Alexander Lakier

Who was Alexander Lakier?

Alexander Borisovich Lakier was a Russian historian of German descent who was interested in heraldry.

Alexander Lakier was born in the city of Taganrog in 1825. His father, Boris Lakier, a convert from Judaism, was the doctor who certified the death of the late Russian Emperor Alexander I of Russia who died in Taganrog in 1825.

Lakier graduated from the Legal Dept. of the Moscow University and defended his thesis with On Domains and Estates released in Saint Petersburg in 1848. In 1856-1858, Lakier traveled across Europe, Palestine and the United States of America. He kept a travel diary, fragments of which were published in Sovremennik and The Russian Messenger and were later included in the book The Travel Through North American States, Canada and Cuba, which was published in Saint Petersburg in 1859. In 1858, Alexander Lakier entered the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he was involved in statistics work and worked as editor in the commission on liberation of peasants. In 1860, he returned to Taganrog, where he worked as lawyer.