'You have always been and still remain an indefatigable servant of the soviet historical science' (commentaries on S.I. Arkhangel'skii and I.N. Borozdin's letters to each other)

Abstract

This paper introduces a valuable historical source into the science - the letters written by the historians S.I. Arkhangel'skii and I.N. Borozdin to each other. Their scientific biographies were briefly discussed: they graduated from Moscow University in 1907 and then developed historical science in the Soviet epoch; their scientific mentors were Professors P. G. Vinogradov, D.M. Petrushevsky, A.N. Savin, and V.I. Guerrier; I.N. Borozdin studied archaeology and history of the Ancient East and Russian historiography, while S.I. Arkhangelskii became one of the leading specialists in the history of the English Bourgeois Revolution. Both historians made an invaluable contribution to the development of higher historical education in Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh. The facts of their lives, the events of historical science, and their daily activity were discussed in their letters of 1943–1958. Our study proves the need for publication of the letters under consideration based on the analysis of I.N. Borozdin's thoughts about the book of the major Belgian historian H. Pirenne, as well as the study of historiography by both historians and the personal life circumstances of S.I. Arkhangel'skii and I.N. Borozdin. It was revealed that H. Pirenne's idea about the influence of Arab conquests on the history of Western Europe was first introduced by E.D. Grimm at the Kazan University in the late 19th century.

Keywords

• s.i. arkhangel'skii
• i.n. borozdin
• history
• moscow university
• correspondence
• h. pirenne
• historiography
• oriental study
• history of england
• archive of russian academy of sciences