Friends and colleagues who are no longer there...

Autumn 1956 In Armyansky Lane, near the building of the former Lazarevsky Institute, there is an unusual revival.

Big changes are taking place at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences. Create departments that didn't exist before. They recruit employees. New faces everywhere!

At the Institute - an unheard-of thing! - creating your own publishing house. Only recently we created one Oriental magazine - there will be a second one! In general, the whole institute is in some extraordinary enthusiasm!

...The reasons, of course, were obvious to anyone who thought at least a little. There was a turn in Soviet geopolitics.

The process of decolonization after World War II and the declaration of independence by countries such as India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Burma were initially perceived by Soviet leaders from the positions taken by Stalin at the beginning of the twentieth century: the national liberation movement serves the interests of the bourgeoisie, not the working class.

In 1950, E. M. Zhukov, then a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences and director of the Pacific Institute (and later, for many years, the head of Soviet historical science) published a circulation of 200 thousand copies. He wrote a pamphlet on the anti-colonial struggle of the peoples of the East (Zhukov, 1950). It was mainly about the Communist victory in China. About other countries very briefly: "The domination of the ideology of bourgeois nationalism ultimately entails capitulation to imperialism. This is evidenced by the treacherous policy of bourgeois nationalists in India, Indonesia, and Palestine "[Zhukov, 1950, p. 20]. E. M. Zhukov never mentioned Gandhi, Sukarno and Nehru. Was this accusation related to them? Burma and Pakistan, which were also independent states in 1950, are not mentioned. About Africa-and there is nothing to say: about it-not a word.

Isn't it surprising now that after Stalin's death, in 1954, the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies (the higher educational institution where, in particular, Primakov studied) was closed?

The turning point in the Soviet perception of events in the East began in 1955. The process of decolonization was proceeding with an unexpected acceleration. Following India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Burma, and the unification of China under Communist rule - the declaration of independence by the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. The next step was the tropical part of the "Black Continent". The first conference of representatives of Afro-Asian countries was held (Bandung, April 18-24, 1955).

All this, against the backdrop of the Cold War with the West, caused a change in the geopolitical course of the Soviet government. At the end of 1955, Khrushchev and Bulganin went on an official "goodwill visit" to India, Burma, and Afghanistan. This was the first one

page 101

After Stalin's death, the Soviet leaders ' trip abroad was also long: a whole month, from November 18 to December 19. Then-A. I. Mikoyan's visit to Pakistan, India, Burma, Vietnam, Mongolia, K. E. Voroshilov-to China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mongolia. A course of cooperation with Asian and African countries has begun to take shape.

They immediately found those responsible for the delay in changing course. Whom? Scientists, of course. Orientalists.

In February 1956, from the rostrum of the XX Congress of the CPSU, Mikoyan stated: "There is an institute in the Academy of Sciences dealing with Eastern issues, but it can be said that if the entire East has awakened in our time, then this institute is still dormant" [XX Congress of the CPSU..., vol. 1, 1956, p. 323-324]. Judging by the transcript, these words were followed by even more harsh ones, but they were not included in the published text1.

A detailed decision of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences "On the tasks and structure of the Institute of Oriental Studies"immediately followed. It was signed on September 7, 1956. The signal sounded. It was then that the recruitment of employees began, the creation of new departments and sectors, and the expansion of old ones.

At the same time, instead of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, which was closed in 1954, the Institute of Oriental Languages at Moscow State University (now the Institute of Asian and African Countries) was created in 1956.

And 1956 is a difficult and disturbing time. Even in the spring - stormy hopes (XX Congress and Khrushchev's report on Stalin). But in October-first the unrest in Poland, and on October 23-the uprising in Hungary against the communist regime, on November 4-8-Operation Whirlwind, the Soviet troops suppress this uprising. And at the same time, Khrushchev's unconditional support for Nasser in nationalizing the Suez Canal-right up to the statement of the USSR government on December 15 with a categorical demand for Great Britain, France and Israel to stop military operations against Egypt. In the West, this was regarded as a threat of a new world war.

It was under these conditions that the reorganization of the Institute of Oriental Studies was in full swing. Among the new departments was the Africa Department. The Institute of Oriental Studies has never dealt with" Black Africa " before.

