Elizaveta Nikolaevna Baskakova, a Researcher of the Udihe Language: Some Biographical Information

Abstract

This paper explores the life and scholarly work of Elizaveta Nikolaevna Baskakova (1910–1981), a researcher of the Udihe language. Although her materials on the Samarga dialect of Udihe recorded in 1936 are well known to linguists, her name remained largely forgotten for many years. Genealogical research methods have made it possible to establish her full name and clarify certain details of her biography. Recently discovered archival materials shed light on Baskakova’s family origin and her early years, her studies at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute and the Leningrad Institute of Philosophy, Linguistics, and History, as well as her work at the Far Eastern Committee for the New Alphabet, where she contributed to literacy courses. This paper presents two reports written by Baskakova: her report on the literacy course she led in 1934–1935 and the report on her 1936 fieldwork among the Samarga Udihe (the latter contains the titles of the texts as well as the names of the narrators and their age). Overall, the study provides deeper insight into the training of northern studies specialists in the mid-1930s, their work including their direct involvement in literacy campaigns in the Soviet Far East, and their later years.