Review of the Historian V. T. Pashuto on the Book by N. N. Voronin about Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky

Abstract

In 1945, N. N. Voronin, a specialist in the material culture and architecture of Old Rus’ and the Vladimir-Suzdal’ Principality, wrote a book about Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky of Vladimir (1157—1174). In 1946—1954, the book could not be published. In the history of historical science, the prevailing opinion is that the book was not published because of inconsistency with the ideological requirements of Soviet historical science. It is believed that this mood was most fully expressed by the historian V. T. Pashuto in his review. The author of the article argues that N. N. Voronin himself developed a prejudice under the influence of D. S. Likhachev, who supported him. The study of historical sources shows that V. T. Pashuto, on the contrary, proposed to publish the book as a historical monograph after a serious revision. V. T. Pashuto's criticism of the discrepancy between the historical research procedures of N.N. Voronin's book came into conflict with the representation of the past by supporters of the proto-culturological approach in comprehending the past. The present article uses documents studied by I.V. Kovalev, Yu.V. Krivosheev and published by Yu. V. Krivosheev.