15 Facts About Leo Klejn

Lev Samuilovich Kleyn, better known in English as Leo Klejn and Leo S Klein, was a Russian archaeologist, anthropologist and philologist.

In 1941, both of Leo Klejn's parents were drafted to serve in World War II, while the rest of the family were evacuated, first to Volokolamsk and then Yegoryevsk near Moscow, and then to Yoshkar-Ola in the Mari ASSR.

Leo Klejn transferred to Leningrad State University, first as a corresponding student, and then full-time.

Leo Klejn escaped expulsion for this as shortly thereafter Marr's theories were denounced by Stalin himself.

Leo Klejn began working in the Department of Archaeology in 1960 and became an assistant professor there in 1962.

Leo Klejn was awarded a Candidate of Sciences degree in 1968, defending a thesis on the origins of the Donets Catacomb culture.

Leo Klejn's first printed work was published in 1955; his first monograph in 1978.

Leo Klejn participated in a series of archaeological fieldwork expeditions in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, the last 5 seasons as head of the expedition.

Leo Klejn continued to chafe against the Party-backed academic establishment as a teacher.

Leo Klejn recorded his prison experiences under the pen name Lev Samoylov in the journal Neva and in his own name in the book The World Turned Upside Down.

Leo Klejn remained without an academic position for ten years following his release.

Leo Klejn co-founded the European University at St Petersburg and taught there until his retirement in 1997 at the age of 70.

Leo Klejn died on 7 November 2019 in Saint Petersburg at the age of 92.

Leo Klejn has been one of the world's leading writers on theoretical archaeology, a term he coined, since the 1970s.

Leo Klejn's 'echeloned archaeology' outlined three research procedures: empirical, deductive and problem-setting, each with a clear succession of stages of investigation, adjusted to different aims of research.