Efimov, Aleksei Vladimirovich

Born Jan. 18 (30), 1896, in Baku; died Nov. 11, 1971, in Moscow. Soviet historian. Specialist in modern and contemporary history, ethnology, and the history of Russian geographic discoveries. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939) and of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences (1947).

Efimov graduated from Moscow University in 1922. In 1938 he became a professor of the history department at Moscow State University. From 1936 to 1941 he worked in the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1956 he became head of the section of American peoples of the Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. His principal works were From the History of the Great Russian Geographic Discoveries. …(1950; 2nd ed., 1971), Notes on the History of the United States (1955; 2nd ed., 1958), Some Questions on the Methods of History as a Science (1958), and The USA: The Paths of Development of Capitalism (1969). Efimov is the author of a frequently reprinted textbook on modern history for secondary schools and is coauthor of a modern history textbook for institutions of higher learning. He is one of the authors of The History of Diplomacy (vol. 1, 1941; 2nd ed., vol. 1, 1959) and editor of the basic scholarly work Peoples of America (vols. 1–2, 1959). He is also coauthor and editor of a large number of other scientific works and cartographic publications. A recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1942), he was awarded the Order of Lenin.