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 Today marks 85 years from the day of birth of legendary ethnographer, archeologist, orientalist - turkologist, Doctor of history, professor Sevyan Izrailevich Vainshtein.
A graduate of MGU, native Muscovite, he left the comfortable capital and went to Tuva, which he researched for almost half a century in expeditions on foot, or riding horses, reindeer and camels.
Based on the materials collected during his many years of ethnographic and archeological expeditions, Vainshtein wrote fundamental historical-ethnographical monographs about Tuvans, their origins, and the origins of their national culture ("Tuvans-Todzhans" M.,1961; "History of national art of Tuva" M.,1974; "Historical ethnography of Tuvans" M.,1972; "The world of nomads of Center of Asia", M.,1991).
Sevyan Izrailevich did not have an easy life. His father was repressed in 1936, and shot in 1938, and for that reason the young man was refused admittance to higher education, but eventually he was accepted after all at MGU. Already as a student, in 1947 S. Vainshtein received the university prize for his work "Religious and philosophical teachings of the Ishmaelite sect".
He was always known for his high principles and good citizenship attitude. So, in 1948 as a member of an expedition of the Ethnographic Institute of AN USSR (now Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAN), under the leadership of B.O. Dolgikh, he conducted research of the Kets at Podkamennaya Tunguska. Shocked by the difficult situation of these people, after he returned from the expedition he took decisive steps to save the Kets from extinction. He presented a report on this theme at the department of ethnography of MGU and wrote a letter to T.M. Malenkov.
"For slandering and casting aspersions on the Soviet national politics" he was expelled from the Komsomol and from the university. However, the commission of the Central Committee then confirmed the facts stated by S. Vainshtein in his report to Malenkov. On the results of the commission, administrative organs issued a decree and took measures to help the Kets, and Vainshtein was reinstated at the university and in 1949 he was sent by the Ethnography Institute on another expedition to the Kets.
The MGU graduate came to Tuva in 1950 by his own request. He immediately became involved in crating a new exhibit on the subject of history ancient Tuva at the national museum. Five years of work at the museum were filled with expeditions and field research. The collected materials became the basis for his candidate dissertation "Tuvans of Todzha", which he successfully defended in 1956.
It was precisely Vainshtein who as one of the first in Tuva started collecting artifacts of Tuvan decorative-applied art - stone carvings of agalmatolit and serpentinite, wood carvings, and samples of smith craft. "Already in the fall of 1951, having found stone chess figures of unusually talented craftsmanship in the collections of the museum, I decided to meet their author, who lived in the remote Bai-Taiga district in western Tuva, - Sevyan Izrailevich told Valeriy Tishkov in an interview. - There, in the Kop-Seok settlement, I sought out the master - stone carver Khertek Toybu-Khaa, who was known to very few people. I proposed to him to come with me to Kyzyl, I settled him in my room, and set up good conditions so that he could carve. I showed his remarkable work to the Tuvan public. Later he with other stone carvers became widely famous not just in Tuva but far beyond its borders as well."
Sevyan Izrailevich reminisced about the Tuvan period in his life in his book "Expeditions to the Center of Asia". In 2005 it was published in German language at the "Alouette Verlag" publishing house. Almost three years later, the book was published in Russian language with the support of the "Por-Bazhyn" foundation.
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