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V.Yu. Yurochkin (Simferopol) – The 1952 Crimean Session: A Turning Point in the Crimean Archaeology

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Abstract

The article discusses the circumstances of the «Joint scientific session of the Department of History and Philology and the Crimean Branch of the Academy of Sciences USSR on the history of Crimea» in Simferopol, May 23–25, 1952. It took place during the struggle against the «teachings of N.Y. Marr», which is unfolded in the humanities throughout the country. The main criticism was the position of P.N. Schultz, Head of the Historical and Archaeological Department, which was refl ected in the popular-science book by P.N. Nadinsky about the history of the Crimea. They adhered to the autochthonous version of the origin of the culture of the Crimean Slavs directly from the Scythian. Their opponents saw this as a manifestation of «Marrism». The criticism was supported by the Crimean archaeologists E.V. Veymarn and S.F. Strzheletsky, who are considered the Crimean Slavs as migrants of the 3rd c. AD. The party leadership of the region and the Academy of Sciences USSR decided to convene a special session with the participation of both Crimean scientists and leading historians and archaeologists of the country. The main goal was to find compromise approaches to solving issues of ethnic history and sociocultural development of the peninsula in antiquity and the Middle Ages. The speakers, who spoke at the session, pointed out the previous mistakes that were made in the presentation of the history of the Crimea. P.N. Nadinsky and P.N. Schultz admitted that they were wrong. When solving the «Slavic issue», the migration version of their appearance in the region prevailed. The «Gothic issue» was touched upon, as well as other topical issues of Crimean history and archaeology. The session greatly contributed to the resolution of the situation in the Crimean archaeological science. It adopted a number of policy decisions on the coverage of historical processes in ancient and medieval Crimea. They laid the foundation for further research directions and infl uenced the development of Crimean science actually before the collapse of the USSR. The article is based on previously unpublished documents from the scientific archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the Crimea of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Keywords

Crimea, archaeology, 1952 Session, «Slavic issue», «Gothic issue», P.N. Schultz, P.N. Nadinsky, B.A. Rybakov.

Vladislav Yu. Yurochkin

Institute of Archaeology of Crimea, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Simferopol, Russia

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Yurochkin, V.Yu. 2016: Sessii po istorii Kryma i stanovlenie arheologicheskoy nauki v poslevoennom Krymu [Sessions on the History of the Crimea and the Establishment of Archaeological Science in Post-War Crimea]. Istoriya i arheologiya Kryma [History and Archaeology of Crimea] 4, 187–204.

Yurochkin, V.Yu. 2019: P.N. Shults i P.N. Tretyakov: k istorii nesostoyavsheysya diskussii o «krymskikh slavyanakh» [P.N. Schulz and P.N. Tretiakov: to the History of the Failed Discussion on the “Crimean Slavs”]. Istoriya i arkheologiya Kryma [History and Archaeology of Crimea] 9, 238–247.

Yurochkin, V.Yu. 2021: «Slavyanskiy vopros» i akademicheskaya arkheologiya v poslevoennom Krymu. K 120-letiyu Pavla Nikolaevicha Shultsa (1901-1983) [The “Slavic issue” and academic archaeology in the Crimea in the aftermath of World War II. To the 120th anniversary of Pavel Nikolaevich Shultz (1901–1983)]. Rossiyskaya arkheologiya [Russian Archaeology] 4, 179–189.

Yurochkin, V.Yu. 2017. Gotskiy vopros [The Gothic question]. Simferopol.

Yurochkin, V.Yu., Kizilov, M.B. 2022: Ekspeditsii, kotorykh ne bylo: inostrantsy v Krymskoy Gotii (1920–1940-e gg.) [Expeditions that Never Happened: Foreigners in Crimean Gothia (1920–1940s)]. In.: I.A. Sorokina (ed.), Ocherki istorii otechestvennoy arkheologii [Essays on the History of Russian Archaeology]. 4. Moscow, 263–287.

Yurochkin, V.Yu., Mayko, V.V. 2017: Glava 8. Goty, skify, slavyane: etnicheskie kul’bity krymskoy arkheologii poslevoennoy epokhi [Chapter 8. The Goths, Scythians, Slavs: Ethnic Somersaults of Crimean Archaeology of the Post-War Period]. In: L.B. Vishnyatskiy (ed.), Neizvestnye stranitsy arkheologii Kryma: ot neandertal’tsev do genueztsev [Unknown Pages of the Crimean Archaeology: from Neanderthals to Genoese]. Saint Petersburg, 157–231.

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