«A RED PHILOLOGIST REPORTED THAT HE SOLVED THE RIDDLE OF CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHICS»: DECIPHERMENT OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING BY YURI KNOROZOV IN THE CONTEXT OF SOVIET PUBLIC SCIENCE DIPLOMACY OF THE 1950s

Abstract

The paper focuses on how the decipherment of Maya writing by Yuri Knorozov was promoted in the context of Soviet science diplomacy in the 1950s, and the reaction to this discovery in the foreign public sphere. The process of informing about Knorozov’s breakthrough in the study of Maya hieroglyphs began in the summer of 1952 in “Literaturnaya gazeta”, even before the official publication of his article. In response, “The New York Times” published two comments in which the name of the young Russian scholar was mentioned for the first time. Particular interest was expressed in Mexico, where all major newspapers reacted to the news from USSR. This motivated the Soviet embassy to publish an abbreviated Spanish translation of Knorozov’s article in their bulletin in 1953. This publication, in turn, contributed to the spread of information both among a wider audience and among the academic community. After the defense of Knorozov’s dissertation, when he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Sciences (Habilitation), a new promotion campaign started. His report on the decipherment with an English translation was distributed to the participants of the 10th Congress of Historical Sciences in Rome (1955), and later he presented his discoveries at the 32nd International Congress of Americanists in Copenhagen, which caused a wide international responce. Publications in the Soviet public journals such as “Sovietsky Soyuz” (Soviet Union) and “Novoe Vremy a” (The New Times) played a special role. They paid less attention to the ideological confrontation and highlighted the achievements of Soviet historical science. By the end of the 1950s, the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs became one of the main elements of the positive image of Soviet science.