We present herein a study on the alignment of nematic liquid crystals by a thin spincast film of linear polysilane, The in-plane alignment of the polysilane chains was achieved by pre-illumination of the azobenzene containing monolayer, lying underneath, with a linear polarized light. Such a polysilane layer was found to align nematic liquid crystals in a uniform planar texture with preferred direction of orientation of the liquid crystal molecules lying along the polysilane main chains. In addition, the observed strong thermal fluctuations far bellow from the transition to isotropic phase indicated that the anchoring of the nematic on the polysilane film seems to be rather weak. The present study illustrates an approach for aligning liquid crystals through two-step transfer of orientational order from a photocromic monolayer to the liquid crystal via a buffer layer.