Yakov Brandt

Yakov Yakovlevich Brandt (Russian: Яков Яковлевич Брандт; 1869–1944, Beijing) was a Russian sinologist, diplomat, linguist and professor.[1][2][3]

Yakov Yakovlevich Brandt
Яков Яковлевич Брандт
Born	1869 (1869)
Died	1944 (aged 74–75) Beijing, China
Alma mater	Saint Petersburg Imperial University
Occupation(s)	Sinologist, diplomat, linguist, professor

He graduated from the Saratov gymnasium. In 1892 he graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Languages at Saint Petersburg Imperial University. He worked as an officer on special assignments in the Ministry of Finance. He worked as a senior teacher at the Russian Language School at the Beijing Department of Management Chinese Eastern Railway. In 1901, Brandt became the head of the Beijing Department of Chinese Eastern Railway. In 1915, he became an Active State Councillor[4] and developed projects for the development of Sinology education in Russia. After the October Revolution, he was a member of the Government (business office) of General L. D. Horvat in Vladivostok in 1918.[5][6] He served as professor of the Institute of Russian Language and Law in Beijing from 1921 to 1924.[7] Professor Yakov Brandt was the director of the Russian School of Chinese Language and deputy rector of the Harbin Law School.[8] Most of his textbooks for learning Chinese and Russian were published by the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing.[9] He died in 1944 in Beijing.[10] Professor Yakov Brandt, being the director of the Russian School of Chinese Language and Deputy Rector of the Harbin Law Institute, was the author of books such as «Почин. Опыт учебной хрестоматии для преподавания русскаго языка в начальных китайских школах». («Initiative. The experience of a textbook for teaching Russian language in primary Chinese schools.» 1906, 1910 - 1911), «Русско-Китайский Переводчик: сборник наиболее необходимых слов, выражений и фраз, преимущественно военного характера, с указанием китайских знаков и их произношения» («Russian-Chinese Translator: a collection of the most necessary words, expressions and phrases, mainly of a military nature, with an indication of Chinese characters and their pronunciation», 1906) and «Самоучитель китайского письменного языка» («Tutorial Chinese written language», 1914), considered for the first 20 years of 20th century as the best Russian Chinese educational materials.[11]

Since 1925, Brandt began teaching at the North China Union Language School. The result of this activity of Brandt, after three semesters, was a textbook in English «Introduction to literary Chinese (漢文進階)», published in 1927, which was reprinted several times.[12] In 1944, Brandt compiled and published the «English-Chinese Vocabulary».