Sergey Ivanovich Kovalev (; – 12 November 1960) was a Soviet scholar of

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

. He was interested particularly in the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

, the

origins of Christianity Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and bey ...

Roman history The history of Rome includes the history of the Rome, city of Rome as well as the Ancient Rome, civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman la ...

and ancient

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

Life

Kovalev was born in the village of Kuganak, then in

Ufa Governorate Ufa Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire with its capital in the city of Ufa. It was created in 1865 by separation from Orenburg Governorate. On June 14, 1922 the governorate was transformed i ...

of the Russian Empire. Being a high school student Kovalev joined the Ufa organization of the RSDLP (b). He was engaged in circles, carrying out party assignments, printed and pasted proclamations. For participation in the

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities ma ...

demonstration of 1905 he was arrested and expelled from the 8th grade of the gymnasium. At the end of May, he was sent under

police supervision Police supervision or police monitoring is a form of additional punishment and crime prevention. The regulations vary for various countries. A common feature was restriction and control of the place of residence of the supervised person. In certain ...

to his uncle in Samara. There he continued to work in the Samara organization of the RSDLP (b). Kovalev later mostly withdrew from political activity. In 1910, he entered the History and Philology Department of the

Saint Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBGU; ) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the Great, the university from the be ...

, before being drafted into the military in 1915. In 1922, Kovalev graduated from the Department of Social Sciences of the Saint Petersburg University. He attained the professorship and became the Head of Department of the Ancient World in the Saint Petersburg University. He also worked in the Petersburg (then Leningrad) branch of the History Institute of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

. In Greek history, Kovalev denied the concept of

Dorian invasion The Dorian invasion (or Dorian migration) is an ancient Greek myth and discredited archaeological hypothesis describing the movement of the Dorian people into the Peloponnese region of Greece. According to the myth, the Dorians migrated from c ...

. In 1930, Kovalev published an article on the formation of ancient Macedonian state under Philip and Alexander the Great. In 1936, Kovalev published the first comprehensive Soviet textbook on ancient history for high school. He became one of the editors of the three-volume Soviet book ''The History of Ancient World''. There he authored two chapters, "The rise of Macedonia and the conquest of Asia" and "The philosophy and art of Greece during its heyday". In 1945–48, Kovalev published his seminal work, ''The History of Rome''. In 1956–60, Kovalev was the director of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism.

Historicity of Jesus

In 1956–59, Kovalev polemicized with British scholar Archibald Robertson about the

historicity of Jesus The historicity of Jesus is the scholarly question in Biblical criticism and early Christian history of whether Jesus historically existed or was a purely mythological figure. Scholarly discussions questioning the historical existence of Jesus ...

. The polemic was spurred by the Russian translation of Robertson's publication ''The Origins of Christianity''. Kovalev, who held

atheistic Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

views, clinged to the

Christ myth theory The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory, is the fringe view that the story of Jesus is a work of mythology with no historical substance. Alternatively, in terms given by ...

. In the foreword for the Russian translation Kovalev called Robertson's recognition of Jesus' historicity "a serious flaw" and argued to the contrary. Robertson replied to Kovalev in the second edition of ''The Origins of Christianity''. At the same time Kovalev acknowledged the historicity of

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

Paul the Apostle Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...

and apostle James.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovalev, Sergey Proponents of the Christ myth theory 1886 births 1960 deaths People from Sterlitamaksky Uyezd Russian atheists Historians of ancient Rome Soviet atheists Soviet historians Saint Petersburg State University alumni Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Old Bolsheviks Russian Marxist historians Historians of antiquity es:Sergei Kovaliov