"Marxism and Problems of Linguistics" () is an article written by

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

, most of which was first published on June 20, 1950 in the newspaper "

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 co ...

" (the "answers" attached at the end came later, in July and August), and was in the same year published as a pamphlet in large numbers. The article appeared in the context of the last wave of publications by Marrists who supported the

Japhetic theory In linguistics, the Japhetic theory of Soviet Union, Soviet linguist Nicholas Marr, Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr (1864–1934) postulated that the Kartvelian languages of the Caucasus area are related to the Semitic languages of the Middle East. ...

, attacking the "old" linguistics, that had started in Pravda on May 9, 1950. Yet, instead of supporting Marrism, Stalin brought the campaign into a full turn, decisively finishing Marrism's acceptability in Soviet science. The "discussion" in the paper lingered a little while longer but didn't bring much new, due to the impossibility of arguing with Stalin, and the field of Soviet linguistics was effectively shifted. The next year, the Academy of Sciences published a hardbound volume of commentaries named "Session of the Department of Social Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. devoted to the anniversary of the publication of "Marxism and Problems of Linguistics", running a print of 10,000.

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* Works by Joseph Stalin 1950 documents Works originally published in Pravda 1950 in the Soviet Union {{USSR-stub