Criticism and bibliography. Reviews

Vassilkov, M. Yu. Sorokina, St. Petersburg: Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie, 2003, 496 p. (in Russian) (Social history of the national science of the East)

The dictionary is essentially a dispassionate genre. However, the reviewed dictionary can not leave anyone indifferent: it causes pain for those who died without guilt, for distorted lives, robbed Oriental studies; anger against the totalitarian system that senselessly shredded the fate and psyche of people, against those who were at the head of the state machine, and those who helpfully helped them, against autogenocide (the term of the authors of the book). "Not only individuals have died out, but entire generations of Orientalists have died out," Academician V. M. Alekseev wrote bitterly to his friend, Academician I. Y. Krachkovsky, in September 1942 (St. Petersburg FAR AN, f. 820, op. 3, d. 62, l. 109).

750 biographies, 750 victims of terror. Even if the arrest was short-lived, the trace of it remained for life. Of those 750, approximately two-thirds were shot or died in custody. Among them are such great talents as N. A. Nevsky, E. D. Polivanov, Yu. K. Shchutsky, N. P. Erekhovich and others. The names mentioned in the book appeal to our conscience, to our sense of duty to the dead, to our science.

The compilers of the dictionary Ya. V. Vasilkov (St. Petersburg) and M. Y. Sorokina (Moscow) honorably fulfilled this duty of memory. But they also set themselves more distant, socially significant goals: "to the extent possible, to help overcome the oppressive and embarrassing legacy of the past decades and contribute to an adequate reconstruction of the past of Russian science... It is possible to help historians explain the future of the unprecedented catastrophe that befell Russia in the XX century" (p. 5). Two scientists performed a real feat that lasted for many years of painstaking work in archives and libraries (domestic and foreign), collecting oral information and verifying it. Suffice it to say that the bibliography of printed publications used by the authors includes more than 500 titles; to this we must add materials from 17 (!) state and departmental archives, not counting private archives and numerous requests to the archives of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The information obtained was compared and verified many times. Thus, the book is, among other things, a first-class reference guide in terms of reliability.

"People and Destinies" is the first biobibliographical dictionary in Russian academic science dedicated to the fate of representatives of a particular scientific discipline in a totalitarian society, characterized by a broad approach to the selection of personalities, which is very important for the task of collecting and combining "under one cover" material for a complete and objective history of Soviet Oriental studies. The authors approach the compilation of the dictionary based on the traditions of academic Russian Oriental studies, which includes not only the study of the so-called classical Eastern cultures, but also the cultural achievements of the peoples of the East, which are part of the Russian Empire and the USSR. In my opinion, this approach is quite valid (since we are talking primarily about scientists of the first half of the XX century, when this particular understanding of Oriental studies prevailed) and scientifically justified. Thus, in his time I. Y. Krachkovsky wrote in relation to the concept of "Arab-Muslim culture":: "There is no doubt that throughout the territory that was influenced by Islam, the general type of leveling culture was the same, but it was also different. -

page 193

Istoriya arabyskoi literatury i ego zadachi v SSSR [History of Arabic Literature and its tasks in the USSR]. Trudy Pervoi sessii Assotsii arabistov [Proceedings of the First Session of the Association of Arabists]. M.-L., 1937. P. 28). I don't think that narrowing down the concept of "Oriental studies" (even if we are talking about purely theoretical problems) is good for science.

The dictionary has also been expanded to include the names of those scientists who wrote anything about the East without being an Orientalist and without knowing the Eastern language. For example, Academician N. I. Vavilov, who made a number of scientific expeditions to the countries of the East in the 1920s, Russian historian Professor B. A. Romanov, who dealt with relations between Russia and the countries of the Far East, as well as those who in Soviet times, thanks to their "ideological Marxist savvy", were called upon to replace scientific academic Oriental studies, for example, figures of the All-Russian (All-Union) Scientific Association of Oriental Studies or such politicians and publicists as the once famous K. G. Radek, who wrote about the Chinese revolution, the diplomat I. M. Maisky - adviser to the USSR Embassy in Japan, author of works on Mongolia, Japan and China. Sometimes names are resurrected from oblivion, half-forgotten or completely forgotten, which even representatives of the current older generation of Orientalists have not heard of. How the mosaic of the history of our science develops, which is still unknown in such a volume. The reader will find many names in the dictionary that are not found in any other reference book.

I note that some readers have doubts about the breadth of the dictionary (I have heard this in informal conversations): was it worth including in the dictionary the names of those who participated in the harassment of scientists, wrote denunciations or "revealing" articles, and then fell under the wheel of repression? In other words, is it possible to put on the same board the victim and the executioner turned into a victim? I am convinced that this is necessary to solve the problem set by the authors, otherwise the picture will be incomplete and biased, especially since sometimes it is difficult to draw a clear line between an informant and a person who could not withstand moral pressure or physical torture.

