study proposed by him. The young linguists of Jazikofront, together with Danilov, shared the conviction with Marrists that Indo-European linguistics was an obsolete approach to the study of language, but their conclusions about what should replace it were different. They felt that linguistics had to deal with present-day reality and it should concentrate on the relation between language, class and the proletariat consciousness to create a socialist society. The Jazikofront criticised the Japhetic theory because its approach to the study of the language was useless to solve the real problems of Soviet linguistics. Danilov was attacked by both Indo-Europeanists and Marrists. His bitter enemy was Yevgeny Polivanov, whom Danilov accused of adopting an anti-proletarian position because he defended Indo-European studies and labeled as a Trotskyist. However, the arguments provided by Danilov to disprove the thesis of Polivanov were unclear and confusing, sometimes even contradictory. Danilov's influence on the new linguistic movement likewise brought him into conflict with the exponents of Marrism, who used the term "danilovščina" (даниловщина), coined by Jakubinskii, to denounce Danilov's ideas as a dangerous tendency for the development of new linguistics. Jazikofront survived until 1932. African studies in Soviet Union Georgy Danilov was also an exponent of African studies, and especially South Africa, which resulted in the creation of НИАНКП(the Research Association for the Study of National and Colonial Problems). Soviet African studies emerged in the late 1920s to the late 1930s. During that period none of Soviet Africanist scholars travelled to Africa; instead, in the early 1930s a Department of Africa was created at one of Comintern's universities, the Communist University of Eastern Toilers. There was also an African Department, or the African Laboratory (“Kabinet”) in the Academic Research Association for National and Colonial Problems. Its main task was collecting materials on Africa. The activities of both these centres were vibrant and diverse. Not only did they study Africa's socio–economic problems and history but languages as well. Both Moscow and Leningrad academics were involved in these studies, as well as émigrés� from African countries and Africans who came to study at the Comintern's universities (Lenin School and KUTV). Danilov was the initiator of the study of African languages in Moscow. His efforts gave birth to the first Soviet Congress for African languages in Moscow in January 1934, during which his two papers "Perspectives, tasks and methods of studies on African languages" and "Phonetical system of Swahili"