Ivanov, Petr

Born in 1794; died Nov. 30 (Dec. 12), 1860. Russian historian, organizer and first director (from 1852) of the Moscow archive of the Ministry of Justice.

Ivanov studied at Moscow University. He was the author of works on the history of state institutions, land surveying, paleography, and sphragistics (the study of seals). He published many sources on the history of Russia and developed principles of classification and description of archival documents. He compiled and edited archival guides and inventories, as well as reviews and directories (indexes) of documentary sources.