And in general, in Moscow, it was the first scientific structure for the study of Africa. There was also a small group of Africanists at the Institute of Ethnography. But it was part of the Africa sector, which was located in Leningrad under the leadership of Dmitry Alekseevich Olderogge. You can also recall the Department of Africa and the African Research Office in the 1930s at one of the Comintern educational institutions-the Communist University of the Workers of the East. But both the chair and the office disappeared as a result of Stalin's defeat of the Comintern in 1936-1937.

It was difficult to find employees for the new department. None of the Moscow universities trained African students. Even highly qualified specialists in international relations could not be found: in the same year, 1956, the Institute of World Economy and International Relations and the Institute of Sinology were created, and they also recruited personnel.

The new director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Bobojan Gafurovich Gafurov, was not averse to transferring to his Institute Africanists from the Moscow part of the Institute of Ethnography: I. I. Potekhin, who recently defended his doctorate in 1955 (just at the Institute of Oriental Studies), Sergey Rufovich Smirnov, Marina Veniaminovna Wright. And the young ones who defended their PhD theses in 1954 and 1955-Antonina Semyonovna Orlova, Roza Nurgalievna Ismagilova and Leonid Dmitrievich Yablochkov. Potekhin was offered the post of deputy director.

1 " They say that there the study of history barely reached the birth of Christ (revival in the hall. Laughter). Isn't it time for him to rise to the demands of our time? " [see: Shastitko and Charyeva, 2003, p. 22].

page 102

But the translation was opposed by Sergey Pavlovich Tolstov, director of the Institute of Ethnography - he did not want to lose the scientific direction that had now become so important. Potekhin was not happy with the prospect of translation either. His dream was to create an Africa Institute. And the argument for its creation could be just the unification of two groups of African studies. So at the Institute of Oriental Studies, he agreed to work only on a voluntary basis - to lead a new department, select employees and set up work.

The creation of the department, however, went quickly. During October-November 1956, many employees were enrolled and four graduate students were accepted. The team was assembled, as they say, from the pine forest along the pine tree. Everyone, even those who were familiar with one country or one problem in Africa, still had to learn and learn. Almost no one had an African education. No one had ever been to Africa, of course, and it seemed impossible to even dream about it.

A special place in the department was occupied by Alexander Zakharovich Zusmanovich. He had experience in studying Africa, and even in communicating with Africans. In the first half of the 1930s, he worked with Africans at the Communist University of the Workers of the East. At one time he even headed the Department of Africa. True, his lectures were not about Africa, but about the history of the CPSU (b), party and trade union building. But this contact with African problems ended for Zusmanovich in 1936, when, in the course of general repressions, he was also expelled. He still managed to defend his PhD thesis, but only on the eve of the war and not at all about Africa. Then-the war. He graduated as a lieutenant colonel, Deputy Commandant of Budapest for Political affairs. Zusmanovich still did not escape prison and the GULAG - he spent seven years there, from 1949 to 1956. After

page 103

He returned to Moscow and was assigned to this new Department of Africa. He became Potekhin's unofficial deputy. But even as a professional party worker, he had little systematic knowledge of Africa. And of the general higher education institutions, he graduated, it seems, only from the Institute of the Red Professorship.

In the first part of the Department there were several people who, although they did not have a full-fledged African studies education, still had literally just defended their PhD theses related to Africa. The journalist Nikolai Ivanovich Gavrilov has written "The economy of the French colonies in Africa after the 2nd World War". Geographer Vladimir Nikolaevich Belyakov - " Nigeria and British Cameroon (economic and geographical characteristics)". Valery Alexandrovich Subbotin, a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), has written "The Politics of French Imperialism in the Fashoda Crisis of 1898".

Simultaneously with entering the Department, in 1956, the Arabist Yuri Vladislavovich Lukonin, later a permanent party organizer, defended his PhD thesis. True, his dissertation was on Syria and Lebanon, but it wasn't supposed to be that far from Africa.

Doctor of Economics Alexander Yulianovich Shpirt was also in the Department. Jokingly, he was called a "raw material worker" - he studied the problems of strategic raw materials in the capitalist world. I don't remember whether he was a Department employee or a part-time employee.

