Iudakhin, Konstantin Kuzmich

Iudakhin, Konstantin Kuz’mich 

Born May 3 (15), 1890, in Orsk, Orenburg Province; died Mar. 22, 1975, in Frunze. Soviet linguist and Turcologist. Professor (1940); doctor of philological sciences (1949). Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR (1952); academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR (1954).

ludakhin graduated from the Turkestan Oriental Institute in 1925. From 1928 to 1936 he helped create new national alphabets for the peoples of the USSR. He wrote numerous works on the development of national languages. ludakhin taught for some time. In 1944 he was appointed a research worker at the Institute of Language, Literature, and History of the Kirghiz Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (the Kirghiz Branch became the Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR in 1954).

ludakhin compiled bilingual dictionaries of the Uzbek and Uighur languages. His most important publication was A Kirghiz-Russian Dictionary (1940; supplementary edition, 1965; State Prize of the USSR, 1967), a fundamental work that contributed to the development of the Kirghiz literary language.

ludakhin was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.

REFERENCES

Kaidarov, A. T. “Konstantin Kuz’mich ludakhin.” Narody Azii i Afriki, 1963, no. 6.
Sartbaev, K. K. “Konstantin Kuz’mich ludakhin: K 80-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia.” In Tiurkologicheskie issledovaniia. Frunze, 1970.

F. D. ASHNIN