| Yevgeny Dmitrievich Polivanov | |
|---|---|
 Yevgeny Polivanov |
|
| Born | 12 March [O.S. February 28] 1891 Smolensk, Russian Empire |
| Died | January 25, 1938 (aged 46) Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic |
| Occupation | linguist |
| Nationality | Russian |
Yevgeny Dmitrievich Polivanov (Russian: Евге́ний Дми́триевич Полива́нов; 12 March [O.S. February 28] 1891 – January 25, 1938) was a Soviet linguist, orientalist and polyglot.
He wrote major works on the Japanese, Chinese, Uzbek, and Dungan languages and on theoretical linguistics and poetics. He participated in the development of writing systems for the peoples of the Soviet Union and also designed a cyrillization system for Japanese language, which was officially accepted in the Soviet Union and is still the standard in modern Russia. He also translated the Kyrgyz national Epic of Manas into Russian. Polivanov is credited as the scholar who initiated the comparative study of Japanese pitch accent across dialects.[1]
During the Russian revolution of 1917 and the civil war, Polivanov was active first in the Socialist Revolutionary Party and later in the Bolshevik Party. He worked in the Oriental section of People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in 1917-1718 and in the Komintern in 1921.
In 1928-1929 he expressed disagreement with Nikolay Marrs Japhetic theory, which was promoted by the regime at the time.
During the Great Terror, Polivanov was arrested on August 16, 1937 and was charged with spying for Japan. On January 25, 1938, he was tried in a closed session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR and pleaded non-guilty. He was sentenced to death and executed by NKVD near Moscow. He was rehabilitated in 1963.
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