Most of the staff recruited in 1956 - Valentina Yakovlevna Karpushina, Lev Naumovich Pribytkovsky, Vera Yevgenyevna Yerofeyeva, and several others-had never worked in Africa before. It seems that Nikolai Vasilyevich Pykhtunov, too. The Portuguese colonial Empire was entrusted to Alberto Menendez Gonzalez. He was one of those Republican Spaniards who fought in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. He hadn't been particularly interested in Africa before, and he didn't speak Portuguese. But we thought that Spanish was close!

Only Sofya Lvovna Milyavskaya was directly educated in African studies. She studied in the first and only group specializing in Africa, which was at Leningrad University in the 1930s. She studied under the patriarchs of Russian African studies Dmitry Alekseevich Olderogge and Nikolai Vladimirovich Yushmanov, and studied the Swahili language. But then, until 1956, she had almost nothing to do with African studies, so, naturally, she forgot a lot.

I also studied under Olderogge, although I was a student of the History department at Leningrad University, not the East Department. During his studies (1948-1953), he studied the history of the British colonies in Southern Africa and the situation of the indigenous population. He constantly consulted Olderogge, and occasionally Potekhin, when he was in Leningrad. And then, in graduate school at the Institute of History in Moscow, he prepared a dissertation on the history of Rhodesia.

After 1956 The department has been updated more than once. One of Olderogge's students was Natalia V. Potekhina (namesake of I. I. Potekhin), a linguist who studied Swahili, who came from Leningrad in 1957 or 1958. In 1957, Lydia Andreevna Semyonova, an Arabist, joined the Department, and in 1958 Dmitry Konstantinovich Ponomarev (author of the dissertation "American Politics in Turkey: 1947-1952"). Associate Professor Moisey Isaakovich Braginsky, who was previously engaged in the history of Germany, came from Tambov.

The largest addition came from Moscow State University: in 1957 - Ekaterina Astvatsaturovna Tarverdova, in 1958-Alla Alexandrovna Adadurova, Vladimir Nikolaevich Vavilov, Yuri Nikolaevich Vinokurov, Lia Oliverovna Golden, Oleg Antonovich Gorovoy, Andrey Mikhailovich Pegushev, Ivan Alexandrovich Svanidze. At the same time, Lyudmila Alekseyevna Kartashova, a graduate of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, was admitted to the department. In 1959, Stanislav Petrovich Kartuzov, a philologist who graduated from Moscow State University, came here.

In 1956, in the first year of the Department's existence, historians Lyudmila Alekseyevna Demkina and Lev Ivanovich Kim, and economists Andrey Serge were admitted to graduate school-

page 104

evich Pokrovsky and Valery Mikhailovich Baturin. In 1957 - Pyotr Ivanovich Kupriyanov and Vladimir Yakovlevich Katsman. All of them then became professional Africanists and never left this path. At the very end of 1956, Viktor Leonidovich Sheinis was accepted to graduate school, and he wrote a good article about the latest political events in South Africa.

Of the staff who worked in the Department from the very beginning, since the fall of 1956, in African studies (and maybe even in general, alas, only I seem to be alive). Therefore, I considered it my duty to write this essay-memoirs. I probably don't remember a lot of things now - the composition of the department changed quickly, someone left, someone came. If someone else, God forbid, gives their vote and corrects or adds something , I will be glad. Perhaps those who were then graduate students will be able to add something to my story? Well, and, of course, those who came to the Department not in 1956, but a little later. Many of them have become prominent Africanists, still work today and, of course, remember those years.

How was it possible to work in a team consisting mainly of people who had never studied Africa before? There was no concept of development. The institute itself is in its infancy 2. And African studies wasn't one of his top priorities.

And the management of the Department itself has changed three times in three years. First, Potekhin. But his relationship with Gafurov worsened. Potekhin insisted on creating the Institute of Africa, and he had to leave. For some time, Zusmanovich performed the duties of the manager. And then, at the turn of 1958 and 1959, the directorate invited the economist Irina Pavlovna Yastrebova, who studied economics and politics of the Union of South Africa (now South Africa) for many years, even before the war, at the Institute of World Economy, and then at the Institute of Economics and IMEMO3.

