Arnold Chikobava ( ka, არნოლდ ჩიქობავა) (March 14, 1898 – November 5, 1985) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Georgian linguist and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

best known for his contributions to Caucasian studies and for being one of the most active critics of

Nicholas Marr Nikolai Yakovlevich Marr (, ''Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr''; , ''Nikoloz Iak'obis dze Mari''; — 20 December 1934) was a Georgian-born historian and linguist who gained a reputation as a scholar of the Caucasus during the 1910s before embarking ...

's controversial monogenetic "Japhetic" theory of language. Chikobava was born in the small village of Sachikobavo in Samegrelo, western Georgia (then part of

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

). He graduated from the recently established Tbilisi State University in 1922 and earned a degree there, later serving as a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

(1926–33) and

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

(1933-85). For years, he headed the Department of Caucasian Studies at Tbilisi State University (1933–60), and the Department of Ibero-Caucasian languages at the Institute of Linguistics in Tbilisi (1936–85). The institute, briefly directed by Chikobava from 1950 and 1952, now bears his name. In 1941, he became one of the founding members of the Georgian Academy of Sciences and was elected to its Presidium from 1950 to 1963. For his prolific work, he was awarded numerous

and international prizes and titles. He authored a series of Georgian dictionaries and influential works on the structure and history of Caucasian languages. Most of his fame, however, came through his criticism of Marr's speculative linguistic theory that was adopted, for a while, as an official ideology by Soviet scholars. While most of Marr's opponents came under heavy pressure from the Soviet authorities, Chikobava benefited from his friendship with the First Secretary of the Georgian Central Committee, Kandid Charkviani, and continued his attacks against Marr's hypotheses. Finally, he sent his report to

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

; he met Stalin personally in 1950. Soon, Stalin denounced Marr's theory in his famous

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...

article on linguistics (one ghostwriter was, most probably, Chikobava himself).Smith, Graham (1998), ''Nation-building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands: The Politics of National Identities'', p. 178.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...

, . Chikobava died in Tbilisi at the age of 87. He was buried on the grounds of Tbilisi State University.

References

External links

Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics of the Georgian Academy of Sciences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chikobava, Arnold 1898 births 1985 deaths People from Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Mingrelians Linguists from the Soviet Union Linguists from Georgia (country) Philologists from Georgia (country) Tbilisi State University faculty Members of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences Linguists of Caucasian languages Linguists of Kartvelian languages Paleolinguists Linguists of North Caucasian languages 20th-century linguists 20th-century philologists Historical linguists Honoured Scientists of the Georgia (country)