Anatoly Panteleevich Derevyanko was born in the village of Kozmo-Demyanovka, Amur region, in the military year of 1943. They developed thanks to hard work, determination, strong-willed character, formed in a simple working family, as it is customary to say today, with the right attitudes: not only Anatoly Panteleevich, but also his brothers received higher education, became excellent people and brilliant specialists. It is also important, of course, that the formation of the future academician's personality took place in the atmosphere of the post-war period, filled with the joy of Victory, the desire for creation and faith in the realization of dreams.

Children in the Derevyanko family started working early. Anatoly received his first salary at the age of 9, and at 11-already had the skills of a builder. But in this preoccupied, half-starved life, there was a place for both studying and reading books, which were a window into a vast unknown world. Anatoly himself liked to write, his stories were published in the regional newspaper. After graduating from high school in 1959, he became a student of the History and Philology Department of the Blagoveshchensk Pedagogical Institute and planned to pursue journalism in the future. In 1961. Anatoly first participates in the expedition of the outstanding scientist (later academician) A. P. Okladnikov and is seriously interested in archeology. In 1965, A. P. Derevyanko prematurely graduated with honors from the Institute and entered graduate school in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. During his post-graduate studies under the guidance of A. P. Okladnikov, which were filled with long-term expeditions, he gained invaluable experience in field research, independently excavated the Neolithic settlement of Novopetrovka, and based on its materials identified the previously unknown Novopetrov culture on the Middle Amur. In 1965, A. P. Derevyanko prematurely defended his PhD thesis on " Ancient cultures of the Middle Amur (Stone Age)", in which he demonstrated the ability to generalize a huge array of sources and an innovative approach to their cultural and chronological interpretation. In 1970, his monograph "Novopetrovskaya plate Culture on the Middle Amur" was published, which was awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1972).

An energetic, exceptionally efficient and talented young scientist becomes an employee of the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where in just five years he goes from junior researcher to Deputy Director for scientific work. This was the time when the Academic Center for the Humanities in Siberia was formed under the leadership of Academician A. P. Okladnikov, and large-scale archaeological research was conducted in the Asian part of our country. Thanks to the active expedition activity of the young academic institute, the source base for all archaeological periods has significantly increased, and the topics of intra - and inter-regional research have expanded.

In this study, there are prospects for the development of new areas.

A. P. Derevyanko sets himself a large-scale task-to trace cultural and historical processes in the period of primitiveness and the Middle Ages in the territory of the Amur region - the contact zone between the north and south of the Far Eastern region - and successfully copes with it. Already in 1971, he presented the study "The Amur region in ancient times (before the beginning of a new era)" as a doctoral dissertation and defended it brilliantly. The results of studying a huge amount of material on the Amur region and the Russian Far East as a whole were reflected in his fundamental monographs "The Early Iron Age of the Amur Region" (1973) and "The Amur Region (I millennium BC)" (1976).

By the age of thirty, A. P. Derevyanko is a well-known archaeologist, Doctor of Sciences, deputy director of the Institute, professor, university lecturer, he has published dozens of works, including nine books. He is one of the authors of the State Prize-winning History of Siberia. However, fate, as if giving an opportunity to manifest other aspects of Anatoly Panteleevich's personality, connects him with a practically new field of activity: in 1976, he was born. he is elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. Working in this capacity, and later as a secretary of the Novosibirsk Regional Party Committee, became a school for A. P. Derevyanko, where he acquired the knowledge and skills of an organizer, a state administrator. The experience gained was very useful in the future, and today Anatoly Panteleevich warmly recalls that difficult period, especially since even then he found the opportunity to do what he loved - he spent his holidays on archaeological expeditions in his native Amur region.

In 1979, 36-year-old A. P. Derevyanko became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the youngest among the humanities, then returned to his native Akademgorodok and headed first Novosibirsk State University, and after the death of Academician A. P. Okladnikov in 1983-the Institute of History, Philology and Philosophy of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. A new stage in Anatoly Panteleevich's activity begins, at which the Institute becomes one of the largest academic centers for humanitarian research in the country. A. P. Derevyanko headed one of them - an interdisciplinary study of the problem of initial human development of the territories of North, Central and East Asia. As in previous years, he spent six months in focused exploration and stationary excavations in different areas of North and Central Asia. The expedition of A. P. Derevyanko, in which he was always the first search engine-scout, passed hundreds of kilometers of difficult routes in Mongolia, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Altai, and the Far East. As a result, hundreds of archaeological sites were discovered.there are dozens of unique sites where stationary excavations have been deployed. Created by A. P. Derevyanko, the creative team of like-minded people found, processed and put into scientific circulation tens of thousands of artifacts! In the late 1980s, A. P. Derevyanko began basic research in the Altai in the Denisova Cave and its environs in the Anui River Valley on a series of layered Paleolithic objects.