So the instructions of the Department heads, not to mention the orders of the directorate, which was also re-created in 1956 and then changed more than once (except for Gafurov himself), were completely unpredictable. And even more contradictory were the instructions "from above", from the "decision-making authorities". They only approached the development of global geopolitics, and therefore in relation to Africa. More recently, E. M. Zhukov quoted Stalin as saying: "... either the national bourgeoisie will defeat the proletariat, enter into a deal with imperialism, and together with it go on a campaign against the revolution in order to end it with the establishment of the rule of capitalism; or the proletariat will push aside the national bourgeoisie, consolidate its hegemony, and lead the vast masses of working people in order to overcome the resistance of the national bourgeoisie, to achieve the complete victory of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and then gradually transfer it to the rails of the socialist revolution with all the consequences that follow from this" [Zhukov, 1950, p.15].

And in June 1957, the first All-Union Conference of Orientalists was held in Tashkent. N. A. Mukhitdinov, a member of the Politburo of the CPSU, spoke in a completely different way, while blaming, of course, not the usual point of view of the CPSU(b)-CPSU, which was followed by Orientalists, but the Orientalists themselves: "In the works of some Oriental historians, serious mistakes were made in assessing the role of the national bourgeoisie in the anti-imperialist struggle of the peoples of the East. This role was often regarded only as

2 The entire organization of work still had to be thought out. Even this: the employees of the institute, at least the younger ones, had to obey the time limit, as in the factory. A report card hung on the wall at the entrance. It was closed at the beginning of the working day, and the timekeeper informed the authorities who did not remove their number - did not come on time.

3 Each of these people had a complex and interesting scientific and human biography [see: Formation of National African Studies..., 2003].

page 105

reactionary, anti-national. Meanwhile, in a number of colonial and dependent countries, the national bourgeoisie took an active part in the national liberation struggle" (Mukhitdinov, 1957).

How not to get confused here? But the mood of the employees is high. After all, what a time it is! The hopes that stirred up Soviet society in the spring of 1956, after the XX Congress! Thaw! They were read by the magazines "Foreign Literature"and " Youth". In 1956, the Sovremennik Theater appeared with a hitherto unthinkable repertoire. Fun, sparkling evenings and skits are held not only in the homes of writers or architects, but also in academic institutions. In Armyansky Pereulok, near the institute, day after day, shots of mass scenes of the movie "Cranes Fly"were shot again and again. And from the street thundered the old march "Farewell of the Slavs", which then received a new life.

The orientalists, on the other hand, felt, in addition to the general softening of the atmosphere after the Stalinist times, their own professional attitude.: we are in demand! A sense of bright prospects, hope, even confidence that we will be engaged in a real business. The country needs to know Africa. And it is entrusted to us to learn it!

July-August 1957-World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. Several members of the Department worked with African delegations. We were able - for the first time in our lives - to see Africans! And not only to see - almost three weeks of daily communication, from morning to late evening. I had seventeen South Africans and five Mauritians. White, black, Indian. The general mood at the festival is joyful and lively. For the first time, we heard stories about Africa from the Africans themselves. What can I say, it was a huge event for us!

And then! Famous writers, journalists, and public figures began to come from Africa. Senegalese Alioun Diop, editor of the magazine "Prezans Afriken". South African public figures and writers Solly Sachs and Phyllis Altman. The most famous African-American historian William Dubois. Singer Paul Robson.

Robson and Dubois were given solemn meetings by the Institute of Oriental Studies. Since my book was published in April 1958 - it was the first book in our Department - I was introduced to them, and I could talk to them.

The Tashkent Conference of Asian and African Writers in October 1958 was attended by guests from Madagascar, Ghana, Cameroon, Dahomey, Senegal, Somalia, Uganda, Nigeria, and Angola. Almost all of them visited our Institute as well.

The Institute of Oriental Studies-indeed, an unheard-of thing-was given its own publishing house. It settled in the same place, in Armenian, in the spring of 1957. And one of the editorial offices is African. At the same time, they created the magazine "Modern East". Oriental and African studies were also welcomed in other publishing houses. The Soviet Committee of Solidarity with the Countries of Asia and Africa and the Association of Friendship with the Peoples of Africa were founded. Africa departments were created in the Foreign Ministry. In all this there was a lot of official, bureaucratic, alien to many of us. But there was also a feeling that our profession is in demand.

