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B. S. KAGANOVICH. SERGEY FEDOROVICH OLDENBURG. BIOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE. Saint Petersburg: Feniks Publ., 2006, 249 p.

To write a biography of S. F. Oldenburg, I believe, is much more difficult than the biography of any other Russian Orientalist - the reason for this is the complexity and ambiguity of the personality and fate of this person. When you read the articles written about him during the Soviet period, it seems that everything was very simple: the already middle-aged "pre-revolutionary" academician, who held the responsible post of permanent secretary of the Academy, realized the merits of the Soviet government and took its side in order to lead domestic science to a new life. "A new stage in the life of S. F. Oldenburg, the true flourishing of his organizational activities began after the Great October Socialist Revolution... Life for S. F. Oldenburg somehow suddenly and immediately acquired an unprecedented meaning and opened up unheard-of prospects for him... from now on, he subordinated his entire life and activity to the bright ideals of building socialism " [Scriabin, 1986, p. 6, 7]. Oldenburg's oral review of Lenin in the program of V. D. Bonch-Bruevich wandered from article to article: "This is amazing! This is a prophet of the greatest power!.. It is intended to " burn the hearts of people with a verb." I am so glad that I saw him and talked to him" [Baziyants, 1986, p. 24].

Since the early 1990s, there have been many publications based on archival materials and devoted to individual facts of the biography of S. F. Oldenburg, but when trying to summarize the results, we sometimes come across similar conclusions: for example, V. M. Alpatov calls him "the main conductor of party-state policy in the Academy of Sciences" [Alpatov, 2004, p. 213). The reviews of S. F. Oldenburg's contemporaries and colleagues are also ambiguous. For example, the famous historian of antiquity M. I. Rostovtsev considered him almost "an agent of the Third International, a discredited servant of despotism" (pp. 87-88). The day after the scientist's death, S. A. Zhebelev wrote that he "put himself in a false position... A man of European culture, Oldenburg could not become a "Soviet scientist", but he wanted to become one for reasons that were far from principled " (Zhebelev, 1993, pp. 201-202). However, V. M. Alekseev, who cannot be suspected of being particularly pro-Soviet, writes quite the opposite about S. F. Oldenburg: "His unselfishness was never even remotely questioned... It was undoubtedly a silverless person as a consistent type, and not as a politician counting on the effect" [Alekseev, 1982, p. 25]. This review is fully in tune with the words of a friend of Oldenburg's youth, D. I. Shakhovsky, who in a private letter calls him "an inflexible servant of duty", "a slave to the heavy responsible service taken upon himself" (p. 234).

Familiarity with such contradictory assessments left no doubt that the history of our Oriental studies, the history of our academic science as a whole, is in urgent need of a monograph covering the path of S. F. Oldenburg, which would be based on the maximum number of printed and archival materials, conscientiously and impartially compared and critically understood in historical, socio-political and cultural contexts. moral psychologists-

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economic aspects. Fortunately, a similar job appeared. This is a peer-reviewed book by B. S. Kaganovich, the fruit of his many years of research and reflection on the complex fate of an extraordinary person, a fate that at first glance is not rich in external events, but full of internal tragedy.

B. S. Kaganovich attracted a huge amount of materials: the works of S. F. Oldenburg himself, works devoted to various aspects of his work, general works on the history of Oriental studies and the history of the Russian Academy of Sciences, characteristics of individual academic figures, extensive memoir literature, the press of those years, and, most importantly, a lot of archival documents, among which a special place is occupied by Oldenburg-the scientist's wives. In the preface ("From the author"), B. S. Kaganovich classifies his sources and gives a brief overview of everything written about S. F. Oldenburg in different years here and abroad. The entire presentation is strictly documented, and the author's arguments, assessments, and conclusions are supported by facts. This is the work of a true historian.

B. S. Kaganovich is not an orientalist, and his interest is mostly connected with the personality and social activities of S. F. Oldenburg. Of course, he is well acquainted with the scientist's works on Indology, comparative literature, folklore studies, Buddhism and Buddhist art, pays due tribute to his work and convincingly traces the connection of this line of activity of S. F. Oldenburg with his social and organizational work, the coverage of which is the main task of the book. claiming to be absolutely complete, the author of this essay tried not only to reconstruct the history of S. F. Oldenburg's works and days from reliable sources, but also to understand him as a person, to find the key to solving his personality" (p. 8). He does not try to obscure the inconsistency of the material available in his hands, but on the contrary, shows it in its entirety This gives the reader the opportunity to participate in the very process of understanding the author's facts and opinions.

