List of Russian historians

A

• Valery Alekseyev (1929–1991), anthropologist, proposed Homo rudolfensis
• Mikhail Artamonov (1898–1972), historian and archaeologist, founder of modern Khazar studies, excavated a great number of Scythian and Khazar kurgans and settlements, including the fortress of Sarkel
• Artemiy Artsikhovsky (1902–1978), archaeologist, discoverer of birch bark documents in Novgorod

B

• Vasily Bartold (1869–1930), turkologist, the "Gibbon of Turkestan", an archaeologist of Samarcand
• Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin (1829–1897), 19th-century historian and paleographer, founder of the Bestuzhev Courses for women
• Nikita Bichurin (1777–1853), a founder of Sinology, published many documents on Chinese and Mongolian history, opened the first Chinese-language school in Russia
• Nikolai N. Bolkhovitinov (1930-2008), Russian/Soviet historian
• Boris Hessen (1893–1936), physicist who brought externalism into modern historiography of science

D

• Dmitry Ilovaysky (1832–1920), 19th-century anti-Normanist
• Igor Diakonov (1915–1999), historian and linguist, researcher of Sumer and Assyria
• Dimitri Obolensky (1918–2001), historian and Byzantinist

F

• Boris Farmakovsky (1870–1928), archaeologist of Ancient Greek colony Olbia
• Friedrich von Adelung (1768–1843), historian and museologist, researched the European accounts of the Time of Troubles

G

• Vladimir Golenishchev (1856–1947), egyptologist, excavated Wadi Hammamat, discovered over 6,000 antiquities, including the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, the Story of Wenamun, and various Fayum portraits
• Timofey Granovsky (1813–1855), a founder of mediaeval studies in Russia, disproved the historicity of Vineta
• Boris Grekov (1882–1953), researcher of Kievan Rus' and Golden Horde
• Alexander V. Gordon (born 1937), researcher of the French Revolution, Third world and Peasantry
• Vladimir Guerrier (1837–1919), historian of the French Revolution, founder of the Courses Guerrier for women
• Lev Gumilev (1912–1992), historian and ethnologist, researcher of ancient Central Asian peoples, related ethnogenesis and biosphere, influenced the rise of Neo-Eurasianism

H

I

• Igor Diakonov (1915–1999), historian and linguist, researcher of Sumer and Assyria
• Igor Kurukin [ru] (born 1953), specialist in the history of Russia of the 16th–18th centuries

K

• Alexander Kamensky (born 1954), a historian specializing in the history of 18th-century Russia.

• Konstantin Kapkov (born 1969), a historian of the reign of Nicholas II and the history of the Russian Orthodox church.
• Pyotr Kafarov (1817–1878), sinologist, discovered many invaluable manuscripts, including The Secret History of the Mongols
• Nikolai Karamzin (1766–1826), sentimentalist writer, historian and manuscript collector, author of the 12-volume History of the Russian State
• Vasily Klyuchevsky (1841–1911), played influential role in Russian historiography around 1900, shifted focus from politics and society to geography and economy
• Alexander Kazhdan (1922–1997), Byzantinist, editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
• Nikodim Kondakov (1844–1925), researcher of Byzantine art
• Andrey Korotayev (born 1961), historian and anthropologist, a founder of cliodynamics, developer of social cycle theory

• Stanislaw Kuczera [ru], (1928–2020), sinologist and archaeologist
• Sergey Kovalev (1886–1960), scholar of classical antiquity
• Nikolay Kun (1877–1940), historian, writer and educator
• Yelena Yefimovna Kuzmina (1931–2013), researcher of prehistory of Indo-Aryan peoples

L

• Platon Levshin (1737–1812), president of the Most Holy Synod during the Age of Enlightenment, author of the first systematic course of the history of Russian Orthodox Church
• Nikolay Likhachyov (1862–1936), first and foremost Russian sigillographer, also in a number of other auxiliary historical disciplines
• Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky (1824–1896), statesman, published the major Russian Genealogical Book
• Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), polymath scientist and artist, the first opponent of the Normanist theory, published an early account of Russian history
• Matvei Lyubavsky (1860–1936) historian of ancient Russian history

M

• Mikhail Artamonov (1898–1972), historian and archaeologist, founder of modern Khazar studies, excavated a great number of Scythian and Khazar kurgans and settlements, including the fortress of Sarkel
• Mykola Kostomarov (1817–1885), Russian–Ukrainian historian, folklorist and romantic writer, researched the differences between Great Russia and Little Russia and the history of Ukraine

  

• Pyotr Kozlov (1863–1935), explorer of Central Asia, discoverer of the ancient Tangut city of Khara-Khoto and Xiongnu royal burials at Noin-Ula

N

• Nikolay Danilevsky (1822–1885), ethnologist, philosopher and historian, a founder of Eurasianism, the first to present an account of history as a series of distinct civilisations

M

• Madhavan K. Palat (born 1947), since 1989 Professor of Russian and European History, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India. Visiting Professor of Imperial Russian History at the University of Chicago (2006).
• Boris Marshak (1933–2006), excavated the Sogdian ruins at Panjakent
• Friedrich Martens (1845–1909), legal historian, drafted the Martens Clause of the Hague Peace Conference

  