We felt the attention. Publishers were not only interested in our articles and books. They wanted our recommendations on what to translate from foreign literature, asked us to be responsible editors, authors of introductory articles 4. In general, print in almost any magazine, almost any publishing house. But we still didn't have enough knowledge and writing skills.

4 I did what I could. He published articles in the journals "Problems of Oriental Studies", "New Time"and" Modern East". He was the executive editor of the translation of the book "The Fate of Africa" by the American historian and publicist W. E. Hunton (Eastern Literature Publishing House, 1959), and wrote the preface to the translation of the book "The Trial of High Treason in the Union of South Africa" by the South Africans L. Forman and S. Sachs (Foreign Literature Publishing House, 1959).

page 106

Of course, the thaw turned out to be very difficult and contradictory. Following the events in Poland and Hungary, the Suez crisis and Khrushchev's ultimatum, there was a struggle at the top of the Soviet elite, the expulsion of the Molotov-Malenkov-Kaganovich" anti-party group". A little later - Pasternak baiting... All this was reflected in everyday life. Ivan's Africa Department was acutely aware of this. The team, structure, methods and goals of the work were still being created. There wasn't anything much settled yet. Therefore, every fluctuation in the external environment was very acute.

And it affected the fate of our colleagues. The Sinologist Vladimir Borisovich Menshikov (we met him during the Youth Festival), Marat Alexandrovich Cheshkov, also an employee of our Institute - they were arrested and sentenced to several years for speaking out against "Stalinist socialism". Viktor Leonidovich Sheinis, a brilliant graduate student in our department, was expelled from graduate school and, although not arrested, was completely suspended from scientific activities. For seven years he was a worker at the Kirov plant. And people like me were held under suspicion, summoned to the KGB to ask if we had made secret connections with foreigners during the Youth Festival. Or-how do you relate to Sheinis, Menshikov, and other employees and graduate students who have fallen out of favor? In our environment, what can we hide now, there were also denunciations. I don't want to think about it! And those people are no longer there...

What did we manage to do? There is a lot of work to be done! Our country still doesn't know Africa at all - so what should we grab, where should we start? We went along a simple path-we began to divide Africa: Pribytkovsky will deal with Nigeria, Katzman-Tanganyika, Gavrilov-the countries of French West Africa, etc. Today, Potekhin instructed Valya Karpushina to study Rwanda and Urundi (then-Burundi). Tomorrow he decided that the Department wouldn't be strong enough to study such small countries anyway, and ordered it to work with the World Health Organization. In those circumstances, such turns were probably inevitable. Some mistakes are also inevitable. I also suffered from one of them. I wanted to publish my dissertation, "The British Conquest of Rhodesia", which was prepared and approved in the graduate school of the Institute of History. But Potekhin categorically insisted that our Department should study only "Africa from the inside", and let the colonial policy be handled by Anglo and French scholars. I had to throw out half of the finished manuscript, and the book only included chapters on the anti-colonial movement (Davidson, 1958).

I was convinced that this approach was wrong, and that colonial policy should not be separated from the history of the African peoples themselves. But defending myself felt awkward. But when Subbotin presented for discussion a manuscript directly devoted to the colonial policy of France, and Potekhin repeated his demand, I defended Subbotin. Several employees supported it, and Potekhin conceded (Subbotin, 1959). And then Gavrilov's book [Gavrilov, 1959], which also contained a lot about French colonialism, went quite smoothly.

But even if Potekhin made mistakes in some ways, the main line of his leadership was correct: he wanted us to do basic research. And I've got a big book on Zulu history planned for my next topic. It inspired me.

But the general situation was not in favor of fundamental works. It took them a long time to accumulate serious knowledge about deep historical processes. And the higher-ups, the" decision - makers", wanted us-quickly, immediately - "analytical notes" about current, even momentary political events. So that's what we did.

page 107

But even here-where to get the information? Recent literature on Africa was received sparsely and very late in Moscow libraries. There is nothing to say about newspapers from Africa. There were none.

One salvation - TASS materials. Bely TASS - daily summaries of translations of news from foreign press, and Krasny TASS-translations of articles from foreign magazines. Extensive, sometimes hundreds of pages, generally well-made extracts from the latest world press.

