Petrov, Mikhail Nazarovich

Mikhail Nazarovich Petrov (1826-1887) is a Russian historian .

Born in Vilna on November 3 ( 15 ), 1826 . His father was a newly baptized Mordvin.

After graduating from the Vilnius Gymnasium in 1844, the trustee of the Belorussian educational district sent him to study at the government account at Kharkov University . He graduated in 1848 from his verbal department; his candidacy , “Civilization of the Gallo-Francs at the time of the Merovingians, ” based on the best textbooks of the French art school ( Thierry , Guizot ), remained unprinted. He received a master ’s degree in world history for his dissertation “On the Character of the State Activities of Louis XI ” (1850), a doctorate for a dissertation “ Recent National Historiography in Germany, England and France ” (Kharkov, 1861), which he defended in Moscow at 1865 and which was the result of his two-year trip abroad (1858-1860), where he became acquainted with the teaching system in Western European universities, attended lectures and seminars by L. Ranke , G. Siebel , I.-G. Droisen , J. Michelet , established friendly contacts with prominent representatives of Czech and Slovak historiography of the romantic direction F. Palacki and P.-J. Shafarikom , worked in libraries and museums.

From 1851, he began teaching at Kharkov University, which lasted until 1886. Having received his doctorate and the title of Ordinary Professor (1866), in 1868 he published his famous " Essays from World History ", which were very popular and were recommended by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Empire for use in the educational process and survived 4 editions (2nd published under the title “From World History.” - Kharkov, 1882; 3rd ed. - 1896).

In 1881, in the article “Historical Preparation. Pro domo sua ”(“ Southern Territory. ”- 1881, December), with great wit, he showed the unsatisfactoryness of the most common textbooks (especially the generally accepted guidelines of D. I. Ilovaisky ) and the very staging of teaching history in high schools. He had no personal pedagogical experience of teaching in secondary schools and therefore he did not succeed in the work that he began in recent years in compiling a textbook on general history for grammar schools. However, his Lectures on World History, published posthumously in 1888 (in 4 volumes; volume 4 in 1890), in Kharkov, according to the opinion of V. G. Vasilievsky, were awarded by the Ministry of Public Education the Grand Prize named after Emperor Peter the Great ^[1] . An important advantage of this work is the wealth of bibliographic references. Not all parts of this work were equally carefully processed by M. N. Petrov himself, so there was a need for notes and inserts (sometimes quite significant, especially the insert of the editor, Professor V.K. Nadler, in the 2nd volume). In 1904-1908, the 2nd edition was published, edited and supplemented by A. S. Vyazigin :

• The history of the ancient world / ... in a new processing and with ext. A. N. Derevitsky . - 1907. - XX, 397 p.
• History of the Middle Ages. Part 1. The time of origin of the new states of Europe and Asia; Part 2. The time from the Crusades to the end of the XV century. - 1906-1908. - VI, 162 p .; VI, 150 p.
• The history of new centuries (Reformation era) / ... rev. and add. in processing prof. V.P. Buzeskula . - 1904. - XII, 226 p.
• The history of new centuries (From the Westphalian world to the Convention) / ... rev. and add. in processing prof. V.P. Buzeskula. - 1905 .-- X, 248 p.

He died in Kharkov on January 24 ( February 5 ), 1887 .