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Oleksandr Leskov

Oleksandr Mykhailovych Leskov (19 May 1933, Kharkiv — 2017, United States) — a prominent Ukrainian and Soviet archaeologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences, specialist in the Crimean antiquities of the Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. Organizer of major rescue-expedition works (Kerch, Kakhovka, Kherson), who later suffered political repression in Soviet Ukraine and was forced to emigrate.

Overview

Oleksandr Leskov began his path in archaeology with the study of sites in the Mountainous Crimea and the Kherson region. He headed the largest archaeological expeditions at construction projects (novobudovy) in southern Ukraine and founded the direction of "new-build" archaeology. After a fabricated accusation of "Zionism" and dismissal from the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, the scholar left Ukraine, continued his work in Leningrad, Moscow (organizing excavations in the North Caucasus and Siberia), and later in the United States, where he taught at leading universities.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Beginning of his scholarly path: Born in Kharkiv, graduated from the History Faculty of Kharkiv University (1955). His candidate's dissertation and first monograph were devoted to the Mountainous Crimea in the 1st millennium BC. He worked under the supervision of S. M. Bibikov, excavating Kizyl-Koba cemeteries (Urkusta, Dzheppallakh, and others).
  • New-build archaeology and Shyroke: In 1961–1963 he headed the Krasnoznamensky detachment of the North Crimean Expedition, which fully investigated the reference Bilozerska culture cemetery near the village of Shyroke. He founded and coordinated the new-build archaeology direction at the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, heading the large Kakhovka (later Kherson) expedition.
  • Repression and relocation: In 1971–1972, during the waves of repression, Leskov was denounced and accused of "Zionism in the expedition", dismissed from the institute with a ban on his profession, and temporarily transferred to the Institute of Cybernetics. In 1974 he moved to Leningrad, and in 1975 defended his doctoral dissertation "The Final Stage of the Bronze Age in Southern Ukraine" in Moscow.
  • Work in Moscow and the United States: From 1981 he worked in Moscow at the State Museum of the Art of the Peoples of the East, where he directed archaeological research in the North Caucasus (in particular, excavations of kurgans near the aul of Ulyap, revealing to the world the gold of Adygea). In 1997 he moved to the United States, where he taught at the University of California (Berkeley), the University of Texas, and the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Legacy and connection with successors: He left more than 100 scholarly works, including 20 monographs. Thanks to Leskov's advice regarding the excavation materials of S. F. Strzheletsky in the funds of the Tauric Chersonesos Reserve, the researcher Evelina Kravchenko began the study of the Uch-Bash settlement. In 2019 a final monograph on the Shyroke cemetery was published (co-authored with E. Kravchenko and T. Goshko).