We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
One of the most interesting and seminal figures in Soviet historiography is the historian M. N. Pokrovsky, whose influence has continued to be felt up to the present day. He was active in the 1917 Revolution in Russia, and in political and institutional developments during the first decade and a half of Soviet rule. He became what may be euphemistically called the "dean" of Marxist historians, yet after his death on April 10, 1932, he was ritually accused of being responsible for most of the "shortcomings" of Soviet historiography. Among the many accusations leveled against Pokrovsky the following have appeared with considerable regularity: (1) Because he was "dictator" of the historical front from 1928 to 1932, his interpretations of history were the "official" interpretations of that time and consequently had to be "reflected" by other Soviet historians.
1. Jonas, Hans, “Die Entwicklung der Geschichtsforschung im der Soviet-Union seit dem Ausgang des Weltkrieges,” Zeitschrift fiir osteuropädische Geschichte, 5 (1931): 67.Google Scholar
2. Shteppa, Konstantin F., Russian Historians and the Soviet State (New Brunswick, 1962), p. 1962 Google Scholar, and Yaresh, Leo A., Two Essays in Soviet Historiography (New York, 1955), p. 3.Google Scholar
3. Jesse Clarkson to Bernard W. Eissenstat, Nov. 3, 1966. Hoetzsch argued the same line over a quarter of a century earlier, asserting that Pokrovsky, while holding a number of high government posts, “was never a member of the inner circle of the party.” Hoetzsch, Otto, “M. N. Pokrovsky,” Zeitschrift fiir osteuropäische Geschichte, 6 (1932): 533.Google Scholar
4. Shteppa, Russian Historians, pp. 24-178 and passim.
5. Frankel, Jonathan, “Party Genealogy and the Soviet Historians (1920-1938),” Slavic Review, 25, no. 4 (December 1966): 570–71 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and passim.
6. Illeritsky, V. E. and Kudriavtsev, I. A., eds., Istoriografiia istorii SSSR (Moscow, 1961), p. 18.Google Scholar
7. Miliukov, Paul, “Velichie i radenie M. N. Pokrovskogo,” Sovremennie sapiski (Paris), 65 (1937): 370.Google Scholar
8. Jonas, “Entwicklung der Geschichtsforschung,” pp. 395-96.
9. Pokrovsky, M. N., Ekonomicheskii materialism (Moscow, 1906), p. 3.Google Scholar
10. Pokrovsky, , Historische Aufsätse: Ein Sammelband (Vienna and Berlin, 1928), p. Berlin.Google Scholar
11. Pokrovsky, , Russkaia istoriia v samom sshatom ocherke, 3rd ed. (Moscow, 1923), P.11.Google Scholar
12. Pokrovsky, , “Marks kak istorik,” Vestnik Sotsialisticheskoi akademii, 1923, no. 4, p. 380.Google Scholar
13. Pokrovsky, , History of Russia: From Earliest Times to the Rise of Commercial Capitalism, trans, and ed. Clarkson, J. D. and Griffiths, M. R. M. (London, 1931), pp. 177–79 Google Scholar, and A Brief History of Russia, trans. D. S. Mirsky, 2 vols. (New York, 1933), 1: 176
14. Pokrovsky, “Rol’ rabochego klassa v revoliutsii 1905 g.,” in Tikhomirov, M. N. et al., eds., M. N. Pokrovskii: Izbrannye proisvedeniia, 4 vols. (Moscow, 1966-67), 3: 606–7.Google Scholar
