M.N. Pokrovskii and the Origins of Soviet Historiography

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Published Jul 2024

James D. White

Author: James D. White

Focusing on the career of the Soviet historian M.N. Pokrovskii, the author examines the evolution of historical writing in the first decade of Soviet rule. As Deputy People’s Commissar for Education, Pokrovskii was among those who established the academic institutions of the new regime. The study of Pokrovskii’s writings and the political context in which they were conceived helps explain the origin of interpretations of modern Russian history current in Soviet times. The book can for that reason be regarded as a preliminary to the study of the Russian revolutionary era, and a key to the critical evaluation of the historical sources for the period.

Biographical Note

James D. White is Emeritus Professor of the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He is the author of Red Hamlet: The Life and Ideas of Alexander Bogdanov (2018), Marx and Russia: The Fate of a Doctrine (2018), Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution (2001), Karl Marx and the Intellectual Origins of Dialectical Materialism (1996) and The Russian Revolution 1917-1921 (1994). He has also published many articles on Russian and Soviet history.

Readership

All interested in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union as well as the history of Marxism and the Marxist approach to history.

Table of Contents

Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1

1 Pokrovskii and his Teachers 7
1 Family Background 7
2 Kliuchevskii 9
3 Pokrovskii’s Relations with Kliuchevskii 13
4 Vinogradov 16
5 Vinogradov’s Historical Views 19
6 Readings in Medieval History 20
7 Conflict with Struve 24
8 Teaching 26
9 Liberal Politics 30
10 Zemskii sobor and Parliament 32

2 From Liberal to Bolshevik 37
1 Pravda 37
2 Idealism and the Laws of History 39
3 The Literary-Lecturing Group 44
4 The 1905 Revolution in Moscow 49
5 Economic Materialism 57

3 Exile 63
1 Vpered 63
2 Writing Russian History 71
3 Trotsky 75
4 War 79
5 The 1917 Revolution 83
6 Brest-Litovsk 86
7 Deputy Commissar of Education 90

4 Pre-revolutionary Historical Works 98
1 History of Russia in the xix Century 98
2 Chapters on Russian Foreign Policy 104
3 Russian History from the Earliest Times 109
4 Study in the History of Russian Culture 121

5 Istpart 126
1 Trotsky’s From October to Brest-Litovsk 126
2 Istpart 130
3 Iakovlev 136
4 Pokrovskii’s Debate with Trotsky 143
5 Local Istparts 150

6 Institute of Red Professors 153
1 Institute of Red Professors 153
2 Departments 155
3 Russian Historiography 157
3.1 Ideology 158
3.2 Karamzin 158
3.3 Chicherin 159
3.4 Shchapov 160
3.5 Soloviev 161
3.6 Kliuchevskii 163
4 Stalin’s Judgement 165
5 Genkina 167
6 The Society of Marxist Historians 170

7 Post-Revolutionary Historical Works 176
1 Tsarism and Revolution 176
2 The Brief History of Russia 179
3 Studies in the History of the Russian Revolutionary Movement 185
4 The Imperialist War 190

8 Debates on Imperialism 199
1 Slepkov 199
2 Vanag 205
3 Soviet Anniversaries 212
4 People’s Will 218

9 Merchant Capitalism in Retreat 226
1 Merchant Capitalism 226
2 The Academy Case 235
3 Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution 242
4 Stalin’s Letter to Proletarskaia revoliutsiia 248

10 Epilogue 259
1 Stalin and History 259
2 Shestakov’s Textbook 268
3 Against the Historical Conceptions of M.N. Pokrovskii 272
Conclusion 276
Appendix: The Debate between Pokrovskii and Trotsky on the Special
Features of Russia’s Historical Development 281
Bibliography 313
Index 327