Larin, Boris Aleksandrovich

Born Jan. 5 (17), 1893, in Poltava; died Mar. 26, 1964, in Leningrad. Soviet philologist. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1945) and academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR (1949).

Larin graduated from the University of Kiev in 1914; he became a professor at Leningrad University in 1931. His principal works are on Slavic dialectology, Russian historical lexicology and lexicography, and the Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Sanskrit languages. A card index for a dictionary of Old Russian was compiled under Larin’s direction; the index is now in the Russian Language Institute in Moscow. In 1936, Larin wrote Project for a Dictionary of Old Russian: Principles, Instructions, and Sources. In 1960, Larin created a lexicographical Interdepartmental Dictionary Room (now the B. A. Larin Room) at Leningrad State University. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.