About the Historian’s Portrait Created by Historians [Review: Kabytov P.S., Fedorova N.A. Professor Ivan Mikhailovich Ionenko: His Personality and Time. A Monograph. Samara, Samar. Gumanit. Akad., 2023. 144 p. (In Russian)]

Abstract

Abstract This article reviews P.S. Kabytov and N.A. Fedorova’s monograph on the life and work of Professor I.M. Ionenko. Both authors were supervised by I.M. Ionenko as students and postgraduate students. They share what they know about his life experience, his development as a historian and lecturer, and his involvement in public activities. The personality of I.M. Ionenko, the esteemed teacher and true mentor who encouraged his students to take a professional approach to discover the historical truth, is considered in the context of the times in which he lived and worked. He believed that the success of teaching the younger generation of historians depends not only on how they learn to use certain tools in their research but also on how strong the bond is between the students and their teacher. The authors managed to vividly describe the natural charm of I.M. Ionenko as a person. He taught them to extract information correctly, to fit it into the system of moral coordinates, as well as to avoid attributing every historical problem to ideology and politics. I.O. Ionenko adhered to the following two principles: “a historian must first of all have a conscience” and “without the truth of history there is no truth of life.” The monograph is primarily helpful for young people who want to become professional historians.

Keywords

• i.m. ionenko
• smolensk governorate
• leningrad
• kazan university
• school of thought
• russian revolution
• great patriotic war
• mentor