Academician Rybakov is a famous domestic archaeologist, researcher of Ancient Russia and Slavic culture. Hero of Socialist Labor, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Even after his death, he remains one of the most influential specialists in the field of Soviet historiography. His scientific views and teaching activities had a great influence on the development of ideas about the history of Ancient Russia. For 60-80 years, he actually led Soviet archeology.
Childhood and youth
The future academician Rybakov was born in Moscow in 1908. It was a summer day, June 3rd. His parents were Old Believers. They gave their son a first-class education at home. In 1917, he began to study at a private gymnasium.
Since 1921, he settled with his mother in the premises of the "Working Family" orphanage on the territory of the Goncharnaya Sloboda. He graduated from the second level school in 1924, and two years later he became a student in the historical and ethnological faculty of Moscow State University. He graduated from the university in 1930 with a degree in historian-archaeologist.
His direct mentors at the university were academician Yuri Vladimirovich Gauthier, professors Vasily Alexandrovich Gorodtsov and Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin.
At the beginning of work
The first jobs that can be identified in the biography of Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov are the archive of the October Revolution in Moscow and the Museum of Local Lore in Alexandrovsky, in the Vladimir Region. After that, for six months he served in the Red Army with the rank of cadet. Then he became a horse intelligence officer in the artillery regiment, which was based in the capital.
In 1931 he returned to direct scientific activity. Since that time he is a research fellow at the State Historical Museum. From the mid-30s to 1950, with a break for the occupation of Moscow, he held the post of senior researcher at the Institute of the History of Material Culture at the USSR Academy of Sciences.
In 1939 he received a Ph.D. in historical sciences for a monographic study on radomichy.
Doctoral Thesis Defense
Over the years, the hero of our article has been working on a fundamental work on crafts, which have received the greatest development in the territory of Ancient Russia. The basis of his research is the collection of various museums, which he carefully studies.
In the midst of World War II, finally, presents his work under the name "Craft of Ancient Russia" Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov. He becomes the basis of his doctoral dissertation, which he defends in Ashgabat, while being evacuated.
Already after the end of the war, in 1948, the book was published as a separate publication. His merits are highly appreciated already at the level of the country's leadership, because next year the historian is awarded the Stalin Prize.
Throughout the decade, he continues to actively study various areas of historical knowledge. From 1943 to 1948 he headed the department of early feudalism in the historical museum, and from 1944 to 1946 he oversees the work of one of the sectors of the Institute of Ethnography.
Academician title
At the turn of the decade, Rybakov took an active part in the so-called campaign against cosmopolitans. This is a resonant political direction that operated in the Soviet Union from 1948 to 1953. The company was aimed against a certain stratum of the Soviet intelligentsia, which was seen as the bearer of pro-Western and skeptical attitudes towards the communist system. Most modern scholars consider it anti-Semitic in nature. In particular, Soviet Jews were really constantly accused of hostility to patriotic feelings, cosmopolitanism. All this was accompanied by layoffs and arrests.
Rybakov also contributed to this campaign. He published articles in the scientific journals on the role of Judaism and Jews in the fate of the Khazar Khaganate.
Since 1940, the hero of our article begins to lead the practice of archaeologists at the Faculty of History of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, which is now called Moscow State Regional University. Since 1951 he becomes a member of the Communist Party.
In 1953, an influential figure received the title of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Historical Sciences, specialty "Archeology". He has been a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR since 1958. Until the mid-70s, he held leading positions in the institution. In particular, the deputy academician-secretary, that is, the acting academician, and finally, the academician-secretary of the history department (from 1974 to 1975).
In the early 50s, the scientist heads the history department of the capital state university, and from 1952 to 1954 he works as a vice-rector of the university.
During the 50-70s, a significant part of the work of academician B. A. Rybakov was associated with the Institute of the History of Material Culture in a scientific institution. Here he alternately holds the posts of the head of the sector, director and honorary head of the institute. In parallel from 1968 to 1970, he managed the Institute of History of the USSR.
In the 60s, academician Rybakov took the post of chairman of the scientific council, coordinates activities in the field of Slavic studies, which also operates at this scientific institution. Since 1966 he became the head of the museum council under the presidium of the institution.
An important place in his work belongs to the bureau of the national committee of Soviet historians, as well as to the corresponding committee of the international union of prehistoric and prehistoric sciences. Since 1963 he became a member of the International Society of Slavists.
