Alexander Davidovich Davydov, one of the world's leading orientalists, has passed away.

Alexander Davidovich was born on July 27, 1928 in Rostov-on-Don. After graduating from high school, he entered the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, where he graduated in 1951 with a degree in Afghanistan and the Pashto language. He began a deep study of the country in geography, geology, and meteorology, as a researcher at the Geography Department of Moscow State University, and since 1956-at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, working his way up to Doctor of Economics, Professor, head of the Afghanistan sector of the Department of the Near and Middle East of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Having started his scientific activity with studying the natural resources of Afghanistan, already in the 1960s A.D. Davydov wrote a series of works on this topic. Among them are the articles "Towards the study of water resources of Afghanistan for the needs of agriculture", "Development of geological and geographical knowledge in independent Afghanistan". At the same time, he began to study the agriculture of Afghanistan, in particular agrarian relations, which were interpreted at that time by Soviet scientists in different ways. Alexander Davidovich, with his characteristic thoroughness and thoroughness, thoroughly studied these issues, writing a number of books and articles that confirmed the idea expressed by him about the penetration of capitalist relations into the agriculture of Afghanistan.

This idea in the 1960s and 1970s was met with many opponents-supporters of the predominance of the conservative, feudal nature of agricultural production in the country. However, in his scientific works, A.D. Davydov was able to show, based on the analysis of a large amount of factual material, Western sources and the results of his own observations, that traditional Afghan society and tribal structures are subject to erosion through the penetration of elements of capitalism that dictate the creation of a pan-Afghan market. These works include his monographs " The Development of capitalist relations in the agriculture of Afghanistan "(1962), " On the rural community and its economic significance in Afghanistan "(1963), " On the influence of tribal and communal survivals on the development of capitalism "(1966), "The Agrarian System of Afghanistan" (1969), "Distribution of hired agricultural labor in the Russian Federation

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Afghanistan "(1969)," Socio-economic structure of the village of Afghanistan " (1976).

A.D. Davydov's fieldwork in Afghanistan in the 1970s was of particular value to these works and helped him study the Afghan countryside. He was able to get acquainted in different regions of the country with the methods of conducting agricultural work, equipping peasant and landowner farms with tools and equipment, as well as with the existing relations between landlords and peasants (sharecropping, farm labor), the system of remuneration in agriculture and cattle breeding. After that, his scientific works, including those on the rural community, become more objective, and statements about the level of development of capitalism in the Afghan village become more reasoned.

After the April 1978 revolution in Afghanistan, Alexander Davidovich was engaged in research on agrarian reform in the country, took an active part in discussions related to this problem, and gave his recommendations to the Afghan government.

In the following years, he analyzed the process of implementing agrarian reform in the country, which resulted in the monograph "Agrarian Legislation of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan "(1984). Hard-pressed by the failures of the Afghan government's agrarian policy, A. D. Davydov sums it up in his book "Afghanistan: There could have been no War "(1993). This is by right one of the best works about the reasons for the defeat of the Afghan revolutionary democracy in the civil war.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Alexander Davidovich successfully expanded the scope of his research interests, studying social relations in the entire region of the Near and Middle East, publishing monographs on small-scale farming and rural communities in the countries of the region.

His latest monograph, "The Traditional Market of Afghanistan" (1999), was also highly appreciated, which not only examines the history of the country's traditional shopping centers, but also provides a vivid description of the social and ethnic processes that accompany this history.

In the late 1990s, A. D. Davydov organized the publication of three collections of articles on contemporary problems of war and peace in Afghanistan, which later turned into serial publications. Finally, in 2000, under his leadership, the handbook "Afghanistan" was published - a kind of summary of scientific research in recent years by both Alexander Davidovich and his colleagues, containing extensive information about the political, social, economic and cultural life of Afghanistan ^* .

In addition to scientific creativity, A.D. Davydov was successfully engaged in teaching activities, showing himself to be a sensitive and attentive scientific supervisor. He was surrounded by numerous students who, having acquired deep knowledge, themselves made a significant contribution to Oriental studies, not only in Russia, but also abroad.

The initiator of holding round tables and seminars on Afghanistan with the involvement of a wide range of Russian and Afghan specialists, Alexander Davidovich became a kind of center of attraction for people related to the Afghan theme.

Having unexpectedly passed away in the prime of his creative powers, A. D. Davydov was unable to complete many of his plans, which he generously shared with his comrades, but even what he did during his life is enough for Alexander Davidovich to remain in the memory of his friends and colleagues as a major scientist and a person who devoted his life to his work. life for Afghanistan, which is close to his heart.

COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS

^* For a list of scientific works by A. D. Davydov, see Peoples of Asia and Africa. 1988. N 6. pp. 210-211.

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