Boris Rybakov

Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov (Russian: Бори́с Алекса́ндрович Рыбако́в, 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001) was a Soviet and Russian historian who personified the anti-Normanist vision of Russian history. He is the father of Indologist Rostislav Rybakov.[1]

Boris Rybakov.

Life and works

Rybakov held a chair in Russian history at the Moscow University since 1939, was a deputy dean of the university in 1952-54, and administered the Russian History Institute for 40 years. His first groundbreaking monograph was the Handicrafts of Ancient Rus (1948), which sought to demonstrate the economic superiority of Kievan Rus to contemporary Western Europe.

Rybakov led important excavations in Moscow, Novgorod, Zvenigorod, Chernigov, Pereyaslav, Tmutarakan and Putivl and published his findings in numerous monographs, including Antiquities of Chernigov (1949), The Chronicles and Bylinas of Ancient Rus (1963), The First Centuries of Russian history (1964), The Tale of Igor's Campaign and Its Contemporaries (1971), Muscovite Maps of the 15th and early 16th Centuries (1974), and Herodotus' Scythia (1979). In the latter book he viewed the Scythians described by Herodotus as ancestors of modern Slavic nations.

In his older years, Rybakov attempted to reconstruct the pantheon and myths of Slavic religion. He outlined his ideas in Ancient Slavic Paganism (1981) and Ancient Paganism of Rus (1987). Some of these reconstructions have been heavily criticized as far-fetched.[2]

Honours and awards

References

  1. "Мастер гипотезы Борис Рыбаков". Kultura. 3 June 2008.
  2. Leo Klejn. Воскрешение Перуна. К реконструкции восточнославянского язычества. СПб., 2004. С. 70.

Bibliography

  • Саєнко В. М. Наукові долі О.І. Тереножкіна та Б.О. Рибакова або історія одного листа, написаного до самого себе. // Scriptorium nostrum. –– 2017. – No. 1 (7). – С. 50-86.
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