Outstanding Graduates of Karazin University: Linguist Leonid Bulakhovskyi

Leonid Bulakhovskyi is a Ukrainian Slavic studies scholar.

He was born in Kharkiv into the family of a mechanic. In 1910, he graduated from the School of History and Philology of Kharkiv University with a diploma of the first degree and a gold medal. He worked as a gymnasium teacher. In 1916, he became an associate professor at Kharkiv University. He was also a professor at Perm, Kharkiv, Moscow, and Kyiv universities. During 1946–1947, he headed the Department of Ukrainian Language, and during 1947–1960 — the Department of Slavic Philology at the University of Kyiv. During 1944–1961, he was the director of the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, and in 1957–1961, he chaired the Ukrainian Committee of Slavists. In 1939, he was elected an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, and in 1946 — a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He was the Merited Scientist of the USSR since 1941.

Leonid Bulakhovskyi was the editor-in-chief and one of the authors of the fundamental "Course of Modern Ukrainian Literary Language", author of textbooks for secondary and higher schools. He published almost 400 scientific works, including "Introduction to Linguistics", "Essays on General Linguistics", "Questions about the Origin of the Ukrainian Language", and others.

He studied Old Russian monuments of the XII-XIV centuries, developed Ukrainian lexicography. The linguist made a significant contribution to systematization of the Ukrainian spelling. Contrary to the formal grammatical direction, the scholar substantiated the unity of grammar with spelling and stylistics. He worked a lot on general and specific problems of the Ukrainian language teaching methods.

One of the streets in Kyiv is named after Leonid Bulakhovskyi.