Ivan Ivanovich Lappo

Born 1869; died Dec. 23, 1944, in Dresden. Russian historian. Of noble birth.

Lappo graduated in 1892 from the history and philology department of St. Petersburg University. He was professor of Russian history at the universities of Tartu (1905–19) and Kaunas (1933–40). From 1921 to 1933 he lived in Prague. His first work, Tver’ District in the 16th Century: Its Population and Types of Land Ownership (1894), was based on a statistical treatment of the data of cadastres. Much of Lappo’s work was devoted to the history of the 16th-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania—that is, to the history of its state institutions and social system and the relationship of the gentry to political struggle. These works, rich in factual material, were written in the historical and legal manner typical of a representative of the government school.