The last thing that I would like to add (just as a preliminary comment) to the general observations that are given by the compilers in the preface to the dictionary: the falsification of most cases; the spread of misinformation about life in the camp of those who were shot long before, repeated arrests, from which failure to return to their former place of residence and work could save; preliminary (before arrest) expulsion of some scientists from the CPSU (b) for "loss of vigilance", which was intended to encourage the expelled person to inform. Undoubtedly, these observations can also be true for the history of repressions among the Soviet scientific intelligentsia in other regions. Individual comments of this kind have been found in various articles, but here for the first time they are brought together and formulated clearly and reasonably, denoting a certain system. As Y. V. Vasilkov and M. Yu. Sorokina rightly believe, they will provide reliable material for the future researcher for further "deep, statistical generalizations and serious conclusions" (p. 9).

It is also necessary to note the richness of dictionary entries, the thoughtfulness of aspects in which the material is presented. It is especially important that the dictionary includes unique information about the date of the scientist's arrest, place of detention, date of execution or release; where possible, the name of the informer (with an indication of the source), the number of the article under which the arrested person was charged is given. In connection with the latter, it is impossible not to mention the appendix that reveals the content of all articles of the Criminal Code that are referenced in the dictionary. The importance of this application is not worth talking about - after all, few of us always have the Criminal Code at hand.

Of particular value are the bibliographic sections of personalities - here we are again waiting for the" resurrection from oblivion " of a whole series of works that were not mentioned anywhere, sometimes even left in the manuscript. And this is a huge credit to the compilers.

I would like to emphasize once again one of the main advantages of the work of Y. V. Vasilkov and M. Y. Sorokina - accuracy, accuracy of facts and dates, in this sense they can be called genuine poets, because, as is well known, "accuracy is the poetry of science". If we compare the reviewed dictionary with the" Biobibliographical Dictionary of Russian Orientalists since 1917 " (compiled by S. D. Miliband), which is used by Orientalists, we can say that inaccuracies, especially in the dates of death of repressed scientists and their work in various institutions, which abound in the latter, sometimes reach the ominous absurdity (for example, pointing out that that N. A. Nevsky, who was shot in 1938, worked in the Institute of Internal Affairs of the Academy of Sciences from 1939 to 1946).

page 194

Unfortunately, some flaws can also be found in the reviewed book (they have already been corrected in the computer version). Thus, the year of S. N. Syromyatnikov's death is not 1942 (p. 365), but 1933 (testimony of I. Y. Krachkovsky, who was present at the funeral, in a letter to V. M. Alekseev dated 9. IX. 1933, St. Petersburg FAR AN, f. 820, op. 3, d. 446, l. 10ob.) A. E. Schmidt (arrested in 1938, p. 420) did not die in custody, but was released seriously ill and died in the university clinic of Tashkent not earlier than August 1939 (letter of I. Y. Krachkovsky dated 12.08.1939, ibid., p. 25). However, this is not the fault of the compilers of the dictionary: I refer to unpublished archival materials in which these dates and facts are mentioned, as they say, ad hoc, and they can not be blamed for the fact that they did not refer to this correspondence. The bibliography of V. A. Eberman's works omits his posthumously published large article " Waddah al-Yemen and his work "("Orient (Oriens)", 1994, No. 6, pp. 93-113); its absence is all the more incomprehensible since the list of works about V. A. Eberman includes the article by A. A. Sadikhova "V. A. Eberman and his works on Waddah al-Yemen "(ibid., p. 88-92), which is a preface to the aforementioned publication, which it also carried out. And just a small thing: on page 137, it says that since 1935, L. T. Guzalyan "taught part-time at the Eastern Faculty of Leningrad State University." But in 1918 - 1944, the Faculty of Oriental Studies did not exist as a separate faculty, and the eastern departments were part of the Faculty of Philology. "Poets from science" should pay attention even to such seemingly small things.

The dictionary Appendices are beautifully made. I have already mentioned an unusual but necessary appendix for such a book, such as the text of a number of articles of the Criminal Code; then it is followed by simply amazing lists of abbreviations in terms of volume, thoughtful organization of the material and thorough execution. However, the necessary component of any scientific publication is missing - a personal index. The question arises, why do you need an index if the personalities are arranged in alphabetical order? However, this or that name included in the dictionary is often repeated in other articles; in addition, the book contains names of people who were not repressed and appear in articles in a different capacity, for example, G. V. Efimov (p. 209), L. A. Lipin (p. 160), A. A. Kholodovich (p. 279) etc.

