Sergei Aleksandrovich Zhebelev (22 September 1867 – 28 December 1941) was a Russian historian and archaeologist who was recognised as an authority on ancient Greek history.

However he submitted an article to a book celebrating the work of Yakov Ivanovich Smirnov published by the Prague based Kondakov Seminar.

His introductory article was then criticised by Ivan Luppol of the Union of Scientific Workers on the following grounds: Luppol interpreted these as revealing a negative attitude to soviet science, claiming that the last point indicated a rejection of the approach of Nikolai Marr who had argued that archaeology and sociology were necessarily linked.

Luppol pursued the matter with calls for Zhebelev's expulsion from the Academy of Science on the basis of new charter adopted in 1927.

[3] Shortly before his death he remarked to Joseph Orbeli: "I am so glad, that science continues to develop with us even under such difficult conditions.