The History of the Relationship between George Vernadsky and Nikolai Ulyanov

Abstract

The article provides the first comparative analysis of the relationship between two famous historians of the Russian Diaspora Georgy Vladimirovich Vernadsky (1887–1973) and Nikolai Ivanovich Ulyanov (1904–1985). They were linked by long-standing friendship and neighborly friendly relations. The article explores the mutual influence of historians-friends on their works and concepts. Based on numerous archival and published sources, the lives and every day activities of Russian historians at Yale University and in the city of New Haven is restored. The main attention is paid to the American period of biography of N. I. Ulyanov. Thanks to unpublished materials from the archive of Yale University, the teaching career of N. I. Ulyanov is restored in the article. His model of behavior as a lecturer and his manner of lecturing is reconstructed. The article states that N. I. Ulyanov belonged to St. Petersburg scientific and pedagogical school. The world of the historical science of the Russian Diaspora — the first and second “waves” of emigration is also shown. On the basis of the correspondence from the Bakhmetev Archives, it is convincingly proved in the article that the circle of Russian historians in the United States was stable. The article examines the relationship between G. V. Vernadsky and N. I. Ulyanov in connection with their communication with other Russian scholars-emigrants — M. M. Karpovich, S. G. Pushkarev, V. P. Nikitin. Their attitude to Eurasianism, its influence on G. V. Vernadsky is investigated. The paradoxical concept of “patriotic Westernism” by N. I. Ulyanov is outlined. The article also describes his attitude to Slavophilism, the apologetics of Peter I as the creator of Russian secular culture, literature and science, in particular, the creation of the Academy of Sciences and Petersburg as a symbol of Russian European culture. N. I. Ulyanov continued the line of such historians as S. M. Solovyov, V. O. Klyuchevsky and S. F. Platonov. A brief historiographical review of this topic is given in the works by A. Yu. Dornichesko, E. V. Petrov and P. N. Bazanov. The lack of investigation of the topic is grounded.