Scholarly and Educational Activities of Professor Perfecky in Slovakia

Abstract

The presented study synthesizes both established as well as most recent knowledge on the life and work of Professor Eugen Yulianovich Perfecky, who worked in Slovakia from 1922 until his death in 1947. He was, among other things, a graduate of the University of St Petersburg and an outstanding student of Professor A. A. Shakhmatov. The first group of Russian scholars came to Czechoslovakia in 1921, and in the same year, at the suggestion and recommendation of Prof. Vatroslav Jagič and Lubomír Niederle, he received an invitation to the newly established Comenius University in Bratislava. Within E. Perfecky’s scholarly work, the two most important areas of research were: the history of Subcarpathian Rus’ and analytical and comparative research of medieval chronicles. E. Perfecky was a supporter of the Ukrainian orientation of the national culture of Subcarpathian Russia. The outcomes of his research, particularly in the comparative studies of Russian chronicles with German, Polish, Hungarian, and Czech chronicles, significantly advanced the respective expertise, thus making him a worthy successor to the Russian textological research of early Russian chronicles pioneered by A. A. Shakhmatov. E. Perfecky maintanted a great scholarly network and worked closely with C. Slavists, such as J. Bidlo, L. Niederle, K. Jirechek, M. Weingart, J. Macurek. He cooperated with Professor Jagiсh in Vienna, with the Norwegian Slavist O. Brok, and other leading Slavists in Poland and Germany. E. Perfecky also collaborated with a number of Russian and Ukrainian emigrant historians. In Slovakia, E. Perfecky laid a solid foundation for further historical research of Russian chronicles as well as for studies of the history of Eastern Europe.