Byzantium or Democracy?: Kondakov's Legacy in Emigration: the Institutum Kondakovianum and Andre Grabar, 1925-1952

by Ivan Foletti, Adrien Palladino

The notion of "Byzantium" has for centuries been associated with autocracy, totalitarianism, and suppression of freedom. It thus became the favored model for the Russian autocracy. In the nineteenth-century, Russian scholars working under Tsarist regimes were, either explicitly or tacitly, condoning and even supporting the ruling autocracy. After the Revolution of 1917, however, many of these effectively complicit intellectuals left Russia for Western democracies. This book shows how this experience affected the lives of intellectuals who fled and transformed their scholarship. Archival materials and writings from the time reveal how scholarship can move from aspiration to reality, as it did for the Russian emigres until the crash of 1929 and the rise of Nazism in Germany. But how is this relevant today? Because it shows how scholarship and science must be understood as part of history, and because it illustrates the power of hope. As studied and presented by emigres from Tsarist totalitarianism, "Byzantium" came to be a multinational screen onto which scholars projected not only frustrations but also dreams.

211 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2020

About the author

prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur ès Lettres is a professor of Early Medieval Studies and the History of Art at the Masaryk University in Brno.

Reviews

[Filip Šimek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a topic I am particularly interested in but I still enjoyed this book very much. Very well written and asking many important questions that should be asked especially in our times. Connecting past and present in very interesting and thought provoking ways.