While working with the collections of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences in February-March 2010, the author of these lines was lucky enough to find a letter from F. L. Shapiro1 addressed to V. A. Gordlevsky 2. The letter is dated June 13, 1954. In it, F. L. Shapiro informed Academician Gordlevsky that he had completed the manuscript of the essay "Course of the Hebrew Language". Accompanying the letter with part of the manuscript, Shapiro asked Gordlevsky to set up a meeting to discuss the essay.

This document is interesting for two reasons. First, although it is not known how V. A. Gordlevsky responded to F. L. Shapiro's request, it is safe to say that the Soviet Hebraist and a prominent Russian Turkologist were in business relations. This thesis is also confirmed in Shapiro's letter to the head of the Science Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU V. A. Kirillin3 dated January 24, 1958. The document was published in the 17th volume of the collection "Jewish Samizdat" [Jewish Samizdat, vol. 17, 1979, pp. 55-56]. In the letter, Shapiro insisted that he had begun work on a practical Hebrew dictionary in 1953 at the suggestion of Academician Gordlevsky and Professor Huber.4 Based on the content of the letter published below, we can safely say that V. A. Gordlevsky was somewhat familiar with Shapiro's works.

1 Shapiro Felix Lvovich (Nathan-Feitel) (1879-1961)-Russian and Soviet Hebraist, teacher; compiler of the only Hebrew-Russian dictionary published in the USSR (1963) [Shapiro, 1963]. This edition immediately became a bibliographic rarity. The application for printing the dictionary was received by the publishing house from F. L. Shapiro back in 1957. It is interesting that the 1963 edition is printed from left to right, and not from right to left, like all Jewish books. L. Prestina, the daughter of Felix Lvovich, insists that this was the instruction given to the publishing house by the regulatory authorities [Prestina-Shapiro, 2005, p. 39]. In the same edition, the letter p ("hay") is too similar to the letter p ("hett"). This is explained by L. Prestina: "There was no Hebrew font in the printing house... A suitable font was found in a dilapidated printing house at the old Vilnius synagogue. Unfortunately, there was no letter "hay", and all words on it begin with the letter "hittite"" [Prestina-Shapiro, 2005, p. 38]. In the late 1950s, the Jewish quarter of Vilnius with its synagogues was located on the site of the present Vokieciu g. All the buildings were demolished in 1962-1963, when this street was expanded. (The author of this article owes this information to the Lithuanian art critic Dr. Vilma Gradinskaite.) According to the memoirs of Zionist underground activists in the USSR, the dictionary was used as a textbook for self-study of the Hebrew language. Memories of F. L. Shapiro and some of his works are given in the cited collection "Dictionary of the Forbidden Language" (Prestina-Shapiro, 2005). In 1978, several articles about the life of F. L. Shapiro appeared in the Jewish Samizdat: "Hebrew Collection of materials for the centenary of the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language" [Jewish Samizdat, vol. 17, 1979]. In 1979, an essay on the life of F. L. Shapiro was published by his student A. I. Rubinshteyn (1979).

2 Gordlevsky Vladimir Aleksandrovich (1876-1956)-Russian and Soviet Turkologist, Professor (1925), corresponding member. Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1929), full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1946) (about him see: [Miliband, 1995, book 1, pp. 318-320; Biobibliographical Dictionary, 1989, pp. 76-77]); (works of V. A. Gordlevsky, see: [Gordlevsky, 1960-1968]).

3 Kirillin Vladimir Alekseevich (1913-1999) - Soviet physicist, state and party leader; corresponding member. USSR Academy of Sciences (1953), Academician (1962), Vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1963-1965), in 1955 - 1962 - Head of the Department of Science, Universities and Schools of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

4 Alexander Andreevich Guber (1902-1971) - Soviet orientalist, historian, specialist in Southeast Asia, Doctor of Historical Sciences (1943), Professor (1935), corresponding member. Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1953), full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1966) (see: [Miliband, 1995, Book 1, pp. 343-345]). The Great Soviet Encyclopedia indicates that Huber served as Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1954-1956 (see: [BSE, vol.7, 1972, p. 425]). In the aforementioned letter to Shapiro Kirillin dated January 24, 1958, it is said that Huber served as the head of the Institute of Oriental Studies in 1953.

