The oldest of four brothers, all of whom had tangential associations with archeology, Fedor was a Byzantinist, best known as the director of the Russian Archeological Institute in Constantinople, which opened in 1894. Uspenskii was particularly interested in studying the Slavic lands of the Ottoman Empire via the Institute, especially their Orthodox artefacts. Although the guns of August, 1914, forced the closure of the Institute, Uspenskii took his archeological ambitions to the Russian Army on the Caucasian front, where it was enjoying success against the Turkish forces. Planning for a Russian victory, he dreamed of a Russian liturgy being prayed in the Hagia Sophia.
Theme: Byzantium
As a student of Kondakov’s at New Russian University, Redin continued the artistic and intellectual trends begun by Buslaev. A specialist in early Christian minatures and mosaics, he was best known for comparative studies of Byzantine and Old Russian iconocraphy. His most famous studies were conducted in Ravenna, the Christian Pompeii. Active in Kharkov city affairs as a public intellectual, he died young of an unnamed illness. His son Nikolai, godson of N. F. Sumtsov, continued his father’s work as the deputy director of the Institute for Ukrainian Culture named for D. I. Bagalei, only to disappear in the Stalinist purges.
Best known as one of the founders of the Kadet Party in post-1905 Russia, and very briefly the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first Provisional Government after Nicholas II’s abdication, Miliukov became an archeologist for a few years by happenstance. Twice exiled from Moscow in the 1890s because of his participation in political protests at the university, where he had studied and then taught history, Miliukov went to Riazan for two years, where he worked on the local Archival Commission, and then later as a history professor at the University of Sophia. In both places he joined with locals and participated in excavations, and presented his findings at three archeological congresses. He attended as a representative of the Riazan Archival Commission and a history professor from Sophia.
A student of Buslaev’s at Moscow University, Kondakov trained in art history which transformed him into an archeologist. A member of the Imperial Archeological Commission from 1876 to 1891, he became a world renowned expert on Byzantium, and his pioneering methodology in iconography still retains value. With I. I. Tolstoi, he published six volumes of “Russian Antiquities in Monuments of Art” (Русские древности в памятниках искусства, 1889-1899). D. V. Ainalov, S. A. Zhebelev, M. I. Rostovtsev, E. I. Redin, and Ia. I. Smirnov counted among his students. Moreover, he was also helpful in establishing the Institute in Constantinople. Exiled to Prague after 1917, he established the Seminarium Kondakovianum, an important intellectual exchange for emigrants, and which for a few years maintained ties with archeologists left behind.
Fedor Grigorevich Solntsev, who lived for more than 90 years, has a remarkably eclectic biography. Though born on the estate of Prince A. I. Musin-Pushkin, his serf-father worked as a theatre cashier in St. Petersburg. The enormously talented F. G. entered the Academy of Arts, where Director Alexei Olenin became his mentor. A draftsman and watercolorist with as keen an eye for detail as there ever was one, Solntsev created the visual style of Russian romantic nationalism with his six volumes of Antiquities of the Russian State, published 1849-53. Among the many architectural ruins he helped to restore, the Kremlin’s Terem Palace stands out. Despite having no formal education, he became an Acamedician.