Petrov, Victor Porfirievich

Born in the family of a priest.

He studied at the gymnasium in Blagoveshchensk , then - in the cadet corps, founded by ataman I. P. Kalmykov .

After the Bolsheviks seized the Far East (October 1922), Victor returned to Harbin, crossing the border under the shelling of the Red Army.

In Harbin, he continued his education, graduated from Russian gymnasium and Harbin Law School . The first literary experiments Petrov blessed the famous Harbin poet Arseny Nesmelov .

In the years 1930-1940. lived in Shanghai , where he worked in a large trading company. At one time, he drove horses from Mongolia for the Shanghai Hippodrome.

He was also engaged in journalistic and literary work.

Due to military operations and the onset of the Japanese army, he moved to the United States (1940).

Until 1945 he served in the management of railways and wrote for two Russian newspapers.

He continued his education. Bachelor, Master of American University in Washington, then defended his doctoral dissertation, specializing in international relations, history and geography. He taught at the Naval School at the University of Colorado (1945-1946), the School of Foreign Languages ​​of the Naval Department in Washington (1946-1965), where he rose to the rank of full professor. He has lectured in geography at the Institute for the Study of China and the USSR at George Washington University (1962-1967). He taught geography (1965-1967) at the College of Pennsylvania ( Shippensburg , Pennsylvania ), the University of California and the University of Victoria in British Columbia. In total, I lectured for 35 years.

In 1967-1970 - Assistant Director of Programs at the National Research Foundation (National Science Foundation).

Petrov is the author of 8 books in English devoted to the industries of the USSR, China and Mongolia; about 100 articles in scientific journals of the USA, Great Britain, Greece, Germany and Japan, mainly devoted to the problems of the USSR and China; 27 books in Russian, more than 300 articles in Russian foreign newspapers and magazines devoted mainly to Russian pioneers in America, the history of Russian emigration in China and America.

One of Petrov's articles on the Soviet oceanographic fleet contributed to the allocation in the United States of $ 670 million for the modernization of the relevant fleet. Thanks to the articles by Petrov, published in the journal "Missiles and Rockets" and devoted to the analysis of the development of cosmonautics in the USSR, in 1962 the members of the Senate paid attention to the backlog of the United States in this area. As a result, an energetic program for the study and exploration of outer space was developed.

The name of Professor Petrov first appeared in the “Who is Who in America in 1971” directory. Since 1973, Petrov - a member of the Congress of Russian Americans . Consisted of a member of the Main Board and Chairman of the Washington Division of the CRA. Represented Americans of Russian descent at the State Department and at the White House. During the Iron Curtain period, Victor Porfirievich managed to “build bridges” with like-minded people in the USSR , he corresponded with historians S. N. Markov and N. P. Ivlev ...

Since 1950, Petrov was engaged in painting, wrote about 30 paintings, which depict still lifes and Russian landscapes.

Petrov put a lot of work in front of the state of California about the need to restore Fort Ross . In 1990, Viktor Porfirevich came to the USSR to open the museum of Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskov in Totma ^[1] .

Since 1994, Petrov has been a foreign member of the Center for the Study of Russian America and American-Russian Relations at the Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences [Russian Academy of Sciences]. For services to the United States and the Russian public, the name of Petrov was submitted by KPA to the Russian-American Chamber of Glory (1995).

March 22, 1997 was the celebration of the 90th anniversary of Petrov. US President Bill Clinton and his wife sent Petrov their congratulations, noting his services to the country.

Buried at the local cemetery in Rockville e.

By a decree dated December 23, 2000, Russian President Vladimir V. Petrov was posthumously awarded the Order of Friendship for studying the history of research by the Russian pioneers of the North American continent and the contribution of Russians to the development of the New World.

In Russian

• Under the American flag. Stories Shanghai, 1933.
• Lola. Novel. Shanghai, 1934.
• In Manchuria. Stories Shanghai, 1937.
• Albazintsy in China. Washington, 1956.
• Chinese stories. Washington, 1962.
• Saga Fort Ross. A novel in 2 books. 1961-1963; 2nd ed. 1980
• Centenary anniversary of the arrival of Russian squadrons in America (co-author). Washington, 1963.
• Russian spiritual mission in China. History reference. Washington, 1968.
• Columbus Russian. Story. Washington, 1971.
• The court yard. Novel. Washington, 1973.
• Completion of the cycle. Story. Los Angeles. 1975.
• A brief sketch of the Russian presence in California at the beginning of the last century. Los Angeles. 1974.
• Russian America. History reference. Los Angeles. 1975; 2nd ed. 1978
• Cataclysm. Washington, 1982.
• Fort Ross and its cultural significance. Washington, 1977, 1978.
• City on Sungari. Washington, 1984 ^[2] .
• Shanghai on the Whamp. Washington, 1985.
• In the Holy Land. Essays. Washington, 1986.
• In the footsteps of the Inca and Maya. Essays. Washington, 1987.
• Russians in the history of America. Washington, 1988; M., "Science", 1991.
• Russians in America, XX century. Washington, 1992.
• Outcast Autobiography. Washington, 1994.
• Russia in the Far East. Washington, 1996.

In English

• Electric power. 1959.
• Soviet industry. 1960
• Energy Resources. 1962.
• Geography of the Soviet Union. 1964.
• Transportation. 1967.
• China Emerging world power. 1967.
• Mongolia: a profile. 1970.

• Aleksandrov E. A. ^[3] V. P. Victor Porfirevich Petrov // RA [Russian American (New York)]. 1995. № 20.
• Aleksandrov E. A. Victor Petrov // RA. 1997. No. 21. P. 167-169 (With English summsry).
• Aleksandrov, E. A. Konchin, Viktor Porfirevich Petrov // NRS [New Russian Word (New York)]. 2000. August.
• Aleksandrov, E. A. To the bright memory of Victor Porfirevich Petrov // RJ [Russian Life (San Francisco)]. 2000. August 26th.
• Butkov V. N. High Appraisal of the Activities and Works of Viktor Petrov // LDC. 1994. August 10th.
• Butkov V.N. Writer Viktor Petrov is 85 years old // LDC. 1992. March 13.
• Gapdenberg M. “I am Russian, that says it all” (About V.P. Petrov) // LDC. 1993. December 31st.
• Zhuravlev V. Known unknown // Soviet culture (Moscow). 1989. December 7th.
• Foster L. Honoring the historian of Russian America, Viktor Petrov // LDC. 1995. May 5th.

• Order of Friendship ( December 23, 2000 , Russia ) - for a great contribution to the strengthening of friendly relations and the development of Russian-American cooperation ^[4] .

• PETROV Viktor Porfirievich // Russians in North America. Biographical dictionary.
• "Northern Cross"