O. L. Vil’chevskii

Collection

Holding institution:: The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera)

Holding institution (official language):: Музей антропологии и этнографии им. Петра Великого (Кунсткамера) Российской Академии наук

Web address:: http://kunstkamera.ru/index/museums_structure/sluzhby_i_podrazdeleniya/archives/

Scope and content:: Housed in the fonds are research works, reviews, and translations (1930-69) by O. L. Vil’chevskii; evaluations of his works (1957-63); documents on his activities in the political administration of the Transcaucasian Front and at the Institute of Ethnography (1942-63); correspondence (1956-63); and materials of other persons (1924-62). Pertaining to Jewish history and culture are manuscripts of O. L. Vil’chevskii’s works, including a report titled “On the Process of National Consolidation in the Middle East” (1956-62); an article titled “The Military-Political Situation of the Arab Countries of the Middle East” (1950-53), which examines UK and US policies vis-à-vis Israel; and an article titled “The Tats,” in which the author (mistakenly) categorises the Mountain Jews living in the village of Krasnaia Sloboda (Kuba district), the city of Baku, the Dagestan ASSR, and the northern Caucasus as Tats (1956-57).

Administrative/biographical history:: Oleg Ludvigovich Vil’chevskii (1902-64) was an ethnographer and linguist. In 1921, he matriculated at the Institute of Modern Eastern Languages, from which he graduated in 1924. In 1928-29 he worked as a teacher of the Kurdish language. In 1938 he defended his dissertation and received his PhD in philology. From May 1942 to June 1954, he worked in the political administration of the Western Front of the Transcaucasian Military District. After being discharged into reserve status in August 1954, he worked as a senior researcher at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, specialising in the history and ethnography of the peoples of Western Asia. On 12 February 1963 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic of the Kurdish people. During the period of his work in the political administration, he wrote (for publications restricted to persons with clearance) several works on the state structure and population of Middle Eastern countries and other issues. He authored ethnographic and linguistic studies on Kurds. The archive received this fonds in 1964.

Access points: locations:: Baku; Israel; Krasnaia Sloboda; Middle East; northern Caucasus; Russia; St Petersburg; United Kingdom; United States

System of arrangement:: The fonds includes a single inventory systematised by structure, and in part chronologically and alphabetically.