Sontsov, D. P.

Son of a governor of Orel and Voronezh provinces and leader in the provincial nobility, Dmitrii was educated in the Corps of Pages and served as General Ivan Paskevich’s adjutant in putting down the Polish (1830) and Hungarian (1848) rebellions. He retired from public life after then serving Moscow Governor General A. G. Shcherbatov, Praskovia’s grandfather, and with her husband founded the IMAO. He was a quintessential numismatist, and donated his collection to the Rumiantsev Museum.

Trutovskii, V. K.

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.

Tsvetaev, I. V.

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.

Tyshkevich, K. P.

Konstantin Pievich Tyshkevich, Evstafi’s older brother, joined with him in excavations and the museum, but he was more interested in ethnography per se than archeology. He worked for the Ministry of Finance in Warsaw in the 1830s, and participated in the Polish uprising. He joined the of Eastern American Ethnographic Association and the Paris Geographic Society. Ironically, his connection to the Rumiantsev Museum comes from when many of the artefacts he had collected for the Vilna Museum of Antiquities were transferred there after the Polish rebellion 0f 1863.

Kertselli, N. G.

Kertselli moved straight into the bureaucracy from his Moscow gymnasium, and developed into an ethnographer. He ended up at the Dashkov Ethnographic Department of the Rumiantsev Museum, having received a silver medal at the 1867 exhibition. He excavated in numerous kurgans in the Moscow vicinity, and later in the Caucasus. Moreover, he had a special interest in the material culture of Buddhist ceremonies among the Buriat tribes.

Kirpichnikov, A. I.

Kirpichnikov specialized in iconography, especially that of the Theotokos.

Filimonov, G. D.

One of the founding members of IMAO, Filimonov enjoyed the leisure of his noble background to educate himself in many aspects of archeology. In 1867 he was sent to Paris to manage the display of Russian antiquities at the International Exposition, and he also worked on the Ethnographic Exhibition in Moscow in 1879. A curator at both Moscow’s Armoury and the Rumiantsev Museum, the Imperial Society of Lovers of Natural Sciences, Anthropology,and Ethnography dispatched him to both Crimea and then the Caucasus to oversee excavations.

Dolgov, S. O.

Dolgov is important as the director and bibliographer of the Manuscript Division of the Rumiantsev Museum. He also served as the associate director of the Slavic commission of the IMAO.

Episkop Amfikholii

Born P. I. Kazanskii, Episkop (Bishop) Amfikholii was one of the most prominent of archeologists among the clergy, a specialist in paleography, a student of monastical manuscripts, inluding Greek ones. Moreover, he developed a talent for illustration, designing lithographs of manuscripts. An honored member of the Moscow Society of Lovers of Spiritual Enlightenment, the IRAO awarded him a gold medal in 1880. He was also associated with New Jerusalem and Rostov.