The historian Pokrovsky is a well-known domestic Marxist, political and public figure. In the 1920s he was considered the recognized leader of Soviet historians, led the Marxist historical school. He was a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party since 1905. In 1929 he received the title of academician.
Childhood and youth
The historian Pokrovsky was born in 1868. He was born in Moscow. His father was an assistant chief of the Moscow customs warehouse with the rank of state adviser.
In 1887, Mikhail Nikolaevich received the gold medal of the Second Moscow Gymnasium. Immediately after this, she enters the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow State University. He graduated with honors in 1891, the professor gives the hero of our article a diploma of the 1st degree. He was a direct student of Pavel Vinogradov and Vasily Klyuchevsky.
During the years of university life, Pokrovsky began to publish his first works in the journal Russian Thought. These were reviews of the latest books on foreign and domestic history. After receiving his diploma, he was left at the university, having begun to diligently prepare for a professorship. He worked immediately in two departments - Russian and world history.
Labor activity
From 1891 to 1905, the historian Pokrovsky worked in various educational organizations and educational institutions in Moscow. In particular, he oversees the seminar library at Moscow State University, gives lectures at female pedagogical courses, teaches in gymnasiums and schools, at the same time working on his master's thesis.
Since 1896, the historian Pokrovsky is immersed in the study of the interpreters and founders of Marxism. He initially turns to this teaching in the form of the so-called legal Marxism.
The hero of our article failed to defend his dissertation, and for political reasons only. The views he held became increasingly dangerous for the authorities. He was involved in the activities of the Liberation Union, but soon became disillusioned with the liberals, turning to the socialist movement.
Passion for revolutionary ideas
Shortly before 1905 he met with the Social Democrats Lunacharsky, Bogdanov, Stepanov. At the time, he worked with them in the journal Pravda.
Pokrovsky himself began to print in it. In particular, the historian criticized the war between Russia and Japan, the shooting of a workers ’demonstration on Bloody Sunday, and welcomed the 1905 Russian revolution. In April he became a member of the RSDLP, soon joining the Bolsheviks.
In mid-1905, he first saw Lenin in Geneva. Returning to Moscow, he became one of the leaders of the newspaper "Struggle", the publishing house "Bell", was engaged in propaganda work. After the December uprising, he was briefly arrested.
Soon after, Lenin brought him to cooperation in the newspaper Proletary, in 1906 he participated in the election of deputies from the RSDLP in the second convocation of the State Duma.
Emigration
At that time, the Bolsheviks were persecuted, they touched Pokrovsky. The historian spent abroad from 1908 to 1917. At first he moved to Finland, and from there he emigrated to France. For some time, along with Bogdanov, he was a member of the Forward group, then he left it, declaring that he was becoming an extra-fractional Social Democrat. Since 1913, he collaborated with Trotsky, who tried to reconcile the Bolsheviks with the Mensheviks.
In 1914, he advocated the transformation of World War I into a war against the bourgeoisie, and not between nations. At the same time, he was actively engaged in science in exile. From 1910 to 1913 the main work of the historian Pokrovsky was published - "Russian History from Ancient Times" in 5 volumes. This is the first systematic Marxist study of the history of Russia from primitive times to the end of the 19th century. Following was published his "Essay on the History of Russian Culture" in 2 volumes. In these works, the historian Mikhail Pokrovsky develops the theory of "commercial capitalism", considering it a special formation in Russian history.
The basis of his historical analysis is the Marxist basis of formations in the economy and society. The historian Mikhail Pokrovsky was the first to begin to examine the history of Russia from the point of view of their alternations. He argued that historical development is based on socio-economic processes, while he addressed the theme of the struggle of the masses. The historian M.N. Pokrovsky challenged the widespread idea of ​​the "peaceful" nature of Russian history, focusing on the external and internal conflicts of Russia. In particular, pointing to the aggressive policy of imperial power. He constantly argued with colleagues about the lack of feudalism in Russia, agriculture in Ancient Russia, enslavement of all classes. He criticized the idea of ​​gathering a centralized state by the Moscow principality, and was also not inclined to idealize the figure of Peter I.
Events of 1917
After the events of February 1917, Pokrovsky was elected deputy head of the executive committee of the Paris Council of representatives of the trade union and political organizations of Russia in exile. Participated in negotiations with the Provisional Government, seeking the return of Russian revolutionaries to their homeland.
Pokrovsky himself came to Russia in August of that year, recovering from the Bolshevik party. He joined the Moscow Council of Workers' Deputies.
The hero of our article played a significant role during the October Revolution. He also participated in meetings of the Zamoskvoretsky revolutionary headquarters when an armed uprising began in Moscow, participated in the development of draft decrees and resolutions of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee, and wrote appeals to the city’s population.
In November, he headed the Izvestia of the Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee as editor and was delegated to the commission for establishing relations with foreign consuls, which contributed to his appointment as commissioner for foreign affairs. He was later elected chairman of the Moscow City Council, remaining in this post until March next year.
Peaceful agreement
On December 3, Trotsky specially called Mikhail Nikolayevich to Brest-Litovsk to work in the peace talks as part of the delegation of the RSFSR. At first, the hero of our article was in solidarity with Bukharin's group, which opposed the peace treaty with the main participating countries. Moreover, the historian himself was convinced that without a pan-European socialist revolution, the young Soviet state would not survive.
Pokrovsky insisted on continuing the war and opposed the peace treaty, the terms of which were imposed by the Germans. Trotsky’s statements about the dissolution of the army and withdrawal from the war were evaluated extremely negatively. However, peace was nevertheless concluded, as Lenin suggested.
