A. E. Presniakov: A Note on His Library at Columbia and His Contributions to the History of Russia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper recounts the details of the purchase of the historian E. A. Presniakov’s Russian library by the Columbia University Library in 1930 and gives a general description of its components and significance. It uses the library as the basis for a general assessment of the breadth and depth of Presniakov historical contributions, concluding that the originality of insight and interpretation place him among a number of great prerevolutionary historians. The lateness of his professional development, culminating after the Bolshevik seizure of power and during the vicissitudes of the 1920s, and then his early death by cancer have deprived him of that recognition. This paper describes and assesses his major works on medieval Russia, the Lithuanian-Russian state and Ukraine, as well as his late writings on nineteenth century monarchs.