After the end of the war against the Nazis, academician, historian Rybakov regularly presents domestic historical science at congresses with the participation of delegations of foreign states. Since 1958 he heads the society "USSR - Greece".
In 2001, academician B. A. Rybakov died in Moscow on December 27. He was 93 years old. The grave of Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov is located at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
Scientific views
The works and views of the hero of our article have shaped Soviet archeology for several decades, and they continue to render great importance to this day. In fact, his scientific activity in this area began with excavations at the Vyatka mounds in the Moscow region. Subsequently, large-scale studies were carried out by him in the capital itself, Chernigov, Zvenigorod, as well as in Veliky Novgorod, Pereyaslavl Russky, Tmutarakan, Kiev Belgorod, Alexandrov, Putivl, and many other places.
Among the main achievements of the historian, academician Rybakov is the excavation of the ancient Russian castles of Witchev and Lubech. This allowed him to almost completely reconstruct the appearance of the old city. Work on the castle in Lubec, which, apparently, was built by Vladimir Monomakh, continued for four years. In 1957-1960, academician Rybakov unearthed this ancient Russian settlement, erected by the Chernigov prince.
His main goal at that time was to assess the structure, and using finds to determine whether it can be considered as a castle. This was primarily indicated by the presence of imported expensive products. In the same Lyubec, Academician Rybakov managed to find about four hundred fragments of irrigation utensils, while only 17 fragments were found on the territory of the rest of the settlement.
The main achievement of this study was the discovery of the appointment of large pits, which were previously considered semi-dug structures. In fact, it turned out to be the deepened foundations of ground structures, very significant in size. Studying their parameters, Academician Rybakov made a fairly accurate picture of the ceiling layers, which allowed him to make an assumption about the number of storeys of buildings in the era of Ancient Russia.
At these excavations, hundreds of future Russian historians and archaeologists learned the craft. In the future, many of them themselves became famous scientists. For example, Svetlana Aleksandrovna Pletneva grew up as an authoritative specialist in the Pechenegs, Khazars, Polovtsy, and other nomadic people of the steppe.
Beliefs
Throughout his career, academician Boris A. Rybakov has been an ardent supporter of the so-called anti-Norman views. Adherents of this trend deny the Normanist concept, claiming the origin of the first ruling dynasty in our country and the emergence of the ancient Russian state.
For example, he was convinced that the Slavic population came from the lands of modern Ukraine. Rybakov connected the Trypillians and Scythians with them. At the same time, he denied that the state was ready in those places. The Chernyakhov culture associated with the latter was attributed to them by the Slavs. In the interpretation of the academician, the largest centers of the nation, in particular, Kiev have existed since time immemorial.
In his books, academician Rybakov detailed all his basic theories. Among them, there were a lot of controversial constructions. One of the most controversial is his attempt to find a connection between the Slavs and the Scythians, plowmen, who lived in the Black Sea since the 5th century BC, when they were described by Herodotus.
In his monograph entitled "Kievan Rus and Russian principalities of the XII-XIII centuries", which was published in 1982, Rybakov offers to count the history of the Slavs from the 15th century BC. For example, in the defenses in the south of Kiev, known as the Zmiev Shafts, the historian saw clear evidence of clashes between Slavic tribes and the Cimmerians, which, according to most scholars, left the Black Sea about a thousand years before the Slavs appeared in it. Rybakov, however, claimed that representatives of this nationality used captive Cimmerians in the construction of these defensive structures.
A large number of scientific works, books by academician Rybakov contain significant and fundamental conclusions about the life, life, level of cultural and socio-economic development of the population of the inhabitants in Eastern Europe. For example, in the monograph “Craft of Ancient Russia”, he traces the appearance and stages of the formation of production and the corresponding crafts among the Eastern Slavs, starting from the VI century. He also managed to identify several dozen workers' industries. The goal pursued by Rybakov was to prove that Russia, before the invasion of the Tatar-Mongol, not only did not lag behind the states of Western Europe in the level of its development, as was asserted by many scientists at that time, but was ahead of them in many respects.
In 1963, he published the monograph Ancient Russia. Tales. Epics. Chronicles. He drew parallels between Russian chronicles and epic stories. In particular, he put forward the scientific assumption that the annals in Kiev began to be made not from the XI century, but much earlier - from the IX or X century. Thus, he managed to create a fashion for speculation about the existence of written traditions among the Eastern Slavs even before the adoption of Christianity.
