Anatoly Pavlovich Shikman
Anatoly Pavlovich Shikman (Анато́лий Па́влович Ши́кман) (born March 12, 1948) is a Russian historian and writer, and a former teacher of Moscow School N°45. One of the authors of "Book: Encyclopedia", "Moscow Encyclopedia" Biography. Anatoly Shikman was born in Moscow in the family of an American born Jew Pavel (Paul) Morisovich Shikman. His grandfather, who was born in Poland, emigrated with his wife in 1913 to Canada, then to the USA, and then, in 1931, along with his children, Paul and Norma, to the USSR. After graduating from eight classes, he went to work: he  was a driver, a loader, a librarian, worked in the theater. At the same time, he studied at evening school. After serving in the Navy, he entered the Faculty of History of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after V.I. Lenin, which he graduated in 1975. Serious conflicts arose, when the school authorities insisted he taught history in accordance with party dogma, which prevailed in the USSR. The eventually led to Shikman frequently changing jobs: he taught history and art history and worked as a senior researcher at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents. In addition to his various  jobs, in 1981 Anatoly began publishing articles and books on remarkable Russians, the history of Moscow, culture, pedagogy and bibliography.; In 1986, Leonid Isidorovich Milgram, the prominent director of director of the Moscow gymnasium No. 45, offered Shikman a job. Milgram was one of the few who managed to create a spirit of freedom in the school, and he fostered respect towards both student and teachers. Two years later, in 1988, he wrote his first essay on classified historical archives (Absolutely unclassified // Soviet bibliography. - 1988. - No. 6. - P. 3-12.), which laid the foundation for a number of fundamental works  on the history of Soviet censorship. In 1997, his fundamental biographical reference book “Figures of Russian History” was published. In 2008, he left teaching for health reasons and he is presently engaged in research and literary work. In 2016, he emigrated to the USA.