[1] Rybakov held a chair in Russian history at the Moscow University since 1939, was a deputy dean of the university in 1952–54, and administered the Russian History Institute more than 40 years.
In 1954, Rybakov and Andrey Kursanov represented the Soviet Academy of Sciences at the Columbia University Bicentennial in New York City.
Rybakov led important excavations in Moscow, Novgorod, Zvenigorod, Chernihiv, Pereiaslav, Tmutarakan and Putyvl and published his findings in numerous monographs, including Antiquities of Chernigov (1949), The Chronicles and Bylinas of Ancient Rus (1963), The First Centuries of Russian history (1964), The Tale of Igor's Campaign and Its Contemporaries (1971), Muscovite Maps of the 15th and early 16th Centuries (1974), and Herodotus' Scythia (1979).
In the latter book he viewed the Scythians described by Herodotus as ancestors of modern Slavic nations.
In his older years, Rybakov attempted to reconstruct the pantheon and myths of Slavic religion.