Background
PETRUSHEVSKIY, Dmitriy was born on September 13, 1863 in village Kobrinovo, now Chernigov Oblast.
PETRUSHEVSKIY, Dmitriy was born on September 13, 1863 in village Kobrinovo, now Chernigov Oblast.
1886 graduate Kiev University.
1897—1906 professor, Warsaw University. 1906-1911 professor Chair of General History, Moscow University. 1911 resigned in protest against policies of Education Minister Kasso, 1914-1917 professor, Saint St. Petersburg University.
1917-1942 professor, Moscow University. In 1920's also director, Institute of History, Russian Association of Social Sciences Research Institutes. Specialized in Medieval history of Western Europe.
Followed socio-economics trend in old Russian Medieval studies and was somewhat influenced by historical materialism. After 1907 gradually sided with neo-Kanlian idealism of Rikkert and Max Weber in philosophy of history. Also sympathized with Austrian historian Dopscha in studying West European feudalism.
Approached feudalism from apolit-legal stand, regarding it as a political institution unconnected with specifid forms of economics life, but rather as a purely polil-state system of co-related and subordinated soc strata. In late 1920's this view brought him into conflict with the Marxist historians of M.N. Pokrovskiy’s school. From 1934 regained his former prestige following the collapse of the Pokrovskiy school.
Religion is bad because it makes people base the way they run their lives on a falsehood.
The role of the individual as a member of a collective is more important than the individual.
Member, Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Academy of Sciences from 1929.