Gero von Merhart and the Russian archaeological scientific community in the 1920-s

Gero von Merhart (1886-1959) is a famous European archaeologist, the firsttenured professor of German prehistory, a leader and a founder of the Marburg scientificschool. His destiny was closely linked to Siberia, where he found himself as a prisoner ofwar in 1915 during the First World War. After working for almost two years (1919-1921)in the Krasnoyarsk Museum, the scholar returned to Germany in the autumn of 1921.Thereafter he continued working on the issues of Siberian archaeology and maintainedlinks with Russian archaeologists for a long time. The paper provides an overview ofGero von Merhart’s epistolary archival heritage and his relationship with his Russiancolleagues.