Medvedev Oleg

Oleg Medvedev was born on January 21, 1931 in the village of Moskalevo in the Okhinsky district of the Sakhalin region of the RSFSR. After graduating from high school, he entered the Kazsel'elektro plant; in 1951-1954, he served in the ranks of the Soviet Army as a photographer of a military unit. In 1955-1959, he participated in the works of archaeological expeditions of the IHAE of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR as a non-staff photographer. In 1960, he was accepted into the IHAE as a senior laboratory assistant photographer, and then in 1969, he was transferred to the position of a photographic engineer.

Thanks to his works, such unique archaeological sites as the Issyk mound with the Golden Man and other monuments of the Semirechye and southern Kazakhstan were recorded with a high degree of reliability. Additionally, the reproduction of illustrative material for the monograph by A. Margulan "Begazy-Dandybay culture of Central Kazakhstan" and for the five-volume "History of the Kazakh SSR" was carried out.
In 1973, he took an active part in the design of the first specialized Museum of Archaeology in Kazakhstan: he took pictures of museum exhibits – tools made of stone from the Paleolithic era, ceramic vessels, wood products, bronze, silver and gold. His photographs became the basis of the first catalog of the Museum of Archaeology.

He mastered and successfully applied in practice new techniques of photography and filming of archaeological sites in the field and laboratory conditions. Thus, in 1963, O. Medvedev took part in the creation of an amateur film about archaeological excavations in Semirechye.
He took an active part in the public life of the Institute – he was a photojournalist of the Institute newspaper "Istorik". Thanks to his tireless and inconspicuous work, the moments of the archaeologists' life, their field life and hard work were captured.
In 1969-2009, he took an active part in the works of the SKCAE. For many years, he was engaged in cataloging photographic films, creating an analog photo archive of the SKCAE, where he actively worked from the beginning of the excavations of the Otrar settlement and the monuments of the Otrar oasis from 1969 to 2010.

Currently, O. Medvedev is on a well-deserved rest.