ACADEMICIAN N. M. DRUZHININ ABOUT THE DECEMBRISTS IN SIBERIA
Authors: Туманик Е.Н. 
Published: July 2024

Статья посвящена ранним работам Н.М. Дружинина в области декабристоведения, в которых заложена серьезная основа для разработки направления исследований о декабристах в Сибири. Представлено концептуальное видение академиком Н.М. Дружининым сибирской ссылки декабристов, являющееся составной частью его общих представлений о декабризме. Освещен вклад ученого в постановку и изучение проблем, относящихся к теме «Декабристы в Сибири», показано современное значение его идей в раскрытии таких проблем, как педагогическая, научная и просветительская деятельность декабристов после 1825 г., эволюция их политических взглядов в период после восстания. Сделан вывод, что идеи Н.М. Дружинина органично вписались в концепцию декабризма, выработанную в заключительный период советского декабристоведения середины 1970-х – конца 1980-х гг., а также сохраняют свою актуальность на современном этапе изучения данной темы.

The article analyses N.M. Druzhinin’s early works in the field of Decembrist studies, devoted to N.M. Muravyov and I.D. Yakushkin, which were published in the late 1920s – early 1940s and laid a severe foundation for the development of the topic. Academician Druzhinin’s conceptual vision of the Decembrists’ Siberian exile is an integral part of his general ideas about Decembrism. In those years, N.M. Druzhinin did not consider the Siberian period to be a continuation of the Decembrists’ movement. However, in his research, he formed decisive prerequisites for a new view of the problem as a temporal section fully enveloped in the history of the noble stage of the liberation movement. N.M. Druzhinin was one of the first to show the importance of the study of exile for the formation of an objective picture of the Decembrists’ history. He drew a peculiar line under the pre-revolutionary and early Soviet stages of the study of the Decembrists in Siberia, and stood on the threshold of its new comprehension. Moreover, he was the first to see the most crucial ideological component in the “Siberian Twenty Years”, not just stating facts and describing the circumstances of the Decembrists’ exile but concentrating on the ideological foundations of their activities. His views and scientific approaches played an essential role in substantiating the general concept of Decembrism, which finally took shape in Soviet historiography by the mid-1970s as an inseparable whole before and after the revolt. In addition, N.M. Druzhinin created a methodological basis for developing Siberian Decembrists’ biography and initiated a comprehensive study of the Decembrists’ pedagogical activities in Siberia. The article shows the modern significance of the ideas of academician Druzhinin in the disclosure of such topics as the pedagogical, scientific and educational activities of the Decembrists and the evolution of their political views after 1825. It is concluded that N.M. Druzhinin’s ideas organically fit into the concept of Decembrism, which developed in the final period of Soviet Decembrists’ studies in the mid-1970s – late 1980s, as well as retain their relevance at the present stage of the study of the topic.