Abstract
After 1917, Soviet science suff ered radical transformations. In fact, new scientific directions were created. In particular, these processes were most noticeable in historical sciences: traditional ideologically neutral approaches were rejected, they were replaced by a new Marxist view of historical processes. In Oriental studies, there was an active rejection of the traditions of pre-revolutionary science. To approve new approaches, however, the most proven formats for presenting new knowledge ‒ the encyclopedia ‒ were used. Almost all new encyclopedic publications issued in the USSR at the same time were focused on the presentation of new integral knowledge: the development of science had not yet reached the stage when it became possible to write large books on relatively private issues, on the other hand, the new government needed uniform scientific conclusions immediately. Creating new views on the history of certain large regions was one of the urgent tasks of the new science. In particular, it was necessary to create new history of India ‒ an important element of the concept of the “Asian mode of production”, the beginning of which was laid down by K. Marx and F. Engels.
The first essay on the history of India from antiquity to the modern times, written from the standpoint of Soviet Marxism, was published in 1929 in the Small Soviet Encyclopedia of the first edition. The essay was published without giving an authorship. Comparison of the text of the essay with the essays “Indian Art”, published in the same volume of the encyclopedia (author ‒ art archaeologist A.S. Strelkov), as well as with the essay “India. History” by I.M. Reisner, published in the Small Soviet Encyclopedia of the second edition in 1936, suggests that the first essay on the history of India could be the joint work of A.S. Strelkov and I.M. Reisner.
The essay “Indian Art”, published in the Small Soviet Encyclopedia of the second edition in 1936, is signed by the pseudonym “B”. Texts of essays “Indian Art” from both editions of the Small Soviet Encyclopedia show undoubted similarity. The disappearance of Strelkov’s name from under the text of the essay may be explained by the fact that Strelkov’s arrest, which took place in 1938, was already being prepared and his mention as an author in the second edition of the Small Soviet Encyclopedia was undesirable already in 1936.
Keywords
Indian studies, ancient India, British India, history of science, Soviet science, encyclopedia, I.M. Reisner, A.S. Strelkov.
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