Nikolai Aleksandrovich Nevsky

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Nevsky (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Не́вский; the surname is also transcribed Nevskij; March 1 [O.S. February 18] 1892, Yaroslavl - 24 November 1937, Leningrad) was a Russian and Soviet linguist, an expert on a number of East Asian languages. He was one of the founders of the modern study of the Tangut language of the mediaeval Xi Xia Empire, the work for which he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science in Philology during his life, and Lenin Prize posthumously. He spent most of his research career in Japan before returning to the USSR. He was arrested and executed during the Great Purge; his surviving manuscripts were published much later, starting in 1960.

Nikolai Nevsky, graduated from Rybinsk Gymnasium in 1909 with a "silver medal" (the second class of distinction), and entered the St Petersburg Institute of Technology. However, after a year he transferred to the Department of Oriental Languages of the Saint Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1914. Among his teachers were Vasiliy Mikhaylovich Alekseyev and Aleksei Ivanovich Ivanov. In 1915 N.A. Nevsky was sent to Japan for two years, but due to the revolution and Russian Civil War he ended up staying remained in Japan for a much longer time.

While living in Japan, N.A. Nevsky traveled around the country, studying the language and customs of the Ainu, the Miyako language of the Miyako Islands, and the Tsou language of the Tsou people of Taiwan (then a part of the Japanese Empire). He published a number of research articles in Japanese journals.

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