Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (3) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.3.111-118

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Ivan Lepyokhin’s Expedition to the Middle Volga

A.K. Salmin

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

This study describes Ivan Lepyokhin’s journey to the Middle Volga as part of the 1768-1774 Academic Expedition. All the 18th-century expeditions from the Academy of Sciences were aimed at colonizing new territories, especially the eastern ones, exploring their landscapes, natural resources, and inhabitants. The article focuses on the team working in the Cheremshan basin. The description of findings is arranged in five sections, following Lepyokhin’s classification: landscape, population, clothing, occupations, and rituals. For the first time, a complete, updated, and verified list of settlements visited by the expedition members is provided. The role of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Director, Count Vladimir Orlov, in the organization of the expedition is described. The author disproves the opinion regarding the authorship of the anonymous article “Brief Report about the Simbirsk Governorship” published in the “Mesyatsoslov” journal in 1786. The authors to whom the article was attributed include Lepyokhin, Maslenitsky, and Ozeretskovsky, but the textological analysis of the article and of a manuscript at the Russian State Archives of Military History suggests that this is a collective digest of manuscripts by Milkovich and Maslenitsky.

Keywords: 1768-1774 Academic Expedition, Ivan Lepyokhin, Middle Volga, Cheremshan River basin, ethnography