Chibirov, Lyudvig A.
Izvestia SOIGSI. 2023. IIS 48 (87).

Abstract:
Professor A. N. Genko is known as the largest Russian linguist, ethnographer, and specialist in the
history and ethnography of the indigenous peoples of the Caucasus, as a man of outstanding abilities
that allowed him to be fluent in almost thirty languages. As part of the All‑Union Central Committee
of the New Alphabet at the Presidium of the Council of Nationalities of the USSR Central Executive
Committee, he created alphabets for the non‑written languages of the Caucasus – Tsakhur, Lezgi,
Tabasaran, Abkhaz, Rutul, Khinalug. Genko also became a compiler of dictionaries and grammar.
The scientist is considered the first researcher of the Abaza, Ubykhs, Khinalugs, Tsakhurs. The article
concludes that a linguist of such a high level used his linguistic knowledge for an in‑depth study of
the ethnography of the peoples whose language he mastered. This is confirmed by the facts of the
scientist’s work biography, which combined activities in linguistic and ethnographic institutions: the
Research Institute for the Comparative Study of Literatures and Languages of the West and the East
at Petrograd University, the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
where in the 30s Genko was in charge of the Cabinet of the Caucasus, the Japhetic Institute, the
Cabinet of the Caucasus at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Lectures
of Genko for students of Leningrad State University (Introduction to the course of ethnography of the
Caucasus) allow us to consider him a specialist in other ethnic groups of the Caucasus, in particular
on the Ossetians. The purpose of the article is to analyze a special lecture on Ossetians, the text of
which is presented in this publication, and the information provided by it on a wide range of ethno‑
cultural issues in the remaining 19 lectures of the course. The article analyzes the material about the
Ossetians contained in the lectures, notes the advantages and inaccuracies in them. The above source
allows us to assess Genko’s contribution to the problems of Ossetian studies: ethnogenesis, material
and spiritual culture of the Ossetians.

Keywords: Anatolii Nestorovich Genko, lectures, languages of the Caucasus, ethnography, Ossetians.

Download the full text  

+ References