Nikolay Petrovich Likhachyov, alternatively transliterated as Likhachev was the first and foremost Russian sigillographer who also contributed significantly to an array of auxiliary historical disciplines, including palaeography, epigraphy, diplomatics, genealogy, and numismatics. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1925 and was put in charge of the Archaeographic Commission in 1929.