But they are not always available to all of us. For unknown reasons (and how much is clear in those times?) these materials were considered secret. Access to them was granted only to employees who were instructed by the directorate to prepare this or that"analytical note".

There was also another demand "from above". Since the late 1950s, Africa has been one of those international issues that have attracted attention all over the world - and, of course, in our country. The "Year of Africa" - 1960-was approaching. But there was little concrete information about Africa in our press, and even the information that did appear did not explain much. And in public lectures on the international situation, the public asked countless questions. Where do international lecturers get the material on how to answer questions? Who can I get advice from?

This is what they demanded from our Department. For some reason, I was the first person the authorities had their eye on. And here in 1958-1960. I went around with lectures in front of the lecturer's asset about 60 cities: Yaroslavl, Rybinsk, Smolensk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Kiev, Odessa, Petrozavodsk, Minsk, Leningrad, Tula, Vologda... And how many times did I perform in Moscow, on Chekhov Street, 6 (I think it was called then - the House of Political Education) and in the Polytechnic. These were the main lecture halls.

Instead of working on serious scientific literature, I had to go through hundreds of pages of White and Red TASS every day-about the latest developments from Cape Town to Cairo and from Senegal to the Horn of Africa.

Since the end of 1959. I also gave lectures at the Higher Diplomatic School (now the Diplomatic Academy). Here, too, the audience demanded first of all an analysis of the most recent events. I won't say that it was completely useless for me, but how I envied my colleagues at the Institute of History, who could easily work in libraries and write their own books! Maybe I was particularly hurt in this sense, but somehow other employees of the Department were also loaded with" analytical notes " and other market work.

Of course, we also managed to do something in the field of science. We have prepared several monographs and PhD theses. And Zusmanovich - a doctor's degree. Obviously, in the course of his long work in the Comintern, he was tired of dealing with immediate problems. Therefore, when I came to IVAN, I immediately decided to move away from the themes of modernity. He became interested in the history of the slave trade, and then moved on to the history of the Belgian occupation of the Congo. This is what I wrote my dissertation about. Remembering his tragic fate, the staff helped him with materials and advice, translated articles and documents for him.

My first dissertation defense in the Department was in May 1958. After becoming a Candidate of Historical Sciences, I worked at a construction site from September 1958 to the end of 1959. It was called "Samstroy". Without this, it was impossible to get housing, and, most importantly, a Moscow residence permit. Here we are-more than a hundred employees of various institutes of the Academy of Sciences-and turned out to be construction workers. I had to work out, I don't remember exactly, something-1200 or 1500 hours. So a day at the Institute, a day at the construction site. I went through everything from zero-cycle work (excavation, excavation, jackhammer) to the high-rise installer. This house still stands on Vavilova Street. Above the gate

page 108

inscription: "The house was built by the youth of the Academy of Sciences". We weren't that young, though. I'm thirty, and some people are in their late forties.

The Department published not only books by Subbotin, Gavrilov and moya, but also two collective collections [Sub-Saharan Africa..., 1958; Racial Discrimination..., 1960]. They published articles in Oriental publications. In the " thick "magazine, which has changed its name more than once (now -" East (Oriens)") - less often, and in the "thin" (then "Modern East", now - "Asia and Africa today") - more often. Sovremennyi Vostok was just created, in the spring of 1957, and at first it was particularly in need of authors. The magazine assigned a good man, but somewhat frightened by his long years in the Gulag, S. Volk, to deal with Africa. Most of the editors were closer to us in age, and they seemed somehow easier to deal with. Tomas Kolesnichenko (commonly known as Tom), whom I had known since I was a student, was particularly active in working with us. Subsequently, he became a well-known journalist.

The main thing is that we have expanded our knowledge about Africa.

Is it too little? After all, how long did the Department exist? It appeared in the fall of 1956, and in the fall of 1959 it was already decided to create the Institute of Africa, where we were all later transferred. True, the Institute of Africa received its first room - a room on the top floor of a building on Tverskaya Street, between the Eliseevsky Shop and the Tsentralnaya Hotel-far from a phase (a game of fate: in the Tsentralnaya Hotel in the 1920s-1930s, then it was called Lux and was a hotel of the Comintern, people stayed for a long time there were communists who came from Africa, and Zusmanovich and Potekhin often visited them). And the mansion in Starokonyushennoye, which used to belong to the Hungarian trade mission (and in the 1930s, according to rumors, was also related to the Comintern) - only in the summer of 1960, and before that we stayed in Ivan. But not as his employees.

