The article studies the circumstances of the emergence of Sumerology in Russia based on the personal archives of B.A. Turaev and P.K. Kokovtsov. It was stated that: a) Turaev, who studied Assyriology in Berlin, was the first Russian Sumerologist and strongly supported W.G. Schileico in his desire to study the history and religion of the Sumerians; b) the “father of Russian Assyriology” M.V. Nikolsky at the beginning of the century doubted the existence of the Sumerians and was ready to side with the position of J. Halévy and Kokovtsov, who considered the Sumerian writing to be an allography of the Babylonian priests; c) together with Schileico, the future coptologist P.V. Jernstedt was engaged in Assyriology, who was forced to withdraw from cuneiform classes as a result of a poorly thought out training program by Kokovtsov; d) it was Nikolsky who recommended the first articles by Schileico on the history of the Sumerians to European journals; e) the whole history of Russian Assyriology could have gone differently if Nikolsky in 1908, despite Kokovtsov’s discontent, had been elected professor at St. Petersburg University. For the first time, Kokovtsov’s project was published, in which the development of Assyriology was made dependent on Russia's political successes in the First World War. It is shown that Sumerology appeared in Russia only due to the presence of the collection of N.P. Likhachev and the persistence of Shileico, who was not afraid to enter into conflict with Kokovtsov in order to achieve scientific truth.
Keywords: Sumerians, Assyriology, B.A. Turaev, P.K. Kokovtsov, W.G. Schileico, M.V. Nikolsky
DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662.2020.3.5-18
About the author
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Vladimir V. Emelianov – DSc (Religious Studies), Professor of Department of Semitic and Hebrew Studies, St. Petersburg State University; |