1/2007 The Discipline of History and the Punishment of Empire

Михаил Карпович о проблемах российской истории и историографии

Документ

1/2007

Материал публикуется на английском (на английской части сайта)

SUMMARY:

В архивной рубрике представлены не публиковавшиеся ранее тексты лекций Михаила Михайловича Карповича (1888-1959) – профессора истории Гарвардского университета (США), многолетнего редактора “Нового журнала”, одного из создателей американской школы русистики. Документы обнаружены автором публикации, Аллой Зейде, в коллекции М. М. Карповича в Бахметевском архиве Колумбийского университета, США. Первый из публикуемых материалов представляет собой запись выступления Карповича на собрании Форума юридического факультета Гарвардского университета (1946 г.) на тему “Американская политика по отношению к России”; второй документ – конспект лекции Карповича “Проблемы российской историографии” (1947 г.); наконец, третий документ – запись лекции “Наследие царской России”, которую Карпович дал в 1953 г. в Национальном военном колледже. Документы сопровождаются подробным комментарием и составленной автором библиографией работ учеников Карповича, дающих представление о направлениях развития его “школы”. Архивную публикацию предваряет вводная статья А. Зейде, в которой ставится вопрос о роли Карповича в формировании американской славистики, о его понимании исторического прошлого России и ее советского настоящего, о том, как личный жизненный опыт, полученное в дореволюционной России историческое образование, индивидуальная и поколенческая память, активное участие в жизни эмигрантского сообщества и идеологические предпочтения влияли на концепцию русской истории Карповича. Также в статье ставится вопрос об отношении профессионального американского сообщества историков-русистов к “эмигрантскому прошлому” их дисциплины. Автор введения основывает свои выводы на широком круге опубликованных и малоизвестных архивных материалов, включая рукописи и переписку М. М. Карповича.

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1.Bakhmeteff Archive. Karpovich Papers. Box 14. Folder American Policy and Russia (1946).↩

2.The Harvard Law School Forum was founded in 1946 as a memorial to the students killed during the war by their classmates who came back, its Dedication reads: “Ninety-three students and graduates of Harvard Law School did not return from the war. Once like us they thronged the corridors of Langdell Hall and engaged in eager classroom argument and dreamed of long hours ahead to be happily spent in aiding their fellowmen to live and labor together in fairness and in peace. The lives they had devoted to the pursuit of justice were cut short in the defense of freedom. It is for us to carry on the work they were not permitted to complete. The victory they helped win has preserved for us the liberty to share in shaping our own lives and the welfare of our nation and the world. Freedom is not safety, but opportunity. The best return which we can make for their sacrifice is to have the determination to make full use of that opportunity by facing the perplexing problems now before us with courage and frankness and open minds. Therefore, we dedicate the Harvard Law School Forum to these ninety-three men.” The Forum’s first program, on March 8, 1946, was dedicated to a discussion of the war crimes trials. Two others speakers were John Fischer, Editor of “Harper’s Magazine”, and John Somerville, the author of “The Soviet Philosophy.” The Forum continues to function today. (For more details, See: http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/forum/memory.html).

Примечания

[1]Bakhmeteff Archive. Karpovich Papers. Box 14. Folder American Policy and Russia (1946).

[2]The Harvard Law School Forum was founded in 1946 as a memorial to the students killed during the war by their classmates who came back, its Dedication reads: “Ninety-three students and graduates of Harvard Law School did not return from the war. Once like us they thronged the corridors of Langdell Hall and engaged in eager classroom argument and dreamed of long hours ahead to be happily spent in aiding their fellowmen to live and labor together in fairness and in peace. The lives they had devoted to the pursuit of justice were cut short in the defense of freedom. It is for us to carry on the work they were not permitted to complete. The victory they helped win has preserved for us the liberty to share in shaping our own lives and the welfare of our nation and the world. Freedom is not safety, but opportunity. The best return which we can make for their sacrifice is to have the determination to make full use of that opportunity by facing the perplexing problems now before us with courage and frankness and open minds. Therefore, we dedicate the Harvard Law School Forum to these ninety-three men.” The Forum’s first program, on March 8, 1946, was dedicated to a discussion of the war crimes trials. Two others speakers were John Fischer, Editor of “Harper’s Magazine”, and John Somerville, the author of “The Soviet Philosophy.” The Forum continues to function today. (For more details, See: http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/forum/memory.html).

[3]In its main outlines, this unusual document evokes George Kennan’s policy of “containment,” formulated first in his “long” telegram in February, 1946. Whether Karpovich was familiar with its contents or not is irrelevant since his anxiety about the postwar reconstruction of the world, the role of the Soviet Union in it, and the fate of the countries in Central Europe can be found in his publications since 1943 (cf. “The ideological character of the present war cannot be ignored. This struggle is being waged for a new and better world. …The United Nations are fighting for triumph of social justice and personal liberty on an international scale. But like charity, justice and liberty begin at home. Here is another truth which applies in an equal degree to all the United Nations, Russia included. Neither Russia nor any other power of the victorious coalition will be able to bring social justice and personal liberty to the world unless every one of them strives to achieve both within its own borders.” (Michael Karpovich. Russia in the New World // Ruth Nanda Anshen. Beyond Victory. New York, 1943. P. 119). Karpovich’s particular concern, intensified toward the end of the war, was the fate of Poland when it became clear that the Soviet government’s intentions were at variance with the Yalta conference agreements and the Western powers were yielding to its aggression: “In all of Eastern Europe the same situation develops – the absence both of collective actions of allied states and the adherence to the democratic methods of political reconstruction. Nowhere is this picture of the violations of the Yalta agreements as obvious as in Poland.” Karpovich’s anxiety was made even worse by the position taken by some groups of Russian emigrants, for whom the incorporation of Poland into the Soviet sphere of influence signified the increase in Russia’s prestige and influence. “For those who like myself,” wrote Karpovich in 1945, “did not lose faith in the existence of universal truth, <…> referring to national interests as the final authoritative word, continues to be as unacceptable as it used to be in the past. …Likewise, as long as Soviet Russia continues in power of a totalitarian regime, we refuse to see it as a force capable of granting Europe and mankind political freedom and social truth.” This article reads as a kind of profession de foi of Karpovich and his circle of like-minded Russian йmigrйs toward the Soviet regime and the aspirations of those for whom Russia’s imperial “interests” prevailed over all other considerations. Likewise, the present document should most likely be read as a public statement of support for the United States and its stand against the Soviet Union’s expansionist drive. (The cited material is drawn from: M. Karpovich. Posle pobedy // Novyj Zhurnal. 1945. No. 10. Pp. 370-371; translations here and elsewhere are mine unless otherwise indicated, AZ).

Ab Imperio

Ab Imperio

Михаил Карпович о проблемах российской истории и историографии

Примечания