Vladimir Iakovlevich Tolmachev, 1876 - 1947?

V. Ia. Tolmachev was born in Shadrinskii uezd, Permskaia guberniia, on 21 November 1876 (O.S.). Upon graduation from the Ekaterinburg gimnaziia, he entered St. Petersburg University, where he studied in the physics and mathematics department, and simultaneously audited courses at the Academy of Arts. But his primary interest was archeology, and in 1900 he transferred to the Archeological Institute. Every summer was spent on expedition, and upon graduation from the Institute he went to work digging up artifacts in the Ural-Volga region. Many of the results of his scientific work appeared in Drevnosti Urala, which commenced publication in 1913.

The Civil War brought him to Chita, where he remained until 1922, continuing archeological research and teaching. His career in Harbin was associated with archeological and paleontological finds of great significance all across Manchuria. He was a curator of the Museum of the Society for the Study of Manchuria (Obshchestvo issledovaniia Man'chzhurskogo kraia). He also wrote many articles on the commodities markets for Manchurian goods, such as soy beans. Most of the writings in his collection deal with Manchurian and Chinese archeology, culture, and agriculture. He left Harbin for Shanghai in the mid-1930s. Tolmachev apparently died in 1947.

Detailed processing and preservation microfilming for these materials were made possible by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by matching funds from the Hoover Institution and Museum of Russian Culture. The grant also provides for depositing a microfilm copy in the Hoover Institution Archives. The original materials and copyright to them (with some exceptions) are the property of the Museum of Russian Culture, San Francisco.

Vladimir Tolmachev Register