Birth of Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin, Remarkable Soviet Historian, Researcher of the History of Siberia

Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin was born on September 26 (October 8), 1882 in Moscow in the merchant family of the Bakhrushins, Russian entrepreneurs, philanthropists, patrons. Until the age of 12, he was educated at home. In 1894-1990, he studied at the Moscow Imperial Lyceum in the Memory of Tsesarevitch Nicholas and graduated with a gold medal. Then, he entered the Faculty of History and Philology of the Moscow University. His teachers were V. O. Klyuchevsky, P. G. Vinogradov, M. K. Lyubavsky. He remained at the university to prepare for the future scientific and professor work. In 1908-1909, he passed the master’s exams and was accepted as a private docent of the Moscow University.

In 1907, Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin was elected to the Moscow City Duma, where he served until 1918: he worked on the issues of school education and orphan care. In 1909, he published the scientific research paper Princely economy of the XV and the first half of the XVII cc. featured in the Collection of Articles in Honour of V. O. Klyuchevsky. In the paper, the mechanisms of functioning of the princely patrimony have been explored in detail by using new factual materials. The article of the young historian has immediately defined his interest for socio-economic history and brought the attention of the scientific community. In the 1920s, while teaching at the Moscow University, Bakhrushin also worked in the Library of the Rumyantsev Museum (now the Russian State Library), as well as conducted work aimed at the preservation of archives.

Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin participated in the unfolding scientific and educational, local history movement. In 1925, he became one of the founders of the Society for the Studies of Moscow Governorate: he led its cultural and historical section, was elected Chairman of the Presidium from October 1926 to February 1928, gave presentations at local history conferences. The main goal of the local history movement was to study Moscow Uezd as a historical and cultural, economic phenomena. The grandest historical composition of Bakhrushin was the essay on the history of Moscow Uezd.

Back in pre-revolutionary times, Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin got interested in the history of Siberia. In 1916, he published the article Native Legends in the Siberian History of S. Remezov. Later, he has released articles about Siberian voivodes, the industrial development of Siberia and other topics. By working with archival materials, Bakhrushin has acquired valuable information on the socio-economic history of Siberia of the XVII century. The summarizing work on the history of the Siberian colonization was the monograph Essays on the History of the Colonization of Siberia in the XVI-XVII cc.. This composition has most clearly presented the conception of the commercial and industrial development of Siberia. The finished book was submitted to the publishing house of M. and S. Sabashnikovs no later than 1922, but due to the lack of funds was published only in 1928. According to the historians V. G. Mirzoev and A. M. Dubrovsky, it was Bakhrushin who established the historiography of Siberia as an individual discipline.

Articles and books on the history of Siberia allowed Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin to enter the ranks of the most reputable historians of the country, but this deserved position was soon negated due to the began repressions. Sergei Bakhrushin was arrested in 1930 and exiled to Semipalatinsk in 1931 as a participant of the Academic Trial alongside S. F. Platonov. After the exile in 1933, Bakhrushin returned to Moscow and continued studying the history of peoples of the North. In 1935, he released the monograph Ostyak and Vogul Principalities in the XVI-XVII centuries.

As a scientist Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin was formed even before the revolution, but his main works were created under Soviet rule. Bakhrushin was characterized by the diversity of scientific interests. He has studied the history of Kievan Rus and the history of the Russian State of the XV-XVII centuries, socio-economic history of the peoples of Siberia and Central Asia, source studies, historiography. He has participated in the collective works: History of Diplomacy, Diplomatic Dictionary, History of Moscow. He has edited and written a number of history textbooks for schools and higher education institutions. He has also written popular books, which combined the scientific nature and the simplicity of storytelling.

According to the contemporaries’ reviews, Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin has been a wonderful lecturer. His student, well-known scholar V. B. Kobrin recalled: “Our love for Bakhrushin was selfless: he didn’t teach any lectures at our course, didn’t host exams… Today I understand what a huge effort such a course is worth; the course that people listen to not just to pass the exams, but because it is interesting”.

In 1939, Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin was elected the Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1941-1943, he lived in evacuation in Tashkent, where he supervised the formation of the second volume of the History of Uzbekistan. In 1942, he was awarded the Stalin Prize of 1st Degree. In 1944-1950, he worked as a professor in the Moscow State University. In 1945, Bakhrushin was elected Full Member of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR.

Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin died in Moscow on March 8, 1950.

The last work of Sergei Bakhrushin Essays on the History of Crafts, Trade, and Cities of the Russian Centralized State of the XVI – early XVII c.: (On the issue of prerequisites of the All-Russian market) was published unfinished after the author’s death. The researcher has explored a vast number of archival materials and comprehended the achievements of not only Soviet, but also the pre-revolutionary historiography, presented the conception of a city as the basis for economic development of the state.

In April 1950, the Council of Ministers of the USSR reached the decision about the posthumous publication of the historian’s research works. Two years after his death, the first volume has been released, in which a monograph about Russian market in the XVI c. was featured. The second volume included articles on the history of Russia in the XVI-XVII cc. The third volume, which contained works about Siberia, throughout the publication process turned into two books instead of one. Unexpectedly, the monograph about Krasnoyarsk has been found. Together with an article about Siberia and Middle Asia of the XVI-XVII cc., it has been included in the fourth volume. About forty years after the scholar’s death, another collection of his works was published, but even after this release, the scientific legacy of the scientist is not exhausted.

Author of more than 200 works based on the large, studied for the first time archival material, Sergei Vladimirovich Bakhrushin is one of the greatest representatives of the Russian historical science. Since 1966, the Novosibirsk State University hosts the Bakhrushin Readings to honour the memory of the scientist.

Lit.: Большая Тюменская энциклопедия. Т. 1: А–З. Тюмень, 2004. С. 132–133; В помощь краеведу: материалы к календарю знаменательных и памятных дат Тюменской области на 2002 г. / Тюменская областная научная библиотека. Тюмень, 2001.С. 66–68; Огрызко В. Бахрушин Сергей Владимирович // Отечественные исследователи коренных малочисленных народов Севера и Дальнего Востока: биобиблиографический словарь. М., 2013. С. 62–66; Огрызко В. Североведы России: материалы к биографическому словарю // Мир Севера. 2004. № 4. С. 81–96; Тихонов В. В. Московская историческая школа в первой половине XX века: научное творчество Ю. В. Готье, С. Б. Веселовского, А. И. Яковлева и С. В. Бахрушина. М.; СПб., 2012. 328 с.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Бахрушин С. В. Малолетние нищие и бродяги в Москве: исторический очерк. М., 1913;

Бахрушин С. В. Из истории Москвы. Пенза, 1945;

Бахрушин С. Москве 800 лет. М., 1947;

Бахрушин С. В. Москва в 1812 году. М., 1913 (Доступно в электронном читальном зале);

Бахрушин С. В. Казаки на Амуре. Л., 1925. (Доступно в электронном читальном зале);

Бахрушин С. В. Остяцкие и вогульские княжества в XVI-XVII. Л., 1935 (Доступно в электронном читальном зале);

Дубровский А. М. С. В. Бахрушин и его время. М., 1992 (1993) (Доступно в электронном читальном зале).

Based on the article of the Tyumen Region Branch of the Presidential Library