In September 2015, Lev Rafailovich Kontsevich, the largest Russian philologist and Korean scholar, specialist in linguistics, literature and cultural history of Korea, creator of the scientific and practical transcription of Korean words, widely used in Russia, celebrated his 85th birthday. In his years, the hero of the day works hard and productively. His recently completed next large-scale book "Dictionary of Geographical Names of the Republic of Korea" is scheduled for publication in early 2016.

L. R. Kontsevich was born in Tambov on September 3, 1930. While still at school, he was interested in literature and linguistics, spent a lot of time in libraries, completed shorthand courses, knowledge of which was very useful to him in later life. In 1948, he entered the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies (MIV), choosing the Korean language and culture as his main specialty. The choice was not random. In those years, Soviet Korean studies was just emerging. There were no dictionaries, textbooks, or modern specialized literature. Thus, this field opened up a wide field of activity for the young researcher.

Already at the Institute, the area of scientific interests of Lev Rafailovich was determined. He became interested in phonetics and writing problems. He was greatly influenced in this regard by his teachers, Korean philologists: Viktor Antonovich Khvan (Khvan Yundyun, 1916-1969) and Han Dykpon (1906-1995), the Mongolist G. D. Sanzheev and the Caucasian scholar N. F. Yakovlev, who participated in the creation of alphabets for the languages of the Caucasus based on their phonetic structure.

The further fate of L. R. Kontsevich is mainly connected with the Institute of Oriental Studies. In 1953-1956, as a graduate student at the Institute, he wrote a PhD thesis on the phonetics of the modern Korean language. Although he did not defend it, it laid the foundation for his further work on the history of the Korean alphabet and for the creation in the 1960s of a system of practical transcription of Korean words in Cyrillic (based on the system of A. A. Kholodovich). The Korean basis for transcription was the phonemic Korean alphabet hangul, created in the 15th century. L. R. Kontsevich's system is considered official and is widely used in Russia. It is accepted on all geographical maps published in our country. This transcription primarily takes into account the phonetic features of pronunciation, and not the spelling of Korean words in hangul. The transcription system is described in detail, in particular, in the work of L. R. Kontsevich "Rules for transmitting Korean names, titles and terms when publishing translations of ancient Korean written monuments" in the book "Korean Studies. Selected Works" (Moscow, 2001), which presents the main directions of his activity until the end of the 1990s, as well as in the article "Russian and Latin systems of transcription of words and proper names" (RAUK website (Russian Association of University Korean Studies): www.rauk.ru.

From 1958 to 1974 Lev Rafailovich worked as the head of the Department. Department of Language and Culture and executive secretary in the editorial office of the journal " Soviet Oriental Studies "("Peoples of Asia and Africa", now " Vostok (Oriens)"). He continued his editorial work in the future. So, from 2001 to 2007, L. R. Kontsevich was the editor-in-chief and co-editor of the annual almanac "Russian Korean Studies", and now he is a member of the editorial board of the heir to this publication"Bulletin of Russian Korean Studies".

In 1973 Lev Rafailovich defended his PhD thesis " Issues of textual analysis of the first monument of Korean writing "Hunmin chonym" "(YVES AN, 198 p.) He was interested not only in Korean writing, but also in its history and evolution: for example, the use of two systems-hangul (phonemic writing) and hanmun (hieroglyphic writing) in different periods of Korean history, the use of each of them separately and both at the same time, problems with reading the monument that arise when using both writing systems in combination or incorrectly.

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Lev Rafailovich is a broad-minded scientist who does not limit himself to linguistic issues, but always takes into account extralinguistic factors. Hence his interest in proper names and their correct transcription and transliteration, as well as geographical names. In the 1980s, as an expert on the preparation of an international project for transliteration of Korean letters in Latin letters in the Standing Committee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO TK 46), he proposed several transliteration options, which were supported by almost all participants. L. R. Kontsevich also wrote a number of works on the transcription of Chinese proper names, for example, " Chinese proper names and terms in the Russian language (manual of transcription)" (Moscow, 2002). It is used in the multi-volume edition " Spiritual Culture of China. Encyclopedia".

Lev Rafailovich is the author of scientific works on Korean mythology, medieval prose and poetry. He is also well-known as a compiler, academic translator, and author of notes for Korean written monuments. Thus, he prepared editions of the most important monuments of Korean poetry and prose from the Middle Ages to the XIX century and their translations (some jointly with L. Zhovtis, M. I. Nikitina, B. L. Riftin, M. N. Pak, etc.): Chon Chol. "Lone Crane: from the Korean poetry of the XVI century "(Moscow, 2009), " Bamboo in the snow. Korean lyrics of the VII-XIX centuries "(Moscow, 1978) (in 2012, the series "Golden Fund of Korean Literature" published an expanded reissue of this anthology under the title "Autumn Maples"); "Korean legends and legends from medieval books" (Moscow, 1980). Together with M. N. Pak and others, he participated in the publication of the most important historical source, Kim Busik. "Samguk sagi (Historical records of Three states). Book 3. Various descriptions. Biographies" (Moscow, 2002) and others. Lev Rafailovich prepared sections on medieval Korean prose and poetry in volumes 16 and 18 of the Library of World Literature.

