Viktor Ambartsumian as a child

The photograph shows young Viktor Ambartsumian.

Viktor Hamazaspi Ambartsumian was an Armenian and Soviet astrophysicist and astronomer, one of the founders of theoretical astrophysics and the founder of the Soviet school of theoretical astrophysics. He was a member of the Academies of Sciences of the USSR and of the Armenian SSR, and president of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR and of the International Astronomical Union. He was born on 18 September 1908 in the Russian Empire and died on 12 August 1996 in Byurakan (Armenia).

The boy stands in Caucasian dress, with cartridge holders on his chest and a dagger hanging from his belt.