Yuri Lotman (also Juri, Jüri, Jurij) (28 February 1922 - 1993) was an important semiotician, culturologist, and philologist in Russian literature. The number of his printed works exceeds 800 titles.

Born in Leningrad (USSR/ Russia, now - Petersburg) to the Jewish family of Mihhail and Aleksandra Lotman, he studied philology in the Leningrad State University. During World War II he served in the artillery and after the war he came back to his studies in the university.

In 1950 Lotman went to Estonia and from 1954 began his work at Tartu University. In Tartu he set up his own school known as the Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School . Among other members of this school there are names of Uspensky, Ivanov, Toporov, Gasparov, Pyatigorsky, Revzin, Lesskis, etc. This school is widely known for its journal Sign Systems Studies published formerly in Russian as Trudy po znakovym systemam. Lotman studied the theory of culture, Russian literature, history, semiology (general theory of signs and sign systems), semiotics of cinema, arts, literature, robotics, etc. In these fields, Lotman has been one of the most widely cited authors.

Bibliography

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External links

• Short sketch by the Estonian Foreign Ministry
• Link page to works by and on Lotman
• Homepage of the Lotman Institute for Russian and Soviet Culture at the University of Bochum