Scientist – archaeologist

Anatoly Andreevich Pleshakov was born on July 12, 1952. He believes that he was very lucky in his life: at school No. 1, where he studied, then a young scientist Gennady Borisovich Zdanovich organized a children's circle "Young Archaeologist". Schoolchildren have the prospect of visiting a real archaeological expedition and touching antiquity with their own hands. In the meantime, they went camping overnight at a children's campsite, learned the basics of archaeology in theoretical classes and dreamed of future excavations, romantic guitar songs by the evening campfire. They understood that shards of broken vessels, animal bones, household items, jewelry can tell a lot, that only in adventure novels archaeologists search and find chests of gold, that shards and ordinary tools of ancient man can tell a scientist much more.

And then came the long-awaited June 4, 1968: in the back of a truck, along with all the archaeological belongings, the students and their teacher went on an expedition to the Ishim coast near the village of Ilyinka. Setting up tents, cooking over a campfire, the first evening bonfire with songs and a guitar, an almost sleepless night and a morning with snow. Anatoly learned all this in his first archaeological expedition during the excavations of ancient settlements and burial grounds, first near the village of Ilyinka, then near the village of Yavlenka, on the bank of a small river Iman-burluk. The first expedition was a turning point in the life of the future scientist. Therefore, the choice of a place of study after school was not a problem – he became a student of the historical faculty of the Petropavlovsk Pedagogical Institute.

Since his student days, Anatoly has been seriously engaged in science. According to the results of the annual archaeological expeditions, abstracts and scientific papers invariably appeared, which received high marks not only at the institute, but also in historical scientific circles, and were published in academic journals. Annually participated in regional student conferences, then in All-Union scientific archaeological forums. Even as a student, he began to lead scientific circles for schoolchildren, and his students took first places at school, regional and republican Olympiads in archaeology.

The diploma of the historian gave a start in the big science. Under the leadership of E.B. Zdanovich, a well-known scientific school of historians was formed in Petropavlovsk, recognized not only in Kazakhstan and the USSR, but also in world science. The world has learned the Atbasar, Botai, Petrovsky, Sargarin cultures. The discovery of the Botai culture showed the world that it was here, in the interfluve of the Urals and the Irtysh, that the horse was first domesticated, excavations of the burial mounds of the Petrovsky culture yielded unique finds – the remains of chariots turned out to be the oldest in the world. Among the discoverers were G.B. Zdanovich, S.Ya. Zdanovich, V.F. Seibert, A.A. Pleshakov and other scientists. Excavations were carried out from the Yenisei to the Baltic States, Ukraine and Moldova, covering the Southern Urals, Western Siberia and Central Asia.

The knowledge of ancient history obtained during these excavations allowed the scientist to turn to a new direction in archaeological science – tracology. Scientists of this direction, using manufactured tools based on the samples of the ancients, made scrapers and choppers to identify characteristic microprints, which made it possible to reliably recreate the technological processes of antiquity.

Scientific work was combined with organizational activity: in 1981 he became the head of the Department of archeology of the Regional Museum of Local History, and since 1986 – its director. In 1988, A.A. Pleshakov was accepted as a researcher at the Research Institute of the Petropavlovsk Pedagogical Institute. In 1993, he defended his PhD thesis "The economy of the Neolithic tribes of Northern Kazakhstan on the basis of tracological studies". After the defense, he worked as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of History and Philology, associate professor of the Department of History of Kazakhstan, and then head of this department. The total experience of his scientific and pedagogical activity is more than 40 years. Over the years, he has published more than 100 scientific papers, including monographs and textbooks. One of the monographs was published in Germany. A serious contribution to the preservation of the history of Kazakhstan was the "Code of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Republic of Kazakhstan. North Kazakhstan region", compiled by A.A. Pleshakov. Anatoly Andreevich is one of the authors of another similar publication "A set of monuments in the Akmola region". Currently, he is one of the few specialists in Kazakhstan in the field of experimental tracological research in archaeology.

Pleshakov A. A. attracts to scientific work on archeology of students and schools' students of the city and region, their scientific projects and research at the Republican competitions of student and school work were awarded diplomas of 1 and 2 steps. Anatoly Andreevich heads the organization and holding of museum, archival and archaeological practices. On the city of AK-Iriy under the leadership of A. A. Pleshakova in Kazakhstan is going to create a museum complex or a Historical Park on the basis of one archaeological monument with the reconstruction of different epochs of Kazakhstan, from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages.

Pleshakov A. A. as a teacher noted the personal grace of the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan N. A. Nazarbayev, Akims of the city and region, he received diplomas of the University, his name was mentioned in the "Book of letters" of the University. For special achievements in pedagogical and public activities, the regional Akim received the 1st step of the North Kazakhstan region in the field of Education. He was awarded the honorary title "honorary worker of education of the Republic of Kazakhstan", the Ministry of education and science of the Republic of Kazakhstan "for merits in the development of science of the Republic of Kazakhstan", The "Big Golden Medal of the Ministry of education and science of the Republic of Kazakhstan".

Tabakova Z.P., Professor,

 Doctor of Philology