Aleksandr Lvovich Mongait, russian: Александр Львович Монгайт (1915—1974) was a Soviet Russian archaeologist. His most important achievement was ''Археология Западной Европы'', a fundamental work on
prehistoric archaeology
Prehistoric archaeology is a subfield of archaeology, which deals specifically with artefacts, civilisations and other materials from societies that existed before any form of writing system or historical record. Often the field focuses on ages s ...
of Europe in 2 volumes which made the achievements of Western archaeology available to the Soviet general public. In the early 1960s
Boris Rybakov
Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov (Russian language, Russian: Бори́с Алекса́ндрович Рыбако́в, 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001) was a Soviet Union, Soviet and Russian historian who personified the anti-Normanist the ...
, the informal leader of the Soviet archaeological school, organized a campaign against Mongait, blaming him for "non-patriotic views". Nevertheless, this campaign quickly failed due to reluctance of many archaeologists to participate.
In his book ''Archaeology in the USSR'' published in 1959 Mongait made reference to
Victor Petrov
Viktor Platonovych Petrov ( uk, Віктор Платонович Петров, pen names V. Domontovych ( uk, В. Домонтович), Viktor Ber ( uk, Віктор Бер); 10 October 1894 – 8 June 1969) was a prominent Ukrainians, Ukraini ...
, who at that time had a reputation of a
Ukrainian nationalist
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
kidnapped from
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
by
Soviet secret services. Ironically, this reference helped emigrants understand that Petrov in fact was alive and cooperated with
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
, as any reference to defectors was
impossible in Soviet publications before ''
perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
''.
References
Selected works
* Mongait, A.L., Archaeology in the USSR. Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1959; 2nd edition, translated and adapted by M. W. Thompson, Baltimore-Maryland, 1961.
Монгайт, Александр Львович. Археология Западной Европы. Каменный век. М. 1973
* Монгайт, Александр Львович. Археология Западной Европы. Бронзовый и железный век. М. 1974.
* Монгайт, Александр Львович, Амальрик, Алексей Сергеевич. В поисках исчезнувших цивилизаций. М. 2005 (несколько изданий).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mongait, Aleksandr
Soviet archaeologists
1915 births
1974 deaths
Prehistorians