VERNADSKY, GEORGY VLADIMIROVICH(1887–1973), Russian historian. Born on August 20 (September 1), 1887 in St. Petersburg in the family of V.I. Vernadsky. He graduated from the Moscow 5th gymnasium and in 1905 entered the historical department of the historical and philological faculty of Moscow University. Among his university teachers were V.O. Klyuchevsky, A.A. Kizevetter, R.Yu. Vipper. In 1906 Vernadsky visited Germany , where he listened to the lectures of G. Rickert at the University of Freiburg . He received his master's degree from St. Petersburg University in 1911. In 1913–1917 he was assistant professor at St. Petersburg University. According to his political convictions, Vernadsky was close to the Cadets. After the February Revolution, he edited the publication of the Ministry of Internal Affairs "Selsky Vestnik". In 1917–1918 he headed the department of Russian history at Perm University, where he created the Society for Historical, Philosophical and Social Knowledge. In 1918-1920 he was a professor at the Tauride University in Simferopol, was appointed head of the press department in the government of P.N. Wrangel. After the defeat of Wrangel's troops, he was evacuated to Constantinople, then moved to Greece. In 1922–1927 he was a professor at the Russian Faculty of Law in Prague. He participated in the work of the Seminary (later the Institute) of N.P. Kondakov, under whose influence he turned to the study of the relationship between the steppe, Byzantine and Slavic cultures. Became one of the ideologists of the Eurasians, substantiated historical theory Eurasianism in a number of works - Inscription of Russian history, 1927; Experience of the history of Eurasia, 1934; Links of Russian culture, 1938.

Vernadsky singled out various epochs in Russian history associated with the struggle of the Eurasian principles proper (“steppe”) and European elements alien to them (“forest”). The latter win in the 16th century. and open the way for continuous Europeanization. In line with the Eurasian doctrine, Vernadsky emphasized the importance of Eastern influences on Russian culture and the positive aspects of the era of Mongol rule: the formation of a strong statehood, national unity, the limitation of Western influence and the formation of an original cultural tradition.

In 1927 Vernadsky received, thanks to the recommendation of M.I. Rostovtsev, an invitation to Yale University and moved to the USA. In 1929 he published a one-volume History of Russia(last edition in 1969). From 1931 he taught at Yale, Harvard, Columbia and Chicago Universities. He published a number of works devoted to various periods of Russian history: Russian Revolution: 1917–1932, 1936; Political and diplomatic history of Russia, 1936; five volumes History of Russia: Ancient Russia (1943), Kievan Rus (1948), Mongols and Russia (1953), Russia in the Middle Ages (1958), Moscow kingdom(1968). In 1946 he received the title of professor at Yale University. In 1958, Columbia University awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. In 1965 Vernadsky was elected honorary president of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. The last work of the scientist was Essays on Russian historiography. Vernadsky died in New York on June 12, 1973.

Graduated from Moscow University. In October 1917, at the Petrograd University, he defended his master's thesis on the Freemasons of the era of Catherine II (this is one of the classic examples of the study of Freemasonry). In 1917-1918 he taught at Perm University, where he received his first chair. In the autumn of 1918, in the Crimea, he taught at the Taurida University, of which his father was elected rector (since 1921). He left the Crimea along with the remnants of the Wrangel army (in 1920 he served in the Wrangel government as head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs).

Through Constantinople, he emigrated to Athens, where he worked as a librarian in the Russian Student Union. From 1922 to 1927 he taught at the Russian Law Institute in Prague (his lectures were published in 1924 as a separate book, Essays on the History of the Russian State and Law). Then Prague was one of the centers of Russian emigration. This was facilitated by the so-called "Russian action" (financial support by the Czechoslovak government for refugees from Russia), thanks to which a number of scientific institutions arose.

