Russian archaeology begins in the Russian Empire in the 1850s and becomes Soviet archaeology in the early 20th century. The journal Sovetskaya arkheologiya is published from 1957.

major archaeological cultures and sites in Russia

• • Kermek (ru:Кермек (стоянка))
  • Bogatyri/Sinyaya Balka (ru:Богатыри/Синяя балка)
  • Palaeolithic site Kostyonki
  • Sungir
  • Yana RHS (ru:Янская стоянка)
  • Afontova Gora
• Mal'ta–Buret' culture (Upper Paleolithic)
• Khvalynsk culture (Eneolithic)
• Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture (Chalcolithic)
• Novotitorovka culture (Early Bronze Age)
• Maykop culture (Early Bronze Age)
  • Maykop kurgan
• Yamna culture
• Afanasevo culture (Early Bronze Age)
• Abashevo culture (Bronze Age)
• Andronovo culture (Middle to Late Bronze Age)
  • Arkaim
  • Sintashta
• Srubna culture (Late Bronze to Iron Age)
• Tanais (Late Bronze to Iron Age)
• Pazyryk culture (Iron Age)
• Tmutarakan
• Staraya Ladoga (Viking Age)
• Rurikovo Gorodische
• Gnyozdovo
• Sarkel (9th century)

• B. Trigger, A History of Archaeological Thought, McGill University, Montréal, pp. 327ff.
• Mikhail Miller, Archaeology in the U.S.S.R, New York (1956).

• History of archaeology
• History of Russia
• History of Central Asia
• Scythia
• Kurgan hypothesis
• List of Russian historians