LERH, Pëtr Ivanovič (Peter von Lerch). St.Petersburg 1828 — Hamburg 16.9.1884. Russian (with German background) Archaeologist and Scholar of Comparative Iranian. Born in a German family living in Russia. Studied Oriental languages at St.Petersburg, graduated in 1850. Worked then in minor office for the Academy. In 1856 fieldwork among Persian Kurdish war prisoners near Smolensk. In 1858 participated in a diplomatic mission to Bukhara and Khiva, again in Turkestan in 1867. From 1873 Secretary of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, in 1877-79 Librarian of St.Petersburg University, but had to retire on health reasons. Half-paralysed he moved to Germany, but died after a few years.
Publications: Forschungen über die Kurden und die iranischen Nord-chaldäer. 1-3. St.P. 1857-60, Russian 1856-58 (1. Texte. 12+30+103 p.; 2. Glossare. 225 p.; 3. Grammatik. 144 p.).
– “Über das Pluralsuffix im Ossetischen”, Bull. de l’Acad. imp. 8, 1865, 43-50 = Mél. as. 5, 1868, 207-217; other articles.
– Khiva, oder Kharezm: seine historischen und geographischen Verhältnisse. 66 p. St.P. 1873.
– “Das Russische Turkestan: seine Bevölkerung und seine äusseren Reziehungen”, Russ. Revue 1, 1872, 24-59, 112-135 & 2, 1873, 445-484, 565-579.
Sources: French Wikipédia and Russian Vikipedija, both with portrait.