B. S. Kaganovich comes to his conclusions gradually. He begins the life story of S. F. Oldenburg with a description of the family way of life, with childhood impressions. "I was at the Oldenburgs'... some kind of monastic-knightly need for sacrifice, " recalled one of Sergei Fyodorovich's oldest friends (p. 12). This phrase seems to me to be the key to understanding the origins of Oldenburg's personality formation. In the usual search for the meaning of life for Russian intelligent youth, S. F. Oldenburg formulates his main goal-to serve science and humanity, to educate the people, and to strive for the realization of liberal-democratic ideals of social justice and universal solidarity. He is not alone in his aspirations - he is always surrounded by a "brotherhood" of like-minded people: first high school friends in Warsaw, then at St. Petersburg University (V. I. Vernadsky, I. M. Grevs, etc.).

A special role in the formation of his personality was played by Professor-Arabist V. R. Rosen, "an organizer of Russian Oriental studies based on European principles, an active, lively, intelligent and warm-hearted person" (p. 14). He is very close to S. F. Oldenburg in spirit: despite his conservative political views, V. R. Rosen is a collectivist in science and I. Y. Krachkovsky wrote in his obituary that V. R. Rosen always had the interests of his students and the favorite brainchild of his hands-the first Russian special Oriental journal "Notes of the Eastern branch of the Russian Archaeological Society" [Krachkovsky, 1906, pp. 9-11].

I cannot resist giving another example of the influence of V. R. Rosen's personality on his students. His last pet, the Arabist I. Y. Krachkovsky, for all his initial isolation and timidity, after the death of V. R. Rosen, out of a sense of duty to the late teacher, did not hesitate to head the entire Russian Arabic studies (there was no one else!) and later became an outstanding organizer of science in his field. In this case, S. F. Oldenburg's dictates of duty coincided with the internal mood.

Tracing the main stages of S. F. Oldenburg's life and activity, B. S. Kaganovich assigns a corresponding chapter to each stage. The first stage ("The Beginning of biography") covers the period before 1890: family, university studies, first business trip abroad, beginning of university teaching, first steps in science. It is characteristic that S. F. Oldenburg's scientific inclinations correspond from the very beginning with his social aspirations. In the center of his interests are folk culture, in which, of course, much is determined by collective creativity, and comparative studies, without which the study of folk culture cannot be complete.

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The second stage - work at the University and Academy (until 1904), completion of the dissertation, passion for Buddhism-not from a philosophical point of view, but, in his own words, "such manifestations of the religious life of Buddhists that make Buddhism the religion of the masses" (p.32).

The third stage (1904-1916) was the election of S. F. Oldenburg as permanent Secretary of the Academy of Sciences and his contribution to the work of the Russian Academy of Sciences before the revolution. The beginning of this period falls on the pre-revolutionary events and the revolution of 1905, when the political views of S. F. Oldenburg on a liberal-democratic basis were clearly crystallized, which also left an imprint on his academic activities. He joins the constitutional democratic party and becomes the leader of the liberal group of academicians, he has disagreements with the President of the Academy of Sciences - Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, but it did not come to serious clashes: "S. F. Oldenburg has always been able to find a common language with people of different characters and beliefs for the benefit of the cause," so he formed, obviously, "a good working relationship with the Grand Duke" (p. 57). This observation of B. S. Kaganovich will be important for understanding the academic policy of S. F. Oldenburg in the Soviet era, as well as the author's clearly formulated assessment of his initial attitude to the Russian Revolution: "S. F. Oldenburg was born in the Soviet Union. Oldenburg considered revolutionary violence and chaos to be evil, but blamed them mainly on the autocracy, which hindered Russia's transition to a legal and democratic system and the necessary socio-economic transformations" (p.50).

In the course of the biography of the scientist, B. S. Kaganovich very tactfully talks about his personal and family life, in which his second wife Elena Grigoryevna Oldenburg (nee. Clemenz), a smart and energetic woman who has become a reliable support for him during the last 11 years of his life.

