Valentin Lavrentievich Yanin (; 6 February 1929 – 2 February 2020) was a leading

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 historian who authored 700 books and articles. He had also edited a number of important journals and primary sources, including works on medieval Russian law,

sphragistics Sigillography, also known by its Greek-derived name, sphragistics, is the scholarly discipline that studies the wax, lead, clay, and other seals used to authenticate archival documents. It investigates not only aspects of the artistic design ...

and

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 ...

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and history. His expertise was medieval Rus' especially Novgorod the Great, where he had headed archaeological digs beginning in 1962.

Early life

Yanin was born in Vyatka. His maternal grandparents were arrested in 1937 and died in a prison camp in 1938. His father was apparently on a list to be executed but escaped this fate and moved with his family to Moscow. Yanin finished his secondary education in 1946, graduating with a Gold Medal; he matriculated at

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

in 1951.

Research

In 1954, he defended his Kandidat thesis on the

monetary system A monetary system is a system where a government manages money in a country's economy. Modern monetary systems usually consist of the national treasury, the mint, the central banks and commercial banks. Commodity money system A commodity mon ...

s of pre-Mongol Rus. This was published as ''The Monetary and Weight Systems of Medieval Russia'' ("Денежно-весовые системы русского средневековья") and has become a classic. His doctoral thesis on the

posadnik A posadnik (, ) was a representative of the prince in some towns during the times of Kievan Rus', and later the highest-ranking official (mayor) in Novgorod (from 1136) and Pskov (from 1308). In the early 12th century, Novgorod won the right to ...

s of

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

followed in 1962 and significantly changed our understanding of the constitution of the

Novgorod Republic The Novgorod Republic () was a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries in northern Russia, stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east. Its capital was the city of Novgorod. The ...

. The book demonstrated that the office of posadnik, while subject to election every year, was often held by one man for several consecutive years, sometimes more than a decade, and then passed on to his sons or other members of his clan. It shattered the earlier image of Novgorod as a more democratic republic and showed it to be ruled by a boyar aristocracy (not unlike other medieval republics). Yanin's monograph about the seals of Ancient Rus (2 volumes, 1970) summed up half a century of Soviet sphragistics research. After that, Yanin turned his attention to the birch bark documents of

, on which he was considered the greatest living authority (alongside

Andrey Zaliznyak Andrey Anatolyevich Zaliznyak ( rus, Андре́й Анато́льевич Зализня́к, p=zəlʲɪˈzʲnʲak; 29 April 1935 – 24 December 2017) was a Soviet and Russian linguist, an expert in historical linguistics, accentology, di ...

Honours and positions

In 1964, Yanin became professor in the department of archaeology in the Faculty of History at

. Since 1978, Yanin had held the chair in archaeology at the Moscow University. He was a member of the President's Committee for the Defence of the Material Culture of the Russian Federation and a member of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. In 1962, he was elected a corresponding member of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences 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 (un ...

; he became a full academician in 1990. In 1999, he became the first historian to be awarded the

Lomonosov Gold Medal The Lomonosov Gold Medal ( ''Bol'shaya zolotaya medal' imeni M. V. Lomonosova''), named after Russian scientist and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov, is awarded each year since 1959 for outstanding achievements in the natural sciences and the humaniti ...

. His other awards included: * Order of Merit for the Fatherland 4th class *

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour () was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to the Soviet state and society in the fields of production, science, culture, literature, the arts, education, sports ...

Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples () was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military units, as well as administrative subdivisions of the USSR for accomplishments in s ...

* Medal "Veteran of Labour" *

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize () was one of the Soviet Union’s highest civilian honours, awarded from its establishment in September 1966 until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It recognised outstanding contributions in the fields of science, mathem ...

(1970) *

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

(1984) *

Demidov Prize The Demidov Prize () is a national scientific prize in Russia awarded annually to the members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Originally awarded from 1832 to 1866 in the Russian Empire, it was revived by the government of Russia's Sverdlovsk ...

(1993) *State Prize of the Russian Federation (1996) *Yaroslav the Wise Medal of the first degree of Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University *Triumph Prize (2002) * Solzhenitsyn Prize (2010). He was an honorary citizen of Novgorod the Great and an honorary member of the Novgorodian Society of Lovers of Antiquities. He died in Moscow on 2 February 2020 at the age of 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yanin Valentin 1929 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Russian historians Soviet historians Archaeologists from Moscow Soviet archaeologists Moscow State University alumni Academic staff of Moscow State University Historians of Russia Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Demidov Prize laureates Solzhenitsyn Prize winners Recipients of the Lenin Prize Recipients of the USSR State Prize Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Recipients of the Order of Lenin Russian scientists