born Jan. 6, 1865, Kutaisi, Georgia, Russian Empire
died Dec. 20, 1934, Leningrad, Russia, U.S.S.R.
Russian linguist, archaeologist, and ethnographer.
A specialist in Caucasian languages , he published collections of literature in the Georgian and Armenian languages and tried to prove a relationship between the Caucasian and Afroasiatic languages and the Basque language . His theory that all languages evolved from one original language and that the creation of language was a class-related phenomenon was adopted as official Soviet linguistic doctrine until 1950, when Stalin denounced it.