Marr N.Y., (1864/65-1934), orientalist, linguist

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
MARR Nikolay Yakovlevich (1864-1934), orientalist and linguist, member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1909), Russian Academy of Science (1917), and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1925; Vice-President from 1930). Graduated from the Oriental Faculty of the University of St. Petersburg in 1890, where he taught from 1891 to 1934. Promoted to professor in 1901, became Dean of the Oriental Faculty in 1911-17, then Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. In 1919, he was appointed the first president of the State Academy of the History of Material Culture. In 1921, he became President of the Institute of Japhetic Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (called the Japhetic Institute from 1922, and the Institute of Language and Thought from 1931). In 1922, he was made the head of the Caucasian Historical and Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences. In 1924-30, he also assumed directorship over the State Saltykov-Shchedrin Public Library. His major academic contribution is in the field of Armenian and Georgian Philology. Marr also put forth a new "monogenetic theory of language" (the so-called Japhetic theory). He chaired the Central Soviet of the Department of Scientific Workers from 1923. In 1928, he was awarded the Lenin Prize. Marr lived at 7 Fourth Line of Vasilievsky Island, then moved to 1/2 Leytenanta Schmidta Embankment. He died in Moscow and was buried in the Communist Section of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

References: Голубева О. Д. Н. Я. Марр. СПб., 2002.

O. N. Ansberg. Lenin (real name Ulyanov) Vladimir Ilyich
Marr Nikolay Yakovlevich
Saltykov-Shchedrin (real name Saltykov) Mikhail Evgrafovich
4th Line of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 7
Leitenanta Schmidta Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 1/2
Голубева О. Д. Н. Я. Марр. СПб., 2002 Russian Academy of Sciences
State University, St. Petersburg
Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute of Language and Thought of the Russian Academy of Sciences