Tyshkevich, E. P.

Evstafi Pievich Tyshkevich inaugurated archeology in the NW Region. His own national identity belies the complexity of the region: he was Belarusian, Polish, and Lithuanian, and determined to open up the multiple pasts of the region to its inhabitants. With his brother Konstantin he dug numerous kurgans in the 1840s, and they opened a part of their estate to create the first public museum. In 1856 he opened the Vilna Archeological Commission. All of this became Russified following the Polish rebellion of 1863, and much of their museum’s collection was sent to the Rumiantsev Museum. A respected archeologist, he was a member of the Danish Royal Society of Northern Antiquities, the Stockholm Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Antiquities, and the London Archaeological Institute. In St. Petersburg, he was an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences, and as a Groom of the Chamber of the Court of His Imperial Majesty.