Patsevich Geronim (1893-1970)

Patsevich Geronim was born in 1893 in the village Shatrovo Vitebsk region of the Belorussian SSR. After graduating in 1910 from Smolensk Real School, he entered the Moscow Archaeological Institute, after graduating from which in 1914 he received the specialty of a scientist-archaeologist. From 1919 to 1924, G. Patsevich served in the ranks of the Red Army, and in 1924-1933, worked as an engineer. From 1934 to 1938, Geronim Iosifovich was the scientific secretary of the Central Museum of Kazakhstan. At that time, he took an active part in the work of the Semirechye archaeological expedition under the leadership of A. Bernshtam. His first works of the pre-war years are devoted to the study of the monuments of the Talas Valley.
After the organization in 1938 in the city of Dzhambul of an archaeological point for the supervision of the preservation of monuments in the area of medieval Taraz, G. Patsevich moved to the city of Dzhambul and worked as the director of the point at the Republican Management of nature reserves.
During his work in Dzhambul, G. Patsevich carried out more than 10 independent trips and hiking routes on the archaeological survey of ancient trade routes and the study of the topography of medieval cities of the Talas and Chu valleys. He discovered and explored dozens of burial mounds.
Since June 1947, when the archaeological site was transferred to the jurisdiction of the IIAE of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, G. Patsevich worked at the Institute until 1955, taking an active part in archaeological research. Working as part of the South Kazakhstan archaeological expedition of 1947-1951, he prepared for publication the manuscript "Ruins of cities and settlements of Southern Kazakhstan", on the basis of which a Candidate's thesis was written, successfully defended in 1954 in Moscow, its topic "Historical topography of cities and settlements of southern Kazakhstan of the 7th-15th centuries".
G. Patsevich took an active part in the work of the Central Kazakhstan and West Kazakhstan archaeological expeditions, and in 1956, led an expedition to the virgin lands, to the Kostanay region. The new material he received filled in the white spots in the archaeological study of Northern Kazakhstan. He participated in the preparation for publication of the consolidated work "Archaeological map of Kazakhstan". In total, Geronim Iosifovich published about 50 works covering topography, architecture, construction, economy and life of the ancient inhabitants of Kazakhstan. On the basis of the materials extracted by him as a result of the excavations of Taraz, the first exposition on the ancient and medieval history of the Dzhambul regional Museum of Local History was created.
In 1955, G. Patsevich went on a well-deserved rest, but did not leave archaeology. In 1959, he took part in archaeological research in the area of the Chardara reservoir.
He died on October 4 , 1970.

Пацевич Г.И. Из истории оседлых поселений и городов Южного Казахстана // Труды ИИАЭ. -Алма-Ата, 1956. - Т.V. Археолоия. - С. 3-215 (в соавторстве).
Пацевич Г.И. Отчет о работах Южно-Казахстанской археологической экспедиции // Труды ИИАЭ. - Алма-Ата, 1956. - Т. I. Археология. - С. 33-60 (в соавторстве).