"Dear Karl Kazimirovich…", in this way the Chair of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, count Bobrinskiy, started his letters to the head of the excavations and the Storehouse of Local Antiquities in Chersonesos, K. K. Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich. When appointing this antiquity-lover from Sevastopol to supervise over the excavations in the ancient city site in 1888, the count was certainly not able to foresee that the Russian Troy, as Chersonesos was called sometimes, would receive its Schlimann in person of Karl Kazimirovich. All Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich's activities that followed was a true feat in the name of science and raised esteem, admiration, and gratitude from the contemporaries. If he would look back at two decades he had spent for this ancient city, he could certainly say: 'Chersonesos is me.' This would not be an exaggeration: almost all the things which are being realized by the staff of Chersonesos preserve today were started or planned by K. K. Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich.

He founded museum in Chersonesos, laid the foundations of its library and archive, made the city site an open-air museum, provided conservation works, organized protection and popularization of the monuments, arranged careful fixation of the excavations by means of drawing and photographing, and spread the investigations oputside the city walls, to the Herakleian peninsula.

Few lines from his letter to count A. A. Bobrinskiy that are often cited: 'I am so devoted to the cause of investigation of Chersonesos and, like a fanatic, went so fare that there was no way back! For me, to give up Chersonesos is the same as to give up my life', became a motto for many students of Tauric Chersonesos.

We are proudly presenting you this project that has been developed by the staff of National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos with the generous support of the Packard Humanities Institute. It is a method of making K. K. Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich's documental heritage and his 'creative lab' known for a widest audience and a wish to return to Karl Kazimirovich our common debt of most deep respect to him and to his child, Chersonesos museum.

This Web-page will allow you to get ideas about K. K. Kostsyushko-Valyuzhinich's biography, his reports for the Imperial Archaeological Commission which are partly published and partly in manuscripts, and photographs and drawings that illustrated the reports. We all hope that you, our dear visitors, will become Karl Kazimirocvich admirers as this project's authors are.