One of the main achievements of the scientist was the work "Hunmin chonim" ("Instruction to the people on correct pronunciation") (Moscow, 1979), where he first gave a textual and paleographic analysis of the first monument of Korean writing (1446), which is considered one of the highest achievements of the medieval culture of Korea; he has many publications on this topic. The crowning achievement of Lev Rafailovich's work in this area is the monograph "The World of Hunmin Chonym "(Moscow, 2013), in which he included the world's most complete bibliography of works on Korean writing and phonetics. In this field, he is a recognized authority among Korean scholars around the world.

Lev Rafailovich knows how to conduct scientific cooperation like no other, he knows which scientist or translator to invite to participate in the publication, and, in addition, he is on friendly terms with his colleagues. In recent years, he has often performed at memorial events for famous scholars and translators.

Lev Rafailovich is particularly attentive to familiarizing the Russian reader with Korean literature, history, biographies and works of Korean authors, as well as foreign and Russian Korean scholars. He is the author of almost all articles on Korean literature in the Short Literary Encyclopedia (Moscow, 1962-1968), sections of the article "Korea" in the Soviet Historical Encyclopedia (Moscow, 1965), about 30 articles on Korea in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (ed. 3, Moscow, 1969-1978), articles in various reference books on the Korean language, mythology, music, etc. In total, he wrote about 400 encyclopedic articles. I would especially like to take revenge on his articles on Korean mythology (there are about 120 of them) in the encyclopedias "Myths of the peoples of the World" in 2 volumes (Moscow, 1980-1982 et al.) and "Mythological Dictionary" (Moscow, 1990 et al.). In 2008, he published a reference and bibliographic index " Selected bibliography of literature on Korea in Russian and Western European languages (from the XIX century to 2007)".

L. R. Kontsevich is very careful about the works and heritage of Russian Orientalists and Korean scholars. Thus, he was a responsible editor of the works of L. F. Trotsevich and M. I. Nikitina on Korean literature and mythology. Lev Rafailovich is the compiler and publisher of the collection "Selected Works. Works on Oriental and General Linguistics " by E. D. Polivanov (Moscow, 1991), which includes archival materials stored in Moscow and Prague. He devoted a number of works to the life and work of this great linguist of the XX century. Lev Rafailovich reconstructed and published the manuscript of A. A. Kholodovich "Materials on the grammar of the Korean language of the XV century "(2nd issue, Moscow, 1986) and the manuscript of Y. N. Mazur " Grammar of the Korean language. Morphology and word formation" (Moscow, 2001, together with Moon Hyosuk). Lev Rafailovich compiled bibliographies of works by A. A. Kholodovich, Yu. N. Mazur, and wrote articles about E. D. Polivanov, N. F. Yakovlev, B. K. Pashkov, L. B. Nikolsky, Yu. N.Mazur, V. D. Tikhomirov, V. A. Hwang Yundyun, and other Russian linguists and Korean scholars.

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Lev Rafailovich has done a lot to preserve the scientific heritage of scientists and the works of representatives of the Korean diaspora. They were sent to the Republic of Korea to publish the works of the Korean philologist Kyo Bon-woo, the multi-volume historical novel "Terem of Humanity (Injongnu)" by the Soviet Korean writer Moon Geum-dong, and others. He managed to preserve the most valuable file cabinet, which has now been brought to print (see: G. D. Sanzheev, M. N. Orlovskaya, Z. V. Shevernina. Etymologicheskiy slovar ' mongol'skikh yazykov: v 3 t. [Etymological Dictionary of Mongolian languages: in 3 vols.] / Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, gl. ed. by G. D. Sanzheev, ed. by L. R. Kontsevich, V. I. Rassadin, Ya. D. Leman.

L. R. Kontsevich tries as much as possible to acquaint the foreign public, in particular the Korean public, with the achievements of domestic Korean studies. He participated in the publication of encyclopedias dedicated to Korean studies in different countries and Russia. He has written a considerable number of works in Russian, Korean and English on the history of Korean studies and on the prospects for its development in Russia and abroad. One of his main concerns is the preservation of traditional Korean studies in our country.

