ASSESSMENT OF V.D. DIMITRIEV’S ACTIVITY AND SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE IN MODERN HISTORICAL SCIENCE

Abstract

The article analyzes the publications of the famous historian V.D. Dimitriev (1924–2013), the main directions of his research, as well as publications about his activities and scientific works. In 2024 the scientific community celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth, so it is necessary to show some results of studying the activities and scientific heritage of this outstanding personality. The purpose of the article is to review and classify the entire range of publications about V.D. Dimitriev and to analyze some historiographical works on the historian’s scientific works. Materials and methods. When writing the article, the principles of historicism, objectivity and consistency, methods of historical research were used, i.e. historical-comparative, historical-typological, problem-chronological methods, as well as the ones of historiographical analysis. Study results. The largest number of publications about V.D. Dimitriev are biographical articles, mostly anniversary ones. Only some of them contain a historiographical assessment of his scientific heritage (the works of Y.P. Smirnov, I.Ya. Froyanov and others). Three collections were published for the anniversary of the scientist, which give a more detailed description of his works on ethnogenesis of the Chuvash people, the history of Chuvash towns, the history of feudalism in Chuvashia, V.D. Dimitriev’s research of Chuvash historical legends, biographical sketches of representatives of the Chuvash people, the scientist’s research methodology, etc. The scientist’s research was evaluated by leading experts on the problems studied by Vasily Dimitrievich: A.G. Ivanov, G.N. Aiplatov, A. Kappeler, A.I. Nogmanov, G.N. Plechov, E.K. Mineeva, Yu.V. Gusarov, V.P. Ivanov, Yu.P. Smirnov, A.A. Chibis, and others. Dimitriev’s research on the history of Chuvashia during the feudal era and the study of Chuvash historical traditions received the greatest number of responses in the scientific world. Conclusions. Despite a significant number of publications about V.D. Dimitriev, they are unsystematic in nature, that is why there is an urgent need to create a holistic monographic study on the activities and scientific heritage of the scientist. It is necessary to introduce the materials contained in the archive of V.D. Dimitriev into scientific circulation. It is advisable to post small-circulate.