Scandinavistics by the Prominent Russian Historian Professor Vozgrin

Abstract

The article describes the life path and analyzes academic achievements of a prominent Russian scholar, historian, member of the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences, professor of the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University Valery Evgenyevich Vozgrin (1939–2020). The works of V.E.Vozgrin are well known in all Scandinavian countries, Germany, Italy, Spain, Estonia and other countries. The authors of the article highlight three main areas in his study of the history of the Scandinavian countries: first — the history of diplomacy and international relations of the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly, the diplomacy during the Great Northern War; second — the colonial policy of the countries such as Denmark and Sweden, which has never been researched by domestic historians; third — historiographic direction in the study of Scandinavian countries, which has never been developed on such a large scale in Russia before. Moreover, the analysis of a number of large historiographical works of the researcher clearly indicates an original style of the author in considering some little-known and very complex historiographic problems. The article concludes that the research base established by professor Vozgrin for studying the history of the Scandinavian countries has laid a solid foundation for further examination of the history of the Nordic countries as well as for Scandinavistics in St. Petersburg to whose development V.Vozgrin made a considerable contribution.