The figure of the historian Mikhail Nikolaevich Pokrovsky is quite controversial in Russian historiography. On the one hand, it was largely on his shoulders that the task of creating a new, revolutionary historical science fell. At first glance, he successfully dealt with this by creating an original concept of historical development from the perspective of Marxism. On the other hand, already in Soviet times, many of the provisions of Pokrovsky's theory were severely criticized, and his school was defeated. The reason for this is not only the anti-science of some of his constructions, but also the flywheel of Stalinist repressions, which turned the country from the romance of the first days of the revolution to the reconstruction of its imperial appearance. A look at the Russian history of Mikhail Nikolaevich Pokrovsky was deeply hostile to the new trend and therefore was ruthlessly discarded.
Historian childhood
He was born on August 29, 1868 in Moscow in the family of an official of the Russian Empire. His childhood fell on a particularly acute period of confrontation between the authorities and society, expressed in a series of terrorist acts directed both against the highest dignitaries of the empire and against representatives of the ruling dynasty. One way or another, everyone was drawn into this confrontation. Parents of Mikhail Nikolayevich Pokrovsky, although they were nobles, were more sympathetic to the liberation movement. The atmosphere in the Pokrovsky family contributed to the development of freethinking.
Mikhail Nikolaevich already in childhood showed interest in history. Other sciences were easily given to him. In 1887, he graduated from the Second Moscow Gymnasium with a gold medal and entered Moscow University, where he graduated with a first degree diploma in 1891.
Becoming
The recognized leader of historical science in those years was Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky, whose lectures were very popular. The views of the young Mikhail Nikolaevich Pokrovsky were formed precisely under the influence of Klyuchevsky's concept, which demonstrates the content of the courses that he taught at the end of the university in various Moscow educational institutions. But by the end of the century, the situation is changing. Pokrovsky gets acquainted with the doctrine of legal Marxism, which Plekhanov preached. The direction of the lectures and their content changes significantly; a clear anti-state subtext appears in them. For this reason, he is not allowed to defend his master's thesis, and in 1902, Pokrovsky’s lectures were also prohibited.
In the circle of social democrats
The first history books written by Pokrovsky were very popular among revolutionary youth. Pokrovsky soon became disillusioned with the liberal movement and joined the Social Democrats, whose newspaper was the newspaper Pravda, where the historian published some of his articles. A significant date in the biography of Mikhail Nikolayevich Pokrovsky is 1905: in April he joins the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, and in the summer he meets in Geneva with its prominent theorist and leader of the Bolshevik wing - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Returning to Russia, Pokrovsky leads the lecture group of the Moscow Committee, is actively published in Bolshevik publications.
Emigration
One of the most important achievements of the revolutionary movement was the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, which guaranteed the inhabitants of the Russian Empire basic democratic freedoms, as well as the opportunity to participate in the formation of Russian legislation through elections to the State Duma. Although the guarantees given by the authorities seemed unreliable, the society tried to use them by nominating its leaders in the Duma. In October 1906, Mikhail Nikolaevich Pokrovsky participated in the elections. At the same time, he was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP.
The activity of the historian displeased the authorities. Surveillance was begun for him, and the publication of his works was constantly prohibited. As a result, Pokrovsky decided to leave Russia. In 1907 he moved to Finland (then an autonomous principality within the Russian Empire), and from there to France.
In exile Mikhail Nikolayevich Pokrovsky wrote the main work of his life - the five-volume “Russian History from Ancient Times”, published from 1910 to 1913. In this work, he criticized the concept of Klyuchevsky and other liberal historians, and he illuminated the entire historical path of Russia from Rurik to Nicholas II from the perspective of Marxism. After a while, another fundamental work of Pokrovsky was published: "An Essay on the History of Russian Culture."
