Alexey Pavlovich Okladnikov was a Soviet archaeologist, historian, and ethnographer, an expert in the ancient cultures of Siberia and the Pacific Basin. He was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1968, and awarded the honorary title of the Hero of Socialist Labor in 1978. The childhood of the scientist took place in Biryulka village in Siberia. From 1938 to 1961, Okladnikov worked in the Leningrad Division of the Archeology Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.