A.K. Ivanov (1886-1937): geographer, archaeologist and ethnographer

The article is devoted to Alexei Konstantinovich Ivanov, a talented scientist who played a big role in the development of Tomsk archaeology, ethnography and geography. Based on the archive documents, periodicals, research literature an attempt is made to reconstruct his biography. After graduating from the Natural Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University in 1913, in 1915 he was drafted to the army. He participated in the fighting against Germany in the North-Western Front during the First World War. On leave in September 1917, he came to Tomsk to meet his future wife Concordia Pavlovna Kuzmina (at that time she was a listener of the Medical Faculty of the Tomsk University), whom he had met in 1914 during one of his expeditions. A.K. Ivanov returned from the army in late November 1917, when it had already been rebuilt on the soviet principles. After the signing of the Brest-Litovsk peace deal, he was demobilized and came to Tomsk, planning to start preparing for the delivery of master tests. However, the Civil War which began in the late spring interrupted his plans. A.K. Ivanov, as a soldier of the White Army, took part in the fighting in the Eastern Front. In December, 1919, in Tomsk, he came over to the Soviet government's side. At this time in Tomsk State University there was no specialist in physical geography for conducting practical classes, and Professor S.I. Rudenko invited A.K. Ivanov to the post of a junior assistant. In January 1922, Ivanov was allowed to teach geographical subjects. After the departure of S.I. Rudenko and S.A. Teploukhov from Tomsk, he became the Head of the Office of Geography and Anthropology. In 1923, he headed the Ethnological and Archaeological Museum, which under his leadership began to involve workers, peasants, soldiers and students of Tomsk in educational activities. Much credit of Ivanov is the replenishment of museum collections. In the 1920s-1930s, he took part in several ethnographic expeditions (Achinsk-Minusinsk expedition in 1920, an expedition to the Western edge of the Kirghiz and Urals in 1921, an expedition to Mountainous Shoria in 1925, 1927, 1930, studies during a business trip with a propaganda column in Malopeschansky area in 1930), organized archaeological excavations in the neighborhood of Tomsk (Toyanov Gorodok, Tomsk Burial, Basandayka, Samus Backwater). In 1931-1932, after reorganization of faculties, A.K. Ivanov headed the Geographic Department, and after a new restructuring the Department of Physical Geography. In November 1937, he was arrested by the NKVD and soon sent to the death penalty on charges of membership in the Russian Union of Salvation. After his death, his wife with their daughters moved to Buguruslan, where she headed a tuberculosis hospital for children. The most valuable manuscripts of A.K. Ivanov were seized during the arrest; they have not been found until now.

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