Diakov, Aleksei Mikhailovich

Born Feb. 5 (17), 1896, on the estate of Luganovo, in present-day Kalinin Ob-last; died Mar. 19, 1974, in Moscow. Soviet historian and specialist in Indian affairs, doctor of historical sciences (1947), professor (1950), and Honored Scholar of the RSFSR (1967). Became a member of the CPSU in May 1917.

D’iakov graduated from the medical department of Moscow Second State University in 1921 and in 1925 became people’s commissar for public health of the Tadzhik SSR. From 1928 to 1931 he served on the Middle Asian Bureau of the Central Committee of the ACP (Bolshevik). He worked in the Research Institute on Colonial Problems from 1936 to 1938, the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1939 to 1941, the Pacific Ocean Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1944 to 1950, and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1950. His major works deal with the modern history, economics, ethnography, and philology of India. He was awarded two orders and also medals.