Born in
Narva (modern-day Estonia) to the Russian noble , Shakhmatov was brought up by his uncle near
Saratov. His mother was Marie von Kohsen of German origin. He went to a public school in Moscow and developed interest for
Old East Slavic language and
literature at an early age. At the age of 16, his articles started to appear in the most authoritative journal of Slavic studies of that time, the (
Archive of Slavic Philology). Shakhmatov furthered his education at the
Imperial Moscow University (1883–1887), later delivering lectures in the same institution. His first
monograph, published in 1886, examined the language of ancient
Novgorod charters. In 1891 he became so enthusiastic about
zemstvo that he gave up his scholarly pursuits for three years and held a minor administrative office in his native village. In 1894, Shakhmatov returned to Moscow and won great acclaim for his PhD
dissertation, entitled
Studies in the Sphere of Russian Phonetics. Five years later, he was admitted to the
Russian Academy of Sciences, and over the following years became one of the most reputable academicians. He revived the Academy's linguistic periodicals, edited the academic dictionary of Russian language and was elected to represent the Academy at the
State Council of Imperial Russia and
Imperial State Duma. In 1909, Shakhmatov moved to work at
Saint Petersburg University as a professor. By that time, he had been elected doctor
honoris causa by the
Charles University,
Berlin University,
Polish Academy of Sciences, and many other scholarly societies.
1917 Revolution , Saint Petersburg Shakhmatov participated in the
Commission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia set up in February 1917. He also helped prepare sweeping
reforms of Russian orthography, which were implemented by the
Bolsheviks in 1918; this orthography has largely remained unchanged into the 21st century. Shakhmatov refused to leave Petrograd for the West, a fatal decision that led to his premature death from malnutrition and exhaustion in 1920. The Academy subsequently cherished his memory and instituted a special Shakhmatov Prize, to be awarded "for the best works in source science, textology and linguistics". ==Works==