Yury Zuev


Yury Zuev (8 December 1932 – 5 December 2006) (Russian: Юрий Алексеевич Зуев) was a Kazakh sinologist and turkologist of Russian origin.

Zuev was born on in the Siberian city of Tümen in a white-collar family. Zuev studied in Leningrad State University to major in the historical studies of the Eastern countries, successfully learning Classical Chinese, Middle Chinese, and modern Chinese. In 1955, Zuev received a B.A. diploma and was sent to work in the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in 1967. His PhD thesis "Ancient Turkic genealogical legends as a source on early history of Turkic people" published a number of new discoveries about socio-political history of Turks, suggested etymology of the name of the Ashina tribe, traced historical past of the Turkic tribes in the Chinese genealogical legends, suggested a hypothesis about an ethnic triumvirate of Ashina-Ashide-Basmyl. It turned out that a main achievement in that publication became the etymology of the name of the Kagan tribe Ashina.

Zuev was a collaborator in fundamental editions of the USSR history: "Historical Atlas of the USSR peoples", "Historical atlas of the Kazakh SSR", and five-volume edition "History of the Kazakh SSR from most ancient times to the present". The mass of Yu.A.Zuev work included analysis of the Kazakhstan and Central Asia political history from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD, history of ancient and medieval periods, ethnical composition and movement of tribes in the Western Turkic Kaganate, pre-Mongolian period (10th–12th centuries) history. Zuev wrote about genesis, ethnic composition and political history of the Türgesh Kaganate.

After the fall of the USSR, Zuev was able to publish a number of works on ancient and medieval history of nomadic peoples of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan. These are "Sarmato-Alans of Aral (Yancai\Abzoya)" (1995), "Ancient Turkic social terminology in the Chinese texts of the 8th century" (1998), "Creation of Türgesh Kaganate: history and tradition" (1996), "Forms of the ethno-social organization of Central Asia nomadic peoples in antiquity and Middle Ages: pied horde, centuria (comparative – typological study)" (1998), "Kypchak Urbe-khan in epos and history" (2001), "Manichaeism and Talas (interpretation of Ancient Turkic inscriptions)" (2002), and others.

Тhe 70-year anniversary of the scientist in 2002 coincided with publication of his lifetime work, a monograph "Early Turks: Sketches of history and ideology", followed by "A Strongest Tribe" (2004) and "Seyanto Kaganate and Kimeks (Central Asian Turkic etnogeography in the middle of the 7th century)" (2004).

His publications contain approximately 40 major works.

Selected works

References and sources