The new Adventures of the Historian George Vernadsky

Abstract

A study of Vernadsky’s legacy is a very dramatic process. It is full of strange contradictions. In Russia, the research began only in the last decade of the previous century and is still in progress. In the USA, the life and scholarly works by George Vernadsky attracted the attention in the previous decade. It resulted in two articles, the best and the only outcome, written by the famous specialist in the Russian history and historiography Charles Halperin. This review is devoted to the publication of a translation of the biggest article by Halperin (1985), and a translation of his recent article from one of the Russian historical journals. The author of this review questions the quality of the translation and critically comments on it. According to the author, Halperin’s perception of Vernadsky was influenced by his negative attitude to Eurasianism. But Vernadsky never was a participant of this political movement, moreover, he was against it. As for his scholarly ideas, it can be said that Eurasianism was one of the best explanation of the Russian historical process. Recently, Halperin’s opinion about the significance of Vernadsky’s legacy has been improved, and we hope that this trend will continue to strength. Surprisingly, however, Halperin supported some doubtful ideas by some Ukrainian authors who found a certain Ukrainian identity in Vernadsky. The author of review cannot see any trace of such connections between this statement and Vernadky’s deep love for the Ukrainian history and culture. The author’s conclusion is that the translation of the work by the famous American historian will be currently very useful to the Russian readers.