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УДК 930(47)«192»:378
E.V. Nikulenkova
Professional training of historians at The Institute of Red Professorate in the 1920-s
Подготовка кадров историков в Институте красной профессуры в 1920-е гг.
The article explores the professional training of historians at the Historian Department of The Institute of Red Professorate in the 1920-s including the syllabus, teaching stuff and students, party and scientific activity of the students.
В статье рассматривается подготовка кадров историков на историческом отделении Института красной профессуры в 1920-е гг., в том числе программа обучения, состав преподавателей и слушателей, партийная и научная работа слушателей.
Key words: The Institute of Red Professorate, M. N. Pokrovskii, A. N. Slepkov, S. M. Dubrovskii, history in the USSR, higher education in the USSR, scientific discussions in the 1920-s, the discussion aboutthe social and economic formations, Marxist historians.
Ключевые слова: Институт красной профессуры, М.Н. Покровский, А.Н. Слепков, С.М. Дубровский, историческая наука в СССР, высшее образование в СССР, научные дискуссии в СССР в 1920-е гг., дискуссия об общественно-экономических формациях, историки-марксисты.
After taking the power in October, 1917, Bolsheviks needed to create the Marxist History and prepare the stuff of Marxist historians. For this purpose in the first years after the Revolution there were Marxist research centers established. The Institute of Red Professorate (IRP) was one of them [22; 23].
The Institute of Red Professorate was established in 1921 for the purpose of professional training of Marxist teaching stuff in social sciences [33]. Up to the 1924 there were 3 main departments in this institute - Economics, History and Philosophy. Later some more departments were opened but The Department of History remained one of the biggest. The department of Party and History was opened in the IRP in 1927. It prepared historians of The Communist Party. The term of study at the Institute was three years, in 1924 it was increased to four years [9. D. 53. L. 4; D. 438. L. 44-45].
A lot of Marxist scientists and bolsheviks with pre-Revolutionary experience used to work at the IRP in the 1920-s. Well-known Marxist historian, the student of V.O. Klyuchevskii, Mikhail Nikolaevich Pokrovskii
© Nikulenkova E.V., 2015
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(1868-1932) was the Head of both the Institute and its Department of History up to the death. Besides him in the early years of the Institute the seminars on history were led by the other well-known Marxist hostorians: Vyacheslav Petrovich Volgin - the specialist in history of the socialist ideas, Nikolai Mikhailovich Lukin - the specialist in history of French Revolution, later he bacame the Head of the Institute of History of The USSR Academy of Sciences. Besides them there were L.N. Kritsman, E.S. Varga, V.I. Nevskii, F.A. Rotshtein, Yu.M. Steklov, D.B. Ryazanov among the teaching stuff in various periods [9. D. 2. L. 32, 50, 62, 85; D. 438. L. 44-45].
The lack of the Marxist historians caused the necessity to apply to the historians of pre-Revolutionary tradition. In various periods of the 1920-s the following representatives of «old school» worked at the IRP: the historian of the Middle Ages and Modern times - Aleksandr Nikolaevich Savin; the historian-medievalist - Evgenii Alekseevich Kosminskii; the student of V.O. Klyuchevskii, former Menshevik, - Nikolai Aleksandrovich Rozhkov; the well-known historian Aleksandr Evgen'evich Presnyakov and others. Petr Ivanovich Lyashchenko, the specialist in agrarian history and history of national economy, tought at the Department of History for a long time [9. D. 6. L. 30-33; D. 2. L. 50, 54, 73, 99-100; D. 438. L. 44-45].
The Department of History from the very beginning was divided into the sections of Russian and Western history (in the end of the 1920-s they were renamed into the section of the USSR People History and the section of Western History). The early syllabus of the Department was rather inconsistent. The first year of study presumed exploring the questions of theoretic economics and also the study of World History: Ancient Greece and Rome, the history of culture, the feudal period. The second and the third years presumed taking part in the seminars on historical materialism and the specialty [9. D. 2. L. 47, 50, 54].