Work on this dictionary began even before the bans on such publications were lifted and previously closed materials became available. I remember that in the 1980s, when I was working on my book about Academician I. Y. Krachkovsky, "The Slave of Duty", I met Y. V. Vasilkov more than once in the St. Petersburg archives. At that time, it was still unclear whether the work could see the light of day, how and when it would be implemented, but the compilers steadily did their job and finished it when the "fashion" for revealing historical truth began to pass. Nevertheless, they did not deviate one step from their goal, called everything by its proper name - and this is a great moral lesson for all of us. Born later than the terrible events or having survived the "cosmopolitan" wave of repression in 1949-1953 as children, and having grown up in the bosom of Soviet Oriental studies, they took on the grave mission of repentance for these crimes.

But those who were involved in the crimes, and those with whose tacit consent they were committed, left without repentance. I have heard and read it many times: whether it is worth "digging" into the sins of our predecessors, exposing traitors - they are no longer there, but, as you know, de mortuis aut bene, aut nihil (in my opinion, a vicious proverb!). Besides, they still have children and grandchildren - why should they feel the shame of their fathers? It is known that the son is not responsible for the father, but shouldn't they, the direct descendants of traitors, at least repent in their hearts for the sins of their ancestors? Why do we care so much about their peace of mind and forget about the distorted fates of the children of those who fell victims to terror: Nelly Nevskaya, Tas Sokolova, Svetlana Vasilyeva, Natasha Shtukina, Galina Genko and others? Here they are really worthy of sympathy, they had to answer for their parents with their share.

Sometimes you hear or read in someone's memories: then, they say, it was impossible otherwise. But decency and honor dictated a different form of behavior. Why could Academician V. V. Struve, a man of no heroic character, have defended Academician V. M. Alekseev when, in June 1938, a meeting of the Institute of Internal Affairs of the Academy of Sciences discussed the article "A false scientist with the title of Soviet Academician" published in the newspaper Pravda? At that time, it was not safe to speak out against the central organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b). Why did A. M. Belenitsky, an employee of the Institute of the History of Material Culture, attend an open meeting of the Academic Council of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences in March 1949 and speak out in support of Academician I. Y. Krachkovsky, who was accused of pan-Arabism and worship of the West (i.e., cosmopolitanism)? These are just two examples out of many.

page 195

The desire to forget about the sins of the past is a dangerous trend. It is fraught with an even greater violation of the moral principle in science, a moral discount to ourselves, and the possibility of allowing the same sins to repeat. Every time I think about it, I remember the words of a very young but very wise poet, my brother Yuri Arkadyevich Dolinin, who died in the war:

How does the past repeat itself
In any confusing way!
And in our time crazy
You can't avoid repetitions.

So which past will we repeat-the Honor and Dignity of our Teachers or the cowardly betrayal sanctioned from above?

For me, who have been studying the history of our science for many years, the dictionary "People and Destinies" has become a desktop dictionary, although, as M. V. Alekseeva-Bankovskaya said at the presentation, this book "screams". From many pages of it, beautiful faces look at the reader: my Teacher I. Y. Krachkovsky, M. N. Sokolov, A. E. Gluskina, I. D. Amusin, N. P. Erechovich, A. N. Genko, Yu. K. Shchutsky, A. A. Shtukin... Bitter stingy lines about the fates of these people, tragic dates strike my eyes. I now know that the blackest day of mourning for St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Oriental studies should be considered Wednesday, November 24, 1937, when 12 orientalists were shot, including the brilliant N. A. Nevsky.

Once, according to I. Y. Krachkovsky, a certain specialist in Indian philosophy contemptuously called his interest in the history of Oriental studies "a scientific grave-digger of bad or perverted taste" (I. Y. Krachkovsky The Test of Time // St. Petersburg Oriental Studies . Issue 8. St. Petersburg, 1996, p. 580; I believe that F. I. Shcherbatskaya is meant). However, in my opinion, such interest is caused by a deep respect for those who did science before us and by their work laid the foundation on which students and followers, brick by brick, build walls. "People and destinies" is relentless evidence of how the totalitarian regime barbarically tore down these walls, but still there were forces that erected them again. The very publication of a peer-reviewed book is a sign that the noble moral traditions of our Teachers are not yet completely dead. There would be only real readers who are not indifferent...

I am convinced that every orientalist should pick up this dictionary or at least find it on the Internet (http://memory.pvost.org.), read and reflect on the fate of at least those whose names are familiar to him, and let him then return to it more than once, so that his conscience does not slumber and his soul is not lazy.

Permanent link to this publication: