Gerhardt Friedrich Müller

Gerhard Friedrich Müller (Russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Ми́ллер, Fyodor Ivanovich Miller, 29 October 1705 – 22 October 1783) was a historian and pioneer ethnologist.

Müller was born in Herford, while he was educated at Leipzig. In 1725, he was invited to St. Petersburg to co-found the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Müller participated in the second Kamchatka expedition, which reported on life and nature of the further (eastern) side of the Ural mountain range. From 1733 till 1743, nineteen scientists and artists traveled through Siberia to study people, cultures and collected data for the creation of maps. Müller, who described and categorized clothing, religions and rituals of the Siberian ethnic groups, is considered to be the father of ethnography.

On his return from Siberia, he became historiographer to the Russian Empire. He was one of the first historians to bring out a general account of Russian history based on extensive examination of documentary sources. His accentuation of the role of Scandinavians and Germans in the history of that country – a germ of the so-called Normanist theory – earned him enmity of Mikhail Lomonosov, who had previously supported his work, and dented his Russian career. In 1766, after many attacks by his colleagues, was appointed keeper of the national archives. He drew up for the government a collection of its treatises.

In 1761, Müller was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He died, aged 77, in Moscow.

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