he joined Vasily Bartold
Vasily Bartold
Vasily Vladimirovich Bartold was a Russian and Soviet historian and turcologist.-Biography:Bartold was born in Saint Petersburg.Bartold's lectures at the University of Saint Petersburg were annually interrupted by extended field trips to Muslim countries...
and Ivan Zarubin in providing Narkomnats
Narkomnats
People's Commissariat of Nationalities was the Government of the Soviet Union body set up to deal with non-Russian nationalities...
with an ethnographic analysis of Turkestan and the Kirgiz steppe. In 1921 and 1922 A.Samoilovich went to Turkestan ASSR, after which he became a rector of a "Türkological seminar". A.Samoilovich was a supporter of unifying the Russian Turkologists. In 1924 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1929 a full member ("academician") of the USSR Academy of Sciences. With an anthropological group of the Kazakhstan expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1927 A.Samoilovich traveled in the Altai Mountains, where he studied locations of ethnic groups of the Kazakh people.
A. Samoilovich conducted linguistic and ethnographic study of the Kazakh people
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
. He is credited with the creation of a "scientific definition" of the ethnonym "Kazakh". A. Samoilovich participated in the Stalin government's campaign of replacement the Arabic-script-based writing systems used for the languages of the Türkic peoples in the former USSR with a Latin-based alphabet
Uniform Turkic Alphabet
The Uniform Turkic Alphabet was a Latin alphabet used by non-Slavic peoples of the USSR in the 1930s. The alphabet used ligatures from Jaŋalif as it was also a part of the uniform alphabet. The uniform alphabet utilized Latin ligatures, excluding "w." Some additional ligatures were also introduced...
.
After his election as a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Presidium of the academy involved him in organizational work in science. His academical position involved him in the state relations with the USSR regions, he was heading the Kirgiz, Kazakh
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
, and Uzbek
Uzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
sections of the Council on study of productive forces in the regions of national minorities. In 1932 Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences created a Kazakhstan base, and A.Samojlovich was appointed its chairman. A.Samojlovich continued to live in Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, where he was in charge of the most perspective for the Kazakhstan region direction in the development of global expansion of studies of mineral deposits, and assistance for the industry in extraction of minerals. A.Samojlovich was an initiator of scientific sessions gathered to address these production problems of Russian all-Union rate.
In 1933 the Kazakhstan base of the USSR Academy of Sciences held a session devoted to the development of the Karaganda
Karaganda
Karagandy , more commonly known by its Russian name Karaganda, , is the capital of Karagandy Province in Kazakhstan. It is the fourth most populous city in Kazakhstan, behind Almaty , Astana and Shymkent, with a population of 471,800 . In the 1940s up to 70% of the city's inhabitants were ethnic...
coal basin, the state plan of creation Uralo-Kuznetsk combinate
Novokuznetsk Iron and Steel Plant
Novokuznetsk Iron and Steel Plant is a major Russian steel producer in the city of Novokuznetsk in Kemerovo Oblast in southwestern Siberia. The company's name is abbreviated to NKMK . The company specializes in the production of rails for railroads. NKMK is a subsidiary of the Evraz Group, a...
. Then A.Samojlovich chaired a session of the Academic council of the Kazakhstan base of the USSR Academy of Sciences with a special-purpose of studying the deposits of nonferrous metals in Altai and Zhezkazgan, for the development of the polymetallic industry, search and study of minerals (oil and others) in the western Kazakhstan. In these scientific forums A.Samojlovich involved leading scientists of that time, academicians Alexander Fersman
Alexander Fersman
Alexander Yevgenyevich Fersman was a prominent Soviet geochemist and mineralogist, academician of the Soviet Academy of Sciences ....
, Ivan Gubkin
Ivan Gubkin
Ivan Mikhaylovich Gubkin was a Russian geologist and president of the 1937 International Geological Congress in Moscow. He was a petroleum geologist particularly interested the region between the Volga and the Urals....
, Andrey Arkhangelsky
Andrey Arkhangelsky
Andrey Dmitriyevich Arkhangelsky was a Russian geologist. He was a professor at Moscow State University.He won the Lenin Prize in 1928.A crater on Mars was named after him.-External links:*...
, and yet unknown geologists V.Nehoroshev and N.Kassin, engineers K.Satpaev and M.Gutman.
A.Samojlovich was instrumental in organization in Kazakhstan of a National Culture scientific research institute, with a view that in the further the development of the academic science in Kazakhstan should be directed to the prospecting of utilization, among them the to the geology. From his base in Leningrad, A.Samojlovich believed that creation of branches and bases of the USSR Academies of Sciences, and their growth will contribute to the scientific and cultural life in the USSR in general.
Arrest and execution
But his designs were cut short. In the country of USSR began a purgingGreat Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
of the Academy of Sciences from the "enemies of people
Enemy of the people
The term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term. The term implies that the "enemies" in question are acting against society as a whole. It is similar to the notion of "enemy of the state". The term originated in Roman times as ,...
". In October 1937 A.Samojlovich was arrested, and found himself in the torture chambers of the USSR People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
. In February 1938 he was sentenced to "10 years without a right of correspondence", and immediately shot dead. He was excluded from the USSR Academy of Sciences by a General meeting in April 1938.
Documents from the archives of Russian FSB show that A.Samojlovich case was signed to "reprisal of the first category" (execution) in the list No 123, called "Moscow-center", dated January 3, 1938, with names of 163 persons, initiated by GUGB NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
chief V.E.Tsesarsky, and approved by signatures of Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
, Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
, Kaganovich
Lazar Kaganovich
Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich was a Soviet politician and administrator and one of the main associates of Joseph Stalin.-Early life:Kaganovich was born in 1893 to Jewish parents in the village of Kabany, Radomyshl uyezd, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire...
, and Voroshilov
Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...
. A.Samojlovich was sentenced on accusation of espionage for Japan, and creation of counter-revolutionary Pan-Türkic nationalist organization..
Scientific contribution
A.Samoilovich spent his life studying language, folklore, and life of Türkic-speaking peoples in CrimeaCrimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, Volga, Northern Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, South Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, Middle Asia
Middle Asia
Middle Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west, to Mongolia in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north. The geographical term has appeared sometime prior to the 20th century in the Russian Empire and was closely associated with the Russian Turkestan and the...
, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, and Altai. A. Samoilovich authored major works on language, literature, folklore and ethnography of Türkic peoples, general problems of Turkology, genetic classification of Türkic languages, and many others. Among dozens of various classifications of the Türkic languages, the classification developed by A.Samoilovich is most widely recognised (Samoilovich A.N. "Some additions to the classification of the Türkic languages", St. Petersburg, 1922). However, the regime-proscribed handling of "repressed" people was an obliteration of any memory of them, removal of any traces from printed media, photographs, libraries, and history. The scientific works of A.Samojlovich underwent a nearly complete eradication, they were totally unknown to the following generation of the Orientalists and Turkologists, until the present they have not been re-published, the citations of his observations and studies are practically non-existent, and only single copies of his books have or have not been preserved in special storage archives for prohibited material organized within the secret police authority. The practical result is that no information collected and processed by A.Samojlovich is available for modern researchers.