Nikolay Petrovich Likhachyov (), alternatively

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

as Likhachev (12 April 1862 – 14 April 1936) was the first and foremost

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n sigillographer (that is, an expert on

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

s) who also contributed significantly to an array of auxiliary historical disciplines, including

palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

diplomatics Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents, especially historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, pr ...

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

, and

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...

Great Soviet Encyclopaedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

, 3rd ed
Лихачёв Николай Петрович
He was elected a member of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

in 1925 and was put in charge of the

Archaeographic Commission The Archaeographic Commission (Археографическая комиссия) was set up in St. Petersburg in 1834 by Platon Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, Nikolay Gerasimovich Ustryalov, Nikolay Ustryalov, and Pavel Stroyev with the aim of publishing h ...

in 1929.

Scholarly career

A scion of an old noble family, Likhachev was born in

Chistopol Chistopol (; ; , ''Çistay'') is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Tatarstan, Russia, located on the left bank of the Kuybyshev Reservoir, on the Kama River. As of the Russian Census (2010), 2010 Census, its population was&nbs ...

, a town in the

Kazan Governorate Kazan Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR from 1708 to 1920, with its capital in Kazan. History Kazan Governorate, together with seven other ...

. Among his paternal uncles, Ivan Likhachyov was an

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

and Andrey Likhachyov was an avid antiquarian whose collections formed the core of the

Kazan City Museum Kazan; , IPA: ɑzan} is the largest city and capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1.3 million residents, and up to nearly 2 millio ...

. Nikolay Likhachyov graduated from the

Kazan University Kazan Federal University (; ) is a public research university located in Kazan, Russia. The university was founded in 1804 as Imperial Kazan University, which makes it the second oldest continuously existing tertiary education institution in Rus ...

in 1884 and joined the staff of the Saint Petersburg Archaeological Institute in 1892. His early work shed light on the hierarchy of 16th-century Muscovite clerks, or diaks. His doctor's dissertation was on the subject of Muscovite pulp manufacture and

paper mill A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...

s. In 1902-14 Likhachyov filled the office of Assistant Director of the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg. During these years he brought to light a wealth of medieval papers, as well as many valuable materials concerning coins, watermarks, and hierarchy of medieval Russia. Together with Prince

Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky Prince Aleksey Borisovich Lobanov-Rostovsky () ( in Voronezh Governorate – ) was a Russian politician, statesman, probably best remembered for having concluded the Li-Lobanov Treaty with China, the Peace of Constantinople (1879), Peace of Const ...

he founded (in 1897) the Russian Genealogical Society.Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg, online version
Russian Genealogical Society
/ref> He developed an early interest in medieval icon painting and produced several pioneering studies on the subject, including ''Materials for a History of Russian Icon Painting'' (1906, vol. 1-2), ''Andrei Rublev's Style of Painting'' (1907), and ''Historical Meaning of Italo-Greek Icon Painting'' (1911). The latter was awarded a Gold

Uvarov Prize Count Aleksey Sergeyevich Uvarov (Russian: Алексей Сергеевич Уваров; 28 February 1825 – 29 December 1884) was a Russian archaeologist often considered to be the founder of the study of the prehistory of Russia. Biograph ...

by the Academy of Sciences. He died at

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in 1936.

Likhachyov collections

Likachyov's political views were decidedly nationalistic. In 1911 he joined

Aleksey Suvorin Aleksei Sergeyevich Suvorin (; , Korshevo, Voronezh Governorate – , Tsarskoye Selo) was a Russian newspaper and book publisher and journalist whose publishing empire wielded considerable influence during the last decades of the Russian Emp ...

and

Nikodim Kondakov Nikodim (or Nikodeme) Pavlovich Kondakov (; 1 (13) November 1844, Olshanka, Kursk Governorate, Russian Empire– 17 February 1925, Prague, Czechoslovakia), was an art historian with special expertise in the history of Russian and ...

in founding the

Russian Assembly The Russian Assembly () was a Russian loyalist, right-wing, monarchist political group (party). It was founded in Saint Petersburg in October−November 1900, and dismissed in 1917. It was led by Prince Dmitry Golitsyn.Figes, p. 196 It opposed li ...

,Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg, online version
The Russian Assembly
/ref> the country's first monarchist party which later became associated with the

Black Hundreds The Black Hundreds were reactionary, monarchist, and ultra-nationalist groups in Russia in the early 20th century. They were staunch supporters of the House of Romanov, and opposed any retreat from the autocracy of the reigning monarch. Their na ...

. Likhachyov's proximity to the right wing of the tsarist government, as well as his own considerable fortune and unfailing taste, helped him to amass one of the largest collections of antiquities in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. It encompassed 15,000 old coins and 1,500 icons, as wells as some 80,000 books, including a selection of manuscripts and

incunabula An incunable or incunabulum (: incunables or incunabula, respectively) is a book, pamphlet, or broadside (printing), broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. The specific date is essentiall ...

e. His collection of Byzantine and early Russian seals was by far the largest in the world. The fate of Likhachyov's collections was variable. In 1913,

Nicholas II Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. He married ...

bought his holdings of icons on behalf of the Alexander III Museum.Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg, online version
Likhachev N.P.
/ref> In an attempt to save the remaining collections from dispersal in the days of the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, Likhachev conveyed them to the Academy of Sciences, which allowed them to be set up as the Palaeography Museum, of which Likhachev served as director in 1925-1930. His own mansion was given over to the Archaeographic Commission and currently houses its successor, the Saint Petersburg Institute of History.Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg, online version
Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences
/ref> It was in 1930 that Likhachyov,

Sergey Platonov Sergey Fyodorovich Platonov () (28 June Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="6 June Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 1860 – 10 January 1933) was a Russian historian who led the official St Petersburg school of imperial historio ...

Yevgeny Tarle Yevgeny Viktorovich Tarle (; – 6 January 1955) was a Soviet historian, Marxist scholar, and academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who studied and published on topics such as the Napoleonic invasion of Russia and the Crimean War. ...

and several other prominent historians were arrested in connection with the

Industrial Party Trial The Industrial Party Trial (November 25 – December 7, 1930) (, Trial of the ''Prompartiya'') was a show trial in which several Soviet scientists and economists were accused and convicted of plotting a coup against the government of the Sovie ...

. Likhachev was thrown out of the academy and exiled to

Astrakhan Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...

, while his remaining personal collections were nationalized.Biography from the website of the Russian National Library
/ref> The Likhachev collection of

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

tablets from Ur and

Lagash Lagash (; cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Lagaš'') was an ancient city-state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Al-Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash ( ...

, for instance, is currently divided between the

Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (, abbreviated as , ''GMII'') is the largest museum of European art in Moscow. It is located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The International musical festival Sviatos ...

and the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

.Likhachev Collection
on the official website of the

Scholarly career

Likhachyov collections

References

Further reading