Georgy Vernadsky - Russian historian from America

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

The great Russian and American scientist Georgy Vladimirovich Vernadsky left a noticeable mark in historical science. His works forced to take a fresh look at some periods of Russian history. He made a particularly great contribution to the study of the influence of the East on the development of Russian statehood.

Early years

In St. Petersburg, in the family of the outstanding scientist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, on August 20, 1887, a son was born. Doctors seriously feared for the life of the mother and child - the birth was difficult. But everything worked out, the boy was born strong and he althy. George, he was named after his grandfather, a senator, grew up as an intelligent and inquisitive child. Having been raised at home, he studied well at the gymnasium, paying special attention to history.

His favorite subject was taught by Barskov Yakov Lazarevich, a student of the famous scientist Klyuchevsky. The teacher sought from the students not only an excellent knowledge of the subject, but also taught them to think informally, to understand the essence of historical processes. Vladimir Ivanovich, noticing his son's love for history, encouraged and contributed to the development of a penchant for thisbranches of knowledge. Naturally, after graduating from high school, Georgy Vernadsky had no doubts about choosing a profession.

Teaching History

In 1905 he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. It was not a very good year for studying, Moscow was engulfed in protests. At the university, classes were extremely irregular, due to the fact that they were disrupted by the speeches of students who sympathized with revolutionary ideas. On the advice of his father, Georgy Vernadsky leaves for Germany, where he continues his education at the Freiburg and Berlin universities.

After the defeat of the revolution and the normalization of the situation in the country, in the fall of 1906, he returned to Moscow, where he again began to study at the university. His teachers were prominent scientists V. O. Klyuchevsky, A. A. Kizevetter, Yu. V. Gauthier, representatives of the Moscow historical school. Georgy Vernadsky carefully studied the works of the leader of the Petersburgers S. F. Platonov. Like most representatives of the liberal intelligentsia, he understood the need for reform, but was against the revolution. Georgy joined the Cadets and gave lectures to workers on Russian history in Dorogomilovo. He is increasingly attracted to an academic career. After graduating from university in 1910, he decides to take up historical research.

First steps

He couldn't stay at Moscow University, so he decides to start his own research. The first scientific work of Georgy Vernadsky on the history of Russia wasstudy of Russian settlement in Siberia. He published three articles, but could not defend his dissertation. By this time, his favorite teachers left the university, and Vladimir Ivanovich also left for St. Petersburg.

He moves to the capital, where S. F. Platonov agrees to become his supervisor. The remoteness from the archives makes it necessary to change the topic of the dissertation. On the advice of his high school history teacher, whom he met in St. Petersburg, Georgy Vernadsky decides to study the history of Russian Freemasonry in the 18th century. In 1914, after tests, he was accepted to the post of Privatdozent at the Moscow University and received permission to teach Russian history. By 1917, the dissertation was prepared, in May his study "Russian Freemasonry in the reign of Catherine II" was published.

Revolutionary years

With the patronage of his supervisor, Georgy Vladimirovich Vernadsky receives a professorship in Omsk. However, on the way to the place of work, he gets stuck in Perm, due to a strike on the railway. He liked the city, and he agreed to the offer to teach at the local university. Having traveled for a few days to defend his dissertation in St. Petersburg, on October 25 he returned to Perm, where he learned about the Bolshevik coup.

Soviet power in the city was established in January 1918. Friends warned of impending arrest and Vernadsky moved to Ukraine. With the assistance of Vladimir Ivanovich, he gets a job as a professor at the Tauride University and moves to Simferopol. In addition to teaching, Georgy Vernadsky researches documents about the activities of Grigory Potemkin, publishes articles about this period of Russian history. In September 1920, he joined the Wrangel Government, taking the post of head of the press department.

The first years of emigration

At the end of October 1920, Georgy Vernadsky, together with the Russian army, was evacuated to Constantinople. Then he moved to Athens, where he worked a lot with the Greek archives, in 1922 he received a professorship at the Charles University in Prague. Here he gets acquainted with the Eurasian ideas of P. N. Savitsky and other Russian thinkers who develop the idea of the relationship between Slavic, steppe and Byzantine cultures.

The development of this theory is reflected in Georgy Vernadsky's book "The Inscription of Russian History", published in 1927 in Russian in Prague. Russia was recognized by him as a Eurasian country with its own special cultural and historical world. The past was seen as a struggle and merger between the "steppe" (settled Slavs) and the "forest" (nomads). For example, during the time of the Mongol yoke, the “steppe” won, then the “forest” won during the time of the Moscow principality, and everything ended with their unification.

Later years

In 1927 he moved to the USA, where he taught Russian history at Yale University. In the same year, Grigory Vladimirovich Vernadsky's book "History of Russia" was published, written by order of the university. The textbook has been translated and published in all European countries, as well as inArgentina and Japan. In 1933, the book “Lenin. Red Dictator, commissioned by the Hoover Institution.

The main direction of his research is the development of the idea of the influence of natural and social factors on Russian history. The main work of Georgy Vladimirovich Vernadsky "History of Russia" in five volumes was published in the period from 1943 to 1968. He worked at Yale University until his retirement in 1956.