- George Vernadsky
George Vernadsky (
August 20 1887 –June 20 1973 ), Russian: Гео́ргий Влади́мирович Верна́дский) was aRussia n-Americanhistorian and an author of numerous books onRussian history .European years
Born in
Moscow onAugust 20 ,1887 , Vernadsky stemmed from a respectable family of the Ukrainianintelligentsia . His father wasVladimir Vernadsky , the first President of theUkrainian Academy of Sciences . He entered theMoscow University (where his father was professor) in 1905 but, due to the disturbances of theFirst Russian Revolution , had to spend the next two years in Germany, at theAlbert Ludwigs University of Freiburg and theUniversity of Berlin , where he imbibed the doctrines ofHeinrich Rickert .Back in Russia, Vernadsky resumed his course at the Moscow University, graduating with honors in 1910. His instructors included the historians
Vasily Klyuchevsky andRobert Vipper . The young scholar declined to continue his career in the university after the 1910 Kasso affair and moved toSaint Petersburg University where he taught for the next seven years, during which he was awarded theMaster's degree for his dissertation on the effects ofFreemasonry on theRussian Enlightenment .Politically close to thekadet party (of which his father was one of the leaders), Vernadsky began his career as a supporter of liberal ideas, authoring the biographies ofNikolai Novikov andPavel Milyukov . During the years of theRussian Civil War (1917-1920), he lectured for a year inPerm . He then taught inKiev and then followed theWhite Army toSimferopol , where he taught at the local university for two years.After the fall of
Crimea to theBolshevik s in 1920, Vernadsky left his native country forConstantinople , moving toAthens later that year. At the suggestion ofNikodim Kondakov , he settled inPrague , teaching there from 1921 until 1925 at the Russian School of Law. There, in association withNikolai Trubetzkoy and P.N. Savitsky, he participated in formulating the Eurasian Theory of Russian history. After Kondakov's death, Vernadsky was in charge of the Seminarium Kondakovianum, which dessiminated his view of Russian culture as the synthesis of Slavonic, Byzantine, and nomadic influences.American years
In 1927,
Michael Rostovtzeff andFrank Golder offered Vernadsky a position atYale University in theUnited States . At Yale, he first served as aresearch associate inhistory (1927-1946), and then became a fullprofessor of Russian history in 1946. He served in that position until his retirement in 1956. He died inNew Haven onJune 20 ,1973 .Vernadsky's first book in English was a widely read textbook on Russian history, first published in 1929 and republished six times during his lifetime. It was translated to numerous languages, including Hebrew and Japanese. In 1943, he embarked on his magnum opus, "A History of Russia", of which six volumes were eventually published, despite the death of his co-author, Professor Karpovich, in 1959.
The book demonstrated Vernadsky's novel approach to Russian history which is conceived by him as a continuous succession of empires, starting from the Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnic, and Gothic; Vernadsky attempted to determine the laws of their expansion and collapse. His views emphasised the importance of Eurasian nomadic cultures for the cultural and economic progress of Russia, thus anticipating some of the tenets advanced by
Lev Gumilev .Bibliography
* (1936) "Political and Diplomatic History of Russia"
* (1943–69) "A History of Russia" ( [http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300002475 Yale Press] ) ISBN 0-300-00247-5
* (1947) "Medieval Russian Laws" (Translated by George Vernadsky)
* (1953) "The Mongols and Russia"
* (1959) "The Origins of Russia"
* (1973) "Kievan Russia" ( [http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300016476 Yale Press] ) ISBN 0-300-01647-6.References
* VERNADSKY, GEORGE,
The Columbia Encyclopedia , Sixth Edition 2006
* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-0341(197310)32%3A4%3C456%3AGV1-1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0 Alan D. Ferguson, "George Vernadsky, 1887-1973"]Russian Review , Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct., 1973), pp. 456-458.
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