Viktor Aleksandrovich Shnirelman (Russian: Виктор Александрович Шнирельман, born 18 May 1949, Moscow) is a Russian historian, ethnologist and a member of Academia Europaea (since 1998). He is a senior researcher of N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Russian Academy of Sciences and an author of over 300 works, including over 20 monographies on archaeology. Shnirelman's main fields include the ideologies of nationalism in Russia and CIS, ethnocentrism and irredentism.
Shnirelman graduated from historical faculty at Moscow State University in 1971 and in 1977 upheld a thesis in the Ethnography Institute of Soviet Academy of Sciences. In 1990, he defended a thesis in Ethnology and Anthropology Institute.