George Vernadsky: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|Russian-American historian (1887–1973)}}

| native_name = Гео́ргий{{nobold|Георгий Влади́мирович Верна́дскийВернадский}}

| image = George Vernandsky 1912.jpg

| caption = VernandskyVernadsky in 1912

| resting_place =

| citizenship =

| alma_mater = [[Imperial Moscow University|Imperial Moscow University (1910)]]<br/>[[Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg]]<br/>[[University of Berlin]]

'''George Vernadsky''' ([[Russian language{{langx|ru|Russian]]: Гео́ргий Влади́мирович Верна́дский}}; August 20, 1887 – June 12, 1973) was a Russian Empire-born [[United States|American]] [[historian]] and an author of numerous books on [[Russian history]].

Born in [[Saint Petersburg]] on August 20, 1887, Vernadsky stemmed from a respectable family of the Russian [[intelligentsia]]. His father was [[Vladimir Vernadsky]], a famous Russian/Ukrainian geologist.<ref name=r1/><ref name=r2/>

Back in Russia, Vernadsky resumed his course at the Moscow University, graduating with honors in 1910. His instructors included the historians [[Vasily Klyuchevsky]] and [[Robert Vipper]]. The young scholar declined to continue his career in the university after the 1910 [[Lev Kasso|Kasso]] affair and moved to [[Saint Petersburg University]], where he taught for the next seven years, during which he was awarded the [[Master's degree]] for his dissertation on the effects of [[Freemasonry]] on the [[Russian Enlightenment]].

Vernadsky took a novel approach to Russian history, presenting it as a continuous succession of empires, starting from the Scythian, Sarmatian, Gothic, and Hunnic; Vernadsky attempted to determine the laws of their expansion and collapse. His views emphasized the importance of Eurasian nomadic cultures for theRussia's cultural and economic progress of Russia, thus anticipating some of the ideas advanced by [[Lev Gumilev]].

Vernadsky became the leading American exponent of depicting Russia as much Asian as European, if not more so. He pointed out many strongsubstantial cultural differences between Russia and Europe, and praised the success of Russian development along an independent path that revealed its own unique character. Vernadsky was a geographical determinist like his Yale colleague [[Ellsworth Huntington]]. They assumed that the characteristics of a land defined the character of the people and, indeed, of their government as well. For that reason, Vernadsky was able tocould identify the roots of Russian culture in an ancient period long before the Slavic groups arrived. He thereby undercut the standard claim that modern Russia emerged from KievanKyivan Rus. He emphasized the importance of the Mongol period (1238–1471), as the horde united the vast Eurasian plain under a single ruler. This gave tsarist Russia a strong centralized government asand well as thea deep distrust of Europe. Vernadsky was annoyed that Peter the Great tried to Westernize Russia, thereby distorting its natural character. He said Peter only succeeded in polarizing Russia into a Western -oriented elite that stood in profoundconflicted conflictprofoundly with the Eurasian peasants. Indeed, Vernadsky argued that this polarization was one of the main weaknesses of the tsarist regime, making it incapable of dealing with the revolutionary movements of the early twentieth century. He celebrated the collapse of the European -style parliamentary regimegovernment in the October Revolution of 1917 that brought the Bolsheviks to power. Vernadsky was not a liberal, nor was he a Communist sympathizer, but he did admire the Bolsheviks for rebuilding aan strongassertive Russia on non-European lines.<ref>David C. Engerman, ''Know Your Enemy: The Rise and Fall of America's Soviet Experts'' (2009) pp 160–61</ref>

While G.&nbsp;Vernadsky's writings about the historical past were based upon solid archive sources, his flight from Russia separated him from original materials of the latest periods. Thus, some critics of early editions were doubtful about certain figures and estimates he made for contemporaneousness, pointing out that some of them were rather a guess than hard evidence. After a new, edition of ''A History of Russia'' appeared in 1930, S.B.&nbsp;Clough from [[Columbia University]] reviewed it in ''[[Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science]]'':

:Most serious criticism of the book seems justified by the discussion of the Soviet period. Professor Vernadsky is a Russian refugee and has not been able to throw off an anti-Bolshevik bias. For example, in discussing the [[Five-year plans of the Soviet Union|Five Year Plan]] he says, "In some branches the quality of manufactured products fell below that of output before the war by 30, 40 or even 50 per cent". This is obviously a guess: quality of such various goods as are produced in Russia cannot be reduced to a percentage. In his whole discussion of the Five Year Plan he does not take sufficient account of the labor and capital invested for future production, and in citing Five Year Plan statistics he does not state which Five Year Plan he refers to. Moreover, he compares the figures issued at the end of the first year fifthwith those of the preceding year when a better picture would have been given if he had compared them with an index number. The last paragraph of the book seems questionable to the reviewer: "At the outset of the year 1930, the New Economic Policy could be considered completely abrogated. There had begun a new experiment in militant communism."<ref>[http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/154/1/191?ck{{cite journal |last=nck <nowiki>[</nowiki>Clough |first=S.B., Columbia|date=1931 University<nowiki>]</nowiki>|title=Review '''Vernadsky, George'''.of ''A History of Russia''//, by G.&nbsp;Vernadsky |journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. |volume=154, No. |number=1, |page=191 (1931)|doi=10.]{{dead1177/000271623115400177 link|datejstor=January 20181017974 |boturl=InternetArchiveBothttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1017974 |fixurl-attemptedaccess=yes registration}}</ref>

* {{cite book| title =Imperial Moscow University: 1755–1917: encyclopedic dictionary | agency editor= A. Andreev, D. Tsygankov |location= Moscow |year= 2010 |publisher= Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN) | pages =122–123 | isbn = 978-5-8243-1429-8| ref =Imperial Moscow University}}

[[Category:PeopleAcademic fromstaff of Saint Petersburg State University]]

[[Category:Perm State University facultyEurasianists]]

[[Category:Expatriates offrom the Russian Empire in Germany]]