Viktor Ivanovich Rutenburg

Born Oct. 29 (Nov. 11), 1911, in Moscow. Soviet historian. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1976). Member of the CPSU since 1943.

Rutenburg graduated from the Dnepropetrovsk Pedagogical Institute in 1930 and from Leningrad State University in 1940. In 1946 he became a research worker at the Leningrad division of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (since 1968, the Institute of the History of the USSR of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR); he was appointed head of the group of world history and head of the sector of world history in 1965 and 1977, respectively. Rutenburg became an instructor at Leningrad State University in 1950 and was made a professor there in 1971.

Rutenburg’s works deal with the economic history of Italy in the 13th to 17th centuries and with the Italian Renaissance. He is the chairman of the Commission on Issues of the Culture of the Renaissance of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Rutenburg is a foreign member of the Historical Society of Tuscany and a corresponding member of the Historical Society of Liguria.

Rutenburg has been awarded the Order of the Red Star and various medals.