Return
In August 1917, Pokrovsky returned to Russia. Immediately he is restored to the party and is actively involved in the preparation of the October Revolution. During this period, the study of history fades into the background. Pokrovsky is engaged in the search for money for the payment of wages to workers, publishes articles in which he analyzes the course of the revolution.
Pokrovsky’s activity does not go unnoticed by the party elite. He is attracted to work in a commission to establish relations between the revolutionary government and foreign states. However, classes in foreign policy had to be left with the signing of the Brest Peace. Pokrovsky doubted that the proletariat of the European countries would join the revolution, and therefore considered it necessary to continue the war. He considered the Brest peace morally terrible.
In the system of Soviet power
In 1918, Pokrovsky became a member of the government and received the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR, which he held until his death. In parallel with the performance of administrative duties, the historian is engaged in science and teaching. Pokrovsky participated in the organization of the Socialist Academy, the Institute of History at the Academy of Sciences. He is actively published in various magazines, and also serves as editor of some of them.
As an ideologist of a new historical concept, Pokrovsky often attends international conferences of historians at which he defends his methodology for studying the history of Russia. As a prominent party functionary, he supports the Stalin group in the fight against the Trotsky line.
Last years and death
In 1929, Mikhail Nikolaevich Pokrovsky became an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In fact, this is his last success. In the scientific community and party circles, his views on history are increasingly criticized. It is not known how the fate of Pokrovsky would have developed under Stalin: in 1929 he was diagnosed with cancer. The historian fought the disease for three years. At the same time, he did not stop to engage in scientific and political activities: he attended party conferences, was a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.)
April 10, 1932 Pokrovsky died. And although the attitude towards him was ambiguous, the Soviet government rendered the historian last honors. His body was cremated, and an urn with ashes was walled up in the Kremlin wall on Red Square.
The concept of the history of Pokrovsky
Mikhail Nikolaevich formulated an aphorism, which most accurately reflects his views on his science: "History is politics that has been overturned into the past." Hence the main flaw in his concept, to which even pre-revolutionary critics paid attention. Ideology in the teachings of Pokrovsky prevails over the content of his scientific research.
Pokrovsky became the first historian to apply the theory of the change of socio-economic formations of Marx to the history of Russia. The materialistic approach was expressed in the fact that wherever possible, he sought to demonstrate the truth of this theory, finding examples in the aggressive campaigns of Russian tsars, peasant uprisings and the characteristic of the colonization of Siberia. Relying on legislative sources and acts of materials of Ancient Russia, Pokrovsky tried to prove the fallacy of the views of historians, who prove the absence of feudalism in Russia.
The basis of Pokrovsky’s concept was the theory of trading capital. In his history books, he argued that it was commercial capital that determined the development of Russian society in the 16th-19th centuries. It was with the goal of accumulating it, and then realizing it, that the Russian elite of these years took measures to enslave the peasantry and initiated numerous aggressive campaigns, which resulted in the formation of an empire.
The value of Pokrovsky
In the memory of many historians, Pokrovsky remained as a party functionary, ready to neglect the truth in order to realize ideological needs. With his active participation, the old school of history teaching was destroyed, professors were expelled, and in schools the history course was replaced by social studies.
Already at the end of the historian's life, criticism of his concepts developed. After the death of Pokrovsky, this trend only intensified. In 1936, almost by direct order of Stalin, dissatisfied with the fact that the late historian did not illuminate his participation in the revolution in the way the leader would like, the Pokrovsky school was dispersed, and his assessments of historical figures such as Ivan the Terrible and Peter I declared harmful and counter-revolutionary.
Only in 1962, the scientist and his concept were rehabilitated. For all the distortions and shortcomings of his teachings, modern scholars recognize the presence and positive influence of his outlook on history. Thanks to Pokrovsky it became clear that the ancient history of Russia is not a refined and idealized picture, which conservative historians drew in their works. Pokrovsky showed the existence of a struggle between the people and the authorities, and also contributed to an increase in interest in the socio-economic aspects of Russian history.