Pages: 313-325

Archaeology in the 1920—1930s became an ideologically important scientific discipline, the development of which was subject to the main trends in the history of the USSR of this period. History was aimed to serve the ideological needs of the Soviet regime, and historians, including archeologists, under threat of repression, were forced to switch to new principles of scientific work or to stop scientific activity. Letters of S.A. Zhebelyov to his student A.I. Boltunova (Amiranashvili) are an important source of information on the development of archaeology in the 1920s and 1930s. Faced with the strongest ideological pressure, the Institute of History of the Communist Academy being its main agent, Zhebelyov proclaims loyalty to the ideals of critical source study, urges his student not to succumb to quasi-scientific ideas and formulates such approaches to developing practical skills of an archeologist, which are fundamentally at odds with the usual pedagogical methods in the field of archaeology.

Keywords: history of archeology, 1920—1930s, S. A. Zhebelyov, A. I. Boltunova, letters, ideology

Information about authors:

Vitaliy Ananiev (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Doctor of Cultural Studies. Associate Professor, Institute of Philosophy, Saint Petersburg State University. Mendeleyevskaya Line, 5, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Mikhail Bukharin (Moscow, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences, Member of the Russian Academy if Sciences. Leading Research Fellow of the Institute of world History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Leninsky Ave., 32a, Moscow, 119334, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]