Russian National Library (1921), Russian Institute (1922), Russian Faculty of Law at Charles University (1922), Russian Historical Society (1925) and others. The most significant of these was the Seminar (later the Institute) named after. N.P. Kondakov. Founded after the death of an outstanding historian of medieval art and Byzantinist, the seminar worked until 1945. The works he published on the history of Russian and Byzantine art, archeology and history also received world fame and recognition. Kondakov's ideas about the relationship between the steppe, Byzantine and Slavic cultures had a significant impact on the scientific worldview of Vernadsky. Georgy Vladimirovich became an active participant in the Seminar, and even after his departure for the United States he did not break ties with him.

In Prague, the influence of P.N. was especially significant for Vernadsky. Savitsky, which determined the choice of a new subject of study, or at least its new formulation: Ancient Russia and the Great Steppe (a view of the Forest from the side of the Steppe). Vernadsky's connection with Eurasianism has a complex background, and some researchers question his belonging to this movement. Vernadsky after being invited to the USA in 1927 and his close friend, professor at Harvard University, M.M. Karpovich conceived a project of grandiose scale: the creation of a multi-volume "History of Russia".

The series was to consist of ten volumes: the first six before the creation Russian Empire- created by G.V. Vernadsky, the next four - with early XIX to the XX century inclusive - M.M. Karpovich. Vernadsky wrote five books. The first volume - "Ancient Russia" - was published in 1943 (nowadays in Russia there are a number of reprints, including texts on the Internet), the second - "Kievan Rus" - in 1948, in 1953 the third appeared - "Mongols and Russia", 5 years later - in 1958 - the fourth - "Russia on the threshold of a new time", and at the end of the sixties, in 1968 - the fifth - "Moscow kingdom". The death of Karopovich in 1959 prevented the completion of the project, and Vernadsky and Karpovich's History of Russia remained Vernadsky's History.

Vernadsky, for the first time in foreign literature, alone, decided to analyze and synthesize the results of research by Soviet historians of that time. In the Union itself during this period, there were no analogues to such a project, and the "History of the USSR from ancient times", on which the entire color of the Soviet historical science, appeared much later and in an unfinished form.

In the USSR, to the works of G.V. Vernadsky reacted contradictory. The first responses came in 1946, when the two great powers moved from a military alliance to rivalry in the division of the world. In addition, the concept of Eurasianism was unacceptable for the Soviet historical school. Nevertheless, the reviewers favorably noted many aspects of Vernadsky's work and, above all, the scale of his work. The author of the 1100th anniversary of Novgorod in 1959 (approved and adopted by the governing bodies) academician Tikhomirov M.N. in the review). Slavs in the "History of Russia" prof. G. Vernadsky. // V. I. 1946, N 4, p. 124" noted: "Prof. Vernadsky, of course, is right in that he begins the history of Russia from remote primitive times. This attention to distant epochs is, undoubtedly, a valuable side of the work of prof. Vernadsky, since many phenomena of later periods are rooted in a very distant past." This starting methodological thesis, for a number of reasons, has not been assimilated by the dominant historians and politicians of Russia.

G.V. Vernadsky in the book "Ancient Russia" gave on almost 400 pages a well-thought-out periodization of a uniform and worthy of all attention of national history before Rurik. Here is Prehistory (an approach to the problem of the origin of the Russian people; historiographical remarks; Paleolithic; Neolithic period; Copper and Bronze Ages); Cimmerian and Scythian era (1000-200 BC), etc. This approach of Vernadsky to the history of real Ancient Russia is almost universally known in dozens of countries of the world, except for Russia itself. V educational institutions middle-medieval Russia is presented as "ancient", and, despite the obvious problematic nature of the ethnogenesis of the Ross-Rus, in medieval Russia everything is indicated as "old Russian" - the state, culture, economy, etc. The unscientific nature of such approaches is undeniable.

Best of the day

The full scale of the history of Russia with the involvement of the most modern data (especially archaeological and linguistic; see: Matyushin, Rybakov, Trubachev and others) cannot be comprehended without the works of Vernadsky.

