Olegas Trubačiovas

IN MEMORIAM |251 Now, stone on stone will remain, word after word, cake after cake will be collected, and the dust will be placed, and the dust will be thrown at you. (Literatūra un maksla, 1987 03 13). Anton Breidaks will no longer enjoy the language of his parents and will not add words to the song. Algirdas Sabaliauskas OLEGAS TRUBACIOVAS 1930 10 23 — 2002 03 09 Russian Slavistics suffered a painful blow: after a serious illness, one of its most prominent representatives, Oleg Trubachev, a talented scholar who left a bright mark in the study of the Baltic languages, died. O. Trubachev was born on October 23, 1930 in Volgograd. In 1952, he graduated from Dnipropetrovsk State University, and in 1952-1955 he studied at the Moscow State Lomonosov University (under S. B. Bernstein). From 1955 to 1961 he worked at the Institute of Slavistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1961 until his death, O. Trubachev's main scientific activities were related to the Russian Language Institute. 5 Latgalian writing: olive bush in the place of the fence, where stone on stone… No, stone on stone will remain, words from the branches of trees, from under the grass will be collected, put into a song, and parents will rejoice in the language, the orphan humiliated, — from the depths rises an old, long forgotten whisper. 252 | IN MEMORIAM In 1957 O. Trubačiov defended a candidate thesis, which was later published as a separate book History of Slavic language kinship terms and some of the oldest social order terms (Mcmopus ciaeanckux mepsunos podemea u Kekomopbix Opeeneiiumx mepmunos obujecmeenro2o cmpos, Mocxea, 1959). While writing his dissertation, O. Trubachev worked in Lithuania for a long time. He carefully reviewed the review of Kazimieras Buga's etymological dictionary, his then unpublished work Notes and additions to A. Preobraženski's etymological dictionary of the Russian language. Soon after, another book by O. Trubachev, which is important not only for Slavic, but also for Baltic linguistics, appeared: Origin of the names of domestic animals in Slavic languages (Ilpoucxo- >icdenue nazeanuii 0oMQUIHUX JICUBOMHBIX 6 CrasaHcKux asvikax, Mocksa, 1960). A couple of years later, he published a work written together with Vladimir Toporov, Linguistic analysis of hydronyms of Upper Transnistria (JIuneeucmuueckKuū ananu3 2uoporumoe Bepxnezo Iloonenpoews, Mocxea, 1962), which continued previous researches of K. Buga and showed that the territory of the ancient Balts included the entire upper Dnieper basin. O. Trubachev wrote a sequel to this work, The Names of the Right Bank Rivers of Ukraine (Haseanua pex Ilpaeo6epencnoti Yxkpaunni, Mocxea, 31-53). 1968). In 1965, O. Trubačiov defended his doctoral dissertation, which was also soon published as a separate book Slavic Languages Crafts Terminology (Pemecaennas mepmunono2us 6 Chaeanckux aswikax, Mocxea, 1966). Perhaps the most surprising conclusion of this work is that the lexical isoglosy of the Balto-Slavic languages in this area is much less than that of the Slavic-Germanic and Slavic-Latin languages. Various problems of the lexicon of the Baltic languages were also examined by O. Trubachev in some of his other works. He also touched on the oldest relations between the Baltic and Slavic languages in his controversial monograph Omuozenes u kyiwmypa opesneiiuux chaean (1991). With the help of the group's collaborators, O. Trubachev prepared a major work on Slavic etymology, the Etymological Dictionary of Slavic Languages (3mumonozuueckuii croeaps cChaeanckux s361KO6, Mocksa, 1974-). Congratulating O. Trubachev on his seventieth anniversary, his colleagues probably correctly pointed out that this work is “the peak of his career, a bitter and charming torture”. It is a pity that the summit of this journey is probably only halfway (the beginning of the letter 0 in the 26th notebook), and the main passenger is no longer there… Not only to Slavists, but also to Baltists, O. Trubachev did a favor by translating Max Wasmer’s Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language (Russisches etymologisches Worterbuch, Heidelberg, 1953-1957, I-III) into Russian. He also added his own notes to the translation. In 1972, Trubachev was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. At the time, he was the youngest philologist member of this scientific institution and the only one whose scientific interests were so closely linked to Baltic studies. In 1992, Trubachev was elected a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1997 he has been editor of the leading Russian journal of linguistics Bonpocer aseikosnanus. In 1963 he founded and edited the continuing publication Omunono2ua. O. Trubachev worked closely with Lithuanian linguists. In 1967, he defended the doctoral theses of Simo Karaliūnas and Zigmantas Zinkevičius at Vilnius University. He lectured at the Institute of Lithuanian Language and Literature. IN MEMORIAM [253 O. On the occasion of Trubachev- ’s death, Vladimir Toporov wrote to the author of these lines: ‘Su With the death of Trubachev, iš the most famous etymologist of our time, etymologist iš God's grace." Oleg Trubachev buried southwest į from Troekurovskaya Cemetery in Moscow. This cemetery has already shelter one ne Russian scientist well known to us. Algirdas Sabaliauskas