Alexander Vladimirovich Bykov
Alexander Vladimirovich Bykov (; born 10 August 1962, in Vologda, USSR) is a Russian historian and ethnographer, one of the leading Russian specialists in numismatics. Publisher, founder of the first Russian private museum of political history, the Museum of Diplomatic Corps in Vologda, Russia; he is the author of multiple articles, books, and popular science publications. Biography. Alexander Bykov was born in Vologda, on 10 August 1962. In 1984, he graduated from the Vologda State Pedagogical Institute, Department of History. After graduation, he worked in a secondary school for a short time, then served in the Group of  Soviet Forces in Germany. He completed his military service, and started his career as a public museums coordinator-consultant at the Vologda Museum of Local Lore, History and Economy. While occupying the position he went on a number of work trips throughout the Vologda Oblast which resulted in creating and reconstructing five museums in the districts of the region. In 1989, Alexander Bykov was invited by the Vologda regional administration to work as a leading specialist in historical-cultural heritage of the Department of Culture. His efforts prevented putting many memorials of historical-cultural heritage under the Russian Orthodox Church ’s supervision without making sure that they were taken good care of and renovated. Besides, Bykov was opposed to transferring the icon of the 15th century “Zyrianskaya Troitsa” (icon of the Holy Trinity) to the Republic of Komi. The fact that the Russia Federation President’s representative in the Vologda Oblast insisted on the handover did not influence his viewpoint. Bykov was supported by other cultural figures of the Vologda region. As a result, with the united efforts the icon was left in the collection of the Vologda reserve museum. In 1992, Bykov left civil service, started in private business  but continued his research. In 1994, Bykov defended his Ph.D. thesis, and in 1997 organized the Museum of Diplomatic Corps, the first Russian private museum of political history. From 2002 to 2009, Bykov published a historical-local lore magazine "Piatnitskiy Boulevard". At the same time he organized exhibitions on the history of Vologda and Vologda region, and exhibitions on Russian folk costumes history, old post cards, business cards, etc. Books, articles, and collected stories written or edited by Bykov, are well known in Russia among museum specialists and history-fanciers. Scientific works. A.Bykov’s first article was published on 21  February 1981, in a Vologda local paper "Krasniy Sever" (Red North). The work was devoted to the big treasure of copper coins used in the era of Ekaterina II which had been found shortly before that on the outskirts of Vologda. The article discussing the currency of the 18th century, revealed secrets of the peasants’ treasure, and analyzed the items of the discovery. The publication attracted attention. As a reaction, a TV story about the treasure was shot and shown in a serialized television program in many Soviet Union regions. Simultaneously, Bykov studied treasures of the 16th-18th centuries in the  regional and district museums. His articles came out in collected stories of the State Historical Museum in Moscow and district scientific digests. In the second half of the 1980s, in the “Memorials of numismatics in the Vologda regional museums” series, the following catalogues came out: “Treasures of the Time of Troubles”, and “Treasures of the 1830-1840s”. At about the same time he published a popular scientific brochure called “A folk costume of Kadnikov district of the Vologda Governorate”. Since 1982 Bykov has been a permanent participant of numismatic conferences where he always gives a report. In 1993, he organized  and held the first All-Russian numismatic conference in Vologda which moved the domestic numismatics field and special historical disciplines to a new stage of development. The event started a tradition of annual All-Russian numismatic conferences, and also contributed to the union of specialists from most cities of Russia, Commonwealth of Independent States’ republics, and other countries. In 1994-1995, under the aegis of the conference, a series (9 editions) of an International numismatic literary miscellany "Moneta" (Coin) came out, edited and financially supported by Bykov. Moneta was considered to be the most significant Russian scientific publication on numismatics , and the only periodical scientific publication on numismatics in Russia at that period. In the same year Bykov defended his Ph.D. thesis at the chair of auxiliary historical disciplines of the Russian State University for the Humanities. The subject of the thesis was “Peculiarities of currency circulation in European North of Russia in the first half of the 17th century”. In 1996, Bykov started working on a new historical project. He gathered materials about the stay of the Entente diplomatic corps in Vologda in 1918. Bykov worked in special archives in Russia, in the U.S.A, and France. In 1998, his  first big work on this subject, a book “the Diplomatic capital of Russia” was published. At the same time he organized and held an international conference “Russia and the World community in the early 20th century: Theory and practice of mutual relations” inside the walls of the “Museum of Diplomatic Corps”. In 1999, Bykov worked on a new monograph on the fate of the grand dukes Romanov, exiled in 1918 in Vologda and shot to death without legitimate criminal investigations and court decisions. The book, based on unknown archival data, gives a detailed story of the last months, of the  grand dukes Romanov, Pavel Alexandrovich, Nikolay Constantinovich, and Georgiy Mikhailovich. The name of the latter is well known to the specialists in Russian numismatics history. In January 2009, Bykov published a book entitled “And Tanya’s golden name”, where he narrated about a famous Russian poet Nikolay Rubtsov’s first love for Tatiana Reshetova (Agafonova, maiden name). The poet had devoted more that 20 poems to Reshetova, including the famous “Bouquet.” The author managed to get unique information and materials about Rubtsov from Reshetova. He was interested in the materials which had been used for the plot of the poems . Before Bykov nobody had made such a detailed research on the first love of the poet. In the book itself the author described the meeting of Reshetova and Rubtsov, their dates, letters, separation and the love that the poet cherished for many years, depicting his love in his poetry. List of works. Stories. In additions to the mentioned above, A. Bykov published and edited 12 scientific collections, 7 scientific and popular scientific books and brochures.