Dmitrii Pozdneev

Born Jan. 27, 1865, in Orel; died in 1942. Russian Orientalist, brother of A. M. Pozdneev.

Pozdneev graduated from the faculty of Oriental languages of the University of St. Petersburg. At first a privatdocent, in 1898 he became a professor at the University of St. Petersburg, where he taught Chinese history and the economic geography of the Orient. He lived in China from 1900 to 1903 and compiled an economic trade survey of China’s ports. In 1905–06, Pozdneev served as director of the Oriental Institute in Vladivostok. During his stay in Japan from 1906 to 1910, he compiled the first Russian dictionary of Japanese characters. Upon returning to Russia, Pozdneev assisted in organizing the Practical Oriental Academy in St. Petersburg. From 1917 to 1937 he taught the history and economics of China and Japan at the Leningrad State University, the Leningrad Oriental Institute, and the Frunze Military Academy of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in Moscow.