Ilya Anisimov

Ilya Sherebetovich Anisimov (; ; ; 29 May 1862 – 3 February 1928) was a Russian ethnographer, ethnologist, and engineer, known for his ethnographic study on Mountain Jews. He was the first person of Mountain Jewish descent to receive higher education in the schools of the Russian Empire. Anisimov is the author of the famous work "Caucasian Mountain Jews" . He was also a member of the Baku branch of the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews of Russia. He was the second of five sons in his family.

His father, Sherebet Nisim-ogly, studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva and was known as one of the most educated rabbis of his time. Miller attracted Anisimov to active work in the ethnographic department of the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography (OLEAE), which he headed.

Anisimov died on February 3, 1928. He was initially buried in the Grozny Jewish Cemetery. However, after some time, his children decided to rebury him in Moscow’s Donskoye Cemetery.

Maria Weinshal’s brother, Vladimir Savelyev Weinshal, was married to Karolina Lvovna Landau, the sister of Lev Landau’s father.

Maria Anisimov died of typhus, like her daughter, and was buried in Grozny. In addition, Anisimov had an illegitimate son, Emmanuel, who lived with his mother in Makhachkala.

Yuri Isaevich Murzakhanov, a Russian ethnographer, also wrote a book about Anisimov.

On 18 December 2022, the Community Center of Mountain Jews in Moscow hosted historical and ethnographic readings dedicated to the 160th anniversary of Ilya Sherebetovich Anisimov. They discussed the scientific heritage of Ilya Anisimov and the importance of perpetuating the memory of the first Mountain Jewish scientist and ethnographer.

A separate exhibition was created in the Museum of Mountain Jews in Krasnaya Sloboda, where all of Anisimov’s works are presented.

Works Кавказские евреи-горцы Caucasian Mountain Jews — М.: Типография Е.Г. Потапова, 1888.

Literature Mordechai Altshuler // Ilya Anisimov – researcher of the Mountain Jews community — Moscow: Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences - № 2 (4), pp. 19—32. 2020. doc: 10.31168/2658-3364.2020.2.04 Anisimov, Ilya Sherebetovich // Jewish Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron. — Saint Petersburg, Vol. 2. Columns. 582-584. 1908-1913. Anisimova, Margarita Danilovna // The Tree of Life. — Moscow: Buki Vedi, pp. 606. 2024. Murzakhanov, Yuri Isaevich // Mountain Jewish ethnographer Ilya Sherebetovich Anisimov. Edited - S.I.Vainshtein. — Moscow: Science, pp. 39. 2002. Shpanin, Mikhail Georgievich // Rereading the pages of our history: Unknown about the famous Mountain Jewish ethnographer I. Sh. Anisimov — London: Russian Media House, pp. 169. 2010.