This is the man who deciphered the Mayan script. His name is Yuri Knorozov. He didn’t have a place to live while he worked on this immense project, so he stayed in a small closet at a museum.
He was going to present his research at the defense of his Master’s thesis. There was every chance that he’d go straight to a concentration camp from the defense because Soviet orthodoxy held that there had been no pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. Knorozov’s research demonstrated that not only was the Mayan civilization real, it was also very sophisticated.
It took Knorozov under 5 minutes to deliver his findings. Instead of an MA, the committee unanimously awarded him a PhD. It was 1955, two years after Stalin’s death, and it was no longer as dangerous to challenge opinions on pre-Columbian times.
Knorozov’s life-long dream was to visit Mexico, but obviously he didn’t stand a chance of traveling anywhere while the USSR existed. He finally got a chance to see Mexico in 1990.
He died as he lived, abandoned and alone.
Clarissa's Blog 
Well, not entirely alone. Siamese cats are affectionate pets.
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I’m guessing the cat was dead by that time.
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“He died as he lived, abandoned and alone”
The only thing that would be more archetypical of linguists would be for him to end up in a place where all his attempts to communicate were met with befuddlement and hostility on both sides….
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That’s one scary-looking linguist.
But I can second that Siamese cats are wonderful pets, had several when I was growing up.
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It’s tragic how a lot of the best people are never supported.
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