His father a celebrated painter and his mother the niece of prominent Slavophile Ivan Aksakov, Vladimir Konstantinovich became a numismatist and Orientalist, studying eastern languages, specializing in Arabic, at the Lazaervskii Institute. He held numerous positions of importance, the most important being custodian of the Armoury. At the IMAO, he held the post of secretary from 1888 and chair of the East Commission from 1911. He was also secretary of numerous Congresses, and sat on the organizing committee of all, beginning with the 7th in Iaroslavl, through the 16th in Pskov, which never came to pass.
Congress Attended: 11th
Although his daughter Marina is far better known to posterity than he, Ivan Vladimirovich probably inspired some of her Silver-Age poetic sensibilities with his interest in philology and antiquities. The family lived for several years in Italy, where Ivan studied Latin epigraphy. He was instrumental in the building of the Museum of Fine Arts named for Alexander III (renamed now for Alexander Pushkin), and served as its first director when it opened in 1912. At his inspiration, the museum included artefacts from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages. His brother Dmitrii was deeply involved with the culture of medieval Rus’ at the Moscow Archeological Institute and the Archive of the Ministry of Justice.
Born in Minsk and educated first in Vilna, Boris Turaev pioneered in Egyptology in Imperial Russia. He worked in the museums of all the European capitals before returning to St. Petersburg University to begin lecturing on “The Ancient East,” which also included the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Persia. He also traveled to Russian regional museums to study the Egyptian artefacts each had on display. Curator of the Egyptian section of the Museum of Fine Arts name for Alexander III, he also, with Nikolai Marr, began the journal “Christian East” in 1912.
His biographer recorded that his charitable works deflected his interest from his academic activities, and therefore he produced less than what could be expected from someone with his knowledge and capabilities, but one wonders what more could he have done? He began by studying church history under M. V. Nikolskii, and worked for the Synodal Typography while he also tutored the children of Prince Volkonskii. A member of several other societies, at the IMAO he served as secretary of the Eastern Secion. Then he edited the multi-volume publications coming from the 7th through the 11th archeological congresses. He presented numerous papers, several on inscriptions from Turkestan, although he does not appear to have traveled there himself.
Sizov worked closely with both Uvarovs in several fields. First, he with Alexei he dug in kurgans all around the empire, and he helped them to establish the Historical Museum. His most important finds were in the Gnezdovo kurgans in the NW, around Smolensk, where he found evidence of Slavs and Varangians living peacably together; from this he postulated that the Varangians were the aristocracy in the region. Later he participated with Praskovia on her Materials of the Archeology of the Caucasus. He served on the Commission for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments, but also found time to work with the Imperial theatres.
Nikolai Pokrovskii pioneered in church architecture as a field in archeology. His Master’s on “The Origin of the Ancient Christian Basilica” established the basis for what would become a major archeological question, that is, how did church art and architecutre relate to liturgy. His interest in Orthodoxy meant that he also became a Byzantinist. Moreover, he was a founding member of the monarchist political party “The Russian Assembly” in 1900.
One of the first members of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences when it was established in 1918, Sumtsov had a distinguished career in ethnography. Among his other positions, he had curated the Ethnographic Museum at Kharkov University, the product of the 12th Congress. At the congress he had argued to petition the Ministry of Internal Affairs to protect the local musical intruments and song, кобзари и лирники.
A lightning rod for many issues, Samokvasov levied his influence at a number of the archeological congresses. He combined his positions as director of the Archive of the Moscow Ministry of Justice with that of law professor at the University of Warsaw, and one of the most creative archeologists of the Stone Age. A devoted monarchist, he belonged to the ultra-conservative Union of Russian People after 1905.
Leonid Mikhailovich took tremendous pride in his noble heritage, and became the premier scholar of geneology, invited to work in the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of the Imperial Court and lecturing on the subject at the local Archeological Institute, and on the planning committee to build a museum to commerate 1812. As a political figure, he was a state councillor, a chamberlain, and the last governor of Kholm Province. Leaving Russia after 1917, he lived in Athens, Belgrade, and Ann Arbor. Wherever he went, he established a Russian Geneological Society
Markevich described himself as self-taught, but gadfly seems the more appropriate adjective. He bounced around in and out of several provincial gymnasia, then got a degree in history from New Russia University, where he then taught for several years. Forced to quit for unexplained reasons in 1895, he became active in public affairs. He participated in numerous congresses, having spent times in archives rather than excavations.