History is a complex science, often subjective. Any birch bark letter is written by a person, and this already speaks of his personal perception and evaluation. 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 annals is another question, scientists are engaged in this.
Bit by bit they will collect
The most competent in matters of medieval Russia today is Nikolai Borisov. Finding and comparing the epoch-making 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 will explain little. It is not easy for descendants who decide to study the XX-XXI centuries.
Nikolay 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 of the industry newspaper Gudok. Arriving at the editorial office, his father walked a thorny path from the literary employee to the chief editor.
From one interview, information surfaced: Nikolai's grandfather worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature. My grandmother was also a teacher, she taught mathematics. Father Nikolay indirectly connected his life with literature, but Nikolai himself went on to become a writer. They say that even in scientific works he admits lyrical digressions, although he has an excellent academic writing style.
He calls reading a drug. Since childhood, the guy was literate and developed beyond his years, 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.
Left in the middle ages
It is completely incomprehensible how after school he became not a university student, but a locksmith. A year later, after understanding life's guidelines, Nikolai Borisov entered the Moscow State University’s history department and successfully completed it, defending his thesis on Metropolitan Kiprian.
Three years later, he successfully defended his dissertation on the preservation of Russian culture during the years of the Tatar-Mongol yoke.
Since 1977 he has been working in the alma mater, studying ancient Russia, and is seriously interested in religious studies.
From the junior researcher of the laboratory, he will go through all the stages of career growth: senior teacher, associate professor, professor, head of the department (since 2007).
The doctoral dissertation was defended in 2000 and dealt with the policies of Moscow princes at the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. Today Nikolai Sergeevich is an outstanding historian of Russia.
Teacher's lectures abound in scientific components and literary digressions. Considering that studying a subject only in institute audiences is wrong, the doctor of historical sciences organizes trips with students to the Solovetsky Museum-Reserve.
More than two dozen diplomas were written by his students. Seven doctoral dissertations under his scientific supervision are defended by applicants on religious subjects.
In addition to studying everyday sources, he captivates students with questions of the philosophy of epochal processes. It popularizes science by giving lectures on television (the Bibigon channel), of course, not dry and tricky: with interesting presentation and tricky questions, I would like to hear the answer to. Nikolai Borisov often appears on television; he is attracted as an expert on the Russian Middle Ages, religion, and political analogies.
The writer is not his time
Seriously studying culture, religion, life, the Middle Ages, the historian is constantly expanding the range 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, “Young Guard” published a book “And the candle would not die out ...” about the life of Sergius of Radonezh (series “Historical Portrait”). From that moment, Russian book readers recognized a 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 is seriously awakening the topic of teaching: the role of scientists in the development of society, textbooks, teaching history at school. His works are of applied and scientific value.
About the life of wonderful people
The ZhZZL series was incredibly popular in Soviet times: it talked 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 Exaltation of Moscow ”, released in 1995, reprinted in 2005. In fact, it was the first solid biography of the founder of the Moscow state, which contemporaries called the Tatar saint. The writer, having studied every step of the prince, called him wise, zealously fulfilling the duty of a Christian and ruler all his life.
In 1999, the Moscow State University publishing house released a scientist’s study on the political deeds of the Moscow princes, thanks to which he became a laureate of the Metropolitan Makarii Prize. Five years later, Young Guard released a book in the Living History series about life on the eve of the end of the world. The intriguing name is quite scientific research: in medieval Russia it was considered that in 1492 the last millennium was ending. A well-known writer discusses this period, the deeds and the consequences of waiting for the end of the world.
Books of Nikolai Borisov "Sergius of Radonezh", "Dmitry Donskoy", "Ivan III" and many others became popular literature. Accustomed to stereotypical exaltation or humiliation of personalities, readers discover with interest that the prince, nicknamed Donskoy, canonized by a saint, was not an ideal person. The professor, relying on everyday life sources, restored in his 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 of Moscow Dmitry Donskoy.
The life of the Tver prince Mikhail, who managed to defeat the Horde Mongols, was written by Nikolai Borisov in the book "Mikhail Tverskoy" of the ZhZZL series. According to a few documents, he carefully restored the picture of the struggle of 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 Tverskoy was canonized, but few knew about him during the years of Soviet rule. The writer fills the gaps in the religious knowledge of the age of the atheists.
Bearer of historical truth
The professor’s legacy is great and diverse to this day. 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 about Dmitry Donskoy. At Christmas Readings, he talks about the rules for writing works of art of historical or religious subjects. For example, the images of Alexander Nevsky or Kalita have not reached our time, because of the scarcity of information the motivation for their actions is often incomprehensible, but painting, composing and evaluating to please the storyline is not permissible.
In the spring of 2018, he gives a lecture on Ivan III at the Borisov Historical Museum. In July 2018, Nikolai Sergeyevich 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 a historical hour discusses the acts of Ivan Kalita.
Nikolai Borisov is a nominee for the Enlightener Prize, a laureate of the Bastion Prizes, a member of the dissertation council on theology in graduate and doctoral studies at the Orthodox University, and the Presidential Academy. The professor gives lectures at the university, prepares new doctors of science, continues to delve into the centuries-old dust in order to get grains of factual truth from there.