On 27 January 2021, staff members of the Museum of Bulgarian Civilization Zarifullina T. G. and Salnikova V. A. held a video event on “Pages of history. The first woman-archaeologist from the Tatar people Zuleikha Asfandiyarovna Akchurina”.
Z. A. Akchurina was born in the village Staroye Timoshkino of Sengileyevsky uyezd of Simbirsk governorate on 6 September 1900 in the family of a major merchant and philanthropist. The most important activity of Z. A. Akchurina was archaeology. Due to it, her name became famous in the scientific community of the republic and beyond its borders. In 1925, she took part in expeditions led by V. F. Smolin on the dig of Abashevsky burial ground in Chuvashia and of the famous town of Bolgar. In a year, she participated in the exploratory investigations of Old Kazan (Kamayevskoye gorodische) and Kazan Kremlin held by the expedition of scientific society of Tatar studies.
In 1928, Z. A. Akchurina took part in the work of “Tatar-Bulgar” expedition. Scientists from Moscow and Kazan worked jointly in it. They constituted Bulgar and Kazan brigades. In 1945, already as a research associate, she participated in archaeological expedition led by N. F. Kalinin in the research of the Kazanka River Basin. In subsequent years, Zuleikha Asfandiyarovna worked fruitfully among a large expedition on stationary study of Bolgar town (mainly its upper part). During the year under review, a unique monument of medieval history of the Middle Volga region was researched by Kuibyshevsky and Povolzhsky expeditions under the overall guidance of a person with recognized authority in science – A. P. Smirnov.
On 3 June 1982, Z. A. Akchurina died. She was buried in Kazan.
These are only some pages of life and work of Zuleikha Asfandiyarovna Akchurina – the researcher of history of Volga Bulgaria. This modest worker of science also contributed to the fact that Bolgar now is in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.

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