Background
Pokrovskii, Mikhail was born on August 29, 1868 in Moscow.
Pokrovskii, Mikhail was born on August 29, 1868 in Moscow.
Joined the Bolshevik Party, 1905. Emigrated and lived abroad, 1908-1917. Returned after the 1917 Revolution.
After the Bolshevik take-over, became the virtual dictator of historical science in the Soviet Union, his approach to history becoming the official party view. Coined the phrase ‘Istoria —
eto politika oprokinutaia v proshloe’. Academician, 1929. During the 1930s, when Stalin suddenly discovered the use of patriotism in politics, the political approach to history turned against Pokrovskii and his school.
Denounced and arrested, his works branded as slander on the Russian past. Posthumously rehabilitated and retains his reputation among die-hard Marxists.
All religious orders impose irrational rules of good and bad behaviour.
The role of the individual as a member of a collective is more important than the individual.