Starting from 1926/1927 the syllabus started to change. Since that time the first year of study was dedicated to exploring social and economical history of Russia of XVI-XIX centuries for the students of Russian section and the Western history of the same period - for the students of Western section. Besides these disciplines there was also the seminar on philosophy. During the second year of study the students attended the classes of history of the XIX century (or historiographic seminars) and during the third year of study - the classes of history of the XX century. Such principle worked up to the 1930-s [9. D. 260. L. 514, 33, 51].
The main and almost the single form of study in the Institution of Red Professorate in the 1920-s was taking part in seminars. Students worked out a question by themselves and then took part in the discussion of reports. There were almost no lecture courses and even if
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there were any, they were optional to attend. It was supposed that in conditions of lack of the professors-communists it would be better to let party youth study those or other questions by themselves, than to delegate nonparty professors to lectures.
The use of historical sources was obligatory for getting the report for the research seminar accepted. The students were to work with documents, foreign literature, archive materials. Such an attitude was posed not only due to its innovative nature but also due to the fact that a lot of questions had never been explored before. The Alumna of IRP, the historian E.B. Genkina, said that during the discussion of her report «The February revolution» in 1926 at the seminar on the history of The October revolution M.N.Pokrovskii said: «That's not a research ..., because little of archive materials were used ... it can't be a research without using and studying archive materials» [7. p. 263].
The works of students based on lots of historical sources often were of investigative nature. That's why yet studying at the institute such students published a large number of articles and books which discussed historical questions from the Marxist point of view. Thus Marxist History was forming. The literary activity was a part of the study process. The students collaborated with various newspapers and magazines - «The Marxist historian», «Under the flag of Marxism», «The bulletin of the Communistic Academy», «The Bolshevik», «The proletarian revolution» and so on. That's why the IRP has become both the study and the research center. For the period of 1921-1928 years its graduates have published 559 scientific articles and other scientific works and 1468 popular-science works excluding the newspaper articles and reviews [11, p. 87]. The Institute itself has published several festschrifts [36].
The development of Marxist History required first of all the study of economic development and class struggle. That's why at the Russian and Western sections the Revolutionary epoches were in focus mostly. A lot of researches came out of the M.N.Pokrovskii's seminar that was devoted to The First Russian revolution of 1905-1907. It dealed with the large variety of topics like the development of industry and labor movement of the XX century, The October strike, The December armed revolt, Soviets in revolution, the position of the RSDLP and bourgeois parties, the activity of the I-st and II-nd Dumas etc. A lot of the reports of those who attended the seminar were published to the 20th Anniversary of the revolution [1; 2; 13; 24; 30; 31; 32; 34; 35].
In the 1920-s special attention at the IRP was paid to the study of the French Revolution held under the guidance of the well-known Marxist historian N. M. Lukin. In 1922-1923 he conducted the seminar on the history of The Convent, in 1923-1925 - on the Jacobin dictatorship. The last one was attended by S.D. Kunisskii, Kh. G. Lur'e, S.M. Monosov, V.N. Poznyakov and others [5. D. 2. L. 50]. Large attention was also paid
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to the study of labor movement in the countries of Western Europe [18; 20; 25; 26].
From the very first year of the IRP agrarian researches were in focus. First of all, on the seminars of P. I. Lyashchenko devoted to the history of the national economy in the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century. A lot of publications have come out of that seminar [5; 6; 8; 29]. The authors of them tried to prove that after the Reform of 1861 Russian agriculture developed in a capitalistic way.
Exploring the questions of social and economic development and class struggle the students of IRP also studied the peasant movements under the leadership of of S.T. Razin and E.I. Pugachev [4; 17; 18]. They aimed to prove that peasant revolts were of progressive nature, that they were caused by the social and economic reasons and the increasing of exploitation. Showing the antiserfdom and antifeudal directivity of the peasant revolts the «red professors» tried to prove that the rebels strived forward to the bourgeois relations. It led to the conclusions that the peasant revolts were of bourgeois nature.
