Viktor Ivanovich Borkovsky – linguist and linguistics personality (to the 125th anniversary of the birth

   The purpose of the article is to analyze the linguistic heritage and characterize the linguistic personality of academician V. I. Borkovsky (1900–1982).   It is stated that he held leading positions in the field of Slavic studies and history of Russian in the 1940s and early 1980s.   The relevance and innovation of the article lies in the fact that the activity of V. I. Borkovsky is revealed in the description of the diachronic processes of the Russian language: the publication of monuments of writing, participation in the deciphering of newly found birch bark letters, the development of problems of historical syntax of the Russian language, etc.   The project of creating an «Encyclopedia of Slavic Linguistics» initiated by V. I. Borkovsky is being published for the first time. The initiatives of the scientist as editor of the journal «Russian language at school» (1950–1953) are described in detail. The article provides rare documentary evidence of the relationship between V. V. Vinogradov, B. Unbegaun and V. I. Borkovsky. The original features of his linguistic personality are noted: musicality, poetic talent, sense of style. The author talks about the environment of V. I. Borkovsky and his family ties with the Karsky dynasty. The main research methods used in the article are historical and linguistic, source studies, stylistic, linguistic personology, linguocultural. The results obtained are confirmed by the introduction of new archival data, a commented analysis of V. I. Borkovsky’s scientific activities based on historical facts and forgotten documents, a rethinking of the scientist’s contribution to linguistics of the 20th century and the creation of an extraordinary linguistic portrait of the philologist against the background of historical, cultural and social events in science in the 1930s and early 1980s. The article can be used as an auxiliary material for lectures and classes on the history of linguistic studies and general linguistics, historical grammar of Russian and other Slavic languages. The analyzed materials fill in the little-known pages of the chronicle of linguistics of the 20th century and give a fresh look at the nature of scientific connections and ideas of Soviet linguistics.