Boris Dmitrievich Grekov (; – 9 September 1953) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

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historian noted for his comprehensive studies of

Kievan Rus Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russ ...

and the

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. He was a member of the

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(1934) and several foreign academies, as well as Director of the Saint Petersburg Institute of History and the Russian History Institute in Moscow. Grekov entered

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializat ...

in 1901 but moved to the

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

four years later. During the pre-revolutionary years he researched the economic and social history of the

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(published in 1914). Grekov was accused of participating in the

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in the

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during the

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, and in 1930, his son was arrested in connection with the " Platonov Affair" and sent to the Solovki Islands Penal Colony. Both of these facts were widely known in the 1930s, and this led Grekov to make wide-ranging concessions to the official ideology during the Stalin Purges and, according to A. H. Plakhonin, to write scholarship "on order" for the regime. At this time, he turned toward the study of

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

and became known as an opponent of the Ukrainian historian

Mykhailo Hrushevsky Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky (; – 24 November 1934) was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian and statesman who was one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. Hrushevsky is ...

, who claimed the heritage of Kievan Rus' primarily for modern

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. His major work, Kievan Rus' appeared in 1939 and was the first of three of his works to win the Stalin Prize. In this work, steeped in Marxist–Leninist ideology, he stressed the agricultural rather than commercial basis of the economy of this polity and argued that the heritage of Kievan Rus' was equally shared by modern

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, and

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. Grekov's extensive research on Kievan Rus' provided insights into the economic and cultural development of medieval

Rus' Rus or RUS may refer to: People * East Slavic historical peoples (). See Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia ** Rus' people, the people of Rus' ** Rus, a legendary eponymous ancestor, see Lech, Czech and Rus * Rus (surname), a surname found in Ro ...

during the period of the Tatar domination. He summarized these findings in ''Culture of Kiev Rus'' (1944) and ''Russian Peasants from the Most Ancient Times to the Seventeenth Century'' (1946). But his most lasting work (and the one which is still regularly reprinted) was ''Golden Horde'', written in collaboration with Alexander Yakubovsky and first published in 1937. The second (and now classical) edition appeared in 1950 under the title ''Golden Horde and Its Downfall''. Grekov also gave considerable attention to the collection and publication of primary sources, especially chronicles. His student, Vladimir Pashuto, carried this work forward and began the collection of foreign sources for the medieval period in the history of the Eastern Slavs. In December 2022 the Akademika (Boris) Grekov street in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Ukraine was renamed to (

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) street.

References

*A. H. Plakhonin, Article "Hrekov, Borys Dmytrovych," in ''Entsyklopediia istorii Ukrainy'', vol. II (Kyiv, 2004), pp. 189–90. *''The content of this page derives in part from the

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Great Russian Enc ...

article on the same subject.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Grekov, Boris 1882 births 1953 deaths 20th-century Russian historians People from Myrhorod Academicians of the USSR Academy of Architecture Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Moscow State University alumni Academic staff of Perm State University Academic staff of Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University Third convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 3rd class 19th-century historians from the Russian Empire Russian medievalists Soviet archivists Soviet historians Soviet medievalists Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Academic staff of Herzen University Russian scientists Deputies of Lensovet