Klavdia Starkova and the Beginning of the Study of Qumran Manuscripts in the USSR

Abstract

The author of this article reconstructs the scientific biography of the Leningrad semitologist-Hebraist K. B. Starkova and shows her role in the formation of Soviet Qumran studies. The source of this research consists of the scientific works of K. B. Starkova and her colleagues devoted to the analysis of Qumran texts, sources of personal origin of Soviet Orientalists, and documents deposited in the personal fund of K. B. Starkova in the Archive of Orientalists of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (office documents, correspondence materials, drafts scientific works, etc.). Based on the above materials and taking into account the general context of the development of Qumran studies in the USSR and beyond, the author of this article concludes that K. B. Starkova not only translated into Russian some manuscripts of the Dead Sea, but also showed the crucial importance of Deuteronomy for the formation of Qumran literature, while offering her own reading of the image of the Righteous Mentor (or the Teacher of Righteousness). At the same time, her research was devoid of the defining influence of Soviet Marxism, although the general approach to the analysis of manuscripts partly corresponded to the general Soviet trend towards the study of social processes in the ancient world.