German Fedorov-Davydov was born in a family of highly educated, impoverished nobility, with old tradition of science; one of his ancestors, Davydov, was a 19th-century rector of the Moscow University.
In 1969 he became a professor in the Archeology Institute of the USSR Academy of Science, his post-graduate and doctoral monographs were "Altyn Orda coin hoards" (1957), and "East European Nomads from 10th to 14th centuries" (1966).
From 1950 he constantly participated in archeological expeditions: to Khoresm, Tatarstan, Chuvashia, Tunis, Mongolia, South Korea.
G. Fedorov-Davydov continued traditions of pre-revolutionary orientalists - numismatists (H.M.Fren, P.S.Savelyev, and others), contributing to the knowledge in the field, including the birth and development of the Russian monetary system and terminology.
His monographs "East European Nomads under rule of Altyn Orda Khans" (1966), "Social order of Golden Horde" (1973), "Art of nomads and Golden Horde" (1976) became classical for the period of Early Middle Age world of the Euroasian steppes.