Stalin's Library: A Dictator and His Books

220. Pollock, Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars, p.144. This section on Pavlov draws on chap.6 of Pollock’s book.

221. I. P. Pavlov, Dvadtsatiletnii Opyt Ob”ektivnogo Izucheniya Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti Zhivotnykh, LenMendizdat: Leningrad 1932. Copy in the Stalin collection in the SSPL.

222. RGASPI, F.558, Op.11, D.762, doc.9, l.27. The final two sentences were hand-inserted by Stalin into the draft of his letter to Zhdanov dated 6 October. This document was drawn to my attention by Pollock, Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars, p.146.

223. B. S. Ilizarov, Pochetnyi Akademik Stalin i Akademik Marr, Veche: Moscow 2012 pp.145–7.

224. On the Latinisation campaign, see chap.5 of Terry Martin’s The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939, Cornell University Press: Ithaca NY 2001.

225. R. Medvedev, ‘Stalin and Linguistics’ in R. & Z. Medvedev, The Unknown Stalin: His Life, Death and Legacy, Overlook Press: Woodstock NY 2004 p.211.

226. RGASPI, F.558, Op.11, D.773, docs 6–7.

227. On Marr and his ideas: Y. Slezkine, ‘N. Ia. Marr and the National Origins of Soviet Ethnogenetics’, Slavic Review, 55/4 (Winter 1996).

228. Ilizarov, Pochetnyi Akademik Stalin p.186. The book may be found in the Stalin collection in the SSPL. The book was inscribed by the author not to Stalin but to another fellow Georgian, Lavrenty Beria.

229. N. Marr (ed.), Tristan i Izol’da: Ot Geroini Lyubvi Feodal’noi Evropy do Bogini Materiarkhal’noi Afrevrazii, Akad.Nauk: Leningrad 1932; N. Marr, Izvlechenie iz Svansko-Russkogo Slovarya, Petrograd 1922 (RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.212); N. Marr, O Yazyke i Istorii Abkhazov, Moscow-Leningrad 1938 (RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.213). A copy of the first book may be found in the Stalin collection of the SSPL. Its presence there was brought to my attention by Ilizarov Pochetnyi Akademik Stalin p.184, which also contains (pp.185–7) a detailed analysis of Stalin’s marks in the Abkhazia book.

230. RGASPI, F.558, Op.11, D.1250, doc.1. See also Pollock, Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars, p.112. I am generally indebted to Pollock’s coverage of the linguistics controversy in chap.5 of his book.

231. The drafts of Chikobava’s article, as edited by Stalin, may be found here: RGASPI, F558, Op.11, D.1251, doc.1. The cited additions by him may be seen on Ll.138–9, 162. See also Pollock, Stalin and the Soviet Science Wars, pp.112–14 and p.116, which contains a photocopy of the insertion by Stalin of the sentences about the withering away of national languages.

232. Translations of all the contributions published by Pravda may be found in The Soviet Linguistics Controversy, Columbia University Slavic Studies, King’s Crown Press: New York 1951. This booklet may be found on the Internet.

233. Medvedev & Medvedev, Unknown Stalin, p.215. Among the books Stalin consulted was a 1912 introductory textbook on linguistics by D. N. Kudryavsky.

234. RGASPI F.558, Op.3, D.19, p.378 of the book. It is not certain that Stalin read these entries at this time but it is highly likely that he did. Ilizarov (Pochetnyi Akademik Stalin, pp.202–10) provides a detailed analysis of these pometki but it does not add anything to Stalin’s stated views on language and linguistics. As Ilizarov points out (p.203), Stalin did not mark the encyclopaedia entry on Japhetic languages.

235. My summary and quotations derive from J. V. Stalin, Concerning Marxism in Linguistics, Soviet News Booklet: London 1950.

236. G. B. Fedorov (ed.), Po Sledam Drevnikh Kul’tur, Gosizdat: Moscow 1951. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.246, pp.8, 71–112 for Stalin’s markings.

237. Dobrenko, Late Stalinism, p.385.

238. Kotkin, Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, p.544.

239. J. Stalin, Works, vol.2, Foreign Languages Publishing House: Moscow 1953 pp.28–32.

240. Kotkin, Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, p.753 n.88.

241. Ibid., pp.544–5; R. Medvedev, Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism, Macmillan: London 1972, pp.509–10.

242. J. Stalin, Works, vol.9, Foreign Languages Publishing House: Moscow 1954 pp.156–8.

243. RGASPI, F.558, Op.3, D.105.

244. E. Dobrenko, Late Stalinism, p.358.