So the life of the Department is only three years. But no matter how little we did, in this short period of time, our Department became the foundation for the creation of the Institute of Africa.

How did human destinies develop? Potekhin and Zusmanovich survived that Department only by a few years. If you list those who have passed away, the list will be long. Sad. Still, I hope that not all of the employees who started in 1956 have passed away. But I don't know anything about them. In any case, none of them have been in African studies for a long time.

Graduate students in 1956: Lyudmila Alekseyevna Demkina works at the Institute of Africa, Andrey Sergeyevich Pokrovsky is retired, Vladimir Yakovlevich Katsman lives in Israel (is he still alive?).

Among those who came soon: Viktor Leonidovich Sheinis from the late 1980s, since Perestroika, became a well-known public figure, a deputy of the State Duma from the Yabloko party. Now he works at IMEMO. Andrey Mikhailovich Pegushev-at the Institute of World History. Yuri Nikolaevich Vinokurov is the head of the department at the Institute of Africa. During the Perestroika years, Lia Oliverovna Golden moved to the United States, became a professor at the University of Chicago, and became a prominent activist in international African and African-American organizations and movements. She published a book of memoirs [Golden, 2002]. Lyudmila A. Kartashova became the first Malagasy language expert in our country, an academician of the Malagasy Academy of Sciences, and was awarded three Orders of the Republic of Madagascar.

.. Those years were not the worst for all of us. A time of hope, sometimes naive. Faith in the thaw. And most importantly - youth. Most of us were young.

For me, enrolling in the Department itself was probably more difficult than for many others.

page 109

In November 1956, my post-graduate studies at the Institute of History ended. The dissertation was discussed and recommended for defense. There was, however small, a hope of enlistment in the state. But we had to wait for two or even three months - only then, they explained to us, the rates are expected.

Unlike other Moscow graduate students, I couldn't wait. He lived in a hostel, the registration period ended on November 15, and the policeman came to warn about eviction more than once.

Potekhin invited me to join the newly formed Department. But, according to the rules of that time, I could not enroll in the post-graduate program of the Academy of Sciences without the knowledge of the young specialists sector - there was such a sector in the Presidium of the Academy.

It would seem that there is no problem. The Institute of Oriental Studies asked for me. But the head of that sector didn't like my application form - and he refused. How I tossed and turned then! They are being evicted from the hostel. So, from Moscow, too. The registration period is running out. I don't have a job. And the general atmosphere of those very days is worse than ever. Early November 1956 Soviet tanks in Hungary. The Suez crisis is making the air smell like war. Who cares about my problems? What to do?

Alexander Ivanovich Koshkin, head of the Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies, found himself in a difficult position: Potekhin still insisted on my admission - he needed employees who had already studied Africa in some way. And the whole institute already knew that Gafurov had offered Potekhin to become his deputy. So Koshkin was caught between two fires. Who should he listen to?

And I found a Solomon's solution: "I can enroll you in a temporary job, for two months. If such an employee is not expelled after two months, they automatically become permanent. So I write the order: two months. If that person doesn't call, you'll be a regular on the sixty-first day." And so it all happened.

May the reader forgive me if I couldn't resist quoting these facts from my biography. But after all, they are typical of that era, they help to understand it.

Still, I don't want to be like those who like to remember how they stepped on his tail, how difficult it was to pull him out, and how long he was ill afterwards. Although it seems that many memoirs are based on this.

It is better to remember the testament of the idol of our generation - Bulat Okudzhava:

Somewhere at a bus stop.
Let's say thank you to this fate as well...

In addition, the situation in Ivan at that time, I think, was better than in a number of other institutions.

Now, from a distance of half a century, it is clear that close communication with Orientalists was strikingly fruitful for Africanists.

After all, African studies, or at least the best part of it, grew out of Oriental studies.