Now published in Russian in Russia Ancient Russia, History of Law, History of Russia. Ancient Russia, History of Russia. Kievan Rus, History of Russia. Mongols and Russia, History of Russia. Moscow kingdom. Russian history. Russia in the Middle Ages; Lenin is a red dictator; Moscow kingdom: T. 1; Moscow kingdom: T. 2, Essay on the history of the law of the Russian state of the XVIII-XIX centuries, Russia in the Middle Ages, Russian historiography, Russian history: Textbook, Russian Freemasonry in the reign of Catherine II.

Literature:

1. Vernadsky G.V. On the movement of Russians to the East / Russian Historical Journal of St. Petersburg, 1913, N 2;

2. The spread of the Russian state to the East / Russian thought M., 1914;

3. Russian freemasonry in the reign of Catherine II. Pg.. 1917;

4. Russian freemasonry XVIII - perv. thurs. 19th century Pg., 1916;

5. Inscriptions of Russian history. Prague, 1927; Experience of the history of Eurasia. Berlin, 1934;

6. Halperin Ch. Y. 1) Russia and stepp: George Vernadcky and eurasianisiTi/Forschiingen zur osteuropaischen Geschihte. Wiesbaden, Bd. 36., 1985. Ss. 55-194 (bibliography of 275 works - Ss. 188-194);

7. Russia and the Golden Horde: The mongol impact on the mediaval Russian History. Bloomington, 1985 (bibliography: Pp. 158-174);

8. History of Russia. Vol. I-V. New Haven, 1943-1969; Isupov K., Savkin I. Russian Philosophy of Property (XVII-XX centuries). - St. Petersburg: SP "Hanza", 1993. - 512 p.

Georgy Vladimirovich Vernadsky

Vernadsky Georgy Vladimirovich (1887-1973) - Russian public figure, scientist, historian, culturologist, one of the theorists Eurasianism, figure of culture of the Russian diaspora. A son V. I. Vernadsky.

In parallel with his studies at Moscow University (1906-1910) he taught at working courses in Dorogomilovo and at a Sunday school in Mytishchi. He joined the student faction of the Cadets Party. Until the end of his life he remained an adherent of liberalism and democratic values. In the articles of 1913-1914. formulated the law of the correlation of historical time and space in Russia, which was important for his subsequent research and became one of the central, semantic categories of Eurasianism.

Since 1914 - Privatdozent of St. Petersburg University, Department of Russian History. After defending his doctoral dissertation (“Russian Freemasonry in the reign of Catherine II”), he took the chair of Russian history at the newly formed Perm University (1917).

In 1918, he fled from Perm because of the threat of arrest for political unreliability (membership in the Kadets party; critical remarks about the Bolsheviks, etc.). He continued his pedagogical and scientific activity in Simferopol. From September 1920 - head of the press department in the administration of General P. N. Wrangel. In 1921 he emigrated to Istanbul, then to Athens.

Since February 1922 - professor of Russian law at the Russian Law Faculty of Charles University in Prague. He became close to the culturologist, byzantologist, medievalist and art critic N. P. Kondakov. From 1925 he headed the N. P. Kondakov Institute in Prague. He joined the movement of Eurasianism, taking upon himself the development of the historical part of the Eurasian concept - embodied in the books: "The Inscription of Russian History" (Prague, 1927), "The Experience of the History of Eurasia from the VI century. up to the present time” (Berlin, 1934) and “Links of Russian Culture” (Berlin, 1938).

His views were based on three theses: the ratio of forest and steppe - defining natural factor Russian sociocultural history; in the synthesis of the Byzantine and Mongol-Turkic heritage (the phenomenon of "Christianization of the Tatar region" in Russia), the Turkic and Mongolian components are decisive; the geographical vector of the Eurasian socio-cultural history is directed "against the Sun", starting from the West to the East. An important part of his concept is the discovery of the "periodic rhythm of the state-forming process" in Eurasia.

In 1927 he left for the USA. He taught at Yale and other universities. He wrote a one-volume textbook on Russian history (1929), recognized by the world scientific and pedagogical community as a classic. By 1968 he prepared the fundamental work "History of Russia" (in 6 volumes).