Until May 1918, he remained as chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the entire Moscow region.
Work in the Commissar of Education
From May 1918 until the very end of his life he remained at the post of deputy commissar of education of the RSFSR. In this position, he answered the field of higher education and science. In particular, he formulated the provisions that determined the work of these areas. The main thing in his program was the introduction of free education, the elimination of diplomas, academic degrees, the election of professors, collegial management of the university, and other educational institutions.
The Marxist historian Pokrovsky acted as one of the initiators of the creation of the Socialist Academy, the institute of the red profession. Edited a number of historical magazines. In particular, “Marxist Historian,” “Red Archive,” “The Struggle of Classes.”
He acted as one of the initiators of the purges at the Academy of Sciences when, as part of the "Academic Affairs", the OGPU arrested a large group of historians. In 1928 he himself was nominated as a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the CEC, the Presidium of the Central Control Commission of the CPSU (b).
In 1929, he suddenly became seriously ill with cancer. He died in April 1932 at the age of 63 years. He was cremated, and the ashes buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square.
Assessment of the historical process
According to the professor, historian Pokrovsky, the essence of history was a sure change in public institutions. In his opinion, socialism was the transfer of land, factories, factories and all implements of production into the hands of those who really work. Moreover, he was sure that on socialism the development of society would not end, but he could not imagine what the next system would be.
The historian Pokrovsky based his concept on the fact that, knowing the laws by which human society develops, one can predict the course of its development hundreds of years in advance. Thus, he believed that knowledge of the past allows us to know the future. He determined the development of technology with a class device, illustrating this thesis with the example of a steam engine. In modern history, socialism was considered a universal social device for the development of industrial capacities.
In society, he introduced and developed the idea of ​​a single labor school, in which everyone could study without exception. He led certain processes of the cultural revolution, the eradication of illiteracy, the creation of rabfak.
It was under his leadership that archival, library and museum funds were systematized and nationalized, new spelling rules were introduced, decrees on the protection of antiquities and art were issued. In an effort to educate the new intelligentsia, he pursued a decisive policy for the survival of the old professors, creating privileged conditions for entering the university of working youth. Reducing university autonomy, contributed to the implementation of the monopoly of communist ideology in the social sciences. The historian M.N. Pokrovsky is the founder of the Marxist historical school in the USSR.
He constantly talked about the practical significance of history. To this end, he proposed to introduce a social studies course in the school history course.
Scientific views
Given that the historian M.N. Pokrovsky is the founder of the Marxist historical school, the scientist considered most of the former statesmen to be independent. He accused the tsars and military leaders of becoming puppets in the hands of powerful tycoons, realizing the interests of the capitalists.
In his opinion, even though the meaning of "commercial capital" was the key to the 19th century, becoming the main force in all of Europe, industrial production began to develop in Russia. At the same time, industrial capital participated in the interclass confrontation, which entered the fight against merchant capital.
The followers of the school of the historian Pokrovsky note that the exposures of chauvinistic and imperial stereotypes and internationalism are characteristic of his works. In keeping with the spirit of historical materialism, he criticized the predatory wars waged by the Russian Empire, as well as the existing class oppression, the robbery of conquered peoples, and the technological backwardness of the state. The attitude towards the king and all the leading classes was extremely negative. The generals and monarchs in his interpretation always appear cruel, ignorant and limited people. To produce a greater effect on the reader, leaders of the state and representatives of the ruling classes, he portrayed in the spirit of irony, satire and grotesque.
For Pokrovsky, as historians, Lenin and Marx remained the main ideals. So his worldview has always been sharply opposed to Western and traditional Russian non-Marxist historiography.
Given the criticism to which he was subjected even from other Marxist historians, Pokrovsky recognized certain shortcomings in his historical views, especially in works written earlier. In 1931, he published a monograph entitled "On Russian Feudalism, the Origin, and the Character of the Autocracy." In it, he categorically refuses his initial understanding of economic materialism, which was characterized by hyperbolization of the sphere of circulation and underestimation of the sphere of production. He also revised the idea of ​​Narodism, the revolution of 1905, abandoned the tendency to modernize history, for example, recognized his own version of the bourgeois essence of the Pugachev uprising as untenable. Pokrovsky no longer considered the revolution that took place in February 1917 a start for the events of October, agreeing with its definition of bourgeois-democratic.
As a result, while still noting the importance of capital in the essence of capitalism, including in Russia, he departed from the use of the concept of “commercial capitalism” introduced by him, recognizing that imperial absolutism was not only his instrument, and also called for maximum attention to be paid to the role of common people in the historical process.
Explaining the causes of his mistakes, Pokrovsky noted that historians of the next generations, most likely, will be able to explain and understand the inevitability of all these contradictions.
Proceedings
The books of the historian Pokrovsky, despite obvious contradictions, enjoyed certain popularity during the reign of Soviet power, especially at the very beginning.
At the beginning of the century, his essay “Foreign Policy of Russia in the 20th Century”, a collection of articles entitled “Marxism and the Peculiarities of the Historical Development of Russia”, “October Revolution and the Entente”, “Historical Science and the Struggle of Classes”, and “Essays on the Russian Revolutionary Movement” were of resonance. XIX-XX centuries "," Diplomacy and the wars of Russia in the XIX century "," Stolypin ".
At the same time, contemporaries often accused him of a large number of theoretical errors due to poor study of the classics of Marxism-Leninism.