Send us a text

The year 1962 was important in the history of relations between the young Republic of Cyprus and the USSR. Almost at the same moment the island has been visited by the first spaceman Yury Gagarin, one of functionaries from the Central Committee of the Communist Party Alexey Romanov and archaeologist Sergey V. Kisseloyff.
Sergey Vladimirovich Kisselyoff (1905-1962) – a prominent Soviet archaeologist, vice director of the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow (1945-1951), specialized in the archaeology of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, Professor of the Moscow State University, - visited Cyprus in May, 1962
As archaeologist, Prof. Kisselyoff organized excavations in the South Siberia, Altai, in the Central Asia. After the Second World War he spent several field seasons in Mongolia, where he explored medieval settlements of Mongolian empire, and had significant impact in the development of national school of Mongolian archaeology. Kisselyoff also visited China (in 1950 and 1959) and
Hungary (in 1950). In these trips, set aside the acquaintance with archaeological sites and museum collections, he assured important official functions as representative if Soviet academic science and established collaborations with the scholars from abroad and developed cultural diplomacy.
The Mediterranean archaeology became the subject of interest for Prof. Kisselyoff by the beginning of the 1960-ies. The professor had in plans to write a general research “The Bronze Age of the Old World” and generalize in this book his personal view and experience from the Far East to Europe. Prof. Kisselyoff specialized in archaeology of the Neolithic and Bronze Age and he created a special department on the archaeology of these periods in the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow. That is why namely the monuments of Neolithic and Bronze in Cyprus provoked his personal interest while visiting the island. Choirokoitia, the Neolithic settlement, the most important known site of the epoch not only in Cyprus, but also in the whole Eastern Mediterranean, attracted Kisselyoff’s attention.

During his visit Prof. Kisselyoff met The Director of the Department of Antiquities P. Dikaios, the Curator of the Cyprus Museum Vassos Karageorghis and many other significant personalities who acted in the area of Cypriot science, culture and education. He visited a number of historical places all around the island (like Salamis, Kourion, Choirokitia, Paphos, Larnaca, Kiti, Kyrenia etc.) and took a collection of photos which have now some historical value, as they represent the monuments of Cyprus before the Turkish invasion of 1974. It is evident, that for the scholar it was not a simple scientific business trip, but it was also a responsible mission as a fact of Soviet cultural diplomacy. Prof. Kisselyoff’s diary witnesses that he met in Cyprus not only archaeologists, but also local authorities, officials from the Ministry of Education and Culture, politicians of different rank and members of the AKEL party.