Vasily Vasilievich Radlov or Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff (russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Ра́длов; in
Berlin – 12 May 1918 in
Petrograd
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
) was a
German-born
Russian founder of
Turkology, a scientific study of
Turkic peoples. According to Turkologist
Johan Vandewalle
Johan Vandewalle (born 15 February 1960) is a Belgian linguist. He teaches at Ghent University and specializes in Turkic languages.
Life
Vandewalle first became interested in Turkish at the age of thirteen, during a family holiday to Turkey.
He ...
; he knew all the
Turkic languages and dialects as well as
German,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
Russian,
Greek,
Latin,
Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
,
Mongolian,
Chinese,
Arabic,
Persian and
Hebrew.
Career
Working as a schoolteacher in
Barnaul, Radlov became interested in the native peoples of
Siberia and published his ethnographic findings in the influential monograph ''From Siberia'' (1884). From 1866 to 1907, he translated and released a number of monuments of Turkic folklore. Most importantly, he was the first to publish the
Orhon inscriptions. Four volumes of his comparative dictionary of
Turkic languages followed in 1893 to 1911. Radlov helped establish the
Russian Museum of Ethnography and was in charge of the
Asiatic Museum in
St. Petersburg from 1884 to 1894.
Radlov assisted
Grigory Potanin
Grigory Nikolayevich Potanin (alt. Grigorij Potanin) (russian: Григорий Николаевич Потанин; 4 October 1835 – 6 June 1920) was a Russian ethnographer and natural historian. He was an explorer of Inner Asia, and was the ...
on his glossary of
Salar language,
Western Yugur language, and
Eastern Yugur language in Potanin's 1893 Russian language book ''The Tangut-Tibetan Borderlands of China and Central Mongolia''.
During the
Stalinist repressions
Stalinist repressions is a period in Soviet history during the Stalin era. Examples include:
* Anti-cosmopolitan campaign (late 1948)
* Dekulakization (1929–1933)
* Doctor's Plot (1951–1953)
* Great Purge (1936–1938), the most usual meaning
* ...
of the late 1930s, the
NKVD and state science apparatus accused the late (ethnically German) Radlov of
Panturkism. A perceived connection with the long-dead Radlov was treated as incriminating evidence against Orientalists and Turkologists, some of whom were executed, including
Alexander Samoylovich in 1938.
Publications
* Radloff W. (1883). Aus Sibirien, Leipzig: T.O. Weige
Aus Siberien : vol.1Aus Siberien : vol.2
Atlas der Alterthümer der Mongolei : vol.1
(1892)
*W. Radloff. Versuch eines Wörterbuch der Türk-Dialekte.
Band I, 1. 1893
Band I, 2. 1893
Band II, 1. 1899
Band II, 2. 1899
* Radloff W.; trans. (1930). Suvarṇaprabhāsa: aus dem Uigurischen ins Deutsche übersetzt, Leningrad: Akad. Nauk SSSR.
* Radlov, Vasilij V (1913–1917). Suvarṇaprabhāsa: (sutra zolotogo bleska) ; tekst ujgurskoj redakcij, Sanktpeterburg. Imperatorskaja Akad. Nauk. XV. Reprint, Osnabrück. Biblio-Verlag 1970.
Aus Sibirien. Lose Blätter aus meinem Tagebuche (1893)
Tisastvustik; ein in türkischer Sprache bearbeitetes buddhistisches Sutra. I. Transcription und Übersetzung von W. Radloff. II. Bemerkungen zu den Brahmiglossen des Tisastvustik-Manuscripts (Mus. A. Kr. VII) von Baron A. von Stäel-Holstein (1910)
Further reading
* Laut, Jens Peter
in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 21 (2003), S. 96–97
* Temir, Ahmet (1955). Leben und Schaffen von Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff (1837–1918): Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Türkologie, Oriens 8 (1), 51–93
References
External links
Online conference Radloff 2012Vasily Radlov's translation of "Kunasi Im Pusar" translated to Turkish
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radlov, Vasily
1837 births
1918 deaths
Explorers of Central Asia
Russian orientalists
Linguists from Russia
Russian anthropologists
Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925)
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
German emigrants to the Russian Empire
People from Berlin
Directors of Asiatic Museum
German schoolteachers
Russian Turkologists