Saul Matveyevich Abramzon (russian: Саул Матвеевич Абрамзон) (3 July 1905 in

Dmitrovsk Dmitrovsk (russian: Дмитро́вск) is a town and the administrative center of Dmitrovsky District in Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Obshcheritsa River near its confluence with the Nerussa, southwest of Oryol, the administrative c ...

– 1 September 1977 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

) was a

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

Turkologist Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative con ...

, and specialist in Kyrgyz

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

. Saul Abramzon graduated

Leningrad University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

in the former

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

; he specialized in Turkic ethnology under Turkologists Samoilovich A.N. and S. E. Malov. Residing mostly in

, and working in Leningrad section of the Ethnography Institute, Saul Abramzon at the same time was a member of Kyrgyz scientific commission on history, began scientific ethnography of the Kyrgyz people, and directed the Kyrgyz State museum in the Kyrgyz capital, Frunze, at that time, working simultaneously as a deputy director of the Kyrgyz Scientific Research Institute, a scientific custodian the

Kyrgyz State Historical Museum The Kyrgyz State History Museum (russian: Кыргызский государственный исторический музей; ky, Кыргыз Мамлекеттик Тарых музейи) is a museum located in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The ...

, and later a director of the Kyrgyz Ethnological Institute. Almost all ethnographic expeditions carried out in Kyrgyzstan from 1926 to the 1960s were conducted under Saul Abramzon's leadership. In the process, Saul Abramzon brought up a generation of Kyrgyzstan expert ethnographers. The range of scientific problems in which Abramzon was engaged was wide and covered almost all aspects of ethnography of the Kyrgyz people. The major theme of S. Abramzon research was ethnogenetic, historical and cultural connections of Kyrgyz with peoples of

Middle Asia Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...

, Southern

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

and the

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

, forms of Kyrgyz economic activities, material culture, ceremonies, customs and beliefs. Saul Abramzon left a huge scientific heritage: monographies, articles, reviews. They are stored in History Institute of Kyrgyzstan Academy of Sciences.

Publications

*Абрамзон С.М., 1946 ''"Очерк культуры киргизского народа"'', Фрунзе, 1946 *Абрамзон С.М., 1957, ''"К вопросу о патриархальной семье у кочевников Средней Азии"'', КСИЭ, Вып. 28. *Абрамзон С.М., 1971, ''"Киргизы и их этногенетические и культурные связи"'' Л. *Абрамзон С.М., 1973, ''"Очерки по истории хозяйства народов Средней Азии и Казахстана'"", Л. *Абрамзон С.М., 1977, ''"Фольклорные мотивы в киргизских преданиях генеалогического цикла. Фольклор и этнография: Связи фольклора с древними представлениями и обрядами"'', М. 1905 births 1977 deaths People from Oryol Oblast People from Dmitrovsky Uyezd (Oryol Governorate) Russian Jews Soviet Jews Soviet ethnographers Soviet historians Turkologists {{USSR-scientist-stub