Gerasimov, Mikhail Mikhailovich

Born Sept. 2 (15), 1907, in St. Petersburg; died July 21, 1970, in Moscow. Soviet anthropologist-sculptor and archaeologist. Doctor of historical sciences (1956) and director of the laboratory of plastic reconstruction at the Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1950-70).

Gerasimov is known for his work in facial reconstruction on the basis of skull formation. Using the method he had devised, Gerasimov reconstructed a number of specimens of prehistoric (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus) and early peoples, as well as the likenesses of more than 200 historical figures, including Iaroslav the Wise, Andrei Bogoliubskii, Tamerlane, Ulug-Beg, Ivan the Terrible, and Schiller. Gerasimov also discovered and investigated the Upper Paleolithic Mal’ta settlement. He was the recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1950), the Order of the Badge of Honor, and a medal.