Staff and Activity of the Section of Medieval History at the Institute of History of the Russian Association of Scientific Research Institutes (1921–1929)

Abstract

This article is devoted to the activities of the Section of Medieval History which was a structural department of the Institute of History at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Moscow State University (1921–1925) and later joined the Russian Association of Research Institutes of Social Sciences (RANION) (1925–1929). Relying on minutes of the section and records and reports of the Institute of History, the authors demonstrate that the staff of the section headed by D. M. Petrushevsky remained faithful to the high academic standards of the Russian pre-revolutionary school, which was formulated in the aims and tasks of the section and was reflected in the research problems, as well as the level and quality of publications and the reports made. The scholars and instructors of the section did not teach classes to students but were focused on their research and postgraduate work. There were only minor changes in the composition of the Section, which included seven members and five postgraduate students. At the same time, the Medieval History Section was one of the most productive in the Institute, actively publishing monographs, translations of medieval sources, articles, and reviews. The topics and content of the publications, papers, and discussions show that the section’s research agenda was dominated by the socioeconomic issues of the early Middle Ages, the history of the medieval city, and debatable and topical issues of medieval studies. The authors of the article also pay attention to papers of graduate students not assigned to the Section, some of which had academic merit and were subsequently published. The academic discourse and research fields of the Section’s historians testify to their neglect of topics and approaches relevant for Soviet Marxism.