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Oleksandr Takhtai

Oleksandr Kuzmych Takhtai (23 October 1890 — 25 July 1963) was a Ukrainian archaeologist, museum figure, and monument protection specialist who devoted his life to the study of the antiquities of Crimea (in particular Sevastopol and the Inkerman Valley), the Kherson region, and the Poltava region. During World War II he remained in occupied Sevastopol to save the collections of the Chersonesus Museum, for which he was later repressed by the Soviet authorities. The monograph Evelina Kravchenko and co-authors, Ot bronzy k zhelezu: khoziaistvo zhitelei Inkermanskoi doliny ("From Bronze to Iron: The Economy of the Inhabitants of the Inkerman Valley," 2016), is dedicated to the memory of Oleksandr Kuzmych Takhtai.

Overview

Oleksandr Kuzmych Takhtai was born in the city of Romny in the Poltava Governorate. He was educated at St. Petersburg University and the St. Petersburg Archaeological Institute, after which he returned to Poltava. He went through World War I, and later worked at the Poltava Monument Protection Committee and the Poltava Museum. He encountered political persecution as early as 1929. Thanks to the intercession of his colleagues, he was able to continue working in the Dniprelstan expedition under the leadership of D. I. Yavornytskyi, and then headed the archaeological department in Kherson.

In 1935 the scholar moved to Sevastopol, where he began working at the Chersonesus Museum. He was the first to draw attention to the typological similarity between the cultures of Crimea and the Lower Dnieper region in the pre-Scythian period and conducted the first reconnaissance at the Sakharna Holovka Settlement site. During World War II he refused to evacuate and selflessly saved the non-evacuated museum valuables of Chersonesus from looting by German troops. Despite recognition of his merits in the postwar years, in 1949, following a denunciation by his colleague S. F. Strzheletsky, Takhtai was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in the camps. After an amnesty in 1955, he worked at the Donetsk Museum.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Beginning of career and first arrest: After his studies he worked as the keeper of the archaeological department of the Poltava Museum. In 1929 he was accused of anti-Soviet agitation, arrested, but released in 1930 due to lack of evidence. He was never able to return to work at the museum.
  • Expeditions and work in the south: He worked under the distinguished historian D. I. Yavornytskyi at Dniprelstan. In 1930 he was appointed head of the archaeological department of the museum in Kherson. In 1934 he was arrested again, but the case was quickly closed. He later worked in Tsiurupynsk.
  • Chersonesus period and the Inkerman Valley: From 1935 he worked at Chersonesus. He was the first to begin a systematic survey of the sites of the Inkerman Valley, discovered materials at Sakharna Holovka, and established their belonging to the Kizyl-Koba culture.
  • Saving Chersonesus during the occupation: With the start of the Soviet-German war he remained to guard the monuments. Together with an assistant he buried the most valuable non-evacuated mosaics and exhibits. Appointed by the occupation authorities as professor-curator of the museum, he organized the cleaning of the territory and the documentation of new finds. He prevented the valuable exhibits from being taken away to Germany.
  • Repeated repressions and exile: In January 1949, on the accusation of S. F. Strzheletsky, he was publicly charged with collaboration with the Nazis. He was sentenced to 25 years in the camps for "treason against the Motherland."
  • Release and commemoration: He served his sentence until October 1955 and was released under an amnesty. From 1956 he worked at the Donetsk Local History Museum. The scholar's scientific archive is preserved in Simferopol. In 2016 the team of the Inkerman expedition under the leadership of E. A. Kravchenko dedicated the fundamental monograph Ot bronzy k zhelezu ("From Bronze to Iron") to the memory of Oleksandr Kuzmych Takhtai.