Sergey Alexandrovich Tokarev: His Family, Friends, and Students

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2024-4/7-20

Abstract

The article focuses on the genealogy of the distinguished Soviet ethnographer Sergei Alexandrovich Tokarev, which is documented in the family archive. His mother was a descendant of the esteemed Tula clergy families Darsky, Karkadinovsky and Lyapidevsky, his father Alexander Ivanovich Tokarev was an outstanding teacher, state councilor, inspector of the Tula gymnasium, and later a teacher in the city of Aleksin school, who also founded a school for the peasants of the village of Shchukino in the Tula province. The article delineates the influence of parents and other relatives on the formation of personality, habits and beliefs of Sergei Alexandrovich Tokarev. The article also elucidates his role in the lives of his brother and sister, children and grandchildren, as well as numerous Russian and foreign students. The distinctive character traits of S. A. Tokarev, including kindness, remarkable memory, incredible efficiency, broad perspectives, dedication to hard work and an insatiable appetite for knowledge, along with other qualities that distinguish him among his relatives and colleagues, have ensured that he will be remembered not only in the annals of science but also in the hearts of people.