Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:34:56.378Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

E. V. Tarle: The Career of a Historian under the Soviet Regime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Ann K. Erickson
Ann K. Erickson*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Wisconsin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The career of the Soviet historian, E. V. Tarle, bears testimony to both the methods and effectiveness of Soviet demands for conformity in historical writing. Unlike many of his colleagues, who confined their research to obscure topics or resorted to the editing of collections of documents, Tarle treated events in Russian history which carried important political implications. Outstanding among these were his works on the Napoleonic invasion of Russia. Between 1936 and 1952 Tarle wrote three basically different interpretations of this invasion, each of which reflected the current trend in Soviet historiography at the time it was written. Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union bore an obvious resemblance to Napoleon's campaign in Russia, and Academician Tarle, under pressure, changed his story to conform to the changing “party line.“

Type
Research Article
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 1960 , pp. 202 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1960

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 There is a strange discrepancy about Tarle's exact birthplace—some sources say Kiev and others Nikolaev. This discrepancy is even present in two biographical sketches published by the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1957. A. Erusalimskij stated in his introduction to Tarle's collected works that he was born in Kiev, while in the introduction to Iz istorii obshchestvennykh dvizhenii i mezhdunarodnykh otnoshenii: Sbornik statej v pamjat’ Akademika E. V. Tarle, A. Manfred stated that Tarle was born in Nikolaev.

2 There is no satisfactory biography of Tarle either in Russian or any Western European language. Unfortunately, the existing Soviet biographical sketches about him contain very few details about Tarle's early life. The information in this section (unless otherwise cited) is taken from the two sketches mentioned in footnote 1 and from Molok, A., Tarle, E. V.. Akademija Nauk SSSR, Materialy k bio-bibliografii-uchenykh SSSSR. Serija istorii, No. 3 (Moscow-Leningrad, 1949)Google Scholar.

3 London Times, April 8, 1913 Google Scholar

4 Existing Soviet accounts of Tarle's life explain neither when Tarle went to Western Europe nor how he financed these trips.

5 Tarle's 1957 Soviet biographers did not state what his political views were before the Bolshevik Revolution. A. Manfred noted that in 1917 Tarle was not a Marxist and had not participated in the revolution, adding that he had even held a rather negative attitude towards it at first.

6 According to a bibliography of Tarle's works published by the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1957, this periodical was published only from 1922–24.

7 For general information on the “Pokrovskij era” see Rudolf, Schlesinger, “Recent Soviet Historiography,” in Soviet Studies I, No. 4 (April, 1950), pp. 293–312;Google Scholar Black, C. E., “History and Politics in the Soviet Union,” in Rewriting Russian History (New York, 1956), pp. 3–31;Google Scholar Tompkins, S. R., “Trends in Communist Historical Thought,” in The Slavonic Review XIII, No. 38 (January, 1935), pp. 294–319;Google Scholar and Vucinich, A., The Soviet Academy of Sciences (Stanford, California, 1956), pp. 1–20 Google Scholar.

8 This phase of Tarle's life is not mentioned by his Soviet biographers. See, however, Chernavin, V., “The Treatment of Scholars in USSR,” in The Slavonic Review, XI, No. 33 (April, 1933), p. 712 Google Scholar.

9 Pokrovskii, M. N., “ ‘Novye’ techenija v Russkoj istoricheskoj literature” in Istorik-Marksist,No. 7 (1928), pp. 11–13 Google Scholar.

10 Criticisms of Tarle appeared in many articles in Istorik-Marksist and in Bor'ba klassov between 1928–31. For the most thorough and detailed presentation of the charges, however, see the book edited by Zaidel’, G. and Cvibak, M., Klassovyi vrag na istoricheskom fronte: Tarle i Platonov i ikh shkoly (Moscow-Leningrad, 1931)Google Scholar.

11 For general information on the trend in the 1930's see Barghoorn, F. C., “Stalinism and the Russian Cultural Heritage,” in Review of Politics, XIV, No. 4 (April, 1952), pp. 178–203;Google Scholar Max, Laserson, “The Rehabilitation of National History,”; in Russia and the Western World (New York, 1945), pp. 138–64;Google Scholar and Klaus, Mehnert, Stalin Versus Marx (London, 1952).Google Scholar

12 Tarle, , Bonaparte, translated from the Russian by John Cournos, (New York, 1937), pp. 10–11 Google Scholar.

13 Ibid., pp. 9, 11.

14 Tarle, , Nashestvie Napoleona na Rossiju(2nd ed.; Moscow, 1943), p. 357 Google Scholar. (Comparison of this second edition with the English translation of Tarle's first [1938] edition reveals that the two Russian editions [1938 and 1943] were the same.)