The Patriarch of Russian African studies, Dmitry A. Olderogge, started out as an Egyptologist and went through a scientific school in the 1920s with the best St. Petersburg Orientalists. Igor Leontievich Snegirev followed the same path at the same time. He also started out as an Egyptologist, prepared a number of works on the Ancient East, worked closely with Academician V. V. Struve, and received high marks from him.

The influence of the traditions of Russian Oriental studies on young African studies has always been beneficial. And one of the periods when the opportunities for such influence were particularly favorable was precisely the second half of the 1950s, when the Africa Department existed at the Institute of Oriental Studies. We were right next to Alice-

page 110

scientists who are ready to share their knowledge and experience. Bright performances, heated discussions-although not about Africa, but how much they gave us, Africanists!

Mikhail Alexandrovich Korostovtsev, Boris Nikolaevich Zakhoder, Igor Mikhailovich Reisner, Yuri Nikolaevich Roerich... Yes, how many of them were there - those whose one communication with them was remembered for life...

And Oleg Konstantinovich Dreyer - what an excellent head of the publishing house he was! I don't recall any other publishing house being called by the name of its director at that time. And about the Publishing House of Oriental literature often - "Dreyer Publishing House". How he could pass between the scylla and charybdis instructions of the "decision-makers"! How he was able to understand authors, and publish many books that have stood the test of time up to our days! At first, he surprised us by choosing one of the smallest rooms in the publishing house for the director's office, although he had a large choice.

And the people who came to science in 1956 after many years spent in the Gulag? There were quite a few of them at the Institute. And there was a lot to learn from them.

.. We were all transferred to the Institute of Africa on February 1, 1960. Shortly before that, B. G. Gafurov called me and said: "Should you switch? Why don't you stay?" Think about it."

I didn't even think about his words at the time - we were all very happy, along with Potekhin, that we Africanists would have our own home. But when I recounted this conversation to Dmitry Alekseevich Olderogge, he thought about it and smiled: "Well, Bobojan Gafurovich has the fame of a wise man. Maybe not for nothing?" Olderogge himself immediately rejected Potekhin's offer to become deputy director of the Institute of Africa.

Wasn't it too early then, almost half a century ago, to tear the young, still fledgling Moscow African studies from the umbilical cord of Oriental studies with its centuries-old experience and traditions? This is a question that is not easily answered. Perhaps this was the view of many of the leading historians of the time. Wasn't this one of the reasons why D. A. Olderogge became a corresponding member in the elections to the Academy of Sciences in the summer of 1960, and the candidacy of I. I. Potekhin did not collect the necessary number of votes?

Of course, we Africanists had the right to have our own home, our own institute. Perhaps it was not necessary to do this in a hurry, when highly professional personnel in Moscow have only just begun to be created? But history, as you know, does not have a subjunctive mood. So it is hardly fruitful to discuss timeliness and untimeness here. I just wanted to offer, as stated in the famous film, information for reflection.

And most importantly, I wanted to pay tribute to those who were involved in the creation of African studies in Moscow with this article.

list of literature

Africa south of the Sahara / / Voprosy ekonomiki i istorii [Issues of Economics and History]. Sb. statei i materialov [Collection of Articles and materials], Moscow, 1958. Gavrilov N. I. French West Africa, Moscow, 1959.

Davidson A. B. Matabele and Mashona in the struggle against English colonization, 1888-1897. Moscow, 1958. XX Congress of the CPSU. Stenographic Report, vol. 1 (February 14-25, 1956), Moscow, 1956. Zhukov E. M. I. V. Stalin and the national liberation struggle of peoples in the countries of the East. Moscow, 1950. Mukhitdinov N. A. K novykh uspekhiam vostokovedeniya [Towards new successes in Oriental Studies]. Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1957. Rasovaya discriminatsiya v stranakh Afrika [Racial discrimination in African countries]. Sb. statey [Collection of Articles], Moscow, 1960. Formation of National African Studies, 1920s-early 1960s, Moscow, 2003. Subbotin V. A. Colonial policy of France in West Africa (1880-1901). Moscow, 1959. Shastitko P. M., Charyeva N. K. The Renaissance period of Soviet Orientalism (II half of the 1950s - I half of the 1970s). 2003. N 6. Golden L. My Long Journey Home. Chicago, 2002.

Permanent link to this publication: