“Such was the Time”: V.S. Savchuk on the Fate of Historians under Totalitarianism

Abstract. V.S. Savchuk associate professor of the IHIR SFU, who passed away prematurely in 2020, was a well-known historian, Germanist and a researcher of the history of historical science. The focus of his attention was Slavic-German relations in the Middle Ages and the historiography of these relations. He was particularly interested in the situation of German medieval studies during the Second World War and in the post-war period, when the question of the historian’s activities during the Hitler regime arose with all acuteness. He notes, that some of the historians actively collaborated with the Nazis, while others, without joining the party, did not stop working in scientific institutions. He stressed that after the fall of the regime, they had to justify themselves by declaring, “such was the time”. Such a question will inevitably arise in the near future for Modern Russian historians. At the same time, V.S. Savchuk paid attention to the situation in Soviet historical science. He drew attention to the desire of a number of Russian historians after the fall of the communist regime to adapt during the constantly changing situation in the state. V.S. Savchuk raised the problem of the historical memory of historians and the possibility of relying on it to make the transition from confrontation to the dialogue of cultures.

Keywords: V.S. Savchuk, medieval studies, Slavic-German relations in the Middle Ages, German historiography of the 20th century, soviet historiography, modern Russian historiography, memory of the historian.