Sergey Tolstov

Tolstov was the organizer and the first director (between 1937 and 1969) of the Chorasmian Expedition credited with discovery and investigation of archeological monuments of Khwarezm.

[1] In 1953, Tolstov was elected the corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.

[2] Tolstov was born in Saint Petersburg, his father was a military officer.

In 1930, he graduated from Moscow State University, where he studied at two faculties simultaneously: Physics and mathematics, and History and ethnology.

[3] In 1939, Tolstov was appointed the head of the newly created Department of Ethnography at Moscow State University, and in 1942 he became the director of the Ethnography Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.