In biology Yeskov graduated from the Department of Biology of
Moscow State University in 1979. In 1986 he defended a dissertation for the
Candidate of Biological Sciences at the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Animal Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of the
USSR Academy of Sciences, the theme being "
Spiders of Northern
Siberia (
horology analysis)". His main scientific interests as a biologist focus on the
spiders of Siberia and the
Russian Far East and, as a paleontologist, on the
Paleozoic and
Cenozoic eras. he is the Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of
Arthropods of the
Paleontological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences and vice-president of the Eurasian Arachnological Society. He has worked at the institute since 1988. he had 86 scientific publications. Yeskov has discovered several new genera of spiders. Among seven that he discovered in 1988 is
Kikimora palustris Eskov, 1988 It belongs to the family
Linyphiidae, and is found in
Russia and
Finland. The name translates from
Latin as "marsh Kikimora". (
Kikimora is a female spirit in
Slavic mythology and the Russian phrase
кикимора болотная (
kikimora bolotnaya, "marsh kikimora") is well known in the
Russian language.) He has named a
genus of linyphiid spiders
Sauron after the Tolkien character. He is the author of the book
History of the Earth and its lifeforms (, Moscow, 2008), intended as a biology textbook for high schools.
As an author As a fiction writer, Yeskov has published several books, one of the best-known being
The Last Ringbearer (), an alternative retelling of (or sequel to)
J. R. R. Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings, as told from the point of view of
Sauron's forces in light of the
proverb "
History is written by the victors." The book was "published to acclaim" in his homeland in 1999. Translations of the book have also appeared in other European nations, but fear of the vigilant and litigious
Tolkien estate has heretofore prevented its publication in English." ==Selected scientific publications==