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The study is devoted to the life and scientific path of M.V. Panov – an outstanding philologist, teacher, popularizer of the science of language. Particular attention is paid to the scientific interests of M.V. Panov in the field of spelling, his work as deputy chairman of the Spelling Commission in the 1960s, which was preparing a large-scale spelling reform, and activities to popularize spelling, which was associated primarily with the need to explain to society the essence of the changes proposed then. Understanding of M.V. Panov, a speller and educator, is necessary for the further successful work of not only spelling codifiers, but also popularizers of linguistic science. Despite the fact that today it is not supposed to reform the Russian letter and created at the Institute of the Russian Language. V.V. Vinogradov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a complete academic description of the rules of modern Russian spelling does not imply any changes to the existing rules for writing words, the tasks of linguistic education are not at all outdated. Today, like 60 years ago, native speakers confuse the language itself and writing, pronunciation and spelling, and when commenting on any news related to the language, they demand that “language reforms” be prevented. The legacy of the enlighteners of the past can and should be used by modern popularizers of orthographic science, whose main task today and in the foreseeable future is to prepare the ground for a calm conversation in society about the fate of Russian spelling.

The article is dedicated to the release of the third edition of “Russkii yazyk” encyclopaedia (Moscow, 2020) which continues and promotes the tradition of providing the main data about the Russian language. The article presents not only the announcement of the new edition (nonetheless giving the detailed information about it), but also an account of the over-40-yearlong history of the “Russkii yazyk” encyclopaedia. It highlights the features uniting all three of its editions and the distinct points each of them has. The article demonstrates that many principles of presenting information on the language and Russian studies, the terms making up the glossary as well as the illustrations for the articles were created back in the first edition (1979) and remained ever since. However, each of the three editions had a number of particular changes both in content and in the layout. While the first edition was a small book, the second one was a substantial volume printed in a larger font and supplemented with many colourful illustrations, maps and tables. In the second edition, the number of entries on historical-cultural and source-study issues increased and new topics were covered, but personalia articles devoted to the linguists were excluded. The third edition of the encyclopaedia is even larger than the previous ones. It is certainly the main focus of the article. The book has changed and expanded; the majority of its entries were revised or written anew. The authors use the example of the “Tainye yazyki” [Secret languages] entry present in all three editions to demonstrate the revisions, additions and elaborations introduced in every new version. The appearance of the new edition of the “Russkii yazyk” encyclopaedia became a milestone in the development of Russian studies: the book summarises the existing research and records the obtained results as well as opening up prospects to the researchers, setting new goals and offering new avenues for development.