Valentin Yanin

Graduated from the Department of Archaeology at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University in 1951. In 1966 he was elected an Associate Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1990 - a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 1991 to 2001 he was a member of the Presidium of the RAS, from 2001 he was an adviser to the Presidium of the RAS. From 1996 to 2003, he was Chairman of the Russian State Scientific Foundation (RSF). From 1978 to 2015, he was head of the Department of Archaeology. Professor Emeritus of Moscow University.

For the first time in Russian historiography he developed methodological methods of complex source study based on the analysis of diverse sources: written, archeological, numismatic and sphragistic materials, art monuments. On the basis of the analysis of these sources V. L. Yanin reconstructed the history of monetary systems of Russia, political institutions and principles of formation of the state system of Novgorod, the patrimonial system of the Novgorod land; he worked out the topography of medieval Novgorod. He was the first to use birch-bark writings as a historical source.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Friendship of Peoples, the S. M. Solovyov Gold Medal, and the M. V. Lomonosov Grand Gold Medal. Winner of the Lomonosov Prize (1966), the USSR State Prize (1970), the Lenin Prize (1984), the Demidov Prize (1993), the Russian State Prize (1996), the "Triumph" prize (2002), the Alexander Solzhenitsyn literary prize (2010). Honorary Citizen of Veliky Novgorod, honorary member of the Novgorod Society of Lovers of Antiquities.

Research interests:

Archaeology and source study of medieval Novgorod, Birch parchments, Numismatics, Sfragistics, Epigraphy