The article is devoted to the 60^th birth anniversary of Yuri Anatolyevich Zeleneyev, Candidate of Historical Sciences, and Associate Professor of Mari State University. The principal spheres of his scientific interests and research activities include the archaeology of the Golden Horde period and medieval history of the peoples inhabiting the Volga region. Yu. A. Zeleneyev has coordinated research on many medieval sites, and his role in the study of the Golden Horde capital cities in the Lower Volga area should be particularly noted. Being among its founders, he headed the Center for archeological and ethnological research with Mari State University and organized rescue and salvage excavations in the Mari El Republic and adjacent territories. Yu. A. Zeleneyev is the author and coauthor of over 160 scientific and methodical works, editor of 9 collections of research papers, and deputy editor of the “Povolzhskaya Arkheologia” (“The Volga Region Archaeology”) journal.