Ideology and Linguistics in the USSR: from the History of the Formation of cognitive Linguistics in Russia (based on the materials of the journal Questions of Linguistics

• Чернышева Анна Сергеевна

  A. S. Chernysheva. Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service. Vladivostok. Russia

Abstract. The article deals with the process of popularization N. Chomsky’s generative grammar theory in the USSR in the 1960–1980s which further laid the groundwork for the development of Russian cognitive linguistics school. While in the West, especially in the United
States, new ideas were very popular and found followers, the development of linguistics in the USSR was inextricably linked with the socio-political situation in the country. Theories of "Marrism" that prevailed in Soviet linguistics from the 1930s to the early 1950s, the repression
of the 30s, and the post-war struggle against cosmopolitanism made it difficult to research in new directions, especially those that were actively developing abroad. Soviet linguists got the opportunity to get acquainted with foreign linguistic theories and publications, to discuss them expressing their own point of view thanks to the journal ‘Voprosy Jazykoznanija’ (Language Study Topics), founded in January 1952 with a periodicity of six issues a year. The author connects the journal foundation with the discussion on linguistics, in particular, on the attitude to "Marrism", on the pages of the ‘Pravda’ newspaper (May – June 1950). I. V. Stalin’s participation in the discussion and his sharp criticism of N. Ya. Marr’s ideas played a decisive role. It led not only to the founding of a linguistic journal, but also to a new course in linguistics – comparative history. The article focuses on two chief editors of the journal, V. V. Vinogradov (1952–1969) and F. P. Filin (1971–1982), who formed the main editorial policy. Changing the nature of the journal publications towards criticism of foreign theories during Filin’s editorial period led to the lag of Soviet linguistics in the development of new directions. However, on the whole, Chomsky's theories served as a kind of triggering mechanism
for the main idea of cognitive linguistics: human language and thinking should be studied together, and not separately.
Keywords: the journal ‘Voprosy Jazykoznanija’ (Language Study Topics), cognitive linguistics, N. Chomsky, generative grammar, history of science, V. V. Vinogradov, F. P. Filin.