Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Zimin (Александр Александрович Зимин; 1920-1980) was one of the most prolific and well-known Soviet

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

s. His area of expertise was late medieval

Muscovy Muscovy or Moscovia () is an alternative name for the Principality of Moscow (1263–1547) and the Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721). It may also refer to: *Muscovy Company, an English trading company chartered in 1555 *Muscovy duck (''Cairina mosch ...

. Zimin was born in a

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Gr ...

family in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. In the 1950s, Zimin edited the official historical series dedicated to the history of

. However, at least seven of his monographs were not published during his lifetime. His 1964 essay attempted to prove that ''

The Song of Igor's Campaign ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' or ''The Tale of Ihor's Campaign'' () is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaign of Igor'', ''The Song of Igor's Campaign'' ...

'' was fabricated in the 1770s. It met skepticism and hostility from the academic community and was eventually banned from being printed. Another important work, ''Warrior at the Crossroads'', was not published until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It described the

Muscovite Civil War The Muscovite War of Succession, or Muscovite Civil War, was a war of succession in the Grand Duchy of Moscow (Muscovy) from 1425 to 1453. The two warring parties were Vasily II of Moscow, Vasily II, the son of the previous Grand Prince of Mosco ...

of the 1430s as a vital clash between the autocratic, pro-Tatar, Muscovite administration and the protocapitalist forces, clustered around the northern Principality of Galich, with its salt production facilities. Zimin's mother descended from Field Marshal Kamensky. He was involved in researching her family's history. At the time of Zimin's death in 1980, his unpublished manuscripts reportedly "totaled many thousands of typed pages".Quoted from: Antoon De Baets. ''Censorship of Historical Thought: A World Guide, 1945-2000''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. . Page 495.

References

1920 births 1980 deaths Writers from Moscow Soviet historians Soviet medievalists Genealogists {{russia-historian-stub