Platonov S.F., (1860-1933), historian

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
PLATONOV Sergey Fedorovich (1860-1933), historian, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1920). He lived in St. Petersburg from 1869. Graduated from the faculty of history and philology of the University of St. Petersburg in 1882. A year later he started to teach at the Higher Women's Courses (Bestuzhev Courses), promoted to the post of assistant director in 1895. The following years he held teaching positions at various institutions, including the Alexandrovsky Lyceum from 1886, the University of St. Petersburg (from 1888; appointed its professor in 1899, promoted to the post of the dean for the faculty of history and philology in 1900-05), the Institute of Archaeology, the Academy of the General Staff, Military Academy of Law etc. He was the first director of the Women's Pedagogical Institute (1903-16). From 1918 to 1923, he was in the head of Petrograd section of the Chief Archives. The president of Petrograd Institute of Archaeology (1918-23) and the chairman of the department of archaeology and art history of the faculty of social sciences of the University of Petrograd from 1923. In 1918-29, he chaired the Archaeographic Commission, then the Permanent Historical Commission of the Academy of Sciences from 1922 to 1926. The director of the Library of the Academy of Sciences (1925-28) and of the Institute of Russian Literature (1925-29). From March through to November 1929 he was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, admitted to its Presidium, and held the office of the secretary of the department of humanities there. His major works are dedicated to political, socio-economic and cultural history of Russia of the 16th-18th centuries, including the classic work entitled Studies of the History of the Time of Troubles in the Moscow Principality of the 16th-17th centuries (St. Petersburg,1899), a course of lectures on Russian history, research papers on the history of Zemsky Sobors (national assemblies of the 16th-17th centuries), the reign of Peter the Great and the colonisation of the North of Russia, as well as numerous publications of sources. Platonov founded his own scientific school. In the 1920s he lived at 75 Kamennoostrovsky Avenue. Arrested in connection with the Academic Affair in 1930, he was expelled from the Academy of Sciences in 1931 and deported to Samara, where he died.

Works: Some Recollections of the Years as a Student, in Works and Days. 1921. Vol. 2. P. 104-133.

References: Академическое дело 1929-1931 гг.: Док. и материалы следств. дела, сфабриков. ОГПУ. Вып. 1: Дело по обвинению акад. С. Ф. Платонова. СПб., 1993; Брачев В. С. Русский историк Сергей Федорович Платонов. СПб., 1997; Смирнова Т. Г. С. Ф. Платонов и гуманитарные учреждения Петрограда - Ленинграда в 1920-е годы // Деятели русской науки XIX-XX веков. СПб., 2000. Вып. 2. С. 203-213.

A. A. Kononov. Peter I, Emperor
Platonov Sergey Fedorovich
Kamennoostrovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 75
Несколько воспоминаний о студенческих годах // Дела и дни, 1921
Академическое дело 1929 - 1931 гг.: Док. и материалы следств. дела, сфабриков. ОГПУ: Вып. 1: Дело по обвинению акад. С. Ф. Платонова. СПб., 1993
Смирнова Т. Г. С. Ф. Платонов и гуманитарные учреждения Петрограда - Ленинграда в 1920-е годы // Деятели русской науки XIX - XX веков. СПб., 2000
Брачев В. С. Русский историк Сергей Федорович Платонов: В 2 ч. СПб., 1995 Russian Academy of Sciences
State University, St. Petersburg
Bestuzhev's Courses
Lyceum
Archaeological Institute
Alexander Military Law Academy
Women’s Pedagogical Institute
Archaeographical Committee
Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of
Academics' Case