Antiquities Studies by Alexander Dmitriev
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/hj2025.62.116-130Keywords:
Antique studies, Byzantine studies, historiography, «slave revolution», social movements in the Roman EmpireAbstract
This article is devoted to the formation of O. Dmitrev as a specialist in the history of Ancient Rome and the analysis of his scientific work. The author emphasizes that while he studied at the Kyiv Theological Academy and improved his skills at the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople, he proved himself to be a capable and promising young scientist under the leadership of the Byzantine scholar F. I. Uspensky, which was noted by his scientific supervisor F. Mishchenko at the Kiev Theological Academy.
The initial stage of the scientific career of the scientist in the post-war realities of the USSR is highlighted; the first works on church and religious topics are analyzed. In particular, it is noted that despite the fact that these publications were written from the position of militant atheism with the aim of promoting the new Bolshevik ideology, the scientist demonstrated brilliant knowledge of evidence-based material and demonstrated a high professional level of the historian.
The main object of scientific study is the development of O. Dmitrev on the topic of the «slave revolution», which became widespread in Soviet history in the 1930–1950s of the 20th century. With this aim, an analysis of scientific articles published in the then professional periodicals: «Vestnik drevnej istorii» and «Byzantium vremennik» was carried out. The field of view of the anticologist was social movements in the Roman Empire in the last centuries of its existence. Dmitrev was the only author whose works almost perfectly corresponded to the Leninist-Stalinist vision of late antique history, while others had to, for example, simply add well-known quotes to the factology. It was he who brought the initial concept to a clear historical concept of the «permanent slave revolution».
The scientific achievements of O. Dmitrev aroused considerable interest among his contemporaries. The author of the article points out on evaluation of the ideas of the researcher by his contemporary colleagues: M. Mashkin, V. Syrotenko, O. Korsunskiy, O. Weinstein, Z. Udaltsova, O. Kotsevalov, P. Gachich.
In conclusion, it is noted that, fearing persecution due to his origin, theological education, and the fact of being abroad, O. Dmitrev demonstrated loyalty to the new dominant ideology and, in order to obtain preferences from the authorities, became an apologist for Stalin’s thesis of the «slave revolution».
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