Smirnov, Vladislav Pavlovich

V.P.Smirnov chose the history of France during the Second World War as the sphere of his scientific interests. His Ph.D. thesis, defended in 1958, was devoted to the internal politics of the French cabinet during the “ strange war ”, and his doctoral thesis to the Resistance Movement in France (1972). V. P. Smirnov's first book - “France during the Second World War "Was published in 1961. And soon the second one followed -" The Strange War "and the defeat of France" (1963) After defending his doctoral dissertation, V. P. Smirnov published the monograph "The Resistance Movement in France during the Second World War" . In this work, for the first time, a general picture of the development of the Resistance movement in France was presented, its main problems were analyzed. Making extensive use of archival materials and the seal of the Resistance movement, the author examined in detail the activities of the main resistance groups and investigated the ideological, political and class struggle within this movement. The scientist returned many times to the history of harsh war years. In the 90s, he published a series of articles, materials for which were found in the opened Moscow archives. They allowed V.P. Smirnov to supplement ideas about the war and take a fresh look at some of its events.

The book “A Brief History of World War II”, published in 2005, can be considered the final work on this topic. In it, V. P. Smirnov summarized the main events of the war, gave them balanced assessments, and attracted the attention of readers to controversial issues that There are still heated discussions ^[2] .

V.P. Smirnov can rightly be called one of the largest specialists in Russia on the recent history of France. Like no one else, he knows the history of France and its current state. In 1988, Vladislav Pavlovich published a generalizing book, France: Country, People, Traditions ^[3] . In it, the oldest country in Europe is represented in all its diversity. The author touched on the past of France, spoke about the political traditions and modern political history of the country, described the centuries-old ties between Russia and France, and also acted as an ethnographer-historian, described the French national character. In 2017, a substantially updated edition of this book entitled “Images of France. History, people, traditions. ” This is a portrait of the country against the backdrop of the era. It consists of many individual features that reflected the memory of the French about the great past and their search for their place in a difficult present. At the center of the story is an “average Frenchman” - a gall with an admixture of Arab blood, a royalist and a republican at the same time, a Catholic, but partially a Muslim, in whose national character individualism is adjacent to wit, and rationalism is balanced by frivolity.

The name of V.P. Smirnov is well known to historians of France and other countries thanks to his participation in international congresses, symposiums, translations of his works (23 of them were published in France, Germany, Romania, China), and contacts made during scientific trips. V.P. Smirnov and his colleague A.V. Ado played a large role in organizing student exchanges and inviting French professors to lecture and conduct seminars at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University.

For many years he taught general and special courses at the historical and philological faculties, the faculty of journalism, at ISAA and the Institute for Advanced Studies of Moscow State University. Based on his lecture materials, Vladislav Pavlovich wrote several textbooks and teaching aids. In 1979, "The Recent History of France. 1918-1975 ", in 2001 -" France in the XX century. " Despite the educational nature, these books are essentially scientific studies of the most important problems of French history of the XX century. The author focuses on the development of French society from traditional to modern, post-industrial. V.P. Smirnov sets out the history of the Third , Fourth and Fifth Republics, dwelling in detail on the historical traditions of France, domestic and foreign policy, parliamentary and presidential elections, political parties, the trade union movement, the colonial issue, two world wars, social history, economic development, problems of ideology and culture.

V.P. Smirnov is the constant co-author of all university textbooks on the recent history of the countries of the West and the USA, published since the mid-1970s. He wrote the chapters on the history of France, World War II and French historiography.

Together with other teachers of the History Department of Moscow State University, he repeatedly participated in the preparation of school textbooks. The book "General History. World in the XX - beginning of the XXI century. Grade 11. Textbook for educational institutions. Profile level ”, written by him in collaboration with O. S. Soroko-Tsyupa and A. I. Stroganov (1996), to date, has withstood more than 12 editions. No less popular were other textbooks: “Recent History” (co-authored with O. N. Dokuchaeva and L. S. Belousov ) - 2008, “History. The latest time. XX - the beginning of the XXI century. Grade 9 ”(co-authored with L. S. Belousov ) - 2014

V.P. Smirnov made a noticeable contribution to the study of French historiography by Russian historians. These issues are addressed in his separate articles, reviews, chapters in textbooks and reports at Russian and international conferences. Partly historiographical, one can consider the monograph by V.P. Smirnov (co-authored with V.S. Poskonin) "The Traditions of the Great French Revolution in the Ideological and Political Life of France. 1789-1989 ”, published in 1991. It examines the formation and transformation of revolutionary traditions and collective ideas about the French Revolution of the late 18th century. for 200 years. The focus of the study is on the fate of the main ideas of the revolution: political struggle, historical research on the French Revolution and teaching the history of this revolution in school.

Member of the editorial board of the French Yearbook (1979-1989), member of the Dissertation Council D 501.002.12 at Moscow State University named after MV Lomonosov, member of Specialized Councils at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1991-2001) and the Institute for Problems of the Labor Movement Comparative Political Science (1992–2000), member of the Expert Council on History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Russian State Humanitarian Foundation (1992–2001), member of the Institute’s Council F. Mitterrand (Paris, 1996).

• Smirnov V.P. France during the Second World War. - M .: Publishing house of Moscow University, 1961. - 109 p.
• Smirnov V.P. "Strange war" and the defeat of France. - M .: Publishing house of Moscow University, 1963. - 385 p.
• Smirnov V.P. Resistance Movement in France during the Second World War. - M .: Thought, 1974.- 324 p.
• Smirnov V.P. The latest history of France. 1918-1975. - M .: Higher school, 1979. - 376 p.
• Smirnov V.P. France: country, people, traditions. - M .: Thought, 1988 .-- 285 p.
• Smirnov V.P., Poskonin V.S. The traditions of the Great French Revolution in the ideological and political life of France. 1789-1989. - M .: Publishing house of Moscow University, 1991. - 220 p.
• Smirnov V.P. France in the 20th century. - M .: Bustard, 2001 .-- 352 p.
• Smirnov V.P. A brief history of World War II. - M .: The whole world, 2005 .-- 352 p.
• Smirnov V.P. From Stalin to Yeltsin. Self-portrait against the backdrop of the era (Series "From the first person: the history of Russia in memoirs, diaries, letters"). - M .: New Chronograph, 2011 .-- 504 p.
• Smirnov V.P. Two wars - one victory. - M .: AST PRESS BOOK, 2015 .-- 416 p.
• Smirnov V.P. Images of France. History, people, traditions (Series "History. Geography. Ethnography"). - M .: Lomonosov, 2017 .-- 248 p. - ISBN 978-5-91678-399-5 .

• V.P. Smirnov is 75 years old // New and recent history . 2004. No. 6.

• Profile on the website of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University (Russian) . hist.msu.ru.
• Profile in the system "TRUE" (Russian) . istina.msu.ru .
• Profile in the scientific electronic library "eLIBRARY.RU" (Russian) . elibrary.ru .
• V.P. Smirnov in the program "Power of Fact" on the channel "Culture": "Liberation of Europe" (Russian) . tvkultura.ru (02/13/2015).
• V.P.Smirnov in the program "Not So" on the radio "Echo of Moscow": "The Fall of France in 1940" (Russian) . echo.msk.ru (02/11/2015).
• V.P.Smirnov in the program "Not so" on the radio "Echo of Moscow": "Soviet-French relations on the eve of World War II" (Russian) . echo.msk.ru (09/12/2009).
• V.P.Smirnov in the program "It was - was not" on the radio "Echo of Moscow": "The Case of Stavissky and France of the 30s" (Russian) . echo.msk.ru (02.13.2003).