The fourth stage(1917-1921) - the revolution and the first Soviet states. The inconsistency of this brief but fateful period of our history, as well as the inconsistency of documents describing the multilateral activities of S. F. Oldenburg as a politician and permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences, make the author approach the assessment of these documents with special care. He questions some long-established myths, for example, about the meetings of S. F. Oldenburg with V. I. Lenin (pp. 77-78, 85, 100, note 310) - the analysis of this myth is, in my opinion, a model of critical interpretation of the document. One cannot but agree with the author's conclusions that S. F. Oldenburg's reaction to the establishment of the Bolshevik regime in the country "was quite definite-sharply negative" (p. 76) and that further cooperation of the Academy of Sciences with the Soviet government "was conditioned by the desire to preserve the Academy and scientific work in Russia and in no way meant ideological acceptance of Bolshevism" (p. 77).

The next stage (1920s) is the real implementation of this compromise. B. S. Kaganovich calls the corresponding chapter of his book "Modus vivendi of the Academy with Soviet power". As the author quite reasonably notes: "The 1920s were the apogee of S. F. Oldenburg's activity. At this time, the role he played in and out of the Academy of Sciences was perhaps greater and more prominent than ever" (p. 114). The facts presented by B. S. Kaganovich make it possible to understand the external reasons for this: on the one hand, the Soviet authorities, very interested in the loyalty of such an authoritative academic figure as S. F. Oldenburg, encouraged him in every possible way, and on the other hand, the fact that the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences is still a well-known scientist, the same even before the revolution, and also actively communicating with his European colleagues, it was supposed to serve to preserve the ties between Russian and European science. As B. S. Kaganovich concludes, S. F. Oldenburg during these years was "a prominent public figure in the Soviet Union and in the scientific world of Europe" (p. 114). On November 13, 1927, i.e. immediately after the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, E. G. Oldenburg writes:: "Academy of Sciences... it became a major and, one might say, the only center of intellectual and cultural life in the USSR" (p. 140). At the same time, the author shows how precarious the position of this non-partisan Academy really was, as evidenced by S. F. Oldenburg's own admission about the "pitiful state of science" (p.141), and the beginning of attacks on the Academy in the press, which denounced it as a "refuge of former people" (p. 138).

The beginning of the collapse of the Academy, which will occur in 1928-1929, is an event to which B. S. Kaganovich devotes the longest and most tragic chapter - "The End of the Oldenburg Academy". The author is true to himself - he only presents the facts, as always, critically examines them, does not admire or resent them (evaluative epithets appear almost exclusively in quotes from the diary of E. G. Oldenburg), but the line of events related to the elections in the Aca-

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a threatening line is being formed, indicating that the Bolsheviks who came to power cannot be "played by the rules" 1 and that the Oldenburg compromise saved the Academy of Sciences (or prolonged its agony?) for only a few years, most academicians, not fully understanding what was happening, took a passive position in relation to the revolutionary events: they conducted their scientific work, contrasting it with the chaos reigning around them [see, for example: Dolinina, 1994, p.150], and condemned the position of S. F. Oldenburg.

B. S. Kaganovich defines the last four - plus years (1930-1934) after the resignation of S. F. Oldenburg from the post of permanent secretary as "confusion and gradual extinction" (p.213), despite various activities as director of the newly created Institute of Oriental Studies.

In the final short chapter "Instead of a conclusion", which is of fundamental importance, the author sums up the activities of S. F. Oldenburg as an organizer of science, who headed the Academy for 25 years as an indispensable secretary, and as a scientist who gave science much less than one would expect from such a gifted person. The author quotes the words of I. Y. Krachkovsky, written shortly after the death of S. F. Oldenburg: "As a scientist, he undoubtedly suffered a tragic fate" (p. 228). But as the organizer of the Academy, he also had to feel the tragedy of his fate: I didn't save what I selflessly served all my life. This assessment follows from everything said in the book. As the head of the Academy of Sciences, S. F. Oldenburg "could act successfully in more or less normal conditions," but "he was definitely not suitable for the inhuman Soviet situation that finally developed at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, and this situation crippled him and, ultimately, destroyed him" (p.231). The reader cannot but agree with this merciless conclusion for the history of our science.