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Secondly, the found letter clarifies the available information about the works of F. L. Shapiro. So, in the list of his works, which is available in the collection compiled by Shapiro's daughter Leah Prestina [Prestina-Shapiro, 2005, p.310-314], the mentioned "Course of the Hebrew Language" does not appear. Prestina cites the "Hebrew Language Course", grammar and anthology (the date of their preparation is not specified), as well as the "Essay on the Hebrew Language", prepared by 1960. All of these works have not been published (see [Prestina-Shapiro, 2005, p. 313]). The above letter to Shapiro Gordlevsky dated June 13, 1954 indicates that in the first half of the 1950s F. L. Shapiro was preparing for publication an essay called "A Course in the Hebrew Language".

Although in the memoirs themselves, L. Prestina speaks about this work of his father. She claims that on May 19, 1956, F. L. Shapiro sent the following note to the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences:

"In connection with my upcoming report on the Hebrew language course, I am sending you the course's manuscript. The manuscript includes:

1) The introductory part.

2) Forty (40) lectures.

3) Anthology.

4) Reference section.

5) Alphabetical dictionary... "(pit. po: [Prestina-Shapiro, 2005, p. 41]).

L. Prestina points out that the manuscript, which was in the family, was seized during a search of Vladimir Prestin, a conscientious objector and activist of the Zionist movement in the USSR, her son and grandson F. L. Shapiro [Prestina-Shapiro, 2005, p. 41].

The following letter is kept in the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the personal fund of V. A. Gordlevsky [Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, f. 688, op. 4, 356, l. 1], autographed by F. L. Shapiro. There is only one document in the file. Paper of approximately A4 size is folded in half, the letter is written in ink on the first sheet, the turn of the first sheet and the subsequent sheet are clean.

Letter from F. L. Shapiro to V. A. Gordlevsky

"13.06.1954

Dear Vladimir Alexandrovich,

I have completely finished my work: "A course in the Hebrew Language" and brought it to the editing stage. I am currently making a number of corrections to the manuscript, as directed by T. Starinina V. P. 5/

I am sending you a part of my manuscript, asking you to read it and allow me to see you personally for consultation on the book as a whole. I could come to you any day with the entire manuscript in my hands.

Yours sincerely, F. Shapiro".

list of literature

Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. f. 688. Op. 4. D. 356. L. 1.

Belova A. G. Semitic linguistics in Russia (XIX-XX centuries).Part 2 // Vostok (Oriens). 2004. N 3.

Biobibliographical dictionary of domestic Turkologists: Pre-October period / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Oriental Studies; prepared by A. N. Kononov. 2nd ed., reprint Moscow: Nauka, GRVL, 1989.

BSE (Great Soviet Encyclopedia). In 30 vols. 3rd ed. Vol. 7. Moscow: Sov. entsiklopediya, 1972.

Gordlevsky V. A. Izbrannye sochineniya [Selected works]. In 4 volumes, Moscow: GRVL, 1960-1968.

Jewish samizdat: Vol. 17 / Podgotovka k pech. Ya. Ingerman. Jerusalem: Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Center for Research and Documentation of Eastern European Jewry, 1979.

5 Vsevolod Pavlovich Starinin (1903/1904-1973) - Soviet semitologist, Candidate of Philological Sciences (1933), one of the founders of the "concept of discontinuous morpheme", widespread in Semitic linguistics (see: [Belova, 2004]). About V. P. Starinin, see: [Miliband, 1995, book 2, p. 440]. The main works of V. P. Starinin: "The structure of the Semitic word. Intermittent morphemes" (Starinin, 1963) and "Ethiopian Language" (Starinin, 1966).

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Miliband S. D. Biobibliographical dictionary of Russian Orientalists since 1917 In 2 books. / RAS. Institute of Oriental Studies. 2nd ed., reprint. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1995.

Prestina-Shapiro L. Dictionary of the forbidden language. To the 125th anniversary of F. L. Shapiro, Collected Works by L. Prestin. Minsk: MET Publ., 2005.

Starinin V. P. Struktura semitskogo slova [Structure of the Semitic word]. Intermittent morphemes / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Peoples of Asia, Moscow: Publishing House of Oriental Literature, 1963.

Starinin V. P. The Ethiopian language. Institute of Peoples of Asia, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1967.

Shapiro F. L. Hebrew-Russian Dictionary / Under the editorship of B. M. Grande, Moscow: State Publishing House of Foreign Languages. and nat. dictionaries, 1963.

Rubinshteyn A. Etlekhe verier vegn Feliks Lvovitsh Shapiro (tsu zayn 100-yorikn geburtstog) (A few words about Felix Lvovich Shapiro: To the centenary of his birth) / / Soviet Heymland (Soviet Homeland). 1979. N 11.

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