IN MEMORIAM. Igor Černov

In memoriam
Igor Černov
18 March 1943 – 21 March 2025

Igor Černov, born on 18 March 1943 in the village of Oktjabrski in the Gorky region in Russia, passed away on 21 March 2025 in Joensuu in Finland. Until the late 1990s, Černov played an immensely significant role in shaping the landscape of semiotics in Estonia and was a driving force behind its development.

Following the restoration of Estonia’s independence, largely thanks to Igor Černov’s efforts, the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu was established in 1992. Professor Černov served as its first Head until 1997.

Černov’s life work and remarkable impact extended far beyond founding and leading the department. His decades-long dedication to raising awareness of semiotics as a science and an independent field of study laid the foundation for its institutionalisation at the University of Tartu. The department was initially without lecturers or students, yet, in a short time, Černov managed to secure both, building the department from the foundations of the earlier Laboratory for the History and Semiotics of Culture and the Department of Russian Literature. He brought in both lecturers and eager listeners.

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As the newly established department’s head, Černov developed its first curriculum in semiotics and cultural studies and personally taught many of the semiotics courses. For him, colleagues, friends, and students often belonged to the same category; engaging with students as peers proved inspiring for both sides. Černov’s attitude towards his students reflected the same attentive mentorship he had once received from his own teacher, Juri Lotman.

Černov began his academic journey at the University of Tartu in 1962, studying Russian philology. Under Professor Lotman’s guidance, he followed a specialised programme in the Department of Russian Literature and was, notably, the sole attendee of Lotman’s first special course on structural poetics. He graduated in 1966 with a thesis titled "The Worldview of the Russian Chronicler", and in 1975 defended his candidate’s dissertation, "The Literary Culture of the Russian Baroque Era: Approaches and Methods of Study". Both theses were supervised by Juri Lotman.

Černov quickly became Lotman’s right hand in editing publications, organising semiotics gatherings, and establishing important contacts. It was Černov, then still a third-year student, who travelled to Moscow in 1963 as a representative of the Department of Russian Literature and proposed cooperation to scholars interested in semiotics. This pivotal visit marked the beginning of the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School and the renowned Kääriku summer schools. One of Černov’s guiding principles is worth remembering: "if you want, you can achieve it". He demonstrated this by placing Estonian and Tartu semiotics firmly on the world map, including securing its membership in the International Association for Semiotic Studies – IASS.

Towards the end of his life, Juri Lotman, recognising Černov as his successor in semiotics, entrusted him and the head of the Department of Russian Literature, Ljubov Kisseljova, with the continuation of his and Zara Mintz’s life’s work — caring for the future of the departments of semiotics and Russian literature, with a particular focus on fostering people, trust, tolerance, and generosity in relationships. With his unique esprit and spark, Igor Černov carried these values with him until the very end.