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Establishment of the Russian Historical Society
On May 23 (June 4), 1866, in Saint-Petersburg, Emperor Alexander II approved the charter of the Russian Historical Society.
According to the charter, the Russian Historical Society had a purpose "to collect, process and distribute in Russia, observing the relevant regulations, materials and documents related to national history, presented in government and private archives and libraries, as well as private collections".
The first chairman of the Society was Prince Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky, an academician, poet, senator, member of the State Council. Its honorary member was Grand Prince Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Emperor Alexander III. Besides P. A. Vyazemsky, the Society's founders were: K. N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, M. I. Bogdanovich, A. F. Bychkov, A. F. Hamburger, A. G. Zhomini, K. K. Zlobin, M. A. Korff, B. A. Perovsky, A. A. Polovtsev, D. A. Tolstoy and E. F. Feoktistov.
Before the Russian Historical Society, activities related to the development of historical science in Russia were developed by the Saint-Petersburg Archaeography Committee, the Society of Russian History and Antiquities by Moscow University, the Commission for the Printing of State Charters and Treaties, etc. The documents published by these institutions referred to the history of Russia until the beginning of the XVIII century. The Russian Historical Society became the first scientific and historical institution, which focused its attention on new, previously unstudied documents regarding Russian history, mainly of the times after Peter I's reign.
The Collections of the Russian Historical Society published selected research and works of the Society’s members. For half a century of the Society's history, 148 volumes of the Collections were issued. The publication released rare or previously undiscovered documents related to both domestic and foreign policy of the state. The major part of these materials refers to the reigns of Catherine II, Alexander I and Nicholas I. They can be included in six large sections: "Materials on the history of the Catherine the Great's All-Russian Legislative Commission for completing a draft of the new Code of 1767", "Documents of Catherine II'', "Materials for the history of the supreme administrative authorities of Russia in the XVIII century", "Materials for political and everyday history in 1812", "Diplomatic correspondence of foreign ambassadors and envoys at the Russian court", "Monuments of diplomatic relations between Old Russia and foreign powers". Also, the Collections published private records of emperors and empresses, as well as prominent government officials. It also issued reports on the annual meetings of the Society. The final pages of each book contained a table of content of all previously published volumes, as well as a list of all mentioned names. Publications of the Collections of the Russian Historical Society released a large number of documents of the XVIII - early XIX centuries and made them available to researchers.
Since 1896, the Society has issued 25 volumes of the Russian Biographical Dictionary edited by A. A. Polovtsev, which provided the biographies of the most prominent leaders of state, science, education and church.
At various times, the Society employed famous Russian historians: S. M. Soloviev, V. O. Klyuchevsky, N. I. Kostomarov, N. F. Dubrovin, P. P. Pekarsky, V. I. Sergeevich, Ya. K. Grot, A. N. Filippov, I. E. Zabelin, A. N. Pypin, S. F. Platonov, V. S. Ikonnikov, N. D. Chechulin, A. N. Popov.
On November 24 (December 6), 1873, the Society received the name of the Imperial Russian Historical Society.
After the 1917 Revolution, the activity of the Imperial Russian Historical Society was cancelled.
In the 1920s - 1940s, various kinds of this institution existed outside the USSR (Czechoslovakia and the USA). In 2004, Moscow hosted the organization meeting, where the revival of the Russian Historical Society (Russkoye Istoricheskoye Obshestvo) in Russia was announced, and Pyotr Petrovich Aleksandrov-Derkachenko was elected chairman.
In 2012, the country's leaders created a scientific public organization Russian Historical Society (Rossiyskoye Istoricheskoye Obshestvo), which was appointed the successor of the Imperial Russian Historical Society.
Lit.: История Российского исторического общества [Электронный ресурс] // Российское историческое общество. 2012-2015. URL: http://rushistory.org/ob-obshchestve/istoriya.html; Разгон А. М. Исторические общества // Большая советская энциклопедия. Т. 10. М., 1972.
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