V. F. Smolin in Kazan (1909–1929): letters to academician V. V. Bartold (1921–1925)

Abstract

Field archaeologist, museologist and art historian V.F. Smolin (1890–1932) was a prominent representative of the Kazan scientific community and its memorable generation of scholars who demonstrated outstanding research and educational efforts in Russia at the beginning of the XX century and the first decades of the post-revolutionary period. In 1909–1920s, his research topics and areas of interest in Kazan included ancient and Scythian history and archaeology, field archaeological excavations of Bronze Age mounds and centers of Bulgar civilization, archaeology and culture of Volga Bulgaria, university teaching of archaeology, protection of archaeological sites, and ancient and medieval culture of the Middle Volga region. He was at the origins of systematic field archaeological expeditions and excavations and became the discoverer of the Abashevo culture. In V.F. Smolin’s activity one can witness the continuation of the traditions of pre–revolutionary archaeology and the formation of new trends, the Kama-Volga archaeology. Letters from V.F. Smolin, an associate of numerous Kazan scientific and cultural centers, to academician V.V. Bartold include a variety of information about scientific life, crucial social and cultural changes in Tatarstan and Chuvashia, a personal assessment of the role of a number of scientists, and his activities and legacy in 1921–1925. The key topic of the letters was the dialogue between the young scientist and V.V. Bartold, an outstanding orientalist, about the studies, directions and results of archaeological and museological research. The personal communication of the Kazan professor is a vivid example of the organic relationship of a regional center of the Russian science with central academic institutions and their prominent scientists. V.F. Smolin's epistolary communication became an important factor and impetus for his research development and professional growth during the Soviet period in Kazan and in the south of Russia in 1929-1935 (Chersonesos, Pyatigorsk). The article presents a brief overview of the archaeologist’s legacy during his Kazan period and his letters to academician V.V. Bartold from V.F. Smolin’s personal fund in the St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPbB ARAS).