Okladnikov Aleksey (1908‒1981) – archeologist, historian, ethnographer.
He enrolled at the Irkutsk Teachers-Training Institute in 1925. In 1926, he published his first research work ‘Neolithic Sites on Upper Lena’. In 1934, he entered the post-graduate courses of the State Academy of the History of Material Culture.
In 1926-1937, he worked in Irkutsk as Director of the Local History Museum. In 1938-1961, he worked as Researcher at the State Academy of the History of Material Culture (later Institute of the History of Material Culture, and later the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Archeology) of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. From 1961 till 1966, he was Head of the Department of Humanitarian Studies of the Institute of Economic of the Siberian Branch of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. In 1966, he became Director of the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy of the Siberian Branch of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. In 1956-1961, he was a member of the Research Council of the Museum of History of Religion and Atheism of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R.
Candidate thesis ‘Neolithic Tombs in the Angara Valley’ (1938). Doctor thesis ‘Essays in the History of Yakutia from Paleolithic to the Including into the Russian State’ (1947).
Laureate of the Stalin Award for the finding of a Neanderthal site in the valley of Teshik-Tash in Middle Asia (1950); and the State Award of the U.S.S.R. for editing the publication of ‘The History of Siberia’ in 5 vol. (1973).
Academician of the Ac. of Sc. of the U.S.S.R. (1968). Hero of the Socialist Labour (Order in 1978).
His main works were dedicated to the studies in the field of primordial culture, Paleolithic and Neolithic art, history of Siberia and Far East.