Nikolai A.Baskakov
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Baskakov Nikolay Aleksandrovich (Николай Александрович Баскаков, 1905-1995) was an outstanding Turkologist, linguist, and ethnologist, who studied dead and live Türkic languages and dialects, created a systematization model of Türkic linguistic family now called "Baskakov classification" after its creator, and studied Türko-Rus symbiosis in the 10-11 centuries CE. During 64 years (1930-1994) of scientific work, N.A.Baskakov published almost 640 works. Among them were 32 books, i.e. a whole library of a Türkologist Orientalist. The main area of N.Baskakov scientific interests was linguistics (Türkic languages), but he also worked in folklore field and ethnography of Türkic peoples, and also was was a musician and as the composer. N.Baskakov succeded in publishing everything he wrote, and that feat is in itself a great achievement. In the opinion of Türkologists, N.Baskakov personifies a live history of Türkic linguistics during the Soviet years.
N.A.Baskakov was born in 1905 in Solvychegodsk in Vologda (now Arkhangelsk) province in a large family of a district government official. His father came from a family banished in the beginning of 19th century from Saint Petersburg to the Vologda province, and mother was a daughter of an official and a teacher. N.A.Baskakov wrote about his surname in a book about Russian surnames of Türkic origin (1979) "Surname Baskakov comes from Tatar baskak Amragan (*Amyr-khan), a viceroy in the second half of the 13th century in Vladimir. The Türkic origin of this surname is confirmed by the surname basqaq "viceroy of Kipchak Khanate Khan", and by the heraldic arms depicting a curved saber in the center, and an image of a Tatar holding a red curved saber above a casque" (p. 245). The surname Baskak had not less than 700 years of complex history.
In 1916 a young student Baskakov met an old friend Bessonov of his father, a Russian dragoman or envoy to Jedda (then in the Ottoman empire). The stories of the Russian diplomat about eastern countries affected young imagination of pupil Baskakov, he took a great interest in the East, and in particular Turkey, he began reading about Turkey, and even tried to study independently the Turkish language. In the N.Baskakov's words, "This pursuit probably affected selection of my specialty as Türkologist, which my father later named "missionary work", or maybe my specialty was prompted by the genes of my ancestors, Türks or Mongols?".
[edit] Major Publications
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[edit] References
- Tenishev E.R. "N.A.Baskakov. Biography of a scholar from the collection for 90-year aniversary", 1995, ([www.altaica.narod.ru/personalia/baskakov.htm] in Russian)
