Eminent Archaeographer (for the 85th birthday of Academician of SB RAS N. N. Pokrovsky)

The article tells about Academician N. N. Pokrovsky’s work as an archaeographer, who headed the work of archaeographers at the Institute of History of the Siberian Division of the RAS. Under his guidance expedition work in Old Believers’ settlements on the territory of Urals, Siberia, Middle Asia and the Far East was done during almost half a century. At this time more than 1500 storage units of incunabula and manuscripts of 16^th-20^th centuries and also hectographic and xerographic copies of the manuscripts, that were left with their owners, came into the collection of the Institute of History of SB RAS. Owing to the efforts of the Institute of History, NSU and the State Scientific Technical Library of SB RAS, the largest (after Moscow and Leningrad) Archaeographic Centre of the country was founded in the late 1960s. Academicians D. S. Likhachyov and A. M. Panchenko named its work “archaeographic discovery of Siberia”. N. N. Pokrovsky was one of the last erudites who represented the Old Russian school of archaeography; the best of them (both of Moscow and Petersburg lines of investigations) paid equal attention to the search and rescue of written monuments, their study and deeply commented publication. N. N. Pokrovsky and his disciples introduced the most significant monuments into scientific revolution. Owing to them researchers and the public have become acquainted with a phenomenon, not known before, - Siberian peasant literature of the 18^th-21^th centuries that is still living and developing.