15. Pokrovsky, “O riisskom feodalizme, proiskhozhdenii i kharaktere absoliutizma v Rossii,” ibid., 3: 560.
16. Pokrovsky, , “O zadachakh marksistskoi istoricheskoi nauki v rekonstruktivnyi period,” Istorik marksist, 31 (1931): 7.Google Scholar
17. Pokrovsky, , Oktiabrskaia revoliutsiia: Sbornik statei, 1917-1927 (Moscow, 1929), p. 18.Google Scholar
18. Pokrovsky, Berzin, M. la., et al., eds., Meshdunarodnye otnosheniia v epoku iviperialisma: 1878-1917, 10 vols. (Moscow, 1931-39), 1: xiii.Google Scholar
19. Wolfe, Bertram D., Six Keys to the Soviet System (Boston, 1956), p. 46.Google Scholar
20. Quoted in Danilov, V. P. and Iakubovskaia, S. I., “Istochnikovedenie i izuchenie istorii sovetskogo obshchestva,” Voprosy istorii, 1961, no. 5, p. 18.Google Scholar
21. Quoted in Mazour, Anatole G., “Modern Russian Historiography,” Journal of Modern History, 9 (1937): 201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar No source given.
22. Pokrovsky, , “Rech\” Istorik-marksist, 10 (1928): 272.Google Scholar
23. Pokrovsky, , “Institut krasnoi professury,” Trudy Institute krasnoi professury (Moscow, 1923), 1: 5.Google Scholar
24. Mazour, Anatole G., Modern Russian Historiography, 2nd ed. (Princeton, 1958), p. 187–90.Google Scholar
25. Pokrovsky, in Vestnik Kommunisticheskoi akadetnii, 26 (1928): 5-6. Quoted in Sokolov, O. D., “Razvitie istoricheskikh vzgliadov M. N. Pokrovskogo,” in M. N. Pokrovskii: Isbrannye proisvedeniia, 1: 28 Google Scholar
26. See, for example, Grekov, B. D., Bor'ba Rusi za sosdanie svoego gosudarstva (Moscow, 1945), pp. 22 ff., Google Scholar and Mavrodin, V. V., “Osnovnye momenty razvitiia russkogo gosudarstva do XVIII v.,” Vestnik Leningradskogo universiteta, 1947, no. 3, p. 84.Google Scholar
27. Nechkina, M., Poliakov, Iu., and Cherepnin, L., “Nekotorye voprosy istorii sovetskoi istoricheskoi nauki,” Kommunist, 1961, no. 9, p. 65.Google Scholar
28. Sakharov, A. M. and Shapiro, A. L., “Sovetskaia literatura po problemam istorii russkogo feodalizma v 1962 g.,” Istoriia SSSR, 1963, no. 4, pp. 139–40.Google Scholar
29. Dubrovsky, S. M., “Akademik M. N. Pokrovskogo ego rol’ v razvitii sovetskoi istoricheskoi nauki,” Voprosy istorii, 1962, no. 3, p. 17.Google Scholar
30. Yaresh, Leo, “The Problem of Periodization,” in Black, Cyril E., ed., Rewriting Russian History, 2nd ed. (New York, 1962), p. 34.Google Scholar
31. “Pis'mo V. I. Lenina M. N. Pokrovskomu,” in M. N. Pokrovskii: Izbrannye proievedeniia, 3: 3-4.
32. Rozhkov, N. A., Russkaia istoriia v sravnitel'no-istoricheskom osveshchenii, 12 vols. (Leningrad, 1922-30), 1: 21.Google Scholar
33. A. S. Roslova, “Formirovanie vzgliadov M. N. Pokrovskogo i ego istoricheskaia kontseptsiia,” in Istoriografiia istorii SSSR, p. 474.
34. Pankratova, A. M. in Grekov, B. D. et al., eds., Protiv istoricheskoi kontseptsii M. N. Pokrovskogo, 2 vols. (Moscow, 1939-40), 1: 62–63.Google Scholar
35. Pokrovsky, , “Sovetskaia glava nashei istorii,” Bolshevik, 1924, no. 14, p. 11.Google Scholar
36. Pokrovsky, , Istoricheskaia nauka i bofba klassov, 2 vols. (Moscow, 1933), 2: 314.Google Scholar
37. Marx, Karl, Capital, ed. Rhys, Ernest, trans. Eden, and Paul, Cedar, 2 vols. (New York, 1930), 1: 391.Google Scholar
38. Lenin, V. I., “Krakh II internatsionala,” Sobranie sochinenii, 20 vols. (Moscow, 1920-26), 13: 160.Google Scholar
