Uvarova, P. S.

Her biographies tend to emphasize that she had inspired Lev Tolstoi’s Kitty Shcherbatskaia in “Anna Karenina,” but play down her role as the most formidable female scientist in Imperial Russia. To be fair, she always subjugated herself to her husband, Alexei, even for the 30 years following his death in which she organized the congresses, published the essays from them, developed the Caucasus Museum, and fought to open locally based museums of antiquities throughout the empire. She excavated and published extensively, and her first love were the Christian artefacts in the Caucasus. Professionalism in Russian archeology is unimaginable without her.

Bayern, F. S.

An Austrian immigrant, Bayern traveled first to Odessa as a naturalist who developed an interest in archeology. Viceroy of the Caucasus M. S. Vorontsov dispatched him there in 1849, where he pioneered in developing scientific interests in the Caucasus. He contributed to local museums as well, e.g., the Piatigorsk Museum and the Ekaterinodar Museum.