Zolotaryev, David Alekseyevich (1885-1937), a scholar

Subject / Ethnic culture/Personnel
Subject / Ethnic culture//
David Alekseyevich Zolotaryov (1885-1935) was an anthropologist, ethnographer, professor (1918). From 1903 to 1904 he was a student of the medical department of the Moscow University; from 1904 to 1907 he lived in Paris, listened to the lectures in the Sorbonne and Russian technical school. In 1912 he graduated from the physico-mathematical department of the Saint Petersburg University and after that he went on working at the department for getting the title of Professor. Since 1911 he took part in the work of the Constant Commission for making ethnographical maps under the Russian Geographical Society (in 1916-1919 he was a secretary of the Commission), worked in the expeditions in the Yaroslavl, Tver, Novgorod, Vologda, Arkhangelsk gubernias. In the 1920s he was a head of the Russian and Finnish ethnography section of the Ethnography department of the Russian Museum (now the Russian Ethnography Museum) where in 1927 the exposition devoted to the culture of the Baltic-Finnic peoples was made under his direction; a head of the sections of ethnic anthropology and ethnography of the Russian Academy of Material Culture History, a chairman of the anthropological and ethnographical section of the Leningrad Society of Exploring Local Region. He taught in the Leningrad State University, the Geographicl Institute (since 1925 it's the geographical department of the Leningrad State University), the Herzen College of Education. In 1920-30 he was a head of the European department of the Commission for studing the tribal composition of peoples of the USSR and neighbouring countries under the USSR Academy of Science (KIPS). He managed such combined expeditions as the Upper Volga (1921-25), South East (1925-29), North West (1926-30); he worked on the Kola Peninsula, in Karelia, the Leningrad and Novgorod oblasts and in the south of the Vologda Oblast. D.A.Zolotaruov made an ethnographical map of the Leningrad Oblast published in the supplement to his book "Ethnic Composition of the Population of the North West Region and Karelian ASSR" (Leningrad, 1927;). The results of the works of the North West expedition were presented in "Karelsky sbornik" (1929, "Karelian Collection"), "Zapadnofinsky sbornik" (1930; "Western Finnish Collection") published in the series "Trudy KIPS" ("Papers of the Commission for Studing the Tribal Composition of Peoples of the USSR and Neighbouring Countries under the USSR Academy of Science (KIPS)"). In 1930 he was arrested by the case of local historians. He served his sentence on the White Sea - the Baltic Sea Canal. He was released early in 1932 and returned to Leningrad. He worked as a professor of anthropology and museum studies of the Central Geography Museum. In 1933 he was arrested again and sentenced to imprisonment in labour camps for five years. He died in the town of Mariinsk (now it's the Kemerovo Oblast). In 1944 the library of the Leningrad State University acquired 3000 volumes of the books on ethnography from Zolotaryov's library at his heirs. These books made a special fund. Chistyakov, Anton Yuryevich
Zolotarev, David Alekseyevich
Neighbouring Territories/Karelian Republic
Historical Toponyms/Novgorod Gubernia (Province)
Neighbouring Territories/Novgorod Oblast, the
Historical Toponyms/Tver Gubernia
Historical Toponyms/Vologda Gubernia
Neighbouring Territories/Vologda Oblast, the
Решетов А.М. Репрессированная ленинградская антропология (К постановке вопроса) // Палеоантропология, этническая антропология, этногенез. СПб., 2004., С.201-219
Шангина И.И. Давид Алексеевич Золотарев (К 100-летию со дня рождения) // Советская этнография. 1985. № 6., С.76-84