The 1990s, like all Russian science, were a time of severe trials for the institute headed by Academician A. P. Derevyanko (he was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences in 1987). During this period, Anatoly Panteleevich proved to be the author of bold ideas, a far-sighted, talented and strong-willed leader. He was one of the founders of the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation, which managed to implement many research, expedition and publishing projects, and conduct many scientific events. The staff of the Institute quickly switched to the program and grant principles of organizing research. The Institute actively cultivates exhibition and publishing activities. At the initiative of Anatoly Panteleevich, scientific ties with foreign colleagues are established and strengthened, international conferences are held, employees travel abroad is organized, and major international projects are implemented. An event in the scientific life of this period was the research under the Pazyryk program in Ukok, during which unique materials were obtained. The proposed A. P. is embodied. Derevyanko's idea of organizing, together with several major Siberian universities, archaeological laboratories of double subordination, which clearly show the ways of integrating academic and university science.

Anatoly Panteleevich highly appreciated the achievements of his employees, but, as an experienced manager, linked the prospects for the most complete disclosure of their potential with the formation of an independent research institution-the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In essence, he created a new institute with a modern infrastructure, including, in addition to scientific departments, a restoration and research department, a publishing and printing center, as well as a transport shop with a fleet of expedition vehicles.

A. P. Derevyanko's large-scale project is being implemented by the Institute's staff-the largest archaeological research center in Russia is being created-

Denisova Cave hospital in Altai. Long - term interdisciplinary studies of the most informative Paleolithic complexes in Siberia-Denisova Cave, Ust-Karakol, etc., and the oldest Karama paleolithic site in Northern Asia-are conducted here. No less significant for Anatoly Panteleevich was the organization of the first Collective Use Center in our country "Cenozoic Geochronology" on the basis of the Institute, which combines interdisciplinary research of several well-equipped scientific structures that help conduct research in the field of paleogeography, paleoclimatology, paleoecology, chronostratigraphy and other scientific disciplines related to archeology. Together with the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a paleogenetic laboratory is being created that has already received unique scientific results.

A. P. Derevyanko invested a lot of effort in organizing the reconstruction of the Institute's museum complex. Despite the seemingly hopeless situation with funding, it was only thanks to his will and perseverance that the Transfiguration of the Saviour Church, which was once removed by the expedition detachment of A. P. Derevyanko from the Zashiversky prison on the Indigirka River in Yakutia, was recreated. Today it adorns the open-air Historical and Architectural Museum, where more than 100 stone sculptures from the Bronze Age to the ancient Turkic period are collected. The collection of the Museum of the History and Culture of the Peoples of Siberia, which is part of the institute, contains unique exhibits that the world's leading museums could be proud of.

A. P. Derevyanko is the organizer and editor-in-chief of the journal "Archeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia". The journal is published in Russian and English and provides a wide range of specialists with fundamental and operational information on ancient and medieval history, ethnography and anthropology of North, Central and East Asia, the Middle East, Europe, America, and the Pacific basin. The journal publishes discussions on the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic, the study of primitive art, and others. Currently, the magazine has the highest rating among specialized periodicals in our country. It is included in the List of leading peer-reviewed scientific journals and publications that should publish the main scientific results of dissertations for the degree of doctor and Candidate of Sciences. The English-language version of the journal is published by Elsevier Publishing House, which serves scientific organizations and universities in 180 countries.

In the last decade, A. P. Derevyanko's main efforts have focused on the deployment of large-scale field research on the territory of Eurasia from the Adriatic and the Caspian region to the Far East and Southeast Asia. Under his leadership, dozens of scientific discoveries were made that relate to the outstanding achievements of Russian and world archaeology. They fundamentally changed the ideas about the development of the most ancient historical processes in Central, North and East Asia. The results of these studies make significant adjustments to the understanding of the time and ways of initial settlement of these territories.

A world-class discovery was the results of recent research in the Denisova Cave in Altai. Anthropological remains found in a clearly dated stratigraphic horizon of 50 thousand years old suggested the existence of a previously unknown population of a fossil human named Homo altaiensis in this territory. According to paleo-genetic analyses performed at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, the finger phalanx from the Early Upper Paleolithic cultural layer belongs to a member of a hitherto unknown genealogical line of hominins that significantly differ in the type of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from both Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. According to the journal Science for 2010-2012, this discovery is one of the ten most significant scientific discoveries in the world!

A. P. Derevyanko is undoubtedly a significant figure in Russian and world archaeology. From the last quarter of the last century to the present, it has played a key role in the development of our science. Academician A. P. Derevyanko-Academician-Secretary of the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His achievements have been duly recognized by the state and the international scientific community: he is a holder of orders and medals of the USSR and Russia, a foreign member of several foreign academies, an honorary professor of several prestigious universities. Academician M. A. Lavrentiev (2005), "Triumph" Award (2005).

Anatoly Panteleevich Derevyanko is a man of many talents and fantastic energy, his mission is to stay ahead, and on this difficult path we wish him new ideas, discoveries and achievements.