«Many are now hiding...»: B.D. Grekov and crimean local history 30s of ХХ century

The unknown nuances of scientific and personal contacts of the major Soviet historian B.D. Grekov (1882-1953) around the plots, connected with the study of the Crimea, were disclosed. The documents of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Central State Archives-Museum of Literature and Art of Ukraine (Kiev) were used as a source base. Based on data of the official correspondence of the Historical and Archaeographic Commission at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the personal correspondence of the leader of scientific Crimean local history Arseny Ivanovich Markevich, the scientific connections of the prominent Soviet historian Boris Grekov with Crimean scholars in the controversial period of Soviet history in the 1930s were analysed. The problem of Grekov's personal contacts with the local historians, which became especially interesting to researchers, in connection with his long stay on the peninsula during the years of civil hard times, about which the scientist was silent, if possible, until the last days of his life was considered. An ambiguous attitude at this time of Grekov to colleagues with whom he worked in previous periods of biography, such as A.I. Markevich and N.D. Polonskaya-Vasilenko was shown. The identification and study of substantial epistolary heritage of researchers of Crimea allowed to restore the project information on the publication of documents on the history of the Crimea of the medieval period and the New Times, which were not implemented for a number of subjective reasons, the main of which became mass repression of the figures of science and culture of the Crimea. In particular, the idea of the publication of two volumes of sources of local history as part of the multi-volume of the “Russian Historical Library” proposed by B.D. Grekov to the Crimean authorities, as well as the proposal of N.D. Polonskaya-Vasilenko, who worked in the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, to publish the documents in Leningrad at the expense of the Institute of History and Archeography on the settlement of Novorossia and the Crimea in the late XVIII century were reviewed. The article colorful noteworthy personal assessments by B.D. Grekov's colleagues were reproduced. It demonstrated that Boris Dmitrievich, occupying high positions continued active personal and official communication with colleagues from the Crimea including about the Crimean subject, that refutes judgments about what existed with this scientist ban on this topic. In addition, Grekov's active contacts with Arseny Markevich were demonstrated. The information extracted from the epistolary is contradictory and in the greater part testifies to the cautious attitude of Grekov, who at that time became a well-known historian to everything connected with the Crimea and to individual scientists, which have been under the attention of security agencies were illustrated. Subjectivity in relation to B.D. Grekov, desire to see to his former attention and receive assistance in publications in the estimates of scientists were identified.

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