Distinguished Professor of History at Yale University (1956); honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Columbia University (1958); member of the American Academy of the Middle Ages (1956); lifetime honorary president of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.

Orlov A.S., Georgiev N.G., Georgiev V.A. Historical dictionary. 2nd ed. M., 2012, p. 80-81.

Vernadsky Georgy Vladimirovich (August 20, 1887, St. Petersburg - June 12, 1973, New Haven, USA) - historian, active participant in Eurasianism. Son of V. I. Vernadsky. In 1906-1910. studied at Moscow University. In 1914-1917 - Privatdozent of the Petrograd University. in 1917 - 1918 - prof. Perm, in 1918-1920. - Tauride University (Simferopol), in 1922-1927. - Russian Law Faculty in Prague. In 1927-1956. was engaged in research and teaching work at Yale University (USA). In the center scientific interests V. - rus. historical process. Highlighting the spatial and geographical conditions, V considered the territory of Eurasia as a factor that determined the unity of the historical destinies of the peoples living here. In the works "Inscription of Russian History" (1927) and "Experience in the History of Eurasia" (1934), he singled out the history of Eurasia as a series of attempts to create a unified state and, in fact, Russian. history as a process of gradual development of Russian. the people of the Eurasian territory. For V., as for other representatives of Eurasianism, the idea of ​​​​an ordered and rhythmic development of the cultural-historical process was characteristic. In the light of this attitude, the history of Eurasia from VI to the beginning. 20th century V. was divided into seven epochs, the basis for the selection of which were events that were important for all of Eurasia or for most of its parts. The first Russian revolution (1905-1907), the Persian (1906), Turkish (1908) and Chinese (1911) revolutions were assessed by V. as signs of a radical change in the fate of Eurasia, and the Russian revolution of 1917 - as a complete collapse of the old order and at the same time the beginning of a new one. era. The conclusion about the historical unity of Russia-Eurasia, according to Vernadsky, was also confirmed by the fact that, despite the revolutionary upheavals, the connection between the center and howls, regions was preserved, although the western regions turned out to be less closely connected. It was thanks to natural connections that the Soviet government was able to basically restore the country within its former borders over the course of several years. V. also divided Russian history proper into periods, the main content of which was the struggle between the “forest” and the “steppe”, which ended by the end of the 16th century with the complete victory of the “forest” and the beginning of Europeanization, which led to the first upheavals in Russian public life. By the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the Russian state occupied almost the entire geographical space of Eurasia, the history of the Eurasian continent merged with the Russian. history. But at the same time, destructive processes in spiritual life continued, associated with the increased development of European forms of culture. Like many Eurasians, V. emphasized important role in the formation of the Russian-Eurasian original culture of Eastern influence, he saw in the Tatar-Mongol yoke a factor in the political consolidation of the Russian people and a force that prevented the spread of Latin influence to Russia. In the same perspective, the reforming activities of Peter I and especially his heirs, whose cultural and dynastic interests were connected with the West, were considered. The historical views of Vernadsky influenced the formation of modern Western concepts of the history of Russia, in which the origins of the originality of the national state tradition are seen in the fact that the Russian state, occupying a median geographical position, combined the Eastern. despotism, native patriarchy and Byzantine Caesarism supported by the Orthodox Church.

V. P. Kosharny

Russian philosophy. Encyclopedia. Ed. the second, modified and supplemented. Under the general editorship of M.A. Olive. Comp. P.P. Apryshko, A.P. Polyakov. - M., 2014, p. 96-97.