The post-Revolutionary time required comprehension, first of all about the October revolution of 1917. The Bolsheviks supposed it to be the most important event of the XX century. That's why the seminar on the October Revolution held by M.N. Pokrovskii was one of the most significant disciplines at the section of Russian history. It was established in the 1925/1926 academic year [27. D. 26. L. 28-29]. The seminar covered a wide variety of topics including the events of the period after The First World War. Large attention was paid to the substantionation of the consistent of the revolution. That's why a lot of topics were devoted to the reasons of the revolution: the social, economic and political development, the labor and peasant movements. As a result of the seminar activity, there were 2 volumes of «The Essays on the History of the October revolution» published. In the 1925/1926 academic year there was the seminar on the events of the 1917th year held at the Russian section of the IRP [27. D. 26. L. 28-29]. Its activity resulted in publishing of a large number of the researches on the Civil War [3; 10; 12; 14; 16].
The special attention at the IRP was paid to the study and criticism of the non-Marxist theories. The activity of the historiographical seminar held by M.N. Pokrovskii was of great inportance at that point. The seminar aimed to represent an author as a member of a certain class. Publishing two volumes of the digest «Russian historical literature in the class context» was the result of the seminar's activity [28]. The slavophiles, B.N. Chicherin, S.M. Solov'ev, A.P. Shchapov, P.L. Lavrov, V.O. Klyuchevskii, P.N. Milyukov, N.A. Rozhkov, were described in the digest as the members of their epoches. Paying great attention to the exposition of those theories and showing their «wrong nature», the
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students of the seminar also noted the contribution of a historian to the development of a History of his time.
Also there was a historiographical seminar held by N. M. Lukin conducted at the section of Western History. It focused on the questions of the French revolution [9. D. 51. L. 14]. The students attended the seminar studied the works of A. T'er, O. Min'e, A. Tokvil', A. Olar, Zh. Zhores, M.M. Kovalevskii, I.V. Luchitskii, N.I. Kareev and others [15; 20; 38; 39].
The professors and the students of the History department of the IRP also used to take part in big scientific discussions of the 1920-s: about the socio-economic formations, the financial capital, N.G. Chernyshevskii, «Narodnaya volya». The students of the IRP participated in the activity of the First All-Union Conference of Marxist Historians which took place in December of the 1928 - January of the 1929. The students V.N. Rakhmetov, A.I. Lomakin, A.P. Shokhin represented their reports there [37].
The seminar work had great influence on the academic rating. Up to the middle of the 1930-s there was no transfer exams as well as no marks. The control on the study was taken by the registration of the reports and speeches [9. D. 2. L. 96-100].
Beside the academic work, the students of the IRP were to do party and teaching work as well. Practice was a part of the study process and was taken into account while transfering a student to the next year of study. Teaching work required holding courses on the corresponding specialty at the higher education institutions, workers' schools and preparatory department of the IRP. Party work required teaching at the district party schools, leading the Marxist and agitational-advocacy groups at the manufactures etc. The party work was supposed to show the level of Marxist background of the students. Such importance of the party work was motivated by the fear of «academism» and the persuit to create the «new type of scientist» (the «red professor»). In the 1920-s Marxist methodology and active political position was supposed to show the difference between the Marxist historians and the bourgeois historians.
Thus, the IRP has become the educational, scientific and party-ideological center. This could not but affect the special features of the professional training of the Marxist historians. For five years (1924-1928) the Institution was graduated by the 194 students. 32 of them were Russian historians and 18 of them were Western historians [11, p. 86]. There were such well-known historians as N.N. Vanag, E.B. Genkina, P.O. Gorin, B.B. Grave, S.M. Dubrovskii, 1.1. Mints, S.M. Monosov, A.M. Pankratova, A.G. Prigozhin, S.G. Tomsinskii among them.
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