David Marshall Lang (6 May 1924 – 20 March 1991), was a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...

Studies,

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. He was one of the most productive

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

scholars who specialized in

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n and ancient

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

n history.

Biography

Lang was born in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

and was educated at

Monkton Combe School (Thy Word is Truth) , established = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , founder = The Revd Francis Pocock , head_label = Head Master , head ...

and St John’s College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

where he was a Major Scholar and later held a Fellowship. Aged 20, having graduated from Cambridge, he was an officer in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

when he was appointed in 1944 as acting Vice-Consul in

Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...

, Iran, where he acquainted himself with the city's Armenian population. In 1949 he was the member of staff for the

. He began as Lecturer in

Georgian language Georgian (, , ) is the most widely-spoken Kartvelian language, and serves as the literary language or lingua franca for speakers of related languages. It is the official language of Georgia and the native or primary language of 87.6% of its p ...

, then as Reader and in 1964 he became Professor of Caucasian Studies. In 1953 he held a Senior Fellowship at the Russian Institute of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and in 1965 he was a visiting Professor in Caucasian Studies at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Between 1962 and 1964 he was Honorary Secretary of the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Lang visited

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...

three times during the 1960s and 1970s. It was on one of these visits to the Soviet Union, in December 1963, that he was allegedly recruited by the

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

, according to KGB files copied in Moscow by archivist

Vasili Mitrokhin Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (russian: link=no, Васи́лий Ники́тич Митро́хин; March 3, 1922 – January 23, 2004) was a major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Dir ...

. The archivist also refers to his alleged career as an operative of English counter-intelligence which, according to the dates in The Mitrokhin Archive, would have been before he was 20 years old. The historian

Donald Rayfield Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Josep ...

alleged that Lang befriended

Alexi Inauri Aleksi Inauri ( ka, ალექსი ინაური; russian: Алексей Николаевич Инаури, ''Aleksey Nikolayevich Inauri'') (May 12, 1908 – June 23, 1993) was a Soviet and Georgian commander who headed the Georgian KGB ...

, the head of the Georgian KGB, who might have instigated him to denounce anti-Soviet dissidents in Georgia. For a long time, Lang directed the Caucasian Studies Department at the University of London, and lectured in Caucasian languages and history at Cambridge and various universities around the world.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

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Selected bibliography

*''The Wisdom of Balahvar'' (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1957) *''The Last Years of the Georgian Monarchy, 1658-1832'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957) *''First Russian Radical, Alexander Radischev, 1749-1802'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1959) *''A Modern History of Georgia'' (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1962) *''The Georgians'' (New York: Praeger, 1966) *''Armenia: Cradle of Civilization'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1970) *''The Peoples of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and Caucasus'' by

Charles Allen Burney Charles Allen Burney (born 1930) is a British archaeologist known for his discovery of Urartian sites in Turkey in the 1950s and his excavations at Yanik Tepe, Tabriz, Iran from 1960 to 1962. Early life Burney was born in 1930 and educated at Eto ...

and D.M. Lang (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971) *''Bulgarians: From Pagan Times to the Ottoman Conquest'' (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976) *''Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints'' (New York: Crestwood, 1976) *''The Armenians: A People in Exile'' (London: Allen and Unwin, 1981) *''Armenia and Karabagh: the Struggle for Unity'' (London: Minority Rights Group, 1991)

Biography

Selected bibliography

Notes

See also