Studying in detail the Old Russian chronicle, Rybakov put forward versions of the authorship of some fragments, he carefully analyzed the original news of the domestic historian Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev. As a result, he came to the conclusion that these news are based on ancient Russian sources, which in reality are trustworthy. Although previously the generally accepted point of view was the fact that Tatishchev was engaged in falsification of history.
Works of Old Russian Literature
In Rybakov's works, the study of famous monuments of ancient Russian literature was of great importance. In particular, "The Prayer of Daniel the Sharpener" and "Words on Igor's Regiment". He devoted several monographs to the last work at once. In the works “The Word about Igor's Regiment” and his contemporaries, “Russian chroniclers and the author of the“ Word about Igor's Regiment ”,“ Pyotr Borislavich: the author’s search for the “Words about Igor’s Regiment”, he puts forward a hypothesis, which the boyar from Kiev, mentioned in The title of these monographs is the true author of this work.
According to another hypothesis, Daniil Zatochnik, a famous publicist and thinker of the 12th-12th centuries, was a grand-prince chronicler under Vsevolod the Big Nest and his son Konstantin.
In the work of academician Rybakov "Paganism of the Ancient Slavs" and "Paganism of Ancient Russia", which appeared, respectively, in 1981 and 1987, the hero of our article managed to reconstruct the pagan beliefs of the Slavs. After that, he aroused numerous accusations of lack of a unified methodology and simply fantastic speculation with facts. For example, in the image of the character of ancient Russian folklore, the Snake Gorynych Rybakov represented probable memories of a certain prehistoric animal, presumably a mammoth. And Rybakov considered the meeting with him a hero on the Kalinovy Bridge, a common epic story, an illustration of a mammoth hunt, which was driven into a pit with a fire chain, and it was masked by branches of shrubs, in particular viburnum.
At the same time, Rybakov himself repeatedly expressed his negative attitude to historical falsifications. In an interview with Literaturnaya Gazeta, his son recalled that he was very brief at the last meeting, saying that modern historical science has two threats - these are Fomenko and Velesova book.
Books
Many books by Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov are still in demand and popular. In addition to the works already listed, his main works include Russian Applied Art, Herodotov Scythia, Strigolniki. Russian Humanists of the XIV Century, and Initial Centuries of Russian History.
The book of Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov "Birth of Russia" is based on his own work entitled "Kievan Rus and Russian principalities of the 9th-13th centuries," written on the 1500th anniversary of Kiev. In it, he explores the origin of the ancient Slavs, talks about the formation of the Old Russian state, the development of painting, crafts and literature at that time.
From the book "World of History" by academician Rybakov we can learn different points of view on the politics of one of the greatest commanders of Ancient Russia, Prince Svyatoslav. On the one hand, it was aimed at solving important and major state tasks, and on the other, as some historians believe, Svyatoslav, first of all, cared for his own military glory, and not for the good of the state. This is confirmed by the fact that many of his campaigns were openly adventurous in nature.
Personal life
The hero of our article was raised by his famous father Alexander Rybakov, who was a member of the Old Believer community of the Intercession-Assumption Church, located in Moscow on the German market. He was a graduate of the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow State University. His authorship is work on the history of schism. In pre-revolutionary Russia, he founded the Old Believer Theological Teaching Institute.
The mother of academician Klavdia Andreevna Blokhina is a graduate of the philological faculty of the Higher Women's Courses Guerrier. She worked as a teacher all her life.
The fame was received by the son of Boris Alexandrovich Rostislav, who was born in 1938. He became a doctor of historical sciences, an indologist. He specializes in problems of intercultural interactions and cultural history. From 1994 to 2009, he headed the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Educational activities
Rybakov began teaching in 1933 at the Academy of Communist Education named after Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya. Then he was an assistant professor, and later a professor in the capital's regional pedagogical institute.
For more than 60 years, the hero of our article has worked at the History Department of Moscow State University. Among the lecture courses he gave were “History of Russian Culture”, “History of Russia from Ancient Times”, “Slavic-Russian Archeology”.
In the Soviet Union, millions of schoolchildren studied using textbooks written by Rybakov. There is still an authoritative and large "fisherman" school of historians of the Old Russian state.