Vernadsky Georgy Vladimirovich - the largest historian of the Russian diaspora. Born in 1887 in St. Petersburg, but children's and youth spent in Moscow, where his father, the outstanding Russian scientist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, was a professor at Moscow University. The beneficial family atmosphere helped to take shape early on the creative interests of Vernadsky Jr. He enters the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, during a break between classes, formed in 1905, listens to lectures at the foreign universities of Berlin and Freiburg, then returns to Moscow and receives a university diploma in 1910. A year later, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he became a Privatdozent at the Department of Russian History of the University. Here he defends his master's thesis on "Russian Freemasonry in the reign of Catherine II". His scientific teachers were V.O. Klyuchevsky (recognized leader of the "Moscow historical school"), S.F. Platanov (head of the "Petersburg school"), as well as a prominent historian and culturologist I.M. Grevs.

Even in his student years, along with the theme of Freemasonry, he was interested in studying the influence of the East on Russian history, to which he devoted several early articles. In the future, this topic will become the leading one in his scientific work. Despite his liberal-democratic political convictions (he, along with his father, was a member of the Cadet Party), with all the logic of his historical research, G. Vernadsky led to the idea of ​​a strong centralized power, which alone is capable of preserving a single geopolitical space of Russia-Eurasia.

During civil war G. Vernadsky, together with his wife Nina Vladimirovna, left the capital and moved first to Perm (in 1918-1920 he worked as a professor of history at the newly opened Perm University), and then at the Taurida University in Simferopol. For several months he headed the press department in the government of General Wrangel.

After the evacuation from the Crimea, G. Vernadsky lived in Athens for about a year, where he studied sources on Byzantine history in the archives, and then moved to Prague, where he received the post of professor of the history of Russian law at the Russian Faculty of Law. In Prague, G. Vernadsky closely converges with the famous historian and archaeologist N.P. Kondakov (he took an active part in the work of the so-called "Kondakov Institute"), writes numerous articles and pamphlets on historical topics and begins to get closer to the Eurasian movement.

Due to the peculiarities of his character, G. Vernadsky did not participate at all in the socio-political life that was developing around Eurasianism, however, many of his ideas were very close to him. He was especially strongly influenced by communication with P. Savitsky and his idea of ​​"local development", which inspired G. Vernadsky to write several works on the history of Eurasia. The main contribution of the scientist to Eurasianism can be considered the concept of the struggle between the principles of "forest" and "steppe" as the pivotal axes of Russian history, as well as the idea of ​​the periodic rhythm of the state-forming process, which in many respects anticipated many provisions of A. Toynbee's theory.

The main works of G. Vernadsky, created during the existence of the Eurasian movement, were such works as "Inscriptions of Russian History" (1927), "Experience in the History of Eurasia from the Half of the 6th Century to the Present" (1934), "Links of Russian Culture" (1938) .

In 1927, G. Vernadsky received an invitation to take the post of research fellow in Russian history at Yale University. Because noisy political processes around Eurasianism and disputes, popular in the Russian diaspora, had long weighed on him, the offer was accepted and he settled in New Haven, where he lived until the end of his days. Here he conducts teaching and research work, writes works that glorified his name throughout the world. These include, first of all, his five-volume history of Russia from ancient times to the end. 17th century written from 1943 to 1969. During his almost half a century of activity in the USA, G. Vernadsky created his own powerful historical school. As shown by the centenary of G. Vernadsky, it includes many American and European students and followers of the scientist. He showed great interest in Russia, carried on extensive correspondence with Russian scientists, and had a certain influence on Yu.N. Roerich and L.N. Gumilyov. He died in 1973 at the age of 86.

Curriculum vitae from the History of Russia website.

Read further:

Compositions:

The outline of Russian history. Prague, 1927; M, 2002;

Experience of the history of Eurasia from the half of the 6th century to the present. Berlin, 1934;

Links of Russian culture. Part 1, no. 1. Ancient Russia (until the middle of the 15th century). Berlin, 1938.

Literature:

Sukhotina L. G. Problems of Russian revolutionary democracy in the Anglo-American bourgeois historiography. Tomsk, 1983. S. 26-29;

Halperin Ch. Y. Russia and stepp: George Vemadsky and eurasianism // Forschungen zur osteuropeischen Geschichte. Wiesbaden, 1985. Bd. 36. S. 55-194.