The presidential library's video lecture to be dedicated to the historian Boris Romanov

On April 26, 2024 the Presidential Library, as part of the video lecture Knowledge of Russia, hosted a lecture dedicated to the prominent Russian historian who belonged to the St. Petersburg historical school, Boris Aleksandrovich Romanov. This year he would have turned 135 years old.

Boris Romanov divided his scientific studies into “antique” and “modern”. Varvara Vovina, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Deputy Director for Scientific Cooperation of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will talk about “antique” - the study of antiquity by a scientist. The lecturer will focus on the beginning of Boris Romanov's scientific activity, his years of study at St. Petersburg University and classes at the workshops of teacher Alexander Presnyakov, where the future scientist studied the history of Ancient Rus'. The topic of Boris Romanov's research was related to Russkaia Pravda and chronicles. The scientist retained this scientific interest even after he was released from the camp in the 1930s, when he was involved in the work on the academic publication of Russkaia Pravda.

After the Great Patriotic War, as an employee of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences, Boris Romanov became one of the publishers of all-Russian Sudebniks. Among his most important works is the book “People and Manners of Ancient Rus'”. 

The theme of “modernity” in the scientific work of Boris Romanov will be revealed by Sergei Lebedev, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Modern History of Russia at the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. After the revolution of 1917, Boris Romanov entered the service of the Central Archive, where he was invited by university teacher Alexander Presnyakov. As an archivist, Boris Romanov was involved in documentation of the Ministry of Finance of Tsarist Russia in connection with the empire’s policies in the Far East. In the early 1920s, the memoirs of statesman Sergei Witte, dedicated to the prehistory of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, were published and the decline of the Russian Empire. Boris Romanov began with a documentary commentary on Witte's memoirs and continued his research by writing two large monographs - “Russia in Manchuria” and “Essays on the diplomatic history of the Russo-Japanese War. 1895–1907". The works of Boris Romanov, an outstanding researcher of the financial and political history of the late Russian Empire, had a great influence on his students and followers.

The recording of the event is available on the Library's Rutube channel.