“The significance of the Golden Horde for the history of Eurasia is no less than the significance of Byzantium”: in memory of Vadim Vintserovich Trepavlov (1960–2023)

Research objectives: To consider the creative path and the main views of V.V. Trepavlov and his influence on the development of ideas about the ethnic history of the peoples of steppe Eurasia and the national policy of Russia during the Middle Ages and early Modern times. Research materials: The authors in the article relied on numerous scientific publications by V.V. Trepavlov, as well as personal impressions of meetings with him in the process of working on various scientific projects and at scientific conferences. Results and novelty of the research: The authors consider the formation of V.V. Tre­pavlov as a unique specialist who combined excellent source studies and deep knowledge of the history of the steppe peoples of Eurasia from the Mongolian Empire to Imperial Russia with the understanding that these were processes of constant interaction of socio-political and cultural-religious phenomena. His work became an event, because it was distinguished by a strict integrated approach to the problem under study using the entire range of sources, but also by an emphatically scientific approach, avoiding any politicization in every possible way. A stage in the scientific study of the medieval peoples of Eurasia was his work on the Nogai Horde, in which the author presented a complete and exhaustive description of this ethnopolitical formation. He applied this methodology to the study of the formation of a multinational and multi-confessional Russian state and the important role played in these processes by non-Russian peoples, primarily serving Tatars, emphasizing that the tsarist government underwent significant transformations in this process.