On August 20, 2010, Boris Anatolyevich Litvinsky, a world - renowned scientist and the oldest employee of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, passed away.

A student of the Central Asian State University, he went to the front at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, participated in military operations as a platoon commander of submachine gunners, and was seriously wounded on the outskirts of Berlin. After recovery, he returned to Tashkent, graduated from the University in the Department of Archeology, and since then he has devoted his entire life to science. In 1951, together with his wife, a major numismatist and orientalist E. A. Davidovich, at the invitation of B. G. Gafurov, he moved to Dushanbe, where he headed the Department of Archeology and numismatics at the A. Donish Institute of History and Archeology, the first Tajik scientific archaeological center. In 1971, the family moved to Moscow, where B. A. Litvinsky became head of the newly created Section of Antiquity and the Middle Ages of the Department of Soviet Oriental Studies, and later head of the Department of Ancient Oriental Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He worked actively at the Institute until the last days of his life.

During more than six decades of fruitful scientific activity, B. A. Litvinsky led numerous archaeological expeditions, the results of which turned out to be significant for world science, and the work of their researcher went far beyond the study of material culture. The scientist dealt with issues of ethnogenesis of modern and ancient peoples of Central Asia, ideology, problems of interaction between farmers and nomads, cultural contacts and their significance, migrations and religious movements. B. A. Litvinsky's works are distinguished by the huge scope of the material involved. A scientist of extraordinary erudition, he was able to examine each phenomenon against an extremely broad archaeological and historical background, which made it possible to assess its significance in the context of world culture. We can safely say that Boris Anatolyevich had no equal in terms of erudition. At the same time, he was also a master of the most scrupulous analysis of the materials studied, all his conclusions were verified with extraordinary care, there are no errors or carelessness in his works.,

sloppiness. Being primarily an archaeologist, B. A. Litvinsky made extensive use of numismatic, epigraphic, and ethnographic material in his research, drawing on data from written sources, organically combining them with archaeological analysis. His internationally recognized works on the history of Central Asian Buddhism are a brilliant example of such a comprehensive study.

B. A. Litvinsky's fundamental research is widely known abroad. Friendly relations connected him with many famous researchers in Europe and Asia, who highly appreciated his work. He is an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, an academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, a foreign member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lintei (Italy), a corresponding member. German Archaeological Institute and the Institute of Oriental and African Studies, member of the editorial boards of many Russian and foreign journals.

Boris Anatolyevich's ability to work, preserved by him until the last days, had no limits. He has published more than 460 works, each of which retains its significance regardless of the time of publication. The third and final volume of his research on the Oks Temple in Tajikistan will soon be published.

B. A. Litvinsky brought up many students, first of all, actively working archaeologists of Tajikistan. At the Institute of Oriental Studies, he rallied a creative team of then-young researchers around him. Boris Anatolyevich was extremely attentive to their interests, contributed in every possible way to the development of new directions and methods, never imposing his own opinion, but introducing them to the state of world science. His erudition always remains an example for us, although hardly accessible. At the service of the department's employees, colleagues, and students, there was always a huge library of Boris Anatolyevich, where you could find publications that were not available in state repositories.

Having already retired from administrative activities, B. A. Litvinsky remained the soul of the scientific life of the Department of the Ancient East. The unexpected passing away of this until recently active scientist is a great loss for world science and an irreplaceable gap in the ranks of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

M. N. POGREBOVA

B. A. Litvinsky, an outstanding researcher of the Russian and foreign Orient, has died. There was not a man of science, a historian, an archaeologist, an ethnographer, or an art critic who did not say at the news of his death, "an era has passed." These words are not an exaggeration in the slightest.

B. A. Litvinsky began his long career in science after being wounded in 1945, when he returned to the Central Asian State University, where he graduated as an archaeologist. Before the war, it was one of the best educational institutions, scrupulously teaching students about the past of a vast region. Soon, together with his wife E. A. Davidovich, he became an organizer of research at the Institute of History and Archeology in Dushanbe. Very quickly, a center with a wide range of research was organized here. Employees were focused on the need to rely in their work not only on material, but also on written sources, on the study of all aspects of the life of the ancients, their techniques and technologies of production, economy in all its subtleties. From reconstructing the everyday life of ancient and medieval ethnic groups in all the complexity of their relationships, the path led to the study of ideology and religion. Thanks to the tireless work of B. A. Litvinsky, their religious ideas and images of spiritual life, which were previously poorly outlined among sedentary farmers, pastoralists and nomads, became clear.

One of the main features of his scientific work was his belief in the intensity of remote contacts between the inhabitants of different regions in ancient times. He was constantly preoccupied with interpretations of things or buildings that showed trade or other relationships, which ultimately led to the creation of complex contacts, the spread of Buddhism or Hellenistic culture in areas where until the time of his research they were not expected to be seen.

B. A. Litvinsky was a real polymath. However, he did not seek to force his younger comrades to accept his even well-founded points of view. All he did was offer new books or articles he received and give them their freedom. His benevolence could be earned by hard work (if possible, like him, 12 hours a day) and interest in his business. He was an attentive and kind friend to all of us.

E. V. ANTONOVA

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