Ado, Anatoly Vasilievich

Born in Kazan, his father (Vasily Ivanovich Ado, 1905 - July 21, 1995) taught history at Kazan universities. He studied in the first post-war course at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University , where already in the first year of study he determined for himself the field of activity - the history of the French Revolution of the 18th century. ^{[3] [4]} In 1949 he enrolled in a special seminar by B. F. Porshnev , who became famous for his doctoral dissertation on popular uprisings in France in the second quarter of the 17th century. Under his leadership, Ado defended his dissertation in 1950, Mellier and Voltaire, and entered graduate school . The theme of his Ph.D. thesis is “The Peasant Movement in France in the First Years of the French Bourgeois Revolution of the End of the 18th Century”. Even before defending his dissertation, he joined the Department of New History at the History Department of Moscow State University. During the first trip abroad to France in 1962, he met Albert Sobul , who introduced him to the circle of historians of the “Jacobin” Revolution.

In the summer of 1968, A. V. Ado defended his doctoral dissertation "The Peasant Movement in France on the Eve and during the Great French Bourgeois Revolution of the End of the 18th Century." Three years later, it was published as a monograph and translated into French. Ado's works were published in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the USA, he was a member of the editorial board of the journals " New and Contemporary History ", AHRF (France), "Komparativ" (Germany).

Despite the fact that Anatoly Vasilievich was certainly formed as a Marxist historian and Soviet methodological guidelines always remained extremely important for him, there is a significant evolution that can be traced both from his work and from the recollections of people who knew him well. Many ^{[ who? ]} note that at the beginning of his career, Anatoly Vasilievich was a romantic of the revolution, "spoke very highly of the Jacobins , very sympathized with the Jacobins in their impulse." However, even then, like a number of other young faculty teachers, Ado was far from dogmatism and was listed in the "revisionists", which "was completely not honorable" . Subsequently, clearly “his desire was felt to somehow resolve for himself personally the contradiction between the desire for free scientific research and the conventions of official ideology”, in an interview with one of his colleagues, Ado once bluntly said that, in his opinion, “ socialism is not was able to solve the problem of freedom of scientific creativity ” .

The scientific evolution of Ado is clearly visible when comparing the first and second editions of his monograph. A.V. Gordon emphasizes that in the second edition Ado substantially expanded the narrative of 1793-1794 - earlier in this part the story about the agrarian policy of the Jacobins prevailed, and supplemented his work with an extremely important chapter on the agrarian results of the Revolution, inscribing the “peasant revolution” in the general agrarian development of France and comparing it with other ways of modernization, in particular, with classical English.

Even before the release of the first edition of Ado's monograph, the question of the role of the peasantry in the Revolution provoked lively discussions among historians. The main problem here was the “progressiveness” of the peasant movement: whether it was directed against the Old Order or, conditionally speaking, “ feudalism ” in favor of the development of capitalist relations in the countryside (and, thus, entered into the Marxist concept of the Revolution as a decisive stage on the way transition from feudalism to capitalism) or conservative tendencies among the peasantry itself do not allow us to draw a similar conclusion. Resolving this contradiction, the leading expert on the agrarian history of France, J. Lefebvre , suggested that the French Revolution had its own, autonomous "peasant revolution", both "progressive" and conservative, against the development of capitalism in the countryside on the basis of large households.

According to the concept of Ado, supported by many sources, "the whole peasantry resolutely rejected that program of compromise with the old order in the agricultural sphere with which the liberal nobility and the moderate bourgeoisie began and led the revolution in its first years"; on the contrary, "it was largely able to impose its decisions on the bourgeois revolution." At the same time, peasant uprisings did not fit into a single channel, they were multidimensional. Three types of struggle - against feudal obligations, for bread and for land - although they had many points of contact, sometimes possessed their own internal logic, and differed in participants and opponents. On the whole, Ado singled out several "jacquers" within the general peasant movement, which, at least in the agricultural sphere, propelled the revolution forward, forcing radicalization of legislation.

At the same time, to the rather cautious conclusions made in the 1971 book that “even at the highest stage of the revolution, the wishes of the lower classes were only partially authorized by law” (although the revolution, of course, “expanded and strengthened the position of small peasant property”), In 1987, another statement is added: "Large land ownership (along with small property) remained one of the foundations of the agricultural system of France, while in the hands of large owners were usually the best quality land."

In one of Ado's latest works - “A Letter to Professor Chen Chengxin” - was published posthumously - it is noted that “in essence [...] the Soviet historiography of the French Revolution ended. It is being replaced by the formation of a new, Russian historiography of the French Revolution. She does not lose continuity with the most positive legacy of Soviet historiography, but she belongs to a different time and has her own special face ”

A.V. Ado devoted much time to teaching at Moscow University, where he became the founder of an entire scientific school for the study of the French Revolution.

He died in 1995. He was buried in the Miussky cemetery .

• Peasants and the Great French Revolution. The peasant movement in 1789-1794 M .: Publishing house of Moscow State University , 1971 (2nd ed. 1987)
• Living heritage of the Great Revolution. Preface to the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution
• Peasant uprisings at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 // From the history of social movements and international relations: Sat. Articles in memory of Acad. E.V. Tarle. M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , 1957
• Paysans en Révolution. Terre, pouvoir et jacquerie 1789-1794. P., 1996.
• Mouvement paysan et le problème de l'égalité dans la Révolution française. 1789-1794 // Contribution à l'histoire paysanne de la Révolution française. P., 1977;
• Probleme der "Bauern-revolution" in der Großen Revolution der Französen // Bauern und burgerliche Revolution. Berlin, 1985;
• Sur le mouvement paysan pendant la Révolution française // Cahiers d'histoire de l'Institut de recherches marxistes. 1991. N 6.

• Bovykin D. Yu. A. V. Ado, Professor, Moscow University // French Yearbook 2002. M., 2002.
• Bovykin D. Yu. Anatoly Vasilievich Ado: image and memory . Saratov: Scientific book, 2007.
• Bovykin D. Yu. Anatoly Vasilyevich Ado // Russian Historical Encyclopedia . T. 1.M., 2015, p. 162
• Gordon A.V. Historians of the Iron Age. - M.-SPb .: Center for Humanitarian Initiatives, 2018 .-- 448 p.
• Ado, Anatoly Vasilievich / Kiseleva E.V. // A - Questioning [Electronic resource]. - 2005. - P. 240. - (The Big Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 1). - ISBN 5-85270-329-X .
• Smirnov V.P. Anatoly Vasilievich Ado: man, teacher, scientist (1928-1995) // New and recent history . 1997. No. 1. S. 184-209.
• Fedosova E.I. Anatoly Vasilievich Ado // Bulletin of Moscow University . Series 8. History. 1996. No. 5.