Nikolai Borisov: a story about a story

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

History is a complex science, often subjective. Any birch bark is written by a person, and this already speaks of his personal perception and assessment. Chronicles and history books carry knowledge that does not always impartially reflect events. And yet, in every era there were chroniclers, thanks to whom we know the geography of cities, military redistribution of territories, the names of rulers, global events in the life of countries and peoples. How to interpret these chronicles is another question, scientists are engaged in this.

Bit by bit will be collected

The most competent in matters of medieval Russia today is Nikolai Borisov. Searching for and comparing epochal facts, the head of the Department of History of Moscow State University builds versions, clarifies the essence of the description. True, he is in no hurry to include his biography in the annals of centuries.

There is practically no information about his childhood, school and student years, it will fit in one short paragraph and explain little. Not easydescendants who decide to study the XX-XXI centuries will have to.

Nikolai was born on July 29, 1952 in the resort town of Essentuki in the foothills of the Caucasus. Parents: mother is a railway engineer, father is a journalist for the industry newspaper Gudok. Arriving at the editorial office, his father went from a literary worker to a thorny path to the editor-in-chief.

From one interview, information surfaced: Nikolai's grandfather worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature. Grandmother was also a teacher, taught mathematics. Nikolai's father indirectly connected his life with literature, but Nikolai himself went further - he became a writer. They say that even in scientific works he allows lyrical digressions, although he has an excellent academic style of writing.

He calls reading a drug. From childhood, the guy was literate and developed beyond his years, he loved to read, to understand the little things.

He is married, but there is no information about the family in public sources. In the biography of Nikolai Borisov, only work: monographs, books, seminars, lectures.

Gone to the Middle Ages

It is completely incomprehensible how, after school, he became not a university student, but a mechanic. A year later, having de alt with life guidelines, Nikolai Borisov enters the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, successfully graduating from it, defending his thesis dedicated to Metropolitan Cyprian.

Three years later he successfully defended his Ph. D. thesis on the preservation of Russian culture during the years of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.

Since 1977, he has been working at his alma mater, studying ancient Russia, and is seriously interested in religious studies.

From Junior Researcherlaboratory, he will go through all the stages of career growth: senior lecturer, associate professor, professor, head of the department (since 2007).

The doctoral dissertation was defended in 2000 and de alt with the policy of Moscow princes at the turn of the 13th-14th centuries. Today Nikolai Sergeevich is an outstanding historian of Russia.

Teacher's lectures are replete with scientific components and literary digressions. Considering that it is wrong to study the subject only in institute classrooms, the Doctor of Historical Sciences organizes trips with students to the Solovetsky Museum-Reserve.

More than two dozen diplomas written by his students. Seven Ph. D. theses under his supervision were defended by applicants on religious topics.

In addition to studying everyday sources, he captivates students with questions of the philosophy of epochal processes. He popularizes science by giving lectures on television (channel "Bibigon"), of course, not dry and sophisticated: with an interesting presentation and tricky questions, the answer to which you want to hear. Nikolai Borisov often appears on television, he is attracted as an expert on the Russian Middle Ages, issues of religion, political analogies.

A writer out of his time

Seriously studying the culture, religion, life, of the Middle Ages, the historian constantly expands his circle of interests: he was fascinated by politics, architecture, local history. From different angles he examined the life of medieval Russians. He wanted to share this information not only with a narrow circle of scientists and students. In 1990 Youngguards” published the book “And the candle would not go out…” about the life of Sergius of Radonezh (series “Historical portrait”). From that moment on, Russian book readers recognized the smart and interesting author.

In the writer's archive - 23 published books, articles in magazines. He writes about the Battle of Kulikovo and the environs of Yaroslavl, church leaders and sovereign governors, ethics and politics of ancient Russia. The professor seriously discusses the topic of teaching: the role of scientists in the development of society, the texts of textbooks, the teaching of history at school. His works have applied and scientific value.

About the lives of wonderful people

The ZhZL series was incredibly popular in Soviet times: it told about great people who left an indelible mark on the history of the state and the world. The first book of the author Nikolai Borisov in this series is “Ivan Kalita. The Rise of Moscow”, published in 1995, reprinted in 2005. In fact, it was the first good biography of the founder of the Moscow state, whom his contemporaries called the Tatar saint. The writer, having studied every step of the prince, called him wise, all his life zealously fulfilling the duty of a Christian and a ruler.

In 1999, the Moscow State University publishing house published a study by a scientist on the political deeds of the Moscow princes, thanks to which he became a laureate of the Metropolitan Macarius Prize. Five years later, Young Guard published a book in the Living History series about life on the eve of the end of the world. Behind the intriguing name is quite scientific research: in medieval Russia it was considered that in 1492 the lastmillennium. A well-known writer talks about this period, the deeds and the consequences of waiting for the doomsday.

Nikolai Borisov's books "Sergius of Radonezh", "Dmitry Donskoy", "Ivan III" and many others became popular literature. Accustomed to the stereotypical ex altation or humiliation of personalities, readers discover with interest that the prince, nicknamed Donskoy, a canonized saint, was not an ideal person. The professor, relying on everyday sources, restored in the book a picture of the life of Russia at the end of the 14th century, where he described in detail and objectively the life of Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow.

The life of Prince Michael of Tver, who managed to defeat the Mongols of the Horde, was written by Nikolai Borisov in the book "Mikhail of Tver" in the ZhZL series. Based on a few documents, he carefully restored the picture of the struggle between Tver and Moscow for supremacy at the end of the 13th century. I found and studied documents testifying to the martyrdom of the prince in the Horde. In the 17th century, Mikhail of Tverskoy was canonized as a saint, but few people knew about him during the years of Soviet rule. The writer fills in the gaps in the religious knowledge of the age of the atheists.

The bearer of historical truth

The legacy of the professor today is great and diverse. You can rest on your laurels, but for him history is not work, but the meaning of life. He is a consultant on the set of a documentary film about Dmitry Donskoy. At the Christmas Readings, he talks about the rules for writing works of art with a historical or religious theme. For example, images of Alexander Nevsky or Kalita have not survived to our time, due tothe scarcity of information is often incomprehensible to the motivation of their actions, but it is not permissible to draw, compose and evaluate for the sake of the storyline.

In the spring of 2018, Borisov gives a lecture on Ivan III at the Historical Museum. In July 2018, Nikolai Sergeevich reads the report “History is the memory of the people” at the international scientific and practical conference in Belarus. A little earlier on the radio "VERA" in the historical hour discusses the deeds of Ivan Kalita.

Nikolay Borisov - nominee for the Enlightener award, laureate of the Bastion awards, member of the dissertation council on theology in postgraduate and doctoral studies at the Orthodox University, Presidential Academy. The professor lectures at the university, prepares new doctors of science, continues to delve into the dust of centuries to get grains of factual truth from there.