Yury Zuev

Zuev was a collaborator in important editions of the USSR history: "Historical Atlas of the USSR peoples", "Historical atlas of the Kazakh SSR", and five-volume edition "History of the Kazakh SSR from most ancient times to the present". The mass of Zuev's work included analysis of the Kazakhstan and Central Asian political history from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD, history of ancient and medieval periods, ethnic composition and movement of tribes in the Western Turkic Kaganate, and pre-Mongolian period (10th–12th centuries) history. Zuev wrote about the genesis, ethnic composition and political history of the Türgesh Kaganate.

Zuev's 70th birthday in 2002 coincided with the publication of his lifetime work, a monograph "Early Turks: Sketches of history and ideology", followed by "A Strongest Tribe" (2004) and "Seyanto Kaganate and Kimeks (Central Asian Turkic ethnogeography in the middle of the 7th century)" (2004).

After the fall of the USSR, Zuev was able to publish a number of works on ancient and medieval history of nomadic peoples of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan. These include "Sarmato-Alans of Aral (Yancai\Abzoya)" (1995), "Ancient Turkic social terminology in the Chinese texts of the 8th century" (1998), "Creation of Türgesh Kaganate: history and tradition" (1996), "Forms of the ethno-social organization of Central Asia nomadic peoples in antiquity and Middle Ages: pied horde, centuria (comparative – typological study)" (1998), "Kypchak Urbe-khan in epos and history" (2001), "Manichaeism and Talas (interpretation of Ancient Turkic inscriptions)" (2002).

Zuev was born in the Siberian city of Tümen in a white-collar family. Zuev studied at the Leningrad State University and majored in the historical studies of the Eastern Asian countries, successfully learning Classical Chinese, Middle Chinese, and modern Chinese. In 1955, Zuev received a B.A. diploma and was sent to work in the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in 1967. His PhD thesis "Ancient Turkic genealogical legends as a source on early history of Turkic people" included a number of new discoveries about the socio-political history of the Turks, suggested the etymology of the name of the Ashina tribe, traced the historical past of the Turkic tribes in the Chinese genealogical legends, and suggested a hypothesis about an ethnic triumvirate of Ashina-Ashide-Basmyl. The main finding of his thesis was the etymology of the name of the Kagan tribe Ashina.

Yuri Alexeyevich Zuev or Zuyev (Russian: Юрий Алексеевич Зуев; 8 December 1932 – 5 December 2006) was a Russian-born Kazakh sinologist and turkologist.