IN MEMORY OF THE FOUNDER OF THE MARI NATIONAL CARTOGRAPHY AND THE TEACHER OF THE TARTU UNIVERSITY YURI GORDEEV (1973-2020)

On 19.07.2020 died a geographer and terminologist, a graduate and lecturer at the University of Tartu and the founder of the Mari national cartography Yuri Vitalievich Gordeev (Estonian: Jüri Gordejev). Regional, national and linguistic aspects were main in his activities in geography and cartography. In his master’s thesis, Gordeev dealt with the problems of the national identity of the Eastern Mari. He worked as a lecturer at the Narva College of the University of Tartu and as a teacher of geography at the Narva Pähklimäe gymnasium. During the Narva period were completed his projects started in Tartu. The most important work of Yuri Gordeev is the map of the Republic of Mari El published in 2008, which consists only of Mari toponyms. A year later in 2009 Yuri Gordeev published a map of the Mari pagan groves. Gordeev took part in the projects of the Finnish Finno-Ugrist Seppo Lallukka. He was also involved in the compilation of terminological textbooks.