Veselovskii, N. I.

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).

Zabelin, I. E.

Ivan Egorevich’s father died when he was 7, and the impoverished lad later very fortuitously found a job at the Moscow Armoury. Stroev and others there inspited his love for antiquity; he was always engaged in the professioanlization of archeology. His doctorate from St. Vladimir’s is honorary. D. I. Bagalei of Kharkov University named him the founder of “historical archeology.” He designated his daughter Maria and The Historical Museum as his only heirs, to receive his collections.

Zhebelev, S. A.

Trained in classical philology at St. Petersburg University, Sergei then took a position there, rising to the positions of Secretary of the Faculty, 1905-1909 and rector, 1911-1912. A specialist in Greece, he taught everything from its history to epigraphy. From 1894-1905 he taught ancient Greek art in the Academy of Arts. He also headed the classical section of the IRAO. He also translated and edited a number of classical Greek authors. After 1917 he remained and assumed a position of leadership at the former IAK, now the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He was a victim of the Siege of Leningrad during the Second World War.

Tizengauzen, V. G.

Baron V. G. Tizengauzen, a Baltic German (Ernst Woldemar von Tiesenhausen), became an important Orientalist after years of petty bureaucratic jobs, necessary to earn his living. When the IAK was formed in 1859, he attained a clerkship there, and ultimately elevated himself to Associate Director, through his scholarship. The Commission dispatched him to excavate in New Russia and Crimea; he was also a numismatist. Although a member of IMAO from 1865, he resigned from it in 1889 over a dispute between Uvarova’s Society and Bobrinskii’s Commission over which one enjoyed propriety over the official assignation of permissions to excavate.

Spitsyn, A. A.

Spitsyn embodied the success story that scientific scholarship made possible. From Viatka Province, he began a dissertation on Viatka that contradicted what the great historian Nikolai Karamzin had written, so he was forced to abandon it. He returned to his native land, teaching at a women’s gymnasium while excavating throughout the region. In 1892 the Archeological Commission began paying attention to his findings, and brought him to St. Petersburg where he developed into one of the major theoreticians and technicians of the profession. In 1909 he taught the first course in archeology at a Russian university. He continued after 1917, corresponding with colleagues who had emigrated.

Stefani, L. E.

Minister of Education Sergei Uvarov invited the Leipzig-educated Stefani to head the department of classical philology at Dorpat University in 1846. Trained in Greek epigraphy, Stefani moved to St. Petersburg four years later, to the Hermitage, where he studied artefacts sent from the Black Sea littoral. His methodology of not interpreting beyond what was in his hand influenced his students to be scrupulous and careful about what claims they could make.

Stroganov, S. G.

A scion of one of Russia’s most distinguished families, Sergei Grigorevich began his career in service to the state fighting against Napoleon and rode into Paris in victory. An adjutant to Tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I, he then distinguished himself in the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1828. His interest in archeology began as chairman of the Moscow Society of History and Antiquities in 1836, which directed his focus toward the Greek and Scythian finds in Crimea and New Russia. When Alexander II decided to found an Archeological Commission, he named Stroganov to head it, so the latter moved from Moscow to the imperial capital, where he also took up the education of the heirs to the throne. The Uvarovs often found themselves at loggerheads with Stroganov, and Alexei made Moscow his home base after the former moved to Petersburg. Much of their differences can be epitomized by their archeological museums: Stroganov at the Hermitage, which displayed aesthetic elegance, and Uvarov at his Historical Museum, which featured artefacts for their cultural significance.

Sultanov, N. V.

Nikolai Vladimirovich came from a line who had been ennobled in 1674. His father abandoned the family in childhood, and he fell under the influence of his uncle, architect N. P. Miliukov, father to Paul. After graduating from the construction department of the Institute of Civil Engineers, he made a chance acquaintance with Count S. D. Sheremetov, which resulted in his designing the restorations of the estates for some of Russia’s most prominent families. As an archeologist, he was deeply interested in religious architecture, especially Byzantine and the so-called “False Russian.” Both are evident in his best known work, the Cathedral of Peter and Paul that he designed in 1892 at Peterhof. He also taught architectural history and published a textbook on it. His wife Ekaterina Pavlovna published short stories in “thick” journals and the couple, and their one son, entertained the spectrum of Russian literati. Interestingly, his cousin Paul enjoyed the company of Sultanov’s estranged father. Sutanov deprecated his cousin’s politics, but the two were on good terms.

Tolstoi, I. I.

Count I. I. Tolstoi, son of the Minister of Posts and Telegraph, would himself become the Minister of Education during the 1905 Revolution; like much else about liberalism in those years, he did not survive the position, but was later elected to the St. Petersburg City Council. A member of the IAK from 1886, he was among those who broke with the IMAO in 1889 in the contest for archeological authority in the empire. A numismatist, he co-edited with Kondakov the commanding five volumes on Russian antiquities. He was also secretary and vice-president of the Academy of Arts, important given the overlap that continued between art and archeology, especially prevalent in Kondakov’s work on iconography.

Vasilchikov, A. A.

As the grandson of Kirill Razumovskii, A. A. Vasilchikov shared familial ties to Uvarov, but the two men led very different lives, and even the archeological connection, if there was one, would have been strained. Vasilchikov had served in the Russian mission in Rome, and had become very familiar with western museums. He returned to Petersburg to direct the Hermitage, 1879-1889, and he developed a talent for transferring art from imperial palaces to the museum. In terms of archeological additions, he acquired P. A. Saburov’s collection of Greek terracotta, and Antonina Bludova’s rich familial collection of antiquities. Kondakov worked there briefly under him, advising on Byzantine art. When Stroganov died in 1882, Vasilchikov replaced him at the Archeological Commission. This did not last long. Vasilchikov was so seriously in debt that Alexander III set up a guardianship for him in 1886, and he left the Commission, replaced by a genuine archeologist, though one with no better relations with the Uvarovs: Bobrinskii.