• Vladimir Minorsky (1877–1966), historian of Persia
• Yagutil Mishiev (1927–2024), writer, author of books about the history of Derbent, Dagestan, Russia.
• Anatoly Moskvin (born 1966), linguist and historian, arrested in 2011 after the bodies of 26 mummified young women were discovered in his home.
• Gerhardt Friedrich Müller (1705–1783), co-founder of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explorer and the first academic historian of Siberia and Russia, pioneer of ethnography, put forth the Normanist theory
• Aleksei Musin-Pushkin (1744–1817), collector of Kievan Rus' manuscripts, discovered The Tale of Igor's Campaign

O

• Dimitri Obolensky (1918–2001), Byzantine commonwealth researcher
• Alexey Okladnikov (1908–1981), historian and archaeologist of Siberia and Mongolia

  

• Sergey Oldenburg (1863–1934), a founder of Russian Indology and the Academic Institute of Oriental Studies
• George Ostrogorsky (1902–1976), 20th-century Byzantinist

P

• Avraamy Palitsyn (died 1626), 17th-century historian of the Time of Troubles
• Anna Pankratova (1897–1957), leading Soviet historian, educator and writer
• Evgeny Pashukanis (1891–1937), legal historian, wrote The General Theory of Law and Marxism
• Boris Piotrovsky (1908–1990), researcher of Urartu, Scythia, and Nubia, long-term director of the Hermitage Museum
• Mikhail Piotrovsky (born 1944), orientalist, current director of the Hermitage Museum
• Mikhail Pogodin (1800–1875), mid-19th-century Russian historian and textologist, proponent of the Normanist theory
• Boris Polevoy (1918–2002), major historian of the Russian Far East
• Mikhail Pokrovsky (1868-1932), Marxist historian, most prominent Soviet historian of the 1920s

  

• Natalia Polosmak (born 1956), archaeologist of Pazyryk burials, discoverer of Ice Maiden mummy
• Alexander Polovtsov (1832–1909), statesman, historian and Maecenas, founder of the Russian Historian Society
• Tatyana Proskuryakova (1909–1985), Mayanist scholar and archaeologist, deciphered the ancient Maya script

R

• Semyon Remezov (ca. 1642- after 1720), cartographer and the first historian of Siberia, author of the Remezov Chronicle
• Mikhail Rostovtsev (1870–1952), archeologist and economist, the first to thoroughly examine the social and economic systems of the Ancient World, excavated Dura-Europos
• Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947), painter, archeologist, and public figure, explorer of Central Asia, initiator of the international Roerich’s Pact on protection of historical monuments
• Sergei Rudenko (1885–1969), discoverer of Scythian Pazyryk burials
• Boris Rybakov (1908–2001), historian and chief Soviet archaeologist for 40 years, primary opponent of the Normanist theory

  

S

• Dmitry Samokvasov (1843–1911), discoverer of Black Grave in Chernigov
• Viktor Sarianidi (1929–2013), discoverer of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex and the Bactrian Gold in Central Asia
• Aleksey Shakhmatov (1864–1920), historian and philologist, pioneer in textology, particularly textual criticism of the Primary Chronicle
• Mikhail Shcherbatov (1733–1790), a man of the Russian Enlightenment, conservative historian
• Anatoly Pavlovich Shikman (born 1948), author of Figures of Russian History and other works.
• Sergey Solovyov (1820–1879), author of the 29-volume History of Russia
• Vasily Struve (1889–1965), orientalist and historian of the Ancient World, put forth the Marxist theory of five socio-economic formations that dominated Soviet education

T

• Yevgeny Tarle (1874–1955), author of studies on Napoleon's invasion of Russia and on the Crimean War
• Vasily Tatishchev (1686–1750), statesman, geographer and historian, discovered and published Russkaya Pravda, Sudebnik of 1550 and the controversial Ioachim Chronicle; wrote the Istoriya Rossiisskaya; has been denounced for fabrications, carelessness and untraceable claims, known as Tatishchev information.
• Mikhail Tikhomirov (1893–1965), specialist in medieval Russian paleography, contributed to the Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles (PSRL)
• Vladimir Yakovlevich Tolmachev (ru, 1876–1942), Imperial Russian and Soviet archaeologist in Manchuria
• Kamilla Trever (1892–1974), specialist in the history and culture of Transcaucasia and Central Asia
• Boris Turayev (1868–1920), author of the first full-scale History of Ancient East
• Peter Turchin (born 1957), population biologist and historian, coined the term cliodynamics
• Alexander Tyumenev (1880–1959), historian of antiquity, author of one of the first Marxist works on the history of classical societies in the Soviet Union

U

• Fyodor Uspensky (1845–1928), Byzantinist, researcher of the Trapezuntine Empire
• Aleksey Uvarov (1825–1884), founder of the first Russian archaeological society, discovered over 750 ancient kurgans

V

• Vasily Vasilievsky (1838–1899), 19th century Byzantinist
• Alexander Vasiliev (1867–1953), author of a comprehensive History of the Byzantine Empire
• Nikolay Veselovsky (1848–1918), first to excavate Afrasiab (the oldest part of Samarkand), as well as the Solokha and Maikop kurgans in Southern Russia

  

• Viacheslav Petrovich Volgin (1879–1962), historian of early communist systems

Y

• Nikolai Yadrintsev (1842–1894), discoverer of Genghis Khan's capital Karakorum and the Orkhon script of ancient Türks
• Valentin Yanin (1929–2020), primary researcher of ancient birch bark documents

Z

• Gennady Zdanovich (born 1938), discoverer of Sintashta culture settlement Arkaim
• Viktor Zemskov (1946–2015), researcher of political repression in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1954