Boris Porshnev - unfulfilled literature scholar

The article is devoted to the early works of the prominent Soviet historian Boris F. Porshnev (1905-1972), who in the 1930s, among other things, engaged in literary research, wrote reviews and prefaces to literary works by Russian and foreign authors, tried to explore Pushkin’s oeuvres. The main thesis the article proves: all literary researching texts of B.F. Porshnev are diverse, written on different topics and, obviously, on different cases and occasions. Literary studies of the historian were due to random reasons, among which the financial one (work to order) prevails. B.F. Porshnev’s interpretation is quite unvaried. His works reflect the Soviet Marxist discourse of the 1930s. The common feature of Porshnev’s literary criticism is that he considered all the authors and their works from the social point of view. B.F. Porshnev explains the authors’ views and even aesthetics by their social position. The historian describes the characters either as guardians of the past, or adherents to the new engaged in a struggle. Quite frequently, B.F. Porshnev sees in the literature the theme of the revolution and class struggle, simplifying and even profaning the literary text interpreted by him. Literary studies of B.F. Porshnev are distinguished by lack of any complexity and, at the same time, are valuable due to their pronounced typicality. Particular attention is paid to the unfinished Pushkin studies of the historian. B.F. Porshnev believed that the themes of revolution, people and internationalism prevailed in the poet’s work.