Vasilevich Glafira Makaryevna
28 March [ 16 March] 1895, Saint-Petersburg —22 March 1971, Leningrad
Biography, education, career:
In 1935 Glafira Vasilevich was conferred the degree of Candidate of Philology without defense. On 12 December 1968 the Academic Council of the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences conferred upon Vasilevich the degree of Doctor of Historical Sciences, based on her life-time contributions. From 10 April 1942 she worked as a senior researcher at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. On 8 April 1952 Vasilevich was arrested by the NKVD. On 1‑2 July 1952 Leningrad city court sentenced Vasilevich to 10 years of forced labour in a corrective labour camp in Molotov Oblast for her alleged political distortions in her scientific papers, for the defamation of the national policy of the Party and Government (article 58-10, P.1 of the RSFSR Penal Code). On 27 March 1953 the term of imprisonment was reduced to 5 years; and on 18 July 1955 the Supreme Court of the USSR ruled that she be released with expungement of conviction. On 1 October 1955, at the age of 60, Vasilevich resumed her research work at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Science. During the period of 1923‑1969 she went on expeditions on a regular basis, gathered vast scientific materials and museum collections.
Areas of expertise: History and ethnography of the peoples of Siberia, the Extreme North, and the Far East; Folklore studies; Ethnolinguistics; Traditional culture; History of material culture