Franz Boas and Soviet Russia: 25 years of ambivalence | Sibirskie Istoricheskie Issledovaniia – Siberian Historical Research. 2021. № 1. DOI: 10.17223/2312461X/31/4

Franz Boas and Soviet Russia: 25 years of ambivalence

The article deals with the attitude of Franz Boas towards the Soviet Union and his relationship with Russian/Soviet colleagues. Using published sources as well as Boas's unpublished correspondence, the author examines the following topics: Boas's scholarly cooperation and friendship with Vladimir I. Jochelson, Lev Ya. Shternberg and especially Vladimir G. Bogoraz; Boas's attitudes towards the tsarist and the Soviet regimes; his efforts to organize regular graduate student exchange between the USA and the USSR as well as joint scientific projects by scholars from the two countries. The article demonstrates that despite his dislike of the Soviet government's methods and ideological pressure on science (including ethnology) Boas tried not to criticize the Soviet Union publicly. Yet, he did criticize it privately, the reason for that lying in his liberal-socialist views and his fear of ending up in the camp of anticommunists. Towards the end of life Boas's close relationship with the American Communist party had a strong influence on his view of the USSR.

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Keywords

history of ethnology, Franz Boas, Vladimir G. Bogoraz, US scientists' attitudes towards the USSR, Stalinism, Communist party USA, World War II

Authors

Name	Organization	E-mail
Kan Sergei А.	Dartmouth College	sergei.a.kan@dartmouth.edu

Всего: 1

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