David Alekseevich Zolotarev (August 29, 1885 – September 10, 1935) was a Russian anthropologist and ethnographer who studied the tribal populations of the Yaroslavl region of northern Russia.

In his capacity as professor of anthropology at the University of Leningrad and as a representative of the Russian Geographical Society’s Ethnographic Division, Zolotarev led numerous anthropological expeditions, and would later report the findings in published research papers and at scientific conferences.

In measuring the physical characteristics and social customs of this population, Zolotarev’s findings were used by the Soviet government to determine that the Karelians could be claimed as Russians rather than as Finns.

[2] In 1930, Zolotarev led an expedition to study the Sami, Karelians and Russians of the Lake Imandra region.

In 2008, the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced it was inaugurating the research program “Tracing the D. A. Zolotarev Expedition: Ethno-cultural and migration processes in rural areas of the North-West of the Russian Federation in historical perspective.”[4]