Barataev, Mikhail Petrovich

Born Jan. 25 (Feb. 5), 1784, in Simbirsk; died July 30 (Aug. 11), 1856, in the village of Barataevka, Simbirsk Province. Georgian historian. Founder of Georgian numismatics. Prince of the Baratashvili family, which moved from Georgia to Russia in the 18th century.

From 1820 to 1835, Barataev was provincial marshal of the Simbirsk dvorianstvo (nobility or gentry). He was a Freemason. In 1826 he was placed under investigation in connection with the Decembrist case but was freed. He was renowned as a collector of antique Georgian and ancient Eastern coins. He was the author of the work Numismatic Facts of the Georgian Kingdom (1844–45), for which he was elected a member of the Parisian Academy of Sciences.