Iakubovskii, Aleksandr

Iakubovskii, Aleksandr Iur’evich

 

Born Jan. 20 (Feb. 1), 1886, in St. Petersburg; died Mar. 21, 1953, in Leningrad. Soviet historian, Orientalist, and archaeologist. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1943). Honored Scientist of the Uzbek SSR and of the Tadzhik SSR.

Iakubovskii became a staff member of the State Academy of the History of Material Culture in 1925 and the Hermitage Museum in 1928. He was appointed a professor at Leningrad University in 1935. Beginning in 1945 he headed the Sogdiana-Tadzhik Archaeological Expedition (later known as the Tadzhik Archaeological Expedition), which conducted excavations at such sites as Pendzhikent.

Iakubovskii’s research in medieval history involved an integrated study of written sources and archaeological findings. The principal subjects of his works were the culture, ethnic group formation, and class struggle of the peoples of Southwest and Middle Asia, the Caucasus, and the Golden Horde, as well as the relations of these peoples with Rus’. Together with B. D. Grekov, Iakubovskii wrote The Golden Horde and Its Downfall, which received the State Prize of the USSR in 1952.

REFERENCE

Belenitskii, A. M., and M. M. D’iakonov. “Pamiati A. Iu. Iaukobovskogo.” In the collection Kratkie soobshcheniia ln-ta istorii material’noi kul’tury, fasc. 51. Moscow, 1953. (Contains a list of works.)