The Byzantine path of art historian F. I. Schmidt (1877-1937): towards understanding the fate of national science

The article is devoted to the creative path of art historian Fyodor Ivanovich Schmidt (1877-1937), who served as a staff member of the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople during 1901-1904 and 1908-1912, and became the author of a fundamental, world-renowned work dedicated to the unique artistic monument of Byzantium - the church of Kariye Camii (Χώρα των Ζώντων), as well as of the studies of the Church of the Dormition in Nicaea and the ensemble of Nya Moni on Khios. In his research consciousness, F. I. Schmitt experienced a turning point in his scientific credo, becoming after 1917 the first Byzantinist-Marxist in Russia, who declaratively rejected the tradition of national science, which had a patriotic, spiritual and ecclesiastical tuning fork, and wrote a monograph with the «telling» title «Byzantine studies in the service of autocracy: N. P. Kondakov». The ideological approach determined for a long time a wary attitude towards Byzantine studies in our country and, in particular, towards the merits of its master, academician N. P. Kondakov.