Draft:Anton Baltazarovich Ashik

Anton Baltazarovich Ashik (Russian: Aнтон Бальтазарович Ашик ; 1801-1854) was a Russian civil servant, historian and archaeologist.

Biography
He was born into a merchant family. His father was a Dalmatian Serb. In 1812, the family moved to Odessa. In 1817, he entered the service of the Kherson military governor, Count Langeron.

In 1822, Ashik, like many other foreigners, transferred to the administration organized in the city of Kerch by the Genoese Raphael Skassi to organize exchange trade between the tribes of the Caucasian highlanders. His duties included maintaining correspondence concerning relations with the Circassians and Abazins, and in 1829, after Skassi left, Ashik was in charge of his affairs for six months.

This enterprise disappeared in 1829 and Ashik was assigned to the head of the Caucasus region to carry out special assignments at the beginning of 1830. From the Caucasus, Anton Baltazarovich was assigned again to Kerch to the commander of the troops on the Caucasian line. There he became close to the famous archaeologist I. A. Stempkovsky, who was the Kerch mayor at that time. Under the leadership of I. A. Stempkovsky and thanks to him, together with P. Dyubryuks and I. P. Blaramberg, Ashik joined the archaeological excavations of the burial mounds.

From 1831 to 1849 (after the death of Blaramberg) he held the position of director of the Kerch Museum of Antiquities, which was offered to him by Prince M. S. Vorontsov. In 1834, he studied a tomb found by chance on the Quarantine Cape, in which the Myrmekion sarcophagus was discovered, which was added to the collection of the Kerch Museum of Antiquities (in 1851 it was sent to the Hermitage). In 1837, he discovered the Tsar's Mound. Since 1839, he was a full member of the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities. In 1841, 1842 and 1845, Ashik traveled to Italy and Austria for scientific purposes, to supplement the content of his archaeological works. He was the founder of the library of the Kerch Museum. Ashik left the archaeological field in 1852, when misunderstandings arose regarding two marble statues that were found, which led to Ashik's release from service in the Kerch Museum of Antiquities by order of the Minister of Districts and concurrently the head of the Commission for the Study of Antiquities Lev Perovski. In 1852 he was transferred to Odessa, where he spent the rest of his life on the staff of the Novorossiysk and Bessarabian Governor-General. In addition, in 1853 he took the position of librarian of the Odessa Public Library (currently the Odessa National Scientific Library).

He collected rare editions, works of art, etc. His rare finds of antiquities, many of which enriched the Saint Petersburg Imperial Hermitage, and also provided Ashik with honorary and monetary government awards (in particular, he was awarded the Order of Vladimir, 4th class, St. Stanislav, 2nd class, St. Anna, 2nd class). He also had constant relations with some European scientists and, thanks to their mediation, with foreign courts, he received foreign orders and gifts. Ashik had neither a plan nor instructions from the chief who was then in charge of the first department of the Hermitage, where almost all of his finds were sent. Ashik carried out his excavations without any system, without keeping a journal and even without the necessary careful observation, as a result of which many things ended up in foreign museums.

Works
Ashik is the author of a number of publications, including:


 * "Kerch Antiquities. On the Panticapaeum Catacomb, Decorated with Frescoes" (Odesa, 1845),
 * "The Kerch Catacombs" ("Journal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs", 1845),
 * "On the Latest Archaeological Excavations in Kerch" (ibid., 1846), "Archaeological Research on the Taman Peninsula" (ibid., 1847),
 * "Bosphorus Treasure..." (1848)
 * "Leisure Hours with the Addition of Letters on Kerch Antiquities" (Odesa, 1851),
 * "De la decouverte de deux statues antiques a Kertsche" (Odesa, 1851),
 * Biography of I. A. Stempkovsky ("Notes of the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities", vol. 5, 1863).

For the monograph "The Vospor Kingdom with its paleographic and tombstone monuments, painted vases, plans, maps and views" (1848-1849) he was awarded honorary reviews and a small prize of the Demidov Commission of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Ashik's works are valuable materials for archaeologists.

Family
The first representatives of the Ashik family appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, when merchant Balthazar Ashik and his family settled in Odessa in 1812.


 * Son — Ashik, Vladimir Antonovich (1843-1917), state councilor, communications engineer, historian, bibliophile, collector, numismatist, member of the Imperial Russian Military Historical Society and the Society of Zealots of History, author of the "French-Russian Technical Dictionary..." (St. Petersburg, 1877) and the book "Monuments and medals in memory of the military exploits of the Russian army in the wars of 1812, 1813 and 1814” (St. Petersburg, 1913).


 * Grandson — Ashik, Viktor Vladimirovich (1903-1985) — design engineer, shipbuilder, chief designer of the "Project 24 battleships", chief engineer of TsKB-17 (now JSC Nevskoye Design Bureau) ), professor, doctor of technical sciences, two-time laureate of the Stalin Prize, Honored Scientist and Technician of the RSFSR, collector, numismatist.


 * Great-grandson — Hero of Soviet Union Mikhail Vladimirovich Ashik [ru].