Letters from S.A. Tokarev to Y.V. Knorozov in the Collection of Kunstkamera Archive

Abstract

This publication presents for the first time the correspondence of Sergei Tokarev with Yuri Knorozov, two remarkable Soviet scholars, which is kept in Collection 40 of the Archive of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The collection comprises manuscripts, field materials, correspondence, and other documents created by the museum staff. Materials related to Knorozov are concentrated in files No. 85 and 86 and mainly consist of incoming and outgoing letters. The correspondence, covering the years from 1948 to 1958, sheds light on the development of the professional and intellectual relationship between the two scholars, as well as on Tokarev’s role in shaping Soviet Americanist research and its international perception.