Formation of the creative personality of G.V. Vernadsky

The paper is devoted to Eurasian historian G.V. Vernadsky (August 20, 1887 June 13, 1973). In the introduction the fundamental milestones of scientific formation of G.V. Vernadsky are given. The scholar grew in an environment that awoke his interest in intellectual work. His father, V.I. Vernadsky, substantially supported G.V. Vernadsky and helped him with determination of professional interests of the future scholar. Communication with outstanding historians, such as A.N. Savin, D.M. Petrushevsky, M.M. Bogoslovsky, A.A. Kizeveter, R.Yu. Vipper and V.O. Klyuchevsky influenced him, too. The Revolution of 1917 radically affected the further life of the historian, and his creative search. In 1917 he moved to Perm where he was elected the Professor of Perm University. When being there, G.V. Vernadsky paid attention to the subject of development of Siberia and Orthodoxy. Later Vernadsky moved to Simferopol where Byzantium became the sphere of his research interests, but there the scholar experienced some financial problems, and his father and friends helped to solve them. In 1920 G.V. Vernadsky emigrated from Russia to Constantinople, then to Athens, and in 1922 to Prague. He did not quit his research and teaching work, on the contrary, he deepened the subject of the research, especially concentrating on the relationship of Ancient Russia with the East. In 1923 the historian got acquainted with the leader of the Eurasian movement P.N. Savitsky whose ideas played the key role in G.V. Vernadsky's academic works. G.V. Vernadsky's first Eurasian work was published in 1923. ''Connection of Churches in Historical Reality'' was written for the collection ''Russia and the Latin''. In 1925 G.V. Vernadsky wrote two more articles ''Two Feats of Alexander Nevsky'' and ''The Mongolian Yoke in the Russian History'' published only in 1927. The detailed analysis shows that the articles sooner express patriotic views of the historian than the Eurasian ones. It should be noted that his father did not support Vernadsky in his participation in Eurasianism. As the subsequent letters show, V.I. Vernadsky, on the contrary, subjected the Eurasian aspect in historical works of the scholar to criticism. Despite the father's opinion, G.V. Vernadsky continued to study the history of Russia in the Eurasian course. For example, in 1927 G.V. Vernadsky's monograph ''The Outline of the Russian History'' was published. A remarkable fact is that this monograph has an article by P.N. Savitsky, ''Geopolitical Notes on the Russian History''. In his work G.V. Vernadsky fully reflected the concept Russia-Eurasia, applied the theory of ''developmental site'', and put forward two Eurasian schemes ''wood and steppe ratio'' and ''rhythmic of state-development process''. The same year the Eurasian scholar emigrated to the USA where a new stage of the historian's life began.

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