Vasily Radlov

From Freepedia

Vasily Vasilievich Radlov or Wilhelm Radloff (1837 – 1918) was the German-born Russian founder of Turcology, or the scientific study of the Turkic peoples.

Working as a schoolteacher in Barnaul, Radlov became interested in the native peoples of Siberia and published his ethnographic findings in the influential monograph From Siberia (1884). From 1866 to 1907, he translated and released a number of monuments of Turkic folklore. Most importantly, he was the first to publish the Orhon inscriptions. Four volumes of his comparative dictionary of Turkic languages followed in 1893 to 1911. Radlov helped to establish the celebrated Ethnography Museum in St Petersburg.