"Ideological character" of M. P. Pogodin in the Pre-October and Soviet historiography

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On the materials of the historico-biographical treaties and the generalizing works and special essays in history of the Russian social and political thought the historiographical appraisals and treatments of the ideological character of M. P. Pogodin given by the Pre-October and Soviet historians are examined. This problematico-historiographical review is realized in the context of phenomenon of the so-called «theory of the Official Nationality» in the period of the Nicholas I reign. A. N. Pypin, liberal and westernist historian of literature and social thought, was the real maker of this debatable historiographical ideological construction. He considered M. P. Pogodin the eminent representative of the Official Nationality and the odious conservator-conformist. Other Pre-October historians and publicists (S. Ashevskiy ets.) focused their research attention to Pogodin’s "Political letters" (1853?1856) in which his opposition to Nicholas I regime’s policy and certain progressive features of his position were especially strongly manifested. G. V. Plekhanov’s work "Pogodin and the class struggle" (1911) determined the typical for the following Marxist and Soviet historiography fixed interest to the class roots of his conservatism and sociological identification that as the "bourgeois". The late Soviet authors (V. K. Tereshchenko) which were adherents of the class treatment also and the contemporary Russian historians of the Soviet school (V. Ya. Grosul, R. G. Eymontova) emphasized the heterogeneity and evolutionary character of the Pogodin’s position, the increasing presence of the critical and progressive elements in his conservative world outlook on the whole.