Syromyatnikov, Boris Ivanovich

Before the Revolution

Boris Ivanovich Syromyatnikov was born in Moscow on October 4, 1874 in the family of a zemstvo doctor ^[1] .

In 1895 he entered the law faculty of Moscow University . He took part in student speeches and came to the attention of the police as an unreliable student. In 1899 he was expelled to Ryazan , and then to Kazan , but soon returned to Moscow. In 1900, Syromyatnikov graduated from the university and was left to prepare for a professorship. After passing the exams to obtain the right to teach at the university, he was invited to Moscow University to the position of private assistant professor in the department of state law ^{[2] [3]} .

In 1903-1905, the young scientist was on a scientific trip to Europe, where he completed an internship in Paris and also visited Berlin . The main objective of Syromyatnikov was to study the comparative history of law and the history of French law. In France, Syromyatnikov worked in the archives, and also personally met with leading jurists, including the famous medieval law historian Ernest Glasson ^[4] .

Upon returning from abroad, Syromyatnikov continued to work at Moscow University. Since 1906, he taught at the Konstantinovsky Land Surveying Institute , since 1907 - at the Moscow Higher Women's Courses , since 1908 - at the Moscow Commercial Institute ^[5] .

During the first Russian revolution, Syromyatnikov began to actively publish in the newspapers Russkoe Slovo , Russkiye Vedomosti , Vek, Morning of Russia and others. In the articles “The Tradition of the Revolutionary Movement in Russia” and “On the Essence of the Constitution,” the scientist, recognizing the regularity of the revolutionary process, categorically rejected the methods of revolutionary terror . In his opinion, such forms of revolutionary activity should sooner or later give way to political struggle within the framework of the constitutional system and parliamentary democracy , as happened in Western Europe ^[6] .

In 1905-1906, Syromyatnikov took part in the work of the Academic Union, a professional public organization of teachers of higher educational institutions, to the congresses of which he was repeatedly elected a delegate from Moscow University. At the same time he became one of the founders, a member of the board and lecturer of the Moscow Society of People’s Universities. For several years he traveled with public lectures throughout the European part of Russia; at the same time, the authorities banned Syromyatnikov’s course on the history of local self-government ^[7] .

In 1911, privat docent Syromyatnikov became one of the teachers and employees of Moscow University who resigned in protest against the policies of the Ministry of Education (“ Casso case ”). As a result of his dismissal, he was unable to complete work on his doctoral dissertation on the problem of feudal relations in Ancient Russia , which had begun during the period of foreign internship. In 1911, only the first part of the dissertation was completed - a fundamental historiographical essay, of which 416 pages were preserved ^[8] .

After leaving Moscow University, Syromyatnikov focused on work in the society of people's universities, where in 1912 he was elected deputy chairman, and in 1914 - chairman of the society. He held this position until the close of society in 1918. Since 1910, he taught at the A. L. Shanyavsky University ^[8] .

Since 1913 - an employee of the Encyclopedic Dictionary Granat , for whom he wrote about fifty articles, notes and essays on the history of Russian law and political history, as well as a number of biographies of statesmen and scholars ^[9] .

Under Soviet

In 1917, Syromyatnikov returned to the law faculty of Moscow University. In 1918-1919 - professor of the Department of the History of Russian Law. After the abolition of the Faculty of Law - Professor of the Legal Department (1921) and Professor of the Department of General History and Theory of Law (1921-1925) of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Moscow State University ^{[10] [11]} .

He reacted negatively to the October Revolution , but, despite contacts abroad, he did not leave the country and continued his scientific and teaching activities under the conditions of the Soviet regime. In the 1920s, he taught at a number of educational institutions — the Ivanovo-Voznesensky Polytechnic Institute , the Moscow Land Surveying Institute , labor faculty, and others. Among Syromyatnikov’s studies of this period is the monograph “The Age of Ivan the Terrible,” which, however, was never completed and published ^{[ 12]} .

In 1928, Syromyatnikov received a denunciation, which stated that the historian, allegedly expelled from Moscow University for anti-Soviet views, did not have the right to work at the labor faculty. The scientist was forced to make excuses at a meeting of the workers 'and peasants' inspection . After this, Syromyatnikov moved to Kazan, where in September 1928 he became a professor at the faculty of Soviet law at Kazan University . In 1930, he left Kazan and returned to Moscow, where he worked for a long time as head of the library of the Central Textile Research Institute. In the mid-1930s, Syromyatnikov began teaching at the Moscow Law Institute ^[13] .

In 1938, Syromyatnikov headed the state law section of the reorganized Institute of Law of the USSR Academy of Sciences ; in the same year, in the aggregate of published works, received a doctorate in law. As the main work, he presented a project to publish a collection of ancient Russian monuments of law, including Russian Truth , with detailed comments. The project was almost completed by 1941 and received positive feedback from Academician Yu. V. Gautier . However, the book never saw the light of day because of the active opposition of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences , headed by B. D. Grekov , who was preparing his commentary edition of Russian Truth ^[14] .

Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Syromyatnikov, together with the Institute of Law, was evacuated to Tashkent , where he was appointed head of the section on the history of state and law ^[15] .

In 1943, the most famous work of Syromyatnikov was published - the “Regular” state of Peter the Great and his ideology. Part one". A lot of reviews appeared on the book, mostly negative. The scientist's conclusions were discussed at a famous meeting of historians in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks , held in 1944; at this meeting, the book was sharply criticized for allegedly reviving the concept of M. N. Pokrovsky and the attempt to “push through bourgeois theories”. The consequence of these events was that the second part of the monograph never saw the light of day. Despite this, in the same 1944 Syromyatnikov was awarded the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR ^[16] .

In 1943 he became a professor in the Department of History and Theory of State and Law of the reconstructed law faculty of Moscow State University ^[11] .

On January 12, 1947, Professor Syromyatnikov died after a serious and prolonged illness. After his death, an obituary was published in the journal “ Soviet State and Law ”, in which he noted his great services to the historical and legal sciences, and his approach to the study of historical and legal problems was described as innovative ^{[17] [18]} .

• The supremacy of the people and the Constituent Assembly. - M. , 1917.
• History of Russian state law. Lecture course. - M. , 1909.
• History of Russian trade and Russian commercial law. Lecture course. - M. , 1916.
• A brief overview and index of literature on the history of state power. - M. , 1913.
• Essay on the history of the Russian textile industry in connection with the history of the Russian national economy. - Ivanovo-Voznesensk, 1925.
• The "regular" state of Peter the Great and its ideology. Part 1. - M. - L., 1943.

• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (06/10/1945)
• Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1944)

• Belenky I.L. Boris Ivanovich Syromyatnikov (1874-1947) // Russia and the modern world. - 2002. - No. 4 . - S. 204-213 .
• Muravyov V.A. B. I. Syromyatnikov // Historians of Russia. Biographies. - M. , 2001.
• Tikhonov V.V. Historian of the “old school”: Scientific biography of B. I. Syromyatnikov. - Pisa, 2008.

• Syromyatnikov Boris Ivanovich (neopr.) . Chronicle of Moscow University . Date of appeal October 31, 2017.