Lev Rafailovich closely monitors the state of domestic and foreign Korean studies. He contributed a lot to the replenishment of the largest libraries in Moscow with new literature from Korea, presents Korean studies literature on the Internet, and participated in the development of Russian fonts for Korean computer programs and Korean fonts for the Word program in the early 1990s.

Lev Rafailovich speaks Korean well, especially written language. He worked in Korean special groups at the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU, was an interpreter for delegations of the DPRK Academy of Sciences, writers and scientists. I spent a lot of time on business trips to North and South Korea. He was one of the first Russian philologists to visit the Republic of Korea in 1989 at the invitation of the Korean Science Foundation. He was one of the first to be invited as a professor of Russian language teaching at the State University. Gyeongsang University (Jeonju, Republic of Korea), where in 1991-1995, he simultaneously taught Korean students in the field of Korean traditional culture.

Lev Rafailovich taught Korean at the ISAA at Moscow State University in the 1960s and 1970s and taught the courses "Introduction to Korean Philology" and "Korean Source Studies" at the Institute of Oriental Cultures and Antiquities of the Russian State University in the 1990s and 2000s. Russian linguistics and Korean studies and take into account their achievements, even if the researcher uses modern theories and methodology.

In recent years, Lev Rafailovich has been working on fundamental works that fill in the gaps in Korean studies (and more broadly, in Oriental studies). both Russian and foreign languages. The most important works of this period are " Selected bibliography of works on Korea in Russian and Western European languages from the end of the XIX century to 2007 "(Moscow, 2008), scientific reference publication "Chronology of the countries of East and Central Asia" in 2 volumes (Moscow, 2010-2011). "Dictionary of Geographical Names of the Republic of Korea", ready for publication, covers all areas of toponymy, verified from official sources and reflected in five spellings (Russian, Korean, Chinese and two Latin letters adopted since 2000 in South Korea "new Romanization" and the traditional system of Makkyun Reischauer).

Lev Rafailovich enjoys national and international recognition. In 1999, he was one of the 10 leading Korean scholars in Europe and Asia, and was awarded the prestigious international prize" For Services to the Development of Korean Linguistics "by the Tongsun Science Foundation. In 2012, he was awarded two prestigious awards at once: in the Russian Academy of Sciences, he was awarded the S. F. Oldenburg Prize for "Chronology of the countries of East and Central Asia"; in the Republic of Korea, for his outstanding contribution to Korean linguistics and the dissemination of Korean writing, he was awarded one of the highest state awards for foreign scientists-the Order of the Silver Crown in areas of culture. In December 2015, Lev Rafailovich was awarded the Krachkovsky I. Y. silver medal by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Lev Rafailovich has been a member of more than ten international and regional associations over the years. He is an honorary member of the Association of Korean Studies in Europe, a member of the editorial board of the series " Studies on Korea "(about 30 books), published by the International Center for Korean Studies at Moscow State University, the series "Russian Korean Studies in the Past and Present", published by the Institute of Korean Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Korean Cultural and Educational Center "First of March", etc.

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Lev Rafailovich's personal life has developed, as he himself says, God grant everyone. Lev Rafailovich's wife Irina Leonidovna worked as an engineer (they have been living together for 60 years); both of his sons are working successfully: The older one is Leonid in the field of computer programs, and the younger one is Maxim, a well-known mathematician, winner of many prestigious international prizes. Lev Rafailovich has three grandchildren.

We are employees of the Department of Asian and African Languages, where Lev Rafailovich has been working since the 1970s, and we admire his hard work and encyclopedic knowledge. He has established himself not only as a painstaking scientist, but also as a brave, purposeful, caring, friendly, optimistic and sociable person. Lev Rafailovich always expresses his opinion without fear of criticism. He has a very clear life and scientific position, but he does not impose it on others. Always happy to share books and give advice.

The vision problems that have been discovered over the years would have been a serious and possibly insurmountable obstacle to any other person's work. But Lev Rafailovich, who bravely endured several serious operations, does everything in his power to maintain his working capacity, and continues to work fruitfully.

The staff of the Department of Languages wishes Lev Rafailovich health and longevity, successful completion of the works he is working on, as well as new creative ideas and achievements.

In connection with his departure to live with his eldest son and grandchildren at the end of 2015, Lev Rafailovich presented books from his rich library to various Russian and foreign universities (RSUH, NSU, the Center for Korean Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, etc.), state libraries (VGB, INION) and scientific institutes( IB, IDV), as well as also in the Museum of Oriental Art. He sent his archive to the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (St. Petersburg). He donated Russian and foreign fiction to Khimki School No. 3, where his wife studied and his children started their studies.

The staff of the magazine "Vostok (Oriens)" also cordially congratulate Lev Rafailovich on his anniversary and wish him further success and selfless work in his chosen favorite field of Korean studies.

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