Работа Н. Ф. Дубровина «Закавказье от 1803 до 1806 года» как начальный этап в создании «Истории войны и владычества русских на Кавказе»

Abstract

N. F. Dubrovin’s research occupies one of the fundamental places in the formation of Russian military-historical Caucasian studies. It is on the works of N. F. Dubrovin that the official, “civilizing” history of the Caucasian War will be formed and spread. As one of his contemporaries will correctly write about him, “he, one might say, was the first, through the scientific development of archival documents that became available only to him (my italics), systematically described the wars: the Patriotic, Caucasian and Crimean, leaving at the same time a very noticeable trace in the description of the wars of Catherine’s reign” [49, p. 543]. Indeed, the thematic scope of Dubrovin’s works is extensive, and the corpus of documents from various depositories introduced by him into scientific circulation confirms the extensive opportunities provided to him as an official historian to work with the most important closed documents. Undoubtedly, N. Dubrovin holds a special place in the development of not only Caucasian studies, but also Russian history and archeography. An extensive list of his works can only cause respect and surprise to the creative potential of the author, who masterfully paid his debt to the Fatherland not with a bayonet, but with a pen. “The History of the war and the Rule of the Russians in the Caucasus” and “The Caucasian War” [35; 36]. N. F. Dubrovina are among the first official works in pre-revolutionary historical science with a systematic review of the annexation of the Caucasus to Russia. The publication of these publications was preceded by two monographs — “Transcaucasia from 1803 to 1806” and “George” [14; 15] and numerous articles by the author on Caucasian subjects. The first two “Georgian studies” monographs of Dubrovin are not considered at all as components of the above-mentioned “History of the War...”. Despite the fact that the publication of Dubrovin’s first work “Transcaucasia from 1803 to 1806” caused a great resonance in society and high ratings. In a brilliant review by E. Feoktistov, this work emphasized its importance for the history of coverage of “Russian domination in the Caucasus ...”. A high-ranking reviewer pointed to this work as the first result of the work being prepared by Mr. Dubrovin on the history of the Caucasus. [50, p. 354].