An Orientalist and one of the first Russian archeologists to excavate in Samarkand and other points in Central Asia, Nikolai Ivanovich was one of the most productive and among the most familiar. In addition to Central Asia, he excavated in the Kuban region between the Black Sea and the Caucasus, and excavated the Maikop culture, a major find. He lectured at the Petersburg Archeological Institute, served on the IAK, and published widely. His best-known work was “Mosques of Central Asia” (1905).
Congress Attended: 13th
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
Smirnov’s most notable role was as the curator of the medieval section of the Hermitage, 1897-1918. His most remarkable find was the reproductions of the series of drawings of Kiev drawn by Dutch artist Abraham Van Westerfeld for the Lithuanian Hetman Janusz Radziwill in 1651, during the uprising launched by Bogdan Khmelnytskii, Hetman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. Smirnov presented on this at the 13th congress in Ekaterinoslav. In 1918, he died of starvation, which M. I. Rostovtsev said made him the first victim of the Bolsheviks from this circle.
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.
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.
Liaskoronskii was important especially as a cartographer of archeological sites in the south. A Ukrainian, after the revolution he was a member of the All-Ukrainian Archeological Committee and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He was also associated with Nezhinsk Historical-Philological Institute.
Katerina Mel’nik began studying with Vladimir Antonovich in Kiev, one of the first female archeologists – although dramatically different from Praskovia Uvarova. She and Antonovich carried on an affair until they married in 1902, following the death of his wife. Both active participants in numerous congresses, it is impossible to imagine that others were not aware of this relationship, especially given his close relationship with Praskovia. Katerina published in Kievskaia starina, among other journals. In 1919, she was appointed to the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, but her primary seemed to be editing Antonovich’s massive archive. She also used her position there to try to organize an archeological congress in Odesa circa 1922, but without success.