As I have already said, V. S. Kaganovich strives for an objective presentation and evaluation of documents. But objectivity does not mean indifference, and scrupulous documentarianism does not make a book dry and indifferent. On the contrary, each phrase shows sincere sympathy for the main character and his fate. Therefore, the book, written in excellent Russian, is read with unflagging interest. B. S. Kaganovich does not make any attempts to give it "artistry", he does not compose anything for the sake of "entertainment" - the picture that authentic documents create is so fascinating and dramatic in itself that it does not need to be fictionalized.

The author's deep understanding of the hero who is completely different from him and his significance for the history of Russian science is evidenced by the final paragraph of the book, which sums up the entire research, and I cannot deny myself the pleasure of giving it here in full: "In our opinion, Sergei Fyodorovich Oldenburg embodied a certain human type, perhaps the most noble type generated by Russian culture, which has now practically disappeared. And when we talk about the weaknesses, mistakes, and illusions of people like him, we must not forget that thanks to them, much of the best in Russian science and culture of the twentieth century was saved and created" (p.238). You can't say better.

Now about some claims to the author. The first one is probably more concerned not with the author himself, but with the modern principle of bibliography submission in general. V. S. Kaganovich used a lot of archival materials, monographs, articles from various periodicals and collections. All references to them are located in footnotes (which is very convenient for the reader), but there is no consolidated bibliography, and if necessary, you always have to go through the pages in search of previous references to a particular material.

On page 136, which tells the scandalous story of how I. Y. Krachkovsky was not released abroad and how S. F. Oldenburg, who vouched for his loyalty, resigned in protest, we read: "As a result, I. Y. Krachkovsky resigned from the post of academic Secretary of the Department of Humanities, and S. F. Oldenburg from the post of permanent secretary." In reality, I. Y. Krachkovsky resigned from his post on February 20, 1929, i.e. after the shameful repeated academic elections [Dolinina, 1994, p. 234, 410, notes 9, 10]. In other words, his action was dictated not so much by personal ambitions, but by the understanding of the impossibility of influencing academic affairs, it was a protest against such behavior.-

1 I. Y. Krachkovsky, who later found himself in similar situations, wrote that he "felt like an honest player, forced to sit down at a card table with a notorious cheater, who, of course, will beat him" [Krachkovsky, 1997, p. 568].

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applications. However, in 1926 he tried to resign, but S. F. Oldenburg dissuaded him.

On page 228, it is mentioned that I. Y. Krachkovsky prepared a posthumous edition of S. F. Oldenburg's works "Culture of India", and even a quote is given, apparently from the preface. However, at the first mention of this collection (pp. 5-6), it is said that it was prepared in the 1930s under the supervision of I. Y. Krachkovsky. 9 I. D. Serebryakov was named as the preparatory director.

On page 43, Krachkovsky's comment on the Oldenburg-Bedier controversy is given without reference to the source.

On page 228 it is said that V. F. Minorsky lived abroad after the revolution, but in reality he left before the revolution (in 1916).

The name index omits certain Artemyev and Ter-Avanesov mentioned on page 81. In the index, on page 239, with the surname "Bach R.", three more are indicated in parentheses: "Sazhin V. N., Lurie Ya. L., Perchenok F. F.". What this means is unclear, especially since on page 81, where the index refers, R. Bach is listed in collaboration with N. Kremer (note 248).

However, all these are minor flaws that should have been mentioned only to prove that the reviewer read the book very carefully. It should be noted that at present, alas, very rarely there are works performed at such a high intellectual and moral level as the book of B. S. Kaganovich.

list of literature

Alekseev V. M. Nauka o Vostoke [Science of the East], Moscow, 1982.

Alpatov V. M. Sergey Fedorovich Oldenburg / / Portraits of historians. Vremya i sudby [Time and Fate], Vol. 3, Moscow, 2004.

Baziyants A. P. Dva metry S. F. Oldenburg s V. I. Lenin [Two meetings of S. F. Oldenburg with V. I. Lenin].

Dolinina A. A. Nevolnik dolga [Slave of Debt], St. Petersburg, 1994.
Zhebelev SA. S. F. Oldenburg / / Bulletin of Ancient History. 1993. N 3.

Krachkovsky I. Y. Time trial // St. Petersburg Oriental Studies. Issue 8. St. Petersburg, 1997.

Krachkovsky I. Y. In memory of Baron V. R. Rosen // Turkestan Vedomosti. 1906. N 22.

Scriabin G. K. Outstanding organizer of science // Sergey Fedorovich Oldenburg, Moscow, 1986.


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