The person of bright talent and extraordinary diligence (On the 75th anniversary of Nikolay Alexandrovich Mininkov)

Abstract. The article is devoted to the 75th anniversary of the outstanding Russian historian Nikolay Alexandrovich Mininkov. The formation of the personality and worldview
of the scholar and teacher was influenced by family traditions. The history of the Don Cossacks became a priority area of N.A. Mininkov’s research. His both dissertations
were devoted to this huge theme. His lectures on the theoretical problems of historical knowledge led to a new direction of his research work on the theory and methodology
of history. Another area of his study was the biographies and academic activities of historians of the Don, as well as the life, fate, scholar inquiries and literary works of
the famous Soviet historian D.N. Alshits. He prepared and published together with L.V. Mininkova a monograph on the works of Russian historians, explaining how the
personality of the historian influenced the results of his researches. As a lecturer and teacher, N.A. Mininkov taught and continues to teach courses in special historical disciplines for students of the Institute of History and International Relations at the Southern Federal University.

Keywords: N.A. Mininkov, A.P. Pronshtein, the history of the Don Cossacks, methodology of history, works on the history of the life and work of historians.