Udaltsova, Zinaida Vladimirovna

Born Mar. 5, 1918, in Kislovodsk, Stavropol’ Krai. Soviet historian. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1976). Member of the CPSU since 1945.

Udal’tsova graduated from Moscow State University in 1940. In 1949 she became a research worker in the section on Byzantine studies of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; she served as head of the section from 1961 to 1968. From 1968 to 1970, Udal’tsova was head of the section on Byzantine studies at the Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. She was made head of the section on Byzantine studies at the Institute of World History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1970, becoming the institute’s director in 1980.

Udal’tsova became an instructor at Moscow State University in 1946 and a professor there in 1968. Her work has dealt with the socioeconomic and political history of the Byzantine Empire, primarily in the early period; with issues of Byzantine culture; and with general problems of the genesis and typology of feudalism. She became vice-president of the International Association for Byzantine Studies in 1976.

Udal’tsova has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and various medals.