On the History of the Soviet Byzantine Studies: The Correspondence of M. Ja. Sjuzjumov to Z. V. Udal’tsova

Abstract

This publication comprised the letters of Mikhail Jakovlevich Sjuzjumov, the founder of the Ural school of Byzantine Studies, to Zinaida Vladimirovna Udal’tsova, the head of the Soviet Byzantinology, with appropriate comments. The traces of their long-lasting epistolary communication reside in the Russian Academy of Sciences Archive and the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk Region as 55 letters by M. Ja. Sjuzjumov and 6 letters by Z. V. Udal’tsova. This almost 30-year-long correspondence enabled the Ural scholar to keep abreast of all what happened in the Soviet Byzantinology and to deal efficiently with organisational matters. The correspondence in question covered various topics related to Sjuzjumov’s scholarly and educational works: the organization of the defence of his doctoral dissertation, the preparation and publication of his articles and books, the discussion of his published academic works, the organization of conferences and his participation in them, the work in the editorial boards of Vizantiiskii Vremennik and collective volumes of the History of Byzantium, relations with colleagues, patronage of students, current university matters, etc. These letters also uncover Sjuzjumov’s concept of the genesis of feudalism and his position related to some disputable issues of the Byzantine and Mediaeval Studies. The publication of the main body of correspondence of the two twentieth-century Byzantologists sheds additional light on many pages in the history of Soviet Byzantine studies.