15 Ibid., p. 7.

16 Tarle, , Bonaparte, pp. 289–90 Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., p. 302

18 Tarle, , Nashestvie Napoleona na Rossiju, p. 221 Google Scholar.

19 Ibid., p. 233.

20 Ibid., p. 220.

21 Ibid., pp. 222–25, passim

22 Tarle, , Bonaparte, p. 414 Google Scholar.

23 Ibid., pp. 296–97 Google Scholar.

24 Tarle, , Nashestvie Napoleona na Rossiju, p. 308 Google Scholar.

25 Tarle, , Bonaparte, pp. 162–63 Google Scholar.

26 Tarle, , Nashestvie Napoleona na Rossiju, pp. 144–45 Google Scholar.

27 Tarle, , Bonaparte, p. 281 Google Scholar

28 Tarle, , Nashestvie Napoleona na Rossiju, pp. 174–76 Google Scholar.

29 As a part of his contribution on the “ideological front” during World War II Tarle also wrote several pamphlets and articles about the Napoleonic invasion. These pamphlets are excellent examples of Soviet wartime patriotic historiography. For example, in his Otechestvennaja Voina 1812 goda i raxgrom imperii Napoleona, published in 1941, Tarle vividly compared Hitler's attack with the Napoleonic invasion and encouraged the Russian people to recall Napoleon's fate in Russia. Another of his pamphlets, “How Mikhail Kutuzov Defeated Napoleon” (Soviet War Booklets, No. 4, issued by Soviet War News, London, 1944 Google Scholar) is an interesting example of Soviet propaganda written for readers of one of their wartime capitalist allies. Unlike the above-mentioned pamphlet, in this booklet Tarle did not combine Marxist interpretations with his patriotic approach.

30 Zhadanov, A. A., “Doklad T. Zhdanova o Zhurnalakh ‘Zvezda’ i ‘Leningrad’” in Bol'shevik, Nos. 17–18 (September, 1946), p. 10 Google Scholar.

31 Vucinich, , The Soviet Academy of Sciences (Stanford, California, 1956), p. 108 Google Scholar.

32 “Protiv burzhuaznoj ideologii kosmopolitizma” in Voprosy filosofii, No. 2 (February, 1948), p. 14.

33 “Za patrioticheskuju sovetskuju nauku” in Vestnik Akademii Nauk, No. 4 (April, 1949), pp. 7–8 Google Scholar.

34 Ibid., p. 13.

35 Stalin, I., O Velikoj Otechestvennoj Voine Sovetskogo Sojuza (5th ed., Moscow, 1952), pp. 24–26 Google Scholar.

36 Ibid., pp. 196–97.

37 Stalin, , “Otvet tov. Stalina” in Bol'shevik, No. 3 (February, 1947), p. 8 Google Scholar.

38 Kozhukhov, S., “K voprosu ob ocenke roli M. I. Kutuzova v Otechestvennoj voine 1812 goda,” in Bol'shevik, No. 15 (August, 1951), pp. 21–23 Google Scholar. Yet, only a few months before publication of Kozhukhov's article, the historian A. Erusalimskij praised Tarle for his success in demonstrating the “world historical role of the Russian nation,“ and for exposing the “bourgeois legends about Napoleon” and revealing the “counterrevolutionary essence” of his policies. Report by Erusalimskij, A., “Chestvovanie Akademika E. V. Tarle” in Vestnik Akademii Nauk, No. 1 (January, 1951), pp. 88–89 Google Scholar.

39 Kozhukhov, , op. cit., pp. 23–24.Google Scholar

40 Ibid., p. 34.

41 Ibid., pp. 29–30.

42 Tarle, , “Pis'mo v redakciju zhurnal ‘Bol'shevik’ in Bol'shevik, No. 19 (October, 1951), pp. 76–77 Google Scholar.

43 “Ot redakcii zhurnala ‘Bol'shevik’ “ in Bol'shevik, No. 19 (October, 1951), pp. 78–80 Google Scholar.

44 Tarle never completed this book and it was never published. Erusalimskij, A., “E. V. Tarle,” in Tarle's collected works, (Moscow, 1957), xxxiiiGoogle Scholar.

45 Tarle, , “M. I. Kutuzov—polkovodec i diplomat” in Voprosy istorii, No. 3 (March, 1952), p. 82 Google Scholar.

46 Ibid., p. 37.

47 Tarle, , Bonaparte, p. 238 Google Scholar

48 Tarle, , “M. I. Kutuzov—polkovodec i diplomat,” op. cit., pp. 81–82 Google Scholar.

49 Ibid., p. 76.

50 Tarle, , Bonaparte, p. 10 Google Scholar.

51 Tarle, , “M. I. Kutuzov—polkovodec i diplomat,” op. cit., p. 72 Google Scholar.

52 Ibid., p. 37.

53 Ibid., p. 68

54 Tarle, , Nashestvie Napoleona na Rossiju, pp. 288–89.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., p. 398 Google Scholar. (Tarle wrote a similar account of the aims of Alexander I and Kutuzov in his contribution to Volume I of Istorija diplomatii, the official Soviet survey of the history of world diplomacy at the time of its publication. In 1942 he received a Stalin prize for his contribution to this work. Yet, in 1952 he had to repudiate these interpretations to be in accord with the new trend in Soviet historiography on the war of 1812.)

56 Tarle, , “M. I. Kutuzov—polkovodec i diplomat,” op. cit., pp. 55–56.Google Scholar

57 In 1957 the Soviet Academy of Sciences published two very similar biographical sketches of Tarle's life and academic career, written by the Soviet historians, A. S. Erusalimskij and A. Z. Manfred. (See footnote 1 for exact citation).

58 Manfred, , op. cit., p. 15 Google Scholar.

59 Erusalimskij, “E. V. Tarle” in Tarle's collected works, I, xxvi.