Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky (; – ) was a leading

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n Imperial historian of the late imperial period. He also addressed the contemporary Russian economy in his writings.

Biography

A village priest's son, Klyuchevsky studied at

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

under Sergey Solovyov, to whose chair he succeeded in 1879. His first important publications were an article on economic activities of the

Solovetsky Monastery The Solovetsky Monastery (, ) is a fortified monastery located on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea in northern Russia. It was one of the largest Christian citadels in northern Russia before it was converted into a Soviet Union, Soviet pris ...

(1867) and a thesis on medieval Russian

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

(1871). Kluchevsky was one of the first Russian historians to shift attention away from political and social issues to geographical and economical forces. He was particularly interested in the process of Russian

colonisation 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

and the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

. In 1882, he published his landmark study of the

Boyar Duma A duma () is a History of Russia, Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were for ...

, whereby he asserted his view of a state as a result of collaboration of diverse classes of society. In 1889, Klyuchevsky was elected to the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

. Although his lectures were highly popular with the students of

, only a few of his works were intended for publication, e.g., a handful of biographies of "representative men", including

Andrei Kurbsky Prince Andrey Mikhailovich Kurbsky (1528?–1583) was a Russian political figure, military leader, and political philosopher, known as an intimate friend and then a leading political opponent of the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible (). He defected ...

Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin Afanasy Lavrentievich Ordin-Nashchokin (; 1605–1680) was a Russian statesman. He was a '' diak'' of the '' posolsky prikaz'' (foreign ministry). He was the first junior noble to attain the boyar title and highest offices of state not as a resul ...

, Feodor Rtishchev,

Vasily Galitzine Prince Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn (, tr. ; 1643–1714) was a Russian aristocrat and statesman of the 17th century. He belonged to the Golitsyn as well as Romodanovsky Muscovite noble families. His main political opponent was his cousin Princ ...

, and

Nikolay Novikov Nikolay Ivanovich Novikov (; , Moscow Governorate – Moscow Governorate) was a Russian writer and philanthropy, philanthropist most representative of his country's Russian Enlightenment, Enlightenment. Frequently considered to be the first Russ ...

. Klyuchevsky wrote his lectures on Russian history in the 1880s, and they were published in the 1900s and 1910s. He formulated the traditional view of East Slavic history, defining it as one of the Russian state and "

nationality Nationality is the legal status of belonging to a particular nation, defined as a group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on the basis of culture. In international law, n ...

", composed of two branches: the "Great Russian" (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

) and "

Little Russian Little Russia, also known as Lesser Russia, Malorussia, or Little Rus', is a geographical and historical term used to describe Ukraine. At the beginning of the 14th century, the patriarch of Constantinople accepted the distinction between what ...

" ( Ukrainian). He believed that there had been a single Rus' nationality in Kievan times, that the Great Rus'ian branch formed between the mid-fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and then a gathering of parts of the "Russian nationality" under one "all-Russian authority" took place up to the mid-nineteenth century. The last decade of his life was spent preparing the printed version of his lectures. He also became interested in politics, and joined the

Constitutional Democratic Party The Constitutional Democratic Party (, K-D), also called Constitutional Democrats and formally the Party of People's Freedom (), was a political party in the Russian Empire that promoted Western constitutional monarchy—among other policies� ...

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

records the following dictum by

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

Karamzin The Karamzin family is a noted Russian noble family of Tatar origin. It originates from the Tatar name Kara-Murza, meaning ''black lord''. Karamzin () is also a Russian masculine surname, its feminine counterpart is Karamzina. Notable members ...
wrote for the tsar,
Solovyov Solovyov, Solovyev, Soloviov, Solovjev, or Soloviev (Russian: Соловьёв) is a Russian masculine surname, its feminine forms are Solovyova, Solovyeva, Soloviova, Solovjeva or Solovieva. It derives from the first name or nickname Solovei (со� ...
wrote lengthily and tediously, and Klyuchevsky wrote for his own pleasure.

Commemoration

* In the year of the 125th anniversary of V.O. Klyuchevsky's birth, in February 1966, one of Penza's streets, Popovka Street, where the future historian spent his childhood and youth (1851-1861), was renamed Klyuchevskogo Street; * By

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funct ...

of the

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution, concentrating on Astrophysics, astrophysical studies including Galactic astronomy, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, Sun, solar ...

(USA), a small planet No. 4560, discovered in 1991, was named after V.O. Klyuchevsky as it was the year of the 150th anniversary of his birth; * On the occasion of the 150th birthday of the historian in 1991, in Penza, at Klyuchevskogo Street 66, the V.O. Klyuchevsky

House Museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of ...

was opened. The museum is housed in two one-story wooden houses. It includes a memorial house in which V.O. Klyuchevsky lived from 1851 to 1861, and the house of his neighbors, the Shevirevs, which was in close proximity to the first. Both houses were connected by an internal passage, which allowed to create a single museum exposition. The museum exposition displays the life of the Klyuchevsky family during the years of their life in

Penza Penza (, ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Penza Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Sura (river), Sura River, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 Russian census, 2010 Census, Penza had ...

; * On the 150th anniversary of the birth of V. O. Klyuchevsky in 1991, in his native village of Voskresenovka, Penza District, Penza Oblast, a bust and a

memorial plaque A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, bearing text or an image in relief, or both, ...

were opened on the territory of a rural school; * Since 1994 the

Presidium A presidium or praesidium is a council of executive officers in some countries' political assemblies that collectively administers its business, either alongside an individual president or in place of one. The term is also sometimes used for the ...

of the Russian Academy of Sciences awards established the Prize of V.O. Klyuchevsky for works in the field of Russian history; * On October 11, 2008, a monument to V.O. Klyuchevsky was erected in

(by the sculptor V.Yu. Kuznetsov). The monument is a bronze statue mounted on a precast pedestal; * On the 175th anniversary of V.O. Klyuchevsky, on December 16, 2016, the

Legislative Assembly of Penza Oblast The Legislative Assembly of Penza Oblast () is the regional parliament of Penza Oblast, a federal subject of Russia. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the imple ...

decided to assign the name of V.O. Klyuchevsky to Penza Secondary School No. 28; * On November 14, 2018, in Penza, on the building of the former theological school, in which V.O. Klyuchevsky studied at the Penza Theological Seminary (the seminary was temporarily located in this building after the fire of 1858) and which is now turned into the Dentistry Department of

Penza State University Penza State University () is a state university in the city of Penza. It was founded in 1943. The university has nine faculties and five institutes. History It was founded on the basis of the Odessa Industrial Institute, which was relocated to ...

, there is a memorial plaque dedicated to him (by the sculptor V. Yu. Kuznetsov); * On the 150th anniversary of his birth, in 1991 in the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

postage stamp dedicated to Klyuchevsky was issued; * On the occasion of the 170th birthday of V.O. Klyuchevsky in 2011, the Russian Post issued a postcard depicting the monument to V.O. Klyuchevsky by sculptor V. Yu. Kuznetsov in Penza and a postal envelope depicting Klyuchevsky’s house-museum in Penza, as well as a special postmark; * On the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the birth of V.O. Klyuchevsky, in 2016 the Russian post issued a postage stamp and a postal envelope, as well as three special postmarks.

References

English translations

*''A History of Russia'', (5 Volumes), J.M. Dent/E.P. Dutton, London/NY, 1911
from Archive.org
*''Peter the Great'', Beacon Press, Boston, 1984. *''Rise of the Romanovs'', Barnes & Noble, 1993. * Two samples of his prose can be found in Crimean-Nogai Raids#Historians on the Tatar Raids

Biography

Commemoration

References

English translations

Further reading