A major issue throughout the history of Russian archeology was the role of the clergy, given that so much of what these societies considered important revolved around Christianity. A patriotic native of Vladimir Province and educated in the local seminary, Georgievskii worked for the archival commission always pressed for better training among the clergy for collection and protection of antiquities. A master of icon painting, he travled to Athens, Constantinople, and Serbia to enhance his skills. He wored for numerous institutions: Library and Archive of Brotherhood of Aleksandr Nevskii in Vladimir, the Vladimir Academic Archive Commission, the Supreme Committee on the Guardianship of Russian Iconography, the Educational Council of the Holy Synod, as well as the Petersburg Institute of Fine Arts. Moreover, he accompanied the King of Greece and members of the Romanov royal family around Vladimir-Suzdal on a state visit.
Social Estate: popovich
A geologist of international renown and credited as the founder of soil science in Russia, his pivotal role in the evolution of archeology was to bring attention to the importance of understanding types of soils in which artefacts, especially from the Stone Age, were excavated.
Gorodtsov combined two careers; he served in the Imperial Army, 1880-1906, and became one of the foremost archeologists of both the Stone and Bronze Ages. His primary headquarters were in Iaroslavl, where he also served on the Archival Commission. He wrote the textbook on prehistory for the Moscow Archeological Institute. he was also a member of the Riazan and Iaroslavl Archival Commissions. After 1917 he was a leading member of the Insititute of Material Culture, which was the transformed Imperial Archeological Commission.
Goshkevich was a talented amateur, who began studying astronomy but could not afford to stay in the university. He fell in love with the history and archeology of southern Russia and was ultimately personally very influential in developing the archives and museum in Kherson, where he also edited the city’s first newspaper. His commitment to Kherson included work at: the Kherson Province Statistical Committee, the Museum of Antiquities of Kherson Region, and the Kherson Archive Commission.
One ot the first ethnic Georgian archeologists and educated in the Moscow Spiritual Academy, Bakradze combined Georgia’s Christianity with its history and ethnography and wrote widely on all three. He contributed to the Tiflis Museum of Zion Cathedral, and he worked for hte post-emancipation Commission to resolve the social estate-land question.
The son of a priest, Nikolai Fedotovich began his studies first in law in Kiev, where he came under the spell of B. V. Antonovich and turned his attention to archeology. After a brief stint in the Kiev courts in 1891, he moved to Moscow where he worked in the archives of the Ministry of Justice and then to state archives in Warsaw. Returning to Kiev and teaching at the Polytechnic Institute, he joined the editorial board of “Kievskaia starina” and became particularly active in museum work. In 1899 in concert with the convocation of the 11th Archeological Congress in Kiev Beliashevskii helped to build the Kiev Museum of Art and Science. Elected to the First State Duma from Kiev Province in 1906, he helped to organize the Kiev Society for the Protection of Monuments of the Ancient and the Arts in 1910; in 1918 he wrote the first Law of the Ukrainian Republic on the protection of monuments of history, culture and art and was active in the All-Ukrainian Committee for the Protection of Antiquities and Art in Ukraine. During the Great War, the Academy of Sciences dispatched him to Galicia and the Bukovina to protect the archeological finds behind the military front.
The son of a priest from Vologda Province, Pavel Ivanovich finished his Master’s in 1837 at the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy, on Ancient Jewish Synogogues. Discovered by historian Mikhail Pogodin, Savvaitov enjoyed a splendid career as a teacher of Russian libterature in both military and commercial schools. His most famous work was a hermeneutical study of the Bible, and his best known contribution to archeology was Description of ancient royal utensils, clothes, weapons, military armor, based on the collection in the Moscow Armoury. He also wrote Travels of the Novgorod Archbishop Anthony to Constantinople at the end of the 12th century and published copiously on the monasteries of his native Vologda. He also published on Finno-Ugric (Zyrian) linguistics.
Arkhangelskii, the son of a provincial priest, rose to become a distinguished professor in Slavic religious literature at Kazan University, and retired to the Chancellory